Day 8 continued - The Bergensbanen from Bergen to Oslo
Sorry, the Dubliner (the pub and the bloke I got talking to in it last night) got the better of me. Well, to be honest the Guinness did. Not sure that going on the piss in Oslo is the best thing for your bank balance, but hey ho. Thankfully no live music last night or the place would have apparently been rocking. And they fly in bands from Ireland!! And as a further mark of their authenticity, all their legal documentation from the Norwegian government is in English. You couldn't make it up!
Anyway back to yesterday's train journey…
Let’s start with the fact that at the highest point, Finse, there is a memorial (the granite obelisk thing in the foreground) to Captain Scott and his team, who of course famously lost the race to the South Pole to the Norwegian Amundsen. Apparently he is revered in Norway and Norwegians felt great sorrow at his fate. I was forced to think what would be the reverse.
I am trying to imagine a memorial to Amundsen, somewhere in the Pennines perhaps, where he is commemorated as having died in the attempt to return from the South Pole having come second to the now national hero Captain Robert Falcon Scott. And do you know what, I just can’t see it. Instead I can hear jingoistic Englishmen (mostly English and mostly men) chanting the equivalent of “One world cup and two world wars…” at the pathetic losers. Far from being sympathetic to Amundsens fate many English would simply consider it to be a mark of their superiority. Oh, god, I’ve gone off on one again. Better stop. PS: Germany has won 4 worlds cups!
The reason the memorial is there, is that it is an area of Norway that resembles Antarctic conditions (which yesterday I could easily believe) and so it was used by Amundsen and Scott as a training ground. But they erected a monument to Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers & Evans in respect of their effort and ultimately tragic end with the day inscribed on which they reached the South Pole, 12 January 1912. (Amundsen reached it on 14 December 1911). My respect for the Norwegian’s, their respect for fellow humans, and their culture just grows.
Getting a decent picture of the memorial was virtually impossible without getting off the train, and I had no idea how long it stopped at Finse. Even I am not that stupid. Stuck waiting for the next train to Oslo at 1222 metres above sea level in about -10ºC? No thanks. (It did have a hotel so I would have been ok!). So I've nicked a picture from the net. I'll probably get sued. I had no idea this memorial existed. I found it though complete chance. Serendipity.
Up to that point we had ascended without a break for over 2 hours from Bergen, first along the fjord I have not discovered the name of, then up through the mountains. Everything was white. I don't think I saw a surface that wasn’t covered in copious amounts of snow - and that included the roads when there were any. Some of the habitations are pretty remote up here. I appreciate that some are summer residences but the “towns” have permanent populations and are pretty out of the way. And soddin’ cold in the winter!
But it is a beautiful journey. I had chosen well (by complete chance), leaving Bergen in the late morning, meant that I saw the best part of the route in sunlight, before the long descent into Oslo later when it was dark. It is mesmerisingly beautiful up there. Remote, pristine and somehow untouched. That they have built a railway through that inhospitable terrain is amazing. 496km of electrified railway from Bergen to Oslo - and we can't even manage that over the Pennines from Manchester to Sheffield (no, stop it). 180 tunnels, 22 remote stops. Arguably I should have got off and taken the detour down to Flam and back from Myrdal. Or got to Flam by boat, via Sognefjord, the longest fjord, and then up the rail line to pick up the Bergensbanen in Myrdal. But I have to leave something. The rail down to Flam apparently has 22 switchbacks, so that is something to come back for. Maybe in the summer.
Along the way I saw magnificent waterfalls (I was too slow to capture on film), crazy people out on their cross country skis (just about managed a picture) and endless white mountains. Magic. Yes you can fly it in under an hour but I'm glad I didn’t miss this.
The pictures I did manage are sadly somewhat lacking in quality, taken, as they were, through a moving train window with an iPad. I’m not sure they really convey the beauty and isolation of the place but they are all I’ve got!
View of a frozen lake from a tunnel high on the railway route.
It's been a while since they left home.
White, white and more white
The train pulling us up the gorge
White! I think that is a telegraph pole not a grave, but I'm not sure.
Confirmation of our altitude
Now thats what I call isolated!
Amazing scenery. I love the snow and how it does make everything feel somewhat magical. That being said, you've probably had enough of it by now?