10-Aug-2009 -- This confluence has been on my "must visit" list since I processed the report of the first visitor, back in 2001. The "Rosendal Barony" is famous here in Norway, and the view of the area from the confluence hill is worth the hike all by itself, even without a confluence point to visit.

My son Fredrik, who has joined me on many confluence trips, was going to start his MBA study in Bergen on this day, so we drove over the mountain from our cabin in Rauland and the day before, got the key to the student flat and carried all his stuff up to room 502 (no elevator!) before taking advantage of the beautiful weather to walk around in downtown Bergen, have some fish stew at restaurant "Dampen" on the "Bryggen" area.

The next morning Fredrik took the bus to NHH while I got some computer issues sorted out, then I drove towards Rosendal:

There are two alternatives for this drive, both end up by taking the ferry across the Hardanger fjord to Løfallsstranda, but before this point you can either take the shorter route which includes an additional ferry, or (as I did) start by taking Hwy 7 towards Norheimsund, then exit near Tysse and drive past Holmefjord, Eikelandsdalen and Mundheim before reaching the ferry terminal at Gjermundshamn. I believe this is probably the fastest route, particularly since the road from Tysse has been improved quite a bit in many places since Håkon Gjessing's trip back in Dec 2001.

The ferry ride across the fjord was very nice, with excellent weather and a very nice view of the confluence hill above the ferry terminal.

Håkon used a logging road to hike up most of the hill, then followed an established path directly to the point. I watned to see if I could find a shorter alternative, so I drove into "downtown" Rosendal, then took a left up past the church and followed the road as far as I could, until the point where it turned into a private gravel path.

The (very steep!) hillside between this path and the point is mostly used as a calf and cow pasture, so I followed the edge of this area until I got to nearly the same elevation as the point, then found, with some difficulty, a way to cross the very dense and even steeper forest to the confluence.

As the GPS was counting down the distance to the point (150 - 80 - 40m) I was expecting to get to the open overlook which is shown in the first visitor's report, but no such look: It turned out that the point is located in the middle of a dense old growth forest, with no open areas anywhere within 100m! Today, while re-reading the first visitor's report, I finally realized that his main image was actually taken at the top of the logging road, about 300m away. :-(

With the current visit rules this would not be allowed since the primary image must be from or looking at the actual point, and taken within the 100m limit.

With a modern GPS receiver I did manage to get very reasonable reception even in the forest, including a firm lock on an EGNOS sat, but I didn't hang around long enough for the GPS to actually decode and start using the differential info.

On the way back down I did make a short stop at the top of the pasture area to enjoy the beautiful vista and weather, before I had to return to my car and finish the drive back to Rauland.

A tip to other visitors who want to try my route: Go all the way up the hill, then traverse horizontally to the point, this allows you to follow some animal trails through the densest forest. OTOH, the logging road/path combination is probably faster for most people!