I'll take the high way and you'll take the .....

Submitted by Hoy on

tunnel!

When you travel from west to east or vice versa in Norway you have to cross the mountain range unless you go along the coast - and that's a long drive.
The newest roads have lots of tunnels, faster but boring. The longest (actually the World's longest road tunnel) is 25km/15.5miles long. Some of the tunnels cross fjords too, the deepest is 287m/942ft below sea level. Anyway, inside the mountain you will not see many plants. Therefore, choose the old roads!

Today I went from east to west, the weather was superb so I chose the old road. In the high woods the birches had gotten their fall color, so had the aspen, the rowan (do you say rowan or mountain ash?) and other deciduous trees, no spruces in this elevation - they haven't had time since the glaciation to spread so far yet. The common birch (Betula pubescens) dominate at the treeline.
Sorry, no pictures of this do to lack of battery capacity of my old camera!

1) From the old road you can see the new disappearing into the mountain. New snow at the peaks.
2) Straight ahead is the sun - and some old snow from last winter.
3) Vaccinium uliginosum with fall color.
4) A watercourse
5) ..and a small waterfall.

Comments


Submitted by Hoy on Mon, 09/27/2010 - 15:36

10) Salix herbacea
11) Oxalis digyna
12) Not an albino but fall color of a fern.
13 & 14) The national flower of Norway is Saxifraga cotyledon called "Mountain Queen" (fjelldronning) in Norwegian. The best plants can have several hundreds of flowers. The rosette dies after flowering.