After a long day of travel (starting
at 2:30AM), we arrived in Stavanger yesterday afternoon. The sun
shone brightly, making us realize just how much we’ve missed having
shadows in our lives. Stavanger is on the southwest coast of Norway,
and is a beautiful and charming city. We arrived early enough in the
day to explore the city on foot, and different members of our group
explored the city’s Old Town, its farmer’s market, its shopping,
its harbor, and its secondhand thrift shop. We were happy to have
seen these things when we did, because the rain we’re becoming
accustomed to started up again around dinner time. We ate dinner at a
restaurant that is associated with the local fish market, giving us a
new appreciation for the benefits of living on a coast.
We decided to
move our planned hiking excursion to tomorrow since the forecast
predicted a 100% chance of heavy rain all day today. Instead, we went
on a ferry tour through Lysefjorden, a fjord west of Stavanger that
leads to Pulpit Rock, an iconic geological feature that is 604 meters
above the water. The plan was to see Pulpit Rock from the water today
and then hike to it tomorrow. The predictions were correct, and our
boat ride was cold, rainy, and foggy, giving us just a brief glance
at Pulpit Rock. However, we were still able to see many of the
beautiful and interesting features of the fjord including roche
moutonnee islands, waterfalls, and other evidence of glacial erosion
including scratches on sides of the fjord and smooth rocks. The water
was relatively shallow near the mouth of the fjord due to the
presence of an underwater terminal moraine. As we made our way deeper
into the fjord, however, the water depth increased where the glacier
once carved out the land.
Another interesting feature we
noticed was the presence of numerous salmon aquaculture farms.
Although the farms can provide an alternative to fish caught in the
wild, alleviating the pressure on wild populations, they are
controversial due to the negative environmental impacts they can
have.
The ferry tour included several
interesting stories about the fjord’s features, including a
legendary troll’s heart, a cave that once served as a refuge for
outlaws, and goats that have come to rely on the ferry’s bread
brought to their cliff side daily.
Tomorrow, we hope to see Pulpit Rock
from a higher and hopefully sunnier vantage point!
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Jake, Lanna, and Kristin
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