The weather followed its usual pattern when we were in Tananger, which basically meant staying for a day while another band of strong winds blew through. With 30 knots over the deck in the harbour, this proved a good decision. Once that was through we decided to make an early start. Again, the usual pattern of the wind seems to mean that it follows an on/off switch mode. On meant 30 knots one day, while off meant none when we left. So, we motored ….. However, it was an interesting day’s motoring. Once round the headland we turned south and headed past some cranes. From a distance we thought they were on the shore, but as we got closer it was clear that they were on a ship – in fact, they were a ship. Not a conventional ship, but a square ship which consisted of two cranes – one each side!
This ship (?) is apparently the world’s third largest semi-submersible crane vessel – a category of ship which up until previously I had no idea existed. It was apparently built in 1984/5 and was built in two halves in Trieste in Italy. These two halves were then floated out and, as the website put it – ‘mated’. The cost of building it was estimated to be in the region of $400 million. Its first work was for the Brazilian state oil company installing 7 oil platforms and since then it has moved all over the place installing platforms in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, off the Canadian east coast and the west coast of Africa. It holds the world offshore lifting record of 12,150 tons – a record which I never even knew was a thing! Once on-site they can flood it to make it a more stable working platform and it then has a dynamic positioning system so that it can stay in exactly the same place – handy when you are working with oil rigs. It has accommodation for 800 people – a scale which is almost unimaginable …..
Once past Stavanger we headed southeast and then turned into the Lysefjord. This fjord is 26 miles long and depending on your belief system was either created by Slartibartfast or perhaps more likely by glaciers in the Ice Age. Either way, it is stunning with cliffs over 1,00 metres. Not just that, but the cliffs keep going under the water and the fjord is around 400 metres deep in places. The depth sounder just gave up trying when it hit 230 metres! The fjord is perhaps best known for being the location of pulpit rock (or Preikestolen) – an outcrop of rock 604 metres up with a 25 metre square flat top to it. It is perhaps one of the iconic images of Norway and certainly has more than its fair share of digital exposure on Instagram!
We saw it from the other direction, but it was equally spectacular. It was apparently formed when water from the glacier froze in the crevices of the mountain and caused large angular blocks to break off. These blocks were carried away when the ice retreated. There is a large crack on the plateau itself, so this will eventually drop off as well, though experts don’t feel that will be any time soon. Whenever it is, someone will probably livestream it on Facebook! That said, it has already featured in Mission Impossible – Fallout with Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill hanging from the face of the cliff, but this was meant to be in Kashmir in India – the liberties taken with film locations …..
After Pulpit Rock we carried on up the fjord to Flørli. There aren’t many places to stop on the fjord, but at Flørli there is a small jetty with stern buoys. It is also the site of the Flørli 4444. This is the longest wooden staircase in the world with …… 4,444 steps. The steps were built alongside a railway track to enable workers to maintain the pipes serving the Flørli hydro-electric power station. This was built between 1916-18 and finally started producing power for Stavanger in summer 1918. Production continued right through to 1999 when it was finally superceded by a flashy new hydro-electric power station completely buried inside the mountain. This is completely automated and the only evidence of it is a yellow entrance by the end of the ferry jetty. The new power station produces twice the capacity of the old one.
So, we decided to walk up some steps. The only problem is that the steps are one-way – you are only allowed to climb up. This is mainly because they are so narrow, but does make it something of a commitment if you start climbing. Clearly they have realised that not everyone wants to walk up 4,444 steps (twice the height of the Empire State Building), so there is a point where you can bail out at 800 steps and come back down a path. We bailed out, but Simon and Louise carried on …. We still bought the t-shirt though even if we did cheat!
In the evening the weather (which had been lovely and sunny all day) decided to change. Though the wind was forecast to be relatively calm there was some sort of local effect with winds of 20-25 knots creating white horses in the fjord. Though we were sheltered from the winds, there was nevertheless quite a fetch with the sea. The small Norwegian powerboat next to us was rolling all over the place so decided to move – a diversion which took around an hour as he didn’t seem quite sure how to do it. With help and several of our warps (he had to abandon his on the stern buoy), he did finally manage and we used the dinghy to recover his warps. Whiel paddling around we also put out multiple lines to the stern buoy to hold us off the jetty while we bounced around for the evening. It finally settled down overnight, but we did wonder what had caused it – perhaps the heating of the rock walls of the fjord causing rapid air circulation?
