The most beautiful road trip on Earth

Norway’s coastal road from the city of Stiklestad to the Arctic city of Bodø is a 670 km journey between two very different worlds.

On one side is the sophistication of central Norway, with its beautifully decorated meadows and blood-red cabins.

On the other side is the tranquil beauty of the north: a world of glaciers, ice-bound mountains, and empty, distant horizons. Connecting the two, the Kystriksveien, also known as the Coastal Road or Fv17 – describes a winding path along the coast, bending and weaving along broken contours all the way to the Arctic.

The Scandinavian nation is blessed with one of the most beautiful but challenging coasts in Europe. It appears to be wrapped around the country like a protective shield from the frozen Arctic, Norway’s coastline appears to have been torn apart by islands.

Along such a coast, it seems impossible for a road to exist here. In short, it looks like a miracle.

Therefore, it was probably appropriate for my road trip to begin, like many European voyages, to an ancient pilgrimage site.

Stiklestad is where the history of modern Norway began. It was here, in 1030, where the Christian king Olav Haraldsson was killed by a Viking army.

Despite his defeat, Olav and his death called for the spread of Christianity and a turning point in the fight for a united Norway, with the battle marking the final beginning for Viking Norway and its rival leaders.

In 1164, Pope Alexander III confirmed the consecration of Olav and the site of the battle along with the cathedral of Trondheim, where Olav’s tomb remains, which has since become a place of pilgrimage.

Stiklestad was a convenient place for me to start my journey because the Kystriksveien that unfolds in the north also goes to the heart of how Norwegians see themselves and their nation.

Norway’s leaders over the centuries used the history of Stiklestad to unite the country, building a strong national identity around the narrative of a united, independent and Christian country that had left behind its medieval past, road builders and pioneers. his eyes were later set on something forbidden.

Arctic and sub-Arctic climate and challenges posed by beautiful but not hospitable terrain to create roads like Kystriksveien.

“If Mount Everest were in Norway”Stiklestad historian Mette Larsen told me, “we would have built a road to the top.”

At first it was hard to imagine what he meant. As I walked north from Stiklestad, the gentle, rural road embraced the water’s edge to the provincial town of Steinkjer. Beyond Steinkjer, where Norway narrowed and headed for the Arctic, Kystriksveien showed an increasingly barren and less inhabited land.

However, as the country became wilder and the signs of human presence receded, it quickly became clear that building any road along this rugged coastline was undoubtedly a triumph of human ingenuity and perseverance.

“In Norway, if there is an obstacle, like a mountain or water, we build a road over or around it, a bridge across it or a tunnel under it.Said Larsen. “We have the longest road tunnels in the world. We build roads in places that others think are impossible. And where we can not build a tunnel, we send a ferry. “

In the middle of the 20th century, Larsen told me, road construction projects were about character building as much as building a nation. In 1939, unemployed young people were put to work by building the 108 km Sognefjellet road beyond the roof of Norway and through what is now Jotunheimen National Park. A few years later, in the 1940s, nearly 150,000 prisoners and the unemployed were given the no less challenging task of ‘smoothing’ the coastline with Kystriksveien.

Some of the obstacles they faced quickly became apparent. Not long before the town of Brønnøysund, where brightly colored wooden houses watched the waters flow through the city center, strong rocky outcrops blocked the roadway, forcing it to find another route.

Just off the coast, Torghatten, rose from the shore of an island. It stretched more like a bent troll, frozen in stones, guarding the city. When the clouds rolled in, she looked in and out, as if playing secretly.

Beyond Brønnøysund, I drove through a landscape of rock and ice, water and hills. The road climbed higher with each passing kilometer and the ground seemed more and more filled with drama up to the small town of Sandnessjøen.

“We like to work hard”Larsen told me. “But we also like to tell stories. Look at the landscape you are traveling through. How can you not believe in crafts and mysteries? These are the stories we tell our children, but most of us end up believing them. ”

It was hard to tell if he was joking.

The road continued north, passing Helgelandsbrua, the Helgeland bridge. Mountains, covered with snow until summer, rose everywhere. Although I had not yet entered the Arctic, the road winded through high plateaus bare of trees. Then he landed on the shores of lakes, harbors and fjords. Water was everywhere.

In the small village of Låvong, the road stopped at the water’s edge. There was no bridge and it was impossible to see where it continued on the far side. No tunnel smoothed the way forward. I got into the long line of cars and waited for the ferry.

I started talking to Joost and Anneke Visser, Dutch campers who were riding Kystriksveien for the fifth time. (Although you can drive the Kystriksveien all year round, it is the best and busiest in the summer.) “The first time we came, we could not believe how beautiful it was,” Joost said. “Now it does not seem like summer if we do not come and drive this road.”

It is the most spectacular coastline in Europe… Every time we walk this road, we discover something new

“It’s the most spectacular coastline in Europe,” Anneke agreed. “Joost did not want to come the first time. Now he is the one who is not satisfied. And he is right. “Every time we walk this path, we discover something new.”

Like all Norwegian ferries, the ship arrived on time and was loaded and unloaded with characteristic Scandinavian efficiency. On the far side, in Nesna, another small Norwegian village, the road embraced the coastline of the fjords, no more than a few feet from the water’s edge, passing paved cabins and stone fences, as if tracing the most perimeter outside the north. continental europe.

Beyond the quiet small town of Stokkvågen, Kystriksveien passed a World War II-era fortress in Grønsvik. In some places, it seemed as if there was nowhere to go, its way forward blocked by a deep mountain wall or a horizon filled with water. But every now and then, at the last minute, I discovered that Norway’s road builders had found a solution that would take me further north to a mountain-filled horizon.

At one point during the trip, at the top of the real Arctic, I retreated to the side of the road. The steep mountains filled the shore. The North Sea was a deep and perfect blue. And the islands offshore, steeply rising from the ocean as the last stop on a journey to the ends of the Earth.

The 3 km long and 150 meters wide Saltstraumen Strait erupted with 400 million cubic meters of water every six hours. Given that Norway has a bridge over it, and seeing the rippling waters from above, it was hard not to feel dizzy.

This is one of the most exciting roads in the world, and a reminder that some of the greatest travel adventures happen through the wheels.

Source: BBC

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