Lillesand to Geirangerfjord Coast


Lillesand to Geirangerfjord

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Norway. The longest coastline in Europe.

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Mighty fjords carved by great ice sheets.

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It's a landscape written into the blood of the British Isles.

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Because we share a common heritage -

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brought across the sea by Viking boatmen.

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Our starting point it Lillesand, in the south.

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This quiet, southern coastline is popular with Norwegians for summer holidays.

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And it's also a desirable destination for yachting folk,

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who travel across the seas from all around Europe for the thrill of sailing on Norway's Riviera.

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One of these yachtsmen is a Brit.

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Peter Walker left Liverpool to live here.

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But the coastline wasn't the only attraction.

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I met a beautiful Norwegian lady in England.

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She was working as an au-pair.

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Since then we've got three boys,

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and here I've been, living the most beautiful life I can ever think of.

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Is there anything about the lifestyle that you'd import if you could?

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Yeah, I would import a typical English pub

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-and a fish and chip shop.

-Really?

-Yeah!

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Peter and his family made their home in Lillesand,

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a small town of 9,000 people and neat, wooden houses.

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The lifestyle revolves around boats.

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But navigating this rocky shore isn't easy.

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There's hundreds and hundreds of underwater skerries.

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It's a small rock, sticking out from the seabed.

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If they're not marked, and you don't know about it, they can sink your boat.

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Much of this curious coastline is hidden just under the sea.

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It's a mysterious, treacherous landscape,

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which keeps sailors on their toes,

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poking its head up above water, creating countless tiny islands.

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The only way to appreciate the beauty of what lies beneath is to get seriously wet.

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Are you sure about jumping into the water with lead weights on?

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What will I do if I jump in and I go straight to the bottom?

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That should be tight so it doesn't slip.

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Everything about this is tight.

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Put your head down now!

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Snorkelling here is a real eye-opener.

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Above the surface it looks so black.

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Down here it's awash with colour and life.

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As you explore, you start to get a sense of a truly coastal country.

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No wonder Peter and his family love it here.

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Norway's southern Rivera is a stunning surprise.

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I'd expected fjords and ice, not a myriad of micro-islands.

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But as we head northwards, the landscape starts to rear up out of the sea.

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It's more mountainous, with deep fjords carving through the rock.

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This is like Scotland on steroids.

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These inlets snake far inland,

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taking the coast deep into the heart of the country.

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Waterways like this were a challenge that spurred the early boat-builders onto greatness.

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1,200 years ago, after the Vikings had mastered their own craggy shores,

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they turned their sights south to Britain and beyond.

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Deep down the Hardangerfjord,

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Mark Horton is in search of their boat-building secrets.

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I can't believe I'm here in Norway, and about to find out how the Vikings

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made their most awesome weapon - the Viking longship.

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Boats are in the blood of the Norsemen, both ancient and modern.

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Maritime historian Atle Thowsen knows the value the Vikings placed on their vessels.

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The boat was important to get transport, to get from

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one place to another, to get their food and so on.

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It was their way of communicating.

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This was the way to survive in, for instance, Norway.

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They got into the deep fjords, up the rivers and so on, to Paris or...

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Almost everywhere you could find the Vikings.

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These master mariners sailed west to Newfoundland in North America.

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Looking east, they navigated down the River Volga into the Caspian Sea, to trade with the Islamic world.

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And of course, they came south to the British Isles,

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using our waterways to penetrate deep inland.

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So what kind of boats could cope, riding raging seas,

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and powering through placid rivers?

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The Vikings have vanished into legend, but their boat design has stood the test of time.

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These waterways were tamed working with wood,

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and these skills have survived.

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Tucked away down the Hardangerfjord

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there's a yard that's changed little since the days of the Viking boatmen.

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Hi, are you Bjorn?

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-Yeah, I'm Bjorn!

-Hi!

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This is the most wonderful boatyard.

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Yeah, you think so? It's a nice place, very nice place.

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-There's that overpowering smell of the pine resin.

-Mm.

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This is the small boat workshop.

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And you will see two boats in here now, well, parts of a boat, this was just started a week ago.

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And this is a boat we're just about to finish.

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And you can see every stage of their construction.

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Yeah, well, it's a very nice thing to build two boats at the same time.

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So, here we are...

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The most important thing in a Viking boat was its keel,

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the backbone they built upon.

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-The keel goes down quite some distance.

-Yes, it does.

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-So the next stage is presumably then to build up the sides.

-Yeah. That's right.

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Most wooden boats normally start with a frame,

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then the planks are fixed on.

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But these boats are different.

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The planks are built up one at a time,

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each overlapping the last, placed at precise angles.

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This will be the lines plank that we use

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for building this boat.

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Oh! Not a wonderful architect's ship drawing!

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-No! It's not something you get from a computer!

-Dimensions!

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And the numbers would be the degrees the plank has,

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and would be the width of the plank.

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And how do you measure that angle?

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We use this one,

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that's just a...

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simple use of the gravity.

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-So there you've got the angle of the plank.

-Yep, that's right.

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At, say, 27 degrees, that's there.

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-Yep.

-And here it is, then, at 27, which is there.

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So you just... There it is there.

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That's it. That looks about right.

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The Vikings built all their vessels this way.

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Their longships, their fishing boats, everything.

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This is the new one...

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Once the planks are in place,

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they must be secured by special nails which are a bit like rivets.

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So, that goes like that, doesn't it?

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This type of construction is called clinker.

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Bjorn is trusting me to put the last nail in his new clinker boat.

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-I hope I'm not breaking your boat!

-No. Well...well...

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It's as good as it gets!

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So what you're doing now is clinking.

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In Norwegian we would say clinking.

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-So that's the origin of the word "clinker boat"?

-Yeah, I guess it is.

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-Right...

-So...

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-There we go.

-Right.

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That's very good. With the sound, you'll hear that the hammer will answer.

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And an experienced boat-builder will say that that's a good sound.

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The construction of these boats shows why they were so successful for the Vikings.

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Because the overlapping boards aren't tied to an internal frame,

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the boats are flexible, able to bend enough to ride rough seas.

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And their flattish bottoms can cope with shallow rivers.

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Ultimately, though, they were replaced by a different style of vessel,

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with the planks fixed separately onto the ship's skeleton.

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That way, you could build bigger boats.

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But for me, these hills will always be alive with the sound of clinking.

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In open water, very big boats hold sway now.

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As the age of the Viking faded into the sea mist, their renegade trade

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was gradually replaced by more everyday commerce.

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On our journey north, there's a city

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which prospered as part of an exclusive trading club - Bergen.

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700 years ago, this was the commercial capital of Norway,

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with links to Britain and beyond.

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Bergen was the northern outpost of the Hanseatic League,

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a sort of early common market.

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At its height, this league of gentlemen traders

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operated out of ports around Europe,

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including Hull, Norwich, Bristol and King's Lynn, as well as Bergen.

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As long ago as the 14th century,

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it was one of the key cities in Western Europe.

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And that harbour over there would have been teeming with sailing ships,

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ready to make their way back and forth across the North Sea.

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Today, trade is still key to our relationship with Norway.

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And in Britain, we benefit from one of their largest exports - fish.

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Look at that! Now that's fresh cod!

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-Is that whale?

-That's whale, yes.

-What sort?

-Minke whale.

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Minke whale. How big is that when it's full grown?

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-10 tonnes, maybe.

-10 tonnes.

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What a monster. It's the back legs of a king crab.

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Now, that would give you a fright if you saw it in a rock pool.

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I'd dread to think how you'd go about catching one of these.

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These crabs have come from the very top of Norway, right on the Russian border, near the town of Kirkines.

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The king crabs are newcomers to Kirkines.

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They've made their way there from Russia,

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and they're moving gradually southwards.

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They've already been spotted halfway down Norway's coast.

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Eventually, they might even reach British shores.

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One man who grapples daily with king crabs is diver Lars Petter Oie.

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The king crab were introduced to the Barings Sea by the Russians in 1961.

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The first crab we found here was in 1976.

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And ever since that, it has been increasing.

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Maybe one day you'll have the crabs even in Britain.

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It's always a challenge to be 100% sure where to find the crabs.

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But we have so much experience, so we know approximately where to find crabs.

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The biggest we caught here was one metre and 70,

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it's exactly my own height, actually!

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And it was about eight kilos.

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But commercially, it has been caught crabs up to 15 or 16 kilos.

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A crab like this, this is like four, four-and-a-half kilo.

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You wouldn't afford to eat it in London!

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This is, er, this is a lot of money, actually!

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So, here's meat all the way from here and all the way here.

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As you see, it's very tender.

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And it's even sweeter than normal lobster.

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This is the way you should eat it, it's straight from the sea.

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-Skol!

-Skol!

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On my own journey up to the north of Norway, I'm coming to a spot

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that's a real emotional draw for me - a little town called Televag.

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It's a picture-perfect postcard type of place now.

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But in the Second World War,

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Televag was transformed to become a terrible example of Nazi oppression.

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I've got this photograph that was taken in 1945.

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And I'm trying to position myself so that I'm right

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where the photographer stood when he took the snap.

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And it's important to remind yourself what this place looked like

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at the end of the war, because the town was completely erased.

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The story of Televag's destruction

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begins with the German occupation of Norway in 1940.

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Before long, the country's resistance fighters

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looked across the sea to their British neighbours for help.

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Fishing boats started to ferry refugees and resistance agents

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to and fro between Norway and Shetland.

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This secret boat service became known as the Shetland bus.

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I've seen one side of the story already on Coast,

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when I visited Scalloway on Shetland.

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23, 28, 21, 21... Just wee boys.

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Just boys.

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Many brave young men died running the Shetland bus,

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and here in Norway, an entire town

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paid a terrible price for their part in resisting the Nazis.

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Barbara, can you show me a photograph of Arna,

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-show me what he looked like?

-Yes.

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Shetland lass Barbara Melkevik married a Norwegian member of the Shetland bus.

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He was called Arna, and was from Televag.

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I met him when he first came to Scalloway,

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he was going to work on the fishing boats,

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which they were to use on these secret missions to Norway.

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And I was not to ask any questions.

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-If I did, I couldn't get any answers.

-Right!

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On one fateful night, Barbara's husband, Arna,

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set sail on his last ever mission from Shetland

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with a secret cargo on board.

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These were dangerous waters - as well as rough seas and strong winds,

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the fishermen had to avoid the constant threat of patrolling German aircraft and U-boats.

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But eventually, Arna's boat managed to reach a small creek just outside Televag.

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It was right here, in the dead of night on April 21st 1942,

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that Barbara's husband, Arna, arrived to deliver two agents of the Norwegian resistance.

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Their names were Emil Gustaf Hvaal and Arne Vaerum.

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The two agents were taken to a house in the village of Televag.

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They managed to hide for a week,

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until their cover was blown, and the secret was out.

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The Nazis stormed the house, and in the ensuing shoot-out,

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two SS officers and one of the Norwegian agents were killed.

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In a furious display of vengeance,

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the Nazis systematically destroyed Televag.

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Families were split up.

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Some were sent to concentration camps.

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It was the worst act of reprisal in Norway.

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Long after the war, Barbara's husband, Arna,

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struggled to come to terms

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with the devastation he'd unwittingly brought upon his home town.

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Just came bit by bit, now and again.

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He was so pleased that it was all over,

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and could get back to a normal life.

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But he just didn't like talking about it.

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Televag wasn't wiped out by the Nazis,

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because those who survived returned to rebuild it.

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Their new town now stands as a testament

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to the resilience of Norwegian and British resistance

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to the tyranny that stalked these shores.

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Our links across the sea aren't just woven into stories of war.

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They're also etched in the landscape itself.

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Further north along the coastline, we're in the heart of fjord country.

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Wide openings reveal the start of giant inlets, some of which snake over 100 miles inland.

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Nick Crane has come to one of Norway's most famous fjords

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to explore a distant connection to our shore.

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Would you look at this?

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Geirangerfjord.

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What a view!

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And what a scale!

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This spectacular fjord is nearly nine miles long and over 700 feet deep.

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It looks extraordinary, very different to our terrain at home.

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But there are more similarities than you might think.

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It's almost impossible to imagine that the mighty forces of nature

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that gouged out this landscape are the ones that also shaped Scotland.

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Our connection to these rocks goes back millions of years.

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Here in Norway, we can still see how Britain was built.

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But to do that, I need to go high above the landscape.

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It's an epic story, with action that really is ground-breaking.

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We're heading inland to the uplands, to find out how fjords were made,

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see how the forces that shaped Norway and Scotland are still at work.

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As an amateur geographer, this is one of the most exciting days of my life.

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'Ice - the irresistible force that can cut through rock.'

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What an amazing sight, like a frozen waterfall.

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This would have been a common sight in Scotland back in the Ice Age.

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What we're looking at is an almost vertical glacier.

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It's carving a U-shaped rocky trench out of the sides of the valley

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and carrying with it lots of rock debris,

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which it will dump further down the valley.

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It's an incredible sight, this is glaciation

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right in front of your eyes. It's happening right now.

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The Norwegian and British coasts are connected by water now.

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But go back 20,000 years, and the link was ice - a giant sheet of ice

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that stretched from Norway to Britain as far south as Norfolk.

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Our landscape still bears the scars of that moving crust of ice.

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It's eroded all but our toughest rock,

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sculpting the peaks of Scotland,

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and gouging the deeply carved valleys of the Lake District.

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And what's so great about coming to Norway is you can see

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what glaciers in Britain might have looked like 20,000 years ago,

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before our ice melted completely.

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Today, this monumental landscape seems to be at complete peace.

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There's a timeless stillness about it.

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But bits of it are far from still.

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As the glaciers retreat inland, the steep cliffs either side

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of the fjords no longer have anything to prop them up,

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and every so often, great humps of land just fall away,

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down into the fjords.

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The rich vegetation covering the cliff sides masks long, potentially lethal fractures in the rock.

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Just look at this.

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This chasm has been formed because the mountainside is splitting -

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parts of it are moving at 20cm a year.

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At some point in the next 300 years,

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all this is going to thunder down into the fjord.

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Up here on the mountainside, I'm meeting Kjell Jogerud,

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whose job it is to monitor the impending landslide.

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-Hello, Kjell.

-Hello.

-Very good to meet you.

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Yeah. Nice to meet you too.

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Can you tell me what is happening to this mountain.

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Yes. Er, as you see beneath us here,

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more or less everything you see is moving.

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And when these masses hit the fjord,

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they will transport down to the bottom,

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across the fjord, and move up on the shoreline up on the other side.

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This mountain will reach the far side of the fjord?

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Yes, yes. And they will set off deposits across all the fjord, and create quite a large tsunami.

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-A tidal wave.

-Yes, yes.

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As the land slides into the fjord,

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the tsunami will funnel down the narrow channels.

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4,000 people live in its devastating path.

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It's not a question of if the tsunami will happen, but when.

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So the Norwegians have rigged this hillside with 300 sensors.

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When the land starts to move,

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they hope to have up to 48 hours' notice to warn everyone in the area -

0:25:530:25:57

by text message, automatic phone calls and sirens.

0:25:570:26:02

The tidal wave will come careering down this fjord, straight ahead here,

0:26:040:26:08

it will go over the top of this ferry and hit Hellesylt behind us.

0:26:080:26:11

The wave is always going to search for open water,

0:26:110:26:14

so some of it will shoot up this side fjord, Geirangerfjord.

0:26:140:26:17

And at the end there, there's nowhere else for it to go.

0:26:170:26:20

At the very end of this fjord, there's a little town called Geiranger - home to over 300 people.

0:26:250:26:32

I want to find out why they stay

0:26:320:26:34

when they know that a tsunami is inevitable.

0:26:340:26:37

This is Geiranger, and the head of the fjord.

0:26:420:26:45

When the tidal wave reaches here, it has nowhere else to go.

0:26:450:26:49

A catastrophic wall of water 40 metres high will smash into Geiranger

0:26:490:26:55

and reach the spot where I'm standing now.

0:26:550:26:57

All of these buildings will disappear in an instant.

0:26:570:27:01

One family has lived here for 500 years - almost 20 generations.

0:27:160:27:20

Thomas Grande has his home and camping business right at the water's edge.

0:27:200:27:25

He knows that one day in his lifetime, or his children's,

0:27:250:27:29

or their descendants', the tsunami will come.

0:27:290:27:33

Why do you not move to higher ground where it will be safer?

0:27:360:27:39

Er, because we have our roots here.

0:27:390:27:43

We like it very much here.

0:27:430:27:44

It's a good place to grow up, for Noah.

0:27:440:27:49

But when the wave comes, it will destroy your house, it will destroy

0:27:490:27:53

-this beautiful bit of foreshore with the grass, and the ancient barns, the boatsheds, everything will go.

-Yeah.

0:27:530:28:00

Everything will go, because, er, just materials.

0:28:000:28:03

The most important is that we can get away safely, and that we trust.

0:28:030:28:06

I think we will settle down again and move back and build it up again.

0:28:060:28:12

What does this piece of land mean to you personally?

0:28:120:28:17

I've been walking here since my first steps, so it's very important for me.

0:28:170:28:24

I'm really moved by this place, by the immense forces of ice and water

0:28:310:28:35

which shape the fjords and which tell us so much about Scotland's early days.

0:28:350:28:40

But I also wonder whether we Britons who are facing rising sea levels and a change in coastline

0:28:400:28:46

can't pick up a tip or two from the people down there,

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who've learnt to adapt to nature's more ferocious moods.

0:28:490:28:53

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:29:150:29:20

E-mail [email protected]

0:29:200:29:24

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