There is a moment on the Lysevegen, about halfway up, when the road disappears into the mountain and you realise someone decided that the best way to climb a cliff was to drill a spiral through it. That is the feel of this section, the upper part of the famous hairpins above Lysebotn, where the road swings back and forth up the face of the rock with the fjord opening out below you. The engineers did not so much conquer the mountain as persuade it.
The riding demands concentration. The hairpins are tight and steep, with a surface that is mostly good but often damp, and the combination of altitude, gradient and passing traffic means that smooth, deliberate throttle and clutch work counts more than speed. Use the engine to control the descent and give campervans room. The reward is the view, which opens out across the fjord and its tangle of cliffs and falls.
The road was built in the early 1980s, a late arrival in the history of Norwegian roads, to bring the isolated village at the fjord head into contact with the plateau above. Until then, Lysebotn was reached by boat, and its people lived by farming and fishing and the small trade of the fjord. A hydroelectric power station tucked into the mountain has long brought energy and employment to the district, and some of the engineering visible beside the road is a remnant of that.
The nature is sensational. Rock walls streaked with water, mountain birches clinging to ledges, and the fjord shining far below. Ravens and eagles ride the updrafts, and in the cool air there is a smell of wet stone and resin that is hard to forget. Mist and low cloud can fill the fjord, turning the drive into a trip through a dream.
There is no town on this stretch, and the nearest large settlement of any size is Jørpeland, some thirty-five kilometres away. Bring what you need and ride in daylight, in dry weather if you can choose. The road is closed in winter.