It's not that kind of waterfall you have dream about. Låtefossen, in english Latefoss, comes not from the sky on the surface of mother earth and it seems that it hasn’t the span of free falling like his comrade Voringsfossen waterfall, the giant fall hundred kilometers in the north near the town Odda.
But Låtefossen perhaps is the main and magnificent attraction in Oddadalen, a region known as "the Valley of Waterfalls". The good thing at Låtefossen, the Norwegian “king of waterfalls”: You can go by car right to the foot of the fall, because there is a street with a bridge directly where the water comes from the mountain. And when you have find your place for a view you will see: Låtefossen isn’t one waterfall. No, it’s two of them!
Two rivers for a fall
A river named Austdøla pools in a lake high on the hill. There he divide in two outlets, where two channels starts two cascades who run down in twisting courses, curves and free falling passages. The twin falls with tons of white water rushing down before your feet. The air is wet like when it rains, the spray springs to your eyes, on your hair and under your clothing. You will feel like you have a bath in mother nature.
Naturally the Låtefossen twin waterfalls are one – or two - of the very popular tourist attractions of Norway. The two separate streams flowing down from the lake named Lotevatnet and met and join together right before your eyes.
Busses come with a lot of people, you have bikers and cyclists and hikers and tourist they bring here with horses. Since brave men build the route 13 in the 19th century the 165 m drop waterfall – unfortunately you don’t see the complete fall to the ground - is easily accessible. But you can climb along the edge of the fall to the first hill and into the clean watersprays to get closer the to sensation. The view from here is unforgettable. But you stand into a shower.
The drama of a young Lieutenant
On the other side of the road, where the water runs underneath the old stone bridge, is another little attraction, a monument of a drama. On the street, where the water from Låtefossen runs little bit calmer you find a memorial stone with a copper plate that german emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II build for his kings man Gustav von Hahnke, who were on board the emperors yacht "Hohenzollern", which brought Wilhelm II almost every year to Norway for summer vacation.
On July 11th, 1897, the young Lieutenant (26) died while he was on an excursion to Låtefossen as fell from his bicycle into the raging river. Everyone can imagine that the remains of his body was found only weeks later because the Låtefossen works like a mill. No drastic details from me.
It’s s no more the original situation you see because as the number of cars at the waterfall increased in the 20. century the bridge over the Opo river was demolished and rebuilt six meters wide. If you've are back in your car you can drive along the road that leads you up the Eastern side of the valley. At the end there is a viewpoint you can see the waterfall from above.
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