After our overnight and morning crossing of the North Sea from Scotland we entered Storfjord, and from there passed into beautiful Geirangerfjord, together reaching 95 kilometers from the North Sea. A fjord is a glacially-carved valley that has been inundated by the sea. Here the glaciers of the Pleistocene Epoch carved through hard metamorphic gneiss to produce the characteristic steep-sided, U-shaped valley. Tributary glaciers left hanging valleys that enter the fjord at various heights, and carved the mountains into horns far above us. The winter's accumulation of snow on the Norwegian plateau melts through the summer to produce myriad waterfalls that cascade down the steep slopes of the fjord. Two of the most scenic waterfalls are found near the village of Geiranger, at the head of the fjord: the Seven Sisters and the Suitor, gazing forlornly at the beautiful maidens across the water. (Some say that he has taken to strong drink and is wrapped around a whiskey bottle in the photo above.)
We left the Caledonian Starand boarded our Zodiacs for a cruise in the fjord offering close-up views of rainbows in the spray of the waterfalls, twisted and tortured metamorphic rocks, and the beautiful vegetation of coastal Norway. True to their name, white wagtails wagged their tails at us from rocks along the shore, and an immature white-tailed eagle flew high overhead.
