Fjord hunting

Our first day of the roadtrip proper. After retieving Jens' late-arriving bag from the airport, a trip to the "Coop Obs!" Hypermarked for supplies and trying to understand octane levels in Norwegian petrol (it's not like it is at home!), under clear skies we caught the ferry from Stavanger to Tau (see today's route). From there we headed south to Høllesli, the base camp for the climb to Preikestolen aka the Pulpit Rock. The walk up was arduous and we now understand what constitutes a paved path in these parts - something steeper than 1:1 with jagged boulders as far as the eye can see. The effort was more than rewarded when we got to the top with the fjords being every bit as good as on the postcards.

After rehydrating with some premium Norwegian pilsner and a few bottles of water, we headed North again to Hjelmelandsvågen for the ferry to Nesvik, then on to Sand for the next ferry to Ropeid and ultimately to Utbjoa where we found the ferries only came but once or twice a day. So it was back down ~12 miles of single track road to Isvik to head back over the the E39. The 8km Bomlafjord tunnel from Sveio to Føyno was spectacular, descending straight down to 260m below the water and then straight back up again. And the final ferry from Sandvikvåg to Halhjem was very rapid, meaning we arrived in Bergen city centre for midnight.