Lysebotn lies at the bottom of the Lysefjord, one of the long, dark, steep-sided fjords of southwest Norway, and it is reached only by water or by a road so dramatic that it has become one of the most famous in the country. The village itself is tiny, a handful of houses, a quay and a campsite wedged between water and wall, and the mountain above it rises almost a kilometre straight up.
Most riders come for the road, the Lysevegen, which climbs out of the village in a series of twenty-seven hairpins. It was opened in the early 1980s and is a monument to patient engineering, with tight corners stacked one above another and a tunnel in which the road spirals inside the mountain. The surface is good, but the bends are steep and tight, so you need to be careful about gears and brakes, particularly on a loaded bike. Passing is tricky and coach traffic is common in summer.
The Lysefjord is about forty kilometres long, cut by glaciers into the granite, and the walls are so steep that sunlight reaches the village for only part of the day. The fjord is best known for Preikestolen, the flat cliff-top that draws walkers from across the world, and for Kjerag, the great boulder wedged in a crevice nearby, which has become a place of pilgrimage for BASE jumpers. A visit to Lysebotn gives you a good look at the head of the fjord from below.
The air here is cool and damp, and the smell of wet rock and conifer is strong. Waterfalls fall down the cliffs in rain, and the water in the fjord is deep and dark. The road is open in the summer season and closed in winter, usually from late autumn, so check dates before you come.
Services in the village are modest, and Jørpeland, a good thirty-five kilometres away by road, is the town for a full range of supplies. Go early in the morning if you can, when the light is soft and the traffic is light.