Today at Daily Scandinavian, we have a story and a picture from Baard Loeken and his book Hjemlandet – The Homeland.
“The Atlantic road is physically out in the sea. I’m driving on the coastal road from Vevang towards Averoya. Stone, islets, islands and eight bridges spread over an equal number of kilometers. It’s just one of the dramatic roads in norway.
“The conditions on the islets were the very best for salting and drying of cod, and for this reason a lot of people chose to live here on these windswept islands. Today fish is dried indoors and people live elsewhere.
“A hundred years ago the politicians planned to build a railway here, but the plans were abandoned in the 1930s. The idea to build a road instead was born.
“Construction work started in the 1980s. Twelve storms later, in 1989, the road was officially opened.
“Hustadvika and the Norwegian sea sparkle in the west. People like me, without a boat license, can still go out on the sea. We don’t even need tide water tables or learn to bind knots to make fast a vessel. There are parking lots along the road, and people are fishing from the bare rock-face and the bridges. At Myrbaerholmen Bridge, there are two fishing bridges, which mean sports fishermen can haul in cod without being a hindrance to traffic.
“The bare rock-faces are calling. The swells come rolling in from the big sea, the waves are broken and thrown up in the air. It’s a dramatic picture, even on a day with sunshine. When mother nature really shows off her strength, the waves beat over the bridges and the asphalt is torn off the road, while the cod swim along the barriers.”
This is how the Norwegian photographer Baard Loeken decribes the Atlantic Road in his new book Hjemlandet (The Homeland). It’s one of many of his pictures of “places that are Norway”. Loeken takes us around his country, from stone art of the far north in Alta to Lindesnes lighthouse down south.
He loves the morning light, and the words accompanying his pictures depict the different places as personal experiences. And it’s certainly a Christmas present for people who know and love Norway.
Getting to the Atlantic Road:
You can get to the Atlantic Road from Kristiansund, through the Atlantic Ocean Tunnel (a toll road), and Molde.