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![In the background Nordrenut and Vesle Finsenuten, from the south-east.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/ulvik_3.jpg?itok=nFVp8uAU)
Finse
Many mountain plants are well prepared to face cold and wind. Some would surely rather face an easier life in the lowlands, but they cannot compete with the higher-growing plants living there. Most mountain plants manage to compete for light and space only if they cling to the bedrock and gravel in the harsh high alpine climate.
![Osa and the Osa fjord](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_360xxx.jpg?itok=YQCQAW0y)
Osa
At the bottom of the Osa fjord there is a cultural landscape marked by great contrasts; the wide terraces and the river delta at the fjord contrast with the steep hillsides in the background, where Norddalen leads up to the mountain. There are two farms here. Osa and Sævartveit – the farm at the river mouth and the hollow by the sea.
![Solskinstjørni](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/ulvik_43.jpg?itok=hNZOK4_6)
Solskinstjørni
Solskinstjørni in Osa, just above Haugen farm in Norddalen, is visible only now and again, seemingly always for a period of good weather. Then it disappears abruptly, but its disappearance is not connected to weather conditions.
![Grytøyrelva](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/nv_482.jpg?itok=xhxzmzEq)
![Odda around the turn of the former century, with the new Hotel Hardanger](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_398-2.jpg?itok=OKXQDlUB)
Odda- The tourist town
The pioneering tourists in the 1830s-40s brought a momentum in the tourist traffic to the fjord and mountain country Norway. At the time Odda was a hidden Shangri-La at the bottom of Sørfjorden; the farm and the church on the green headland at the fjord. But when the steamship traffic opened the fjord landscape for tourism, in a few years Odda parish in Søndre Bergenhus County became the focal point for travellers in West Norway.
![Opo](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/odda_32.jpg?itok=X8hRVGS1)
![Håhaugsteinen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvh_388-2.jpg?itok=DKaS4quO)
![Tveitafoss Hydroelectric power station](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/ull_38.jpg?itok=h4HROat_)
![The guesthouse settlement at Utne around 1900.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_387-2.jpg?itok=FdeIFyRP)
Utne
When sergeant Peder Larsen Børsem from Strandebarm was “demobilised” in 1721, following the large Nordic War, he married the Bergen lady Elisabeth Schrøder and settled as innkeeper at Utne with a letter of privilege from the county governor dated 29 October 1722.
![From Kinsekvelven river toward Lakes Kinsevatnet and Veivatnet.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/ull_25.jpg?itok=-w2m_QOH)
Veivatnet
From Kinsekvelven river and inward to Lake Veivatnet, we can wander through one of Hardangervidda's many fertile areas. A number of finicky plants grow here, and there are plenty of birds and fish. We can thank a lime rich soil for the diversity.