Stjørdal is Trøndelag’s most densely populated municipality after Trondheim. The name comes from Old Norse ‘Stjórn’ = steering, from the name of the river. The municipal center (Stjørdals-) Halsen is located between the two rivers Gråelva and Stjørdalselva, hence the name (“The neck of Stjørdal”).
We were on our way north to the ‘Skatvals revue‘ when we saw something fabulous in Stjørdalselva: A number of larger and smaller icebergs/iceflakes were floating in the river. It reminded us of a somewhat problematic bath in Iceland, in Jökulsárlón. This is a lake in front of a glacier where the icebergs are caught and drift around for years before they melt so much that they are able to reach the sea and it is one of Icelands biggest tourist attractions. Check out the post ‘Jökulsárlón‘, Iceland -> Austurland for more info.
And talking about bridges in the area: the old Hell railroad bridge is now a research project, where they are trying to make it brake down over 10 years to find out how much old bridges can handle!
Stjørdalselva is one of the 10 best salmon rivers in Norway, with a catch of 1,590 salmons in 2023. It is a large and wide river, but it is a river and not a lake, and the mentioned icebergs are made of river water and not glaciers, but anyway. We just had to swim there, in Trøndelags own version of ‘Jökulsárlón‘!
We drove past the Sandfærhus car park and walked back along the river bank. Is it ok to fence the river bank, and exclude the access to the river because you have a parking business within? Tobatheornottobathe aren’t completely sure about that.
It was a somehow tedious walk down the river, over ice flakes and between bushes and trees at the river bank. A lot of alder (or ‘ørder‘ as you can hear it pronounced in Trøndelag), with the result that Idun sneezed days afterwards. It turned out to become a kickstart of the pollen season. Alder thrives by streams and rivers and blooms in March. Big mistake!
Small shoes instead of (mountain) boots and bags instead of rucksacks, impractical, to be honest. Our learning is slow, Tobatheornottobathe continues as before.
We had a really nice bath in Stjørdalselva. Quite chilly (not unexpected, considering all the ice). The river was shallow, perhaps you should take the tide into account, this close to the Trondheimsfjord outlet, as we didn’t do for this spontaneous swim. The sand was perfect (not so fine that it sticks everywhere), and there was no bad taste in the water. A bath in Stjørdalselva can certainly be recommended.
On the way back we found a route between 2 rows of fences. We were also filmed by CCTV, suddenly feeling simular to Valborg and Kjell (in the ‘Olsenbanden‘ movies), even without trespassing forbidden territory. Maybe, that is.
However, as always, time was just right for a bath!