09-Jun-2001 -- I started out from the city of Bergen not too early in the morning. Ahead of me I had a long drive in addition to a ferry over the Hardanger fjord. Before I got to the ferry there seemed to be some bicycle race going on.

All the way from Bergen there were these bikers scattered along the road making the 'real' traffic go very slow. I drove along the Sør-fjord, which takes me past a town called Odda, before I came to Røldal.

There I left the main road and followed a dirt road past a big dam. Almost at the end of the road I parked my car and started to walk up the valley to the confluence.

The weather was sunny with scattered clouds. The going was easy. The valley was nearly flat. There is a path going up the valley, but I walked where it pleased me most and did not use it. Finally I got to the plain of the confluence and stopped on a hill and took a picture in the direction I believed the confluence to be.

I found myself a rock in the vicinity and made it my Base Camp. My GPS equipment for this trip was a rather cumbersome contraption that I had borrowed from a friend. It was a rather large receiver made for maritime use, hence in addition I had a separate large antenna and large 12 Volt battery.

The antenna I fixed to a pole that I had brought, and I carried the battery in a backpack. Must have looked strange in the eyes of passers by, of which there were none.

After a little while it was quite clear to me that the GPS clearly wanted the confluence to be in the middle of the stream running down the valley. The only solution for me to get a picture of the GPS with a lot of zeroes was to get my feet wet. I took of my boots and boldly set out on my quest. The date suggested it should be summer, but the river had another notion of what summer is like.

The temperature in the water could not be much above freezing. I managed to stay knee deep in the icy flowing water for a couple of minutes to make the GPS settle and get a picture of it.

After that I had a break and some sausages. After my feet had dried up and regained some feeling I started to hike back to my car. I took the long way home and went up on the hillside to the west of the confluence. When I got to the car I realized I had very short time catch the last ferry.

Thanks to the latitude of Norway, the sun stays up for a long time in the evening and I had lost track of the time. I pushed my jolly carriage, myself and at least the Highway Code to the limits to get to the last ferry just in time.