One of the most beautiful places in Europe is virtually unknown

Most people have never heard of Veitastrond.

The tiny village is tucked into the northern edge of an isolated valley, about 30 kilometres from Hafslo, in western Norway.

It’s a lost pocket virtually unknown to the outside world despite being praised by British pioneering mountaineer William Slingsby as “the finest ice scenery in Europe”.

Austerdalsbreen Glacier in Veitastrond.

The road is flimsy, tendril-like, spooling from the town of Sogndal through shape-shifting mists and monstrous mountains to end like an unfinished sentence at the rim of the largest glacier in continental Europe.

The Jostedalsbreen glacier is one of Norway’s most powerful symbols of danger and mystery, hammered into form by the elements, defined by light or the lack of it. Dramatic? You bet. And that’s even before you hear Lindis Alme’s story on the knife’s-edge of wilderness.

Dramatic? You bet... Jostedalsbreen Glacier.

“We never know if we will get to the end of this road,” she says cheerfully, weaving along a narrow lane through the Austerdalen Valley into the bowels of a jagged mountain. “I drive for my life into these tunnels through the snow avalanches in winter time. In summer, I sleep with nightmares about this road but, when the snow comes, it is so beautiful that I forget to be frightened.”

An avalanche rendered the route impassable a few years back when Lindis worked as village school teacher. The small community was isolated for a month. “You cannot imagine it,” she says. “No electricity.”

No, I cannot imagine it. Log cabins buried in a long dark, cold Norwegian winter in a farming village of just 127 residents, yet there is no sign of snow today. Autumn prevails in spaces, unsquandered by tourism, where ragged gorges are jewelled with forests of gold leaf and pointy peaks whoosh upwards into blue skies. Something wistful stirs in the air.

“Here are our trolls caught by sunlight and turned into stone,” Lindis continues, skittering past moss-cloaked rocks standing in water where land slides into lake.

The myth and mystery of nature is shared with all guests staying at her refined boutique hotel perched above the fretted edge of Lake Hafslo.

The serene waters of Lake Hafslo.Credit: Bestebakken

The scenery, the silence, the thrill of uncertainty navigating the next sheer bend in the road – these are unique elements in a bespoke itinerary tailored by travel curator Up Norway for a more contemplative experience of a less-visited landscape that would be challenging to discover without local knowledge.

Nature is a national obsession for Norwegians, who learn from an early age about the importance of friluftsliv (outdoor life) enshrined with right to roam laws that allow hiking, swimming and skiing virtually anywhere in the wild, regardless of land ownership.

Now the country faces a dilemma with vast reserves of natural beauty, and the promise of the northern lights combined with a weakened krone, threatening sustainability amid increasing visitor demand in places such as Bergen and Alesund. The recent decision to scrap a marketing campaign aimed at foreign visitors reflects prioritisation of nature over tourism in a country where preservation of the environment aligns with deeply held cultural values.

A more discrete kind of tourism relies upon roads that are astonishing feats of engineering, spanning fjords with vast suspension bridges and burrowing with long tunnels through whole mountains in this long, thin country – a bit like a Scandinavian Chile – bordered by Sweden, Finland and a slip of Russia.

Lindis Alme’s lovingly restored 19th-century farmhouse, BesteBakken.

My bite-sized Norwegian journey begins by being strapped into one of Wideroe’s tiny twin-engine turboprops that service a grid of smaller airports dotted over impassable terrain. These nimble aircraft navigate into sparsely inhabited regions, regardless of weather, rewarding with breathtaking panoramas on clear days.

From Oslo, it’s a squeezy hour-long flight across the vast expanse of frangible mountains still stippled by snow to land at the settlement of Sogndal on the northern shore of Norway’s longest and deepest fjord.

Stop in for a zingy refresher at Olmheim Siderhage.

An easy transfer by car leads past the superb UNESCO World Heritage listed 12th-century stave church at Urnes with a zingy refresher along the way at Olmheim Siderhage. It takes just a few sips to know the taste of 300 years of Olmheim family history in an apple orchard that clings precariously to a sun-kissed hillside above Sognefjord.

About 20 minutes further along the valley, Lindis Alme’s lovingly restored 19th-century farmhouse, BesteBakken is perched above the serene waters of Lake Hafslo. BesteBakken isn’t a chic upstart resort with a cocktail bar and infinity pool but it’s the closest thing you’ll come to sleeping in a cloud while keeping feet on the ground.

The garden scales an impossibly steep slope... Pictured: Lindis Alme.Credit: Bestebakken

An easy-going decency pervades everything. Pillowy alpaca quilts adorn carved wooden beds and windows open to the sound of sheep bells in the hills. History, geography and poetry collide in an epicurean dream with emphasis on seasonal organic ingredients plucked from the garden by the man who sits quietly beside me at the breakfast table.

Benjamin Bro-Jorgensen came to be part of this alpine alchemy by accident.

“My garden had grown above my head,” recalls Lindis. “I needed help so I phoned a man in another village but I dialled the wrong number. ‘Are you a man who can help?’ I asked. ‘Yes I am,’ said Benjamin, and that was that.”

The garden is a botanical marvel skewed on an impossibly steep slope that, miraculously, yields abundant edible flowers and succulent fruits across all seasons. Guests can forage for their own cloudberries and seabuckthorn but most prefer Lindis and her husband, Oddgeir, to source the ingredients for their locavore feasts.

“I like to make dishes with local flavour,” she says, outlining the full gamut of Norwegian haute cuisine for diners gathered from across the globe to sit at a long chef’s table. “We must live each day” is the motto in this rural idyll where time passes quickly unbidden.

Lindis and her husband, Oddgeir, prepare locavore feasts.… Jerusalem artichoke soup.Credit: Bestebakken

Privilege and luxury in Norway depends upon finding exclusivity in the quality of experience rather than the number of plush towels in the bathroom. Independent, wealthy Norwegians enthuse about simple living and prefer to keep their nature as it is, untouched, so best offerings are easily secured so long as you know where to find them.

Up Norway recommends that I continue with a scenic three-hour car-ferry trip along crinkly coastal edges from Sogndal, past Bergen, off-the-beaten-track by car again for another hour to discover Haaheim Gaard, a country manor fitting snugly into a green socket on the island of Tysnes.

Torstein Hatlevik is the son of a local fisherman who trained as a musician at the Royal College of Music in England. Now he’s the owner of a rambling historic hotel that dates to the early 18th-century where rooms are studded with antique furniture and wallpapers copied from Norwegian stately homes.

Early 18th-century manor Haaheim Gaard in Uggdal.Credit: Haaheim Gaard

Haaheim Gaard guests are encouraged to ga pa tur (take a hike) – that collective obsession again – but a leisurely stroll through the garden will do just as well to tickle the palate for a fine dining experience with locally hunted venison. Foraged vegetables crowd the plate and the wine list is groaning with undiscovered delectability.

It’s clear even before bags are unpacked that the owner is a chef celebrated for his culinary flair (and excellent cellar) who will sing an operatic aria in the chapel if not too distracted by the deer, lit by moonlight, wandering across this frame.

Wined at dined at Haaheim Gaard.Credit: Haaheim Gaard

My journey within a journey concludes next morning at the old post office in Uggdalseide. Chocolates hand-made by Hatlevik, on the jetty beside the sea, confirm this place of extraordinarily abundant beauty as the ultimate extravagance.

Life morphs into nature once again where endless fjord sinks into endless sky beneath the snow-kissed mountains of another hidden corner in Norway.

The details

Visit
Up Norway is a travel curator that customises “best ever” experiences for travellers seeking sustainable luxury in Norway and the Nordic countries. This trip (from $9900 per person) 6 nights, 7 days for two per room, including accommodation, breakfasts (and some dinners), internal flights, train/ferry transfers, car rental, excursions, climate investment. See upnorway.com

Fly
Emirates Airways operates flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Oslo via Dubai. See emirates.com/au

Stay
Amerikalinjen in Oslo’s city centre is a laid-back, stylish boutique hotel that encourages lingering in the venerable headquarters of the Norwegian America Line. See amerikalinjen.com

More
upnorway.com
visitoslo.com

The writer was a guest of Up Norway.