Løno

Small boat folk in Hordaland know where Løno is. As do many seabirds. With the big ocean at its back and a wide, weather beaten strait ahead of it, Løno is one of Hordaland’s most isolated and exposed recreational areas. The islands west of Sotra are some of the county’s most stable nesting localities for seabirds.

Møvik

In the winter of 1849 the impoverished Fjell municipality was forced to put money into new burial places at Møvik and Bildøydalen, because of the raging cholera epidemic. On 28 March the municipal council decided on a resolution “to apply to His Majesty the King most subserviently to be granted a loan of 500 Speciedaler …”

Turøyvarden

Vatlestraumen

There are coal bits hidden in the sand under Vatlestraumen. These remains from a geological layer from the Jurassic Period were discovered when the undersea Bjorøy Tunnel was built in 1994. Oil- and gas reservoirs in the Troll Field in the sea west of Hordaland are from the same time. It is, nonetheless, quite surprising to find bedrock from dinosaur time inside of the outer islands of western Norway. On the Scandinavian mainland north of Denmark, there are only a very few places where one f inds rock from this time in earth history.

Ågotnes- crystals

Road cuts and blast areas are a joy to rock collectors, even if the disturbance to nature is ever so disfiguring. These are the best kinds of places to hunt for crystals, which otherwise are removed by weather and wind. In the Ågotnes area there are especially many beautiful crystals to be found.

Ågotnes- Stonechat

Buardalen Valley

Buarbreen glacier was one of the first destinations during the period of increasing tourism in Odda in the 1800s. Foreigners came by the thousands, mostly Englishmen and Germans, to the magnificent landscape in front of the glacier. Back at the hotel in Odda they could enjoy drinks containing ice from the glacier.

Dyrskard

Right from the start the road across Haukelifjell was a road from “fjord to fjord”, from the bottom of Sørfjorden to Dalen in Telemark. The connection between Røldal-Haukelifjell was considered so important by Stortinget (Parliament) that the road construction Odda-Dalen was approved already in 1853.

Grytøyrelva

Kalvanes

On the 17th of January, 1993, the area between the towns of Odda and Eitrheimsneset were struck by a giant avalanche. One person was killed, and there was a lot of material damage.