Kvinheradsfjorden.

A was off to work early today, leaving me and M to have a nice leisurely breakfast with L and Baby A. M and I packed up our stuff for our trip to the cabin, and Baby A was feeling well enough for a sing-song and a game of aeroplanes (very easy – you just pick him up and twirl him round until he gets hiccups) before we left.

We set off in the later part of the morning to Mortavika, catching a ferry first to Årsvagen and then Hodnanes. We stopped along the way for pølser for lunch; the whole trip was really scenic and seemed to pass quickly. 5 hours later, we arrived at Hatlestrand, a small village with some beautiful houses and stunning landscapes. Our cabin was off the beaten track and quite stunning – large enough to sleep 9, with a sauna, big decking balcony for cooking and eating outside, and a boat tied in the marina on the waterfront below. Kvinheradsfjorden, part of the famous Hardanger Fjord, stretched out in front of the cabin to the far shore of Rosendal, where huge mountains covered in humongous trees swooped up from the waters’ edge at a staggering angle. Seaward was apparently to the right – although open ocean was so far away that the fjord was glassy calm and the only hint to its salinity were the thick mats of kelp near the marina. We faced three impressive mountain ridges, between which nestled Folgafonna glacier; more ridges with diminishing peaks curved down to the east to create a beautiful valley wreathed in layers of mist so that the furthest crests merged into the sky. Breathtaking!

M was keen on checking out the boat, so we headed down to the marina, just below the slope on which the cabin sat. We headed out with fishing rods, and within 30 minutes, M had landed a huge cod that must have weighed a couple of kilos! We could have kept fishing but we didn't want to catch something we couldn't eat, so we headed in for a celebratory glass of hvitvin. We'd already defrosted steaks for our dinner that we'd brought over with us from Scotland (my bag's weight was 50% down to the wine, cheese and meat we took with us) so M cleaned up the fish and we've popped him in the fridge for tomorrow. We found a film on the TV and polished off the bottle of wine as dusk descended over the cabin. This location is just idyllic.