Oslo Fjord Cruise
As I mentioned in the post on my arrival in Oslo, Oslo is on a fjord. In English, it’s called Oslo Fjord or Oslofjord. In Norwegian it’s Oslofjorden. I’m anglophone so I’m going to go with one of the English names.
An internet search shows several instances of both Oslofjord and Oslo Fjord on English-language sites. Eyeballing the results suggests that Oslofjord might dominate somewhat. But Oslofjord sounds too much like a marketer rammed two perfectly good words together as a branding exercise. So Oslo Fjord it is as far as I’m concerned.
Fjords are major attractions in Norway—and one of the reasons I wanted to come to Norway—so I decided to get out on Oslo’s. To that end, I took a two-and-a-half-hour Oslo Fjord Cruise on an electric catamaran this morning. (The company that runs it calls it an Oslo Fjord Cruise, not an Oslofjord Cruise. I feel validated.)
Apropos of nothing, the tour company promoted the electric aspect of its boat not as being good for the environment, but rather that it makes their tours silent. Silent was a bit of an exaggeration. People talked and I could hear some wave and bird noises, but the boat itself was quite quiet.
The cruise provided live commentary over a speaker system (see! not silent!) that played on the catamaran’s three decks. I’ll provide below any of the interesting information I remember from what the guide said. I’ll also provide some of the uninteresting information I remember because I’m just so darned pleased with myself for remembering it.
On the Oslo Fjord
The first impression I want to relay is that neither when looking at it from the shore, nor when out on it, does Oslo Fjord resemble in the least the mental image that “fjord” conjures up for me, except for the fact there’s water in it.
In my mind’s eye, sheer, steep, dramatic rock cliffs frame the sides of fjords. Oslo Fjord is not like that. Not particularly tall mountains gently rise starting a ways back from the water. Close to Oslo, residences are built up the sides of the mountains.
A short way into the cruise, we passed a tiny island not much bigger than needed to hold the house that’s on it. The guide told us it was built as a lighthouse.
I couldn’t see a lighthouse light on it. Maybe they removed the light because it no longer serves as a lighthouse. Now, the house is a restaurant that you can rent for events.
I assume the lighthouse island is man-made as the sides are vertical concrete walls and don’t rise much above the surface of Oslo Fjord.
In addition to the lighthouse island, there are also several natural islands in Oslo Fjord.
A little past the lighthouse island, we cruised by two islands very close to each other. One is a bird sanctuary. The other is residential.
The population of the residential island has remained stable at 20 people for quite some time. There’s no commercial docking on the island. So you need your own boat if you live there or want to visit someone there.
After passing some more shoreline with a variety of housing types, along with some pleasant vegetation, we cruised into a bay that, if I heard the guide correctly, is called Dead Man’s Bay. The guide had a bit of an accent and the speaker system might have distorted it a bit, so maybe I misheard. I tried using Google Maps’ search function to look for “Dead Man’s Bay” and came up empty.
I then tried an Internet search for “Dead Man’s Bay Oslo.” The first few entries were about the terrorist attack on Utoya Island on July 22, 2011. That’s not very far from Oslo, but not near where the cruise took us. So that was something completely different.
The next few entries were about Deadman’s Bay in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. I have no idea why that showed up in the search results despite my putting Oslo in the search criteria. I guess the search engine I used (DuckDuckGo) knows I’m Canadian and figured I wanted a Canadian response despite the inclusion of Oslo in the search.
By coincidence, today is Canada Day. Maybe DuckDuckGo wanted to celebrate that by returning some Canadian entries. Probably not, though.
If I did hear her correctly, the guide probably gave us the English translation of the Norwegian name (the entire commentary was only in English). Still, I would have expected that translation to show up somewhere in my internet search even if it wasn’t on the map in English.
The story the guide told to explain the name is that during the bubonic plague known as the Black Death, there was a hospital on the bay and all ships had to stop there to be checked for disease before heading into the port. Some of the ships had dead bodies on them that they dropped directly into the bay. Hence the name Dead Man’s Bay, or whatever the name is.
Shortly after we left the bay that shall rightly or wrongly be known as Dead Man’s Bay, a little over an hour into the cruise, this happened …
Fire on the Fjord
Here’s something you don’t see every day. Someone on the catamaran spotted a small motorboat on fire off in the distance in the Oslo Fjord. Despite it being a small craft, there was a lot of thick black smoke billowing up from the easily visible fire.
The captain of the catamaran called it into the authorities and headed to the fire to help. (He came on the speaker system to tell us that.) The electric catamaran doesn’t move very quickly. A couple of small craft reached the burning boat before we did and pulled the man from the burning boat, who’d jumped overboard, out of the fjord.
The catamaran has a fire hose on it and the crew used it to try, unsuccessfully, to douse the fire. A couple of minutes later, an Oslo fireboat barreled out to the scene. They too turned their fire hose on the burning boat. The crew of the fireboat then grappled the burning boat alongside and finally doused the flames.
Meanwhile, a police boat raced to the scene. The rescued boater was transferred onto it and we resumed our regularly scheduled cruise.
Oslo Fjord Cruise Continues
On the opposite shore of the fjord from the one central Oslo is on, we passed a row of colourful bathing houses. They aren’t the original bathing houses that were there. The originals were destroyed by the battering of the fjord. The bathing houses were later rebuilt a metre higher to protect them from the torment of the fjord. The structures were built so people could go for a swim, admittedly a swim in a very confined area, without having to display skin to others.
A little after we passed the bathing houses, the guide gave us some information that I jotted down so I wouldn’t forget. It’s this: Oslo Fjord is 100 kilometres long,. It’s five kilometres wide at its widest point.
And, apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks Oslo Fjord is not stereotypical. The guide said she gets asked that question a lot. According to the guide, most fjords are created between mountains, but Oslo Fjord resulted from a volcanic crack. So it is, indeed, not a stereotypical fjord. But according to the guide, the people who decide these sorts of things determined that it is truly an official fjord. So there you go.
As we approached central Oslo again, we passed an island that monks live on. I didn’t know this, but the guide said that the rule for monks is that they have to get up with the sun and go to sleep when the sun sets. As I mentioned in my first post from Oslo, days are exceptionally long here this time of year. And the guide said winter days are correspondingly very short, as one would expect.
This created a problem for the monks. During the winter, they had to spend the vast majority of their time sleeping. During the summer, they could barely sleep at all. So they wrote to the Vatican and got an exemption. They are now allowed to get up at six in the morning and go to sleep at six in the evening.
We then passed close by the Oslo Opera House. From that perspective, it looks a lot squarer than it does from the land. It’s harder to see the ramps from that angle.
According to the guide, the Opera House was designed to look like a glacier. So, whoever I read that said it appeared to look like a ski jump, was either just giving a personal impression or was wrong about it being designed to look that way. Or the guide today was wrong. I don’t know which.
Just before we got back to the pier, we passed by Akershus Fortress. I’ll be visiting that this afternoon, so I’ll leave a discussion of it until then. But I’ve included a picture here of what it looks like from the fjord.
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Thank you! I love a boat trip. Even if one is expecting a stereotypical fjord, one learns so much and has a lovely morning on the water (and off one’s feet). But what high drama at sea! I am infinitely cheered to hear that the sailor of the boat was rescued, so all’s well. An attempted rescue at sea (or at least on fjord) is not something one usually expects from a tourist outing. I am looking forward to hearing about that impressive looking fortress you are visiting this afternoon. Unless, of course, they hear you are coming and close it. Then I will take interest in whatever you decide to get up to. Enjoy!
I dare say no one was expecting the drama. Not the owner of the now-former boat. Not the people on other two small craft who came to the rescue. Not the crew and other passengers on the catamaran. And certainly not me. It was definitely something to write home about, indeed.
Even with the excitement, it was an enjoyable and otherwise relaxing morning.
When Hendryk Fjord rolled his first contraption off the assembly line, you know, it fell into the trap laid by his cousin Oslo Fjord. Splash! So the enterprising manufacturer pulled up stakes, so says my hot-off-the-press alternative origin story, sailed across seas, oceans, through and beyond the St. Lawrence, and straight to Motown.
You definitely need to write a more complete history of the entrepreneurial, adventurous Mr. Fjord.
I was on the boat when this happened, also. I just arrived home and wanted to see if there was any press about it and found your post. It was a very odd experience and I’m glad he was okay. Still wonder how the fire started.
Sorry I didn’t get to meet you.
Yes, it was certainly a unique experience for me. And I found it a bit frightening until I saw, and the captain told us, that the guy was okay.
I wondered the exact same thing both at the time and still. How does a fire start on a boat in the middle of the water with only one person on it?
I was at the back and saw him being pulled into the front end of the rescue boat but couldn’t see the boat burning until after. Also, didn’t hear the announcement clearly, just something about a boat on fire. Like you said people were talking etc. It was my last day in Olso and one I will not forget. Happy travels!