IT’S NO WONDER the Norwegians embrace outdoor living quite as wholeheartedly as they do with the wild grandeur of the fjords at their disposal. This is a region that provides newly astonishing views around every corner, whether accessed by boat, bike or on two feet. Colossal landscapes of craggy mountains and ribbon-like waterfalls command attention, but there is quiet beauty in the detail too, in the frayed ropes and sea-brined lanterns of a fishing village, or a crab clambering over rocks in the shallows of a glacial lake. One unusual way to experience the area is aboard the coastal mail boat, which chugs through the fjords, calling at barely-inhabited islets to deliver post from the mainland. Inland, the mountains grow taller and more untamed, their peaks muffled by low mists, and the fjords take on a deeper shade of blue. This is wild Norway at its most spellbinding: a place where lonely roads wend down mountainsides in acute switchbacks, and glaciers glow ice-white between peaks. There are few better vantage points than atop Mount Hoven (pictured) – reached from the edge of the fjord by via ferrata or a vertiginous cable car – where miles of walking trails offer views across the valleys and down to toy-town, clapboard villages far below.
PHOTOGRAPH: MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON/FJORD NORWAY
fjordnorway.com; enter the region from Bergen, with daily flights from London with Norwegian