We had been freezing out on the balcony the day before when Britannia had to change plans and give us a scenic cruise along the Nordfjord instead of docking at the port of Nordfjordeid; the wind had been bitter and the rain had threatened to turn to sleet all day long. It was vastly different and very much improved the following morning as we cruised into the port of Flåm.
We’d last visited Flåm about a decade before when we’d taken our second ever cruise and hit this part of the world on Crown Princess. On that day in 2013 we’d gone off on an organised tour but had been left with enough time at its conclusion to look around the local shops, admire the views of the fjords, and discover a small brewery with fabulous, if expensive, beer (see: The Village And Cruise Port Of Flåm, Norway). The main thing we’d been looking forward to when we booked this week’s cruise to Norway on Britannia was returning to Flåm and seeing if the beer, the glasses, and the fabulous chairs in the brewery were just as we remembered them.
But, other than that desire to have a drink in a fancy pub – don’t sneer at something like that; it’s engaging with locals culturally and spending money locally, and more cruise travellers should do that instead of sloping back to the ship for lunch or not even getting off in a port – we had no plans at all for Flåm.
We’d booked this cruise fairly late – late enough for the more interesting excursions to sell out – so we’d decided that we’d simply see what we could see for ourselves in all the Norwegian ports for a change. It’s not something we normally do, and, to be honest, it’s not something we often really like doing either because we’ve found the things more of interest to us don’t tend to be walking distance from wherever the cruise ship drops you. Our expectation in Flåm was that we’d likely look around the village, see how far we could walk along the edges of the fjord, then spend some time and money in the shops and brewery.
From our balcony we could see Flåm spread out in front of us and in the distance, just visible in front of the ship from our balcony location, I could see a waterfall. We like waterfalls – and Norway’s certainly a good place to come and visit if you like waterfalls – and a quick check of the phone indicated it looked like a fairly easy walking route to it which gave us an additional activity we could enjoy on this day.
After breakfast we gathered our things for the day – camera, water, and sun screen because we’d switched from wearing multiple layers the day before to only needing t-shirts now (the answer to the question “What sort of clothing should I bring for a trip to Norway?” should always be a shrug and “All of them, maybe?”) – and disembarked straight into Flåm. We walked through the centre of the small collection of buildings in the general direction of that waterfall we’d seen.
We came upon a map of the local area pinned to the wall of a building, showing various walking routes that could be taken. What we would end up doing on this day, more-or-less, is the long, green route, number 3, shown in the picture below, walking in a clockwise direction. We didn’t really feel it was that long and with the exception of the ascent to the waterfall itself this was both easy on the feet and easy on the eyes.
One of the things we’ve still never done – and, admittedly, this was only our second visit to this place in Norway so this is not that surprising – is take the Flåm railway trip which, by all accounts, is supposed to be fantastic. It’s also very popular and likely rammed with people if you’ve just arrived on a cruise ship, though, so that’s part of the reason we didn’t consider it on this trip too. However, we did cross the rail tracks a few times while on this walk to the waterfall.
You can see for yourself just how beautiful the Norwegian landscape is around Flåm without me wittering on about it. There were frequent pauses as we enjoyed the late May sunshine in Norway for me to take a photo or ten and what I’ve included here is a small fraction of what I shot.
We eventually crossed over the water and made our way to the start of the climbing path towards Brekkefossen waterfall. This part of the hike was quite brutal on account of the uneven stone steps that led to the outcrop of rock at the waterfall’s base. By all accounts, this used to be a lot easier when it was just a dirt path, although I suspect that might have been only true as far as going up was concerned, and not particularly good for hikers in inclement weather conditions coming down.
The different heights of the steps didn’t allow us to get a good rhythm going and required frequent stops due to the tiring nature of them which I disguised as photo opportunities. My wife – whose dodgy knees, ankles, and hips have made it into many travelogues on this site over the years – made it about a third of the way up this steep climb then admitted understandable defeat and sat down on a step to wait for me to head up alone and return. While I was gone I’m pleased to say that a few other hikers checked to make sure she was okay and some people in another group ended up doing the same thing as us with some continuing and the rest waiting near my wife and having a chat with her.
The twisting, steep, uneven, and strenuous (for me) hike involved passing lots of people on the way down, each saying “Keep going, it’s not far, and the views are worth it.” I did keep going, it wasn’t far – although it took longer than you might think to complete it – and the views were definitely worth it.
Brekkefossen itself was thundering and fabulous from the small plateau on which numerous other hikers were resting or taking in the views, and with the sun out we were even treated to a rainbow in the gentle spray as the water hit the base near us. Gazing outwards and along the valley it was possible to trace the route we’d walked all the way back to Flåm and to see our cruise ship docked at the village port. Snow-topped mountains, fjords, a waterfall, wooden buildings nestled together: what more reason do you need to take the Brekkefossen waterfall hike?
I couldn’t spend too long admiring the scenery of the Norwegian landscape because I had a wife on the trail below somewhere, so once I’d stopped gasping for air and most of the more obvious sweat on my face had evaporated I turned around and completed the substantially easier descent to where she was waiting, passing goats and small cascades and stunning views on the way.
Back on level ground we then proceeded to follow most of the rest of the green walking route back to Flåm, although we crossed a bridge over the river earlier than it suggested and ended up retracing part of the way we’d come earlier in the day.
Overall, and with that weather we had in particular, this Brekkefossen waterfall hike is well worth doing if you like to get some kilometres under your belt and haven’t had enough of beautiful rocky landscape views already on your trip to Norway. As if you could. For the most part it’s a very easy walk but that ascent to the waterfall itself might take you by surprise with the exertion involved. But if I can do it, and you don’t have any debilitating injuries to contend with, then you probably can, too.
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll head into the brewery in Flåm for some well-deserved, post-hike liquid refreshments before we wave goodbye to this incredibly attractive port of call.