Day 8 Balestrand to Lofthus

Not a direct route but a very interesting and scenic route through valleys, fiords and mountains. Its 235 miles overall and roughly from Balestrand to Sogndal, ferry to Fodnes and then the Aurlandsfjellet mountain road from Laerdal to Aurland. Then along the Aurlandsvegen road 50 from Aurland to Hol, and finally along road 7 across the Hardanger mountain plateau from Geilo to Eidfiord and finally along the Sorfiord to Lofthus.
Bloody cold and a bit miserable in places along the Aurlandsfjellet - it is July after all.
Lunch break in Aurland beside the fiord and then the run along the Aurlandsvegen to Hol with its corkscrew tunnels which today had most of the lighting not working - made things interesting to say the least. The run across the Hardanger plateau was very secenic as the weather had cleared a bit giving the advantage of views to the horizon,but again a bit cool and windy.

Aurlandsfjellet in July!!- time to get the heated grips on

Panorama from Stegastein viewpoint overlooking Aurlandsfiord

Stegastein viewpoint overlooking Aurlandsfiord with two old blokes in the way

Dining alfresco in Aurland - funny how the sandwhiches resemble what we had for breakfast.

Somewhere along the Aurlandsvegen

Hardangervidda and me hands are cold

Hardangervidda

The supermarket in Kinarsvik does whole cooked chickens for around £6, so that and a few veg/salad is tea sorted for one day, but tonight its pasta for Al and 'look what we found' yorkshire sausage casserole and a few baked spuds x 2 for Nige, and half a baguette each. We're trying Skyaergardspils tonight and the jury's out I'm afraid as its a bit bland - but its a Norwegian beer so when in Rome.......