Annually around week 33 there is a gathering of cave divers in northern Norway, and for the second year now I am spending my summer vacation diving cold Norwegian caves. This post however is about getting there. I was originally planning to drive from western to northern Norway in one go, so it was with great joy I arranged some diving on the way with my good buddy Arve and his wife Linn. We had two wrecks and two freshwater dives beore they had to go back home and I continued northwards.

Arve and me started off Wednesday with a tech dive to 60m on the wreck S/S Oldenburg in a sidearm of the Sognefjord. Oldenburg is an easy shoredive with a only a small swim out to the bouy from the parking. It also has a very interesting history. It was pretty much a pirate ship during WWI, as a cargoship with consealed cannons it sunk many allied ships. It survived WWI but was sunk during an allied air raid in WWII.

The wreck lies on its side with the port side up. The bow is at about 30m and the propeller around 70m. We descended to the bow and followed a sidepassage down to around the engineroom. There are many details to see while we descended. As with so many other wrecks sinks, toilets and bathtubs of porclain are largely intact.

We had a peek inside the engineroom, some light penetration of the living quarters, forward cargo hold and the bow area. After a few dives on the wreck, I am starting to get a good overview even if the superstructure is quite broken down. We created quite a stir by serving the local marine life some local seafood, and had a quite enjoyable 15min decostop at 6m.

The next day Linn joined us in Førde and we headed off to Norfjordeid to dive the Wartheland. This is an other cargoship sunk close to shore during WWII. With the stern as the deepest section at 22m the shallow nature of the wreck means it was easy to salvage. The bulk of the ship has was salvaged after the war, but the stern is mostly intact. It lies upright and  the boilers, aft cargo hold, propeller and rudder can still be seen.

It was a quite enjoyable dive and well worth the visit.

After diving Wartheland we headed inland to a the Norang valley. In 1908 a large rock slide from the surrounding mountains formed a dam that caused the valley to flood and created the Lyngstøllake. The rising water submerged the road and some small houses in the valley.

We set up camp on what remains of the old road, and had dive in the evening. We did a route that took us to the same places I had been to last time I was there. On a small sideroad to the main road we there is a small stone bridge possible to swim under. After swimming under the bridge we swam through a forest of old treas. Crossing over again we came back on the main road and had a look at the foundations of the old houses.

Around dinner we discussed the dive and came to the conclusion that there was a bridge that we had not found. So the next morning after breaking up camp, we went back into the lake and did a search along the main road to look for the other bridge. The main road is quite nice to swim along. It is lined with stone fences in some places, and in other places it is raised from the terrain and has big rocks as safety barriers. After a little bit of searching we found the bridge we were looking for. We swam under it and took some photos before heading back to shore.

This divesite really is one of a kind, and unlike anything else I can think of. Deffinately worth the trip if you are in the region. It is also a very nice place to rinse the gear after a trip to Ålesund!

After the dive we went our seperate ways. I continued north, Arve and Linn went back home.  Thanks for making the trip more enjoyable guys! The rest of the journey was pretty much uneventful. I reached Trondheim around midnight and fueled by coffe and redbull I went on  untill I was too tired to drive. Had a powernap before continuing, and reached Mo i Rana around 11am the next day.

I have now in the middle of my Full Cave course, and enjoying camping and cavediving in 5c on the polar circle. Have been diving Plura so far, and had a stage dive to the air chamber yesterday. Today I had a dive in Litlåga wich has a few tight restrictions and generally a smaller cave than Plura. Have had little time to write and I have to drive for 20min to get online, but will try to post some more when I get the opportunity.

Oldenburg (on dykkepedia.com – in Norwegian)

Wartheland (on dykkepedia.com – in Norwegian)

Lyngstølsv (on dykkepedia.com – in Norwegian)