The Vosso river network

The Vosso is Hordaland's main artery, she has never run more richly than in our times, and no other river in western Norway carries so much water. The increase in the amount of water comes mainly from hydropower development, due to the transfer of water from other water systems. Climate change can also be a reason that the Vosso carries more water than before.

Vosso

There is probably no bigger salmon to be found in the whole wide world than in Vosso. The average size varies from season to season of course, but for many years this fish has had an average weight of over 10 kilograms. Thumping big ones of 30 kg. have been fished from the river, but one must go back to the 1940s for the last salmon of this size last that was caught.

Skånevik- moraine

In Skånevik there are marks left from the ice edge that advanced during the thousand-year cold spell (Younger Dryas) that marked the end of the Ice Age roughly 11 500 years ago. The glacier first proceeded out into Åkra Fjordand and around Vannes and thereafter sent an arm in toward Skånevik. Here, the glacier lay down an end moraine up against the mountainside.

Krokavatnet

On Sunday the 29th of January, 1989, at 17:38 o'clock, Etna shook. The earthquake, with its epicentre ca. 9 kilometres south of Etne centre, had a strength of 4.2 on the Richters scale. This could be felt over large parts of West Land, especially in the areas around Åkra, Etne, Hardanger Fjord and Sauda Fjord. The earthquake was the largest that has ever been measured in Hordaland.

Floteskaret

Frette

Holo

I Kvassdalen var det aktiv stølsdrift med mjølking av kyr og geitehald nokre år inn i vårt tusenår, og slik hadde det vore i meir enn to hundre år. Såleis har dalen ikkje fått gro til med kratt og skog, men er open og lys. Fortsett er det beiting av kyr og sauer.

Tungesvikstranda

Mosnes

The permanently-protected Mosneselva River, with its meltwater from Folgefonna, runs out into Åkra Fjord by the roadless and uninhabited Mosnes. Those who once lived here were forced to surrender to the ravages of Nature. In the autumn of 1962 there was a flood so great that the people were driven from their farms.

Sæbøtunet

When you come into the well-tended farm steading at Sæbø just above Etne centre, you get the impression of a Sunnhordland farm from well before the time of the tractor; from the time of the horse and the scythe. The hamlet at Sæbø, one of the farms neighbouring to Gjerde, was taken over by Sunnhordland Folk Museum in 1938.