Hardangerfjord waterfalls: the famous two and the ones with no name

Vøringsfossen falls about 182 metres from the edge of the Hardangervidda plateau into the Måbødalen gorge, twenty minutes by road from Eidfjord. There is a viewing area at the top, a stepped path, and a footbridge across the gorge above the fall that is worth the walk on its own. It is one of the most visited natural sights in Norway and it is free.

Steinsdalsfossen at Norheimsund is smaller — about fifty metres — and more unusual: the water comes over a hard overhang and the softer rock behind has worn back far enough that a path runs along the cliff behind the falling water. Ten minutes to walk round, also free, and a hundred metres from the village.

Both are worth stopping for and both are on the standard route. Neither requires a boat, a ticket or a guide, and both are busy in July.

The fjord walls are streaked with falls that never appear in a guidebook. They come off hanging valleys and ledges, drop a few hundred metres in stages, and land in the fjord itself — which means there is no shore to stand on and no road to reach them.

What a RIB does is take you to the base and, on most trips, put the bow into the spray under the fall. The engine drops, the boat noses in, and for ten or fifteen seconds you are inside a very loud cloud of water. Survival suits are provided precisely because of this.

Flow depends entirely on the season. In late May a fall that is a trickle in September is a torrent, and the walls carry a dozen of them where there were three. That is the single best argument for coming in spring.

And because they are unnamed and unphotographed, they are the part of the trip that feels like a discovery rather than an attraction — which is a rare thing on a fjord that has been on the tourist route since the nineteenth century.