Nigardsbreen - the eternal (?) ice

After our rather calm day yesterday, today should offer another small highlight of our journey: a visit to a glacier.

The Jostedalsbreen and its associated glacier tongue Nigardsbreen are not far away, so after enjoying a cozy coffee we set off to the parking lot. As always, I enjoy the drive; for the most part, we drive along the river that originates from the glacier. I am fascinated by this turquoise water. It looks so unreal, as if someone added paint to it. It's simply captivating.

On the way to the parking lot, the glacier can be spotted briefly and we are both filled with anticipation.

The tour today isn't long, but the route is indeed challenging. There are hardly any paths, just lots of rocks and stones; at times, there is a rope along the path that you can and should hold onto. And then, typically Norwegian, there are stairs and walkways right in the landscape to reach our destination. They really know how to create great hiking trails. We soon agree: the moderate climbing is fun and the tour is among the most beautiful we’ve done here.

We take our time, stepping carefully, and as we get higher and closer to the quite loud roar of the glacier river, we both need to put on extra layers because it gets quite chilly. And then we see the glacier and it is truly impressive.

The glacier shines almost on its own, even under today’s cloudy sky, in a blue complemented by the contrast of dark deposits. All of this in a backdrop of stone, marbled in the most beautiful shades of gray, beige, black, and green. It all feels almost surreal. Nature simply paints the most beautiful pictures. None of our photos can truly capture it.

We did not book a glacier tour, and without a guide, you are not allowed to walk up onto the glacier (which is absolutely correct and sensible), so we remain a few meters away. Again, a point for the thought list; next time, I would like to participate in something like that.

As we stand up there, we can still feel the cold of the glacier, but suddenly it’s as if someone turned on a hairdryer. Warm air flows over the mountains. That doesn’t quite fit. We take this as a sign that we’ve marveled enough and make our way back over the rocky landscape to the camper.

This visit today leaves me deep in thought. It is wonderful to be allowed to see something like this. It is simply beautiful; we are incredibly privileged and very grateful to be able to do and marvel at all this. At the same time, it is frightening because the glacier was once indeed much larger.

This is not something we didn’t already know. Still, it feels different to stand so directly in front of it. I sincerely hope that as humanity we can get a grip on this again so that we all can enjoy our impressive eternal ice for a long time to come.

And while I sit here writing, there’s yet another fabulous display of colors in the sky that I try to capture. What a wonderful way to end the day.