Is this supposed to be summer?

We have been driving along the different Norwegian fjords all morning – but now we have started to make it inland. And as we drive along the Saudasjøen it is still relatively low land which looks pretty green with a bit of blue water. But as we continue the drive along the tourist road of Ryfylke we start heading up the mountains.

As we drive up the mountains the temperature starts to drop – it is still way above freezing. But by the looks of it the temperature hasn’t been above freezing for very long. Along the road there is still a lot of snow along the road.

The lakes up here containing a lot of melt water still has a lot of snow and ice on top of the lakes – so the landscape doesn’t really look like what you would expect during the middle of summer. But in the mountains of Norway the summer comes late and even here at an elevation of only around 800 meters the snows seems to stay until late in the summer – possible some patches will never melt before the winter return early in the fall.

At some places along the road the snow reach heights of a couple of meters – but fortunately they have cleared the road so there is no snow left on the road itself anymore – so it is easy driving along a decent road. It is also a pretty quiet drive since it doesn’t seem like a lot of locals are travelling along this road and the summer tourist season doesn’t seem to bring a lot of tourist to this part of Norway this year.