Coast (2005) s04e07 Episode Script

NEIL OLIVER: Norway, the longest coastline in Europe.
Mighty fjords carved by great ice sheets.
It's a landscape written into the blood of the British Isles, because we share a common heritage, brought across the sea by Viking boatmen.
Now, it's British yachtsmen who love to explore Norway's coast.
hey come year in and year out, but for us, this a rare chance to meet our northern neighbours.
In Norway, I'm joined by my usual Coast companions.
Mark Horton is in search of the craft that spurred the Vikings to our shores.
And this is a method that can't have changed for a thousand years.
BJORN: No.
OLIVER: Alice Roberts meets the Norwegians keeping us warm in winter.
So this is it.
I can hear it.
his is actuaIIy the gas you're hearing, gas going to UK.
OLIVER: Nick Crane explores the British connections to the most beautiful fjord in Norway.
As an amateur geographer, this is one of the most exciting days of my Iife.
OLIVER: And I travel high into the Arctic Circle, where the Vikings launched themselves southwards towards Britain.
Our story continues beyond our coast.
This time we're travelling a huge distance, along the shore of an entire country.
One that's long, thin and mostly coastline.
Norway's coast is just so much bigger than you imagine.
If you followed all the ins and outs of every bay and majestic fjord, it's a trip of over 13,000 miles.
That's over halfway around the world.
These magnificent fjords are overlooked by huge mountains with vertiginous cliffs.
And at its narrowest, Norway is just three and a half miles wide.
To cope with their challenging coastline, the Norwegians have been constantly inventive, building roads across the sea, making their homes on tiny islands, and harvesting their natural resources for food and energy.
On our journey, we want to discover what tips we in Britain can get about living on our coast, and to find out how our two countries have a shared history, reaching out in friendship and in wartime across the North Sea.
We're travelling up to the Lofoten Islands, deep into the Arctic Circle.
On the way, we'll pop up to polar-bear country, Svalbard.
But our starting point is Lillesand, in the south.
This quiet southern coastline is popular with Norwegians for summer holidays.
And it's also a desirable destination for yachting folk, who travel across the seas from all around Europe for the thrill of sailing on Norway's Riviera.
One of these yachtsmen is a Brit.
Peter Walker left Liverpool to live here.
But the coastline wasn't the only attraction.
I met a beautifuI Norwegian Iady in EngIand.
She was working as an au pair.
Right.
WALKER: Since then, we've got three boys and here I've been Iiving the most beautifuI Iife I can ever think of.
Is there anything about the IifestyIe that you wouId import if you couId? Yeah, I wouId import a typicaI EngIish pub and a fish-and-chip shop.
-Dream? -Yeah.
OLIVER: Peter and his family made their home in Lillesand, a small town of 9,000 people and neat wooden houses.
The lifestyle revolves around boats, but navigating this rocky shore isn't easy.
here's hundreds and hundreds of underwater skerries.
It's a smaII rock sticking out from the sea bed.
If they're not marked and you don't know about it, they can sink your boat.
OLIVER: Much of this curious coastline is hidden just under the sea.
It's a mysterious, treacherous landscape, which keeps sailors on their toes, poking its head above water, creating countless tiny islands.
The only way to appreciate the beauty of what lies beneath is to get seriously wet.
OLIVER: Are you sure about jumping into the water with Iead weights on? What wiII I do if I jump in and I just go straight to the bottom? -hat shouId be tight so it doesn't sIip down.
-OLIVER: Everything about this is tight.
WALKER: Put your head down now.
OLIVER: Snorkelling here is a real eye-opener.
Above the surface it looks so black.
Down here it's awash with colour and life.
As you explore, you start to get a sense of a truly coastal country.
No wonder Peter and his family love it here.
Norway's southern Riviera is a stunning surprise.
I'd expected fjords and ice, not a myriad of micro-islands.
But as we head northwards, the landscape starts to rear up out of the sea.
It's more mountainous, with deep fjords carving through the rock.
This is like Scotland on steroids.
These inlets snake far inland, taking the coast deep into the heart of the country.
Waterways like this were a challenge that spurred the early boat builders onto greatness.
1200 years ago, after the Vikings had mastered their own craggy shores, they turned their sights south to Britain and beyond.
Deep down the Hardangerfjord, Mark Horton is in search of their boat-building secrets.
I can't beIieve I'm here in Norway and about to find out how the Vikings made their most awesome weapon, the Viking Iongship.
HORON: Boats are in the blood of the Norsemen, both ancient and modern.
Maritime historian, Atle Thowsen, knows the value the Vikings placed on their vessels.
he boat was important to get transport, to get from one pIace to another, to get their food and so on.
It was their way of communicating.
HOWSEN: This was the way to survive in, for instance, Norway.
hey got into the deep fjords, up the rivers and so on, to Paris or aImost everywhere you couId find the Vikings.
HORON: These master mariners sailed west to Newfoundland in North America.
Looking east, they navigated down the river Volga, into the Caspian Sea, to trade with the Islamic world.
And, of course, they came south to the British Isles, using our waterways to penetrate deep inland.
So, what kind of boats could cope riding raging seas and powering through placid rivers? The Vikings have vanished into legend, but their boat design has stood the test of time.
These waterways were tamed working with wood and these skills have survived.
Tucked away down the Hardangerfjord, there's a yard that's changed little since the days of the Viking boatmen.
-HORON: Hi.
-Hi.
-Are you Bjorn? -Yeah, I'm Bjorn.
-Hi.
-Hi.
Nice to meet you.
his is the most wonderfuI boat yard.
Yeah, you think? It's a nice pIace, very nice pIace.
HORON: here's that overpowering smeII of the pine resin.
(HORON CHUCKLES) BJORN: his is the smaII boat workshop and you'II see two boats in here now.
WeII, parts of a boat, just started a week ago.
And this is a boat we're just about to finish.
And you can see, sort of, every stage of their construction.
Yeah, weII, it's a very nice thing to buiId two boats at the same time.
HORON: So, here we are.
The most important thing in a Viking boat was its keel, the backbone they built upon.
HORON: he keeI goes down quite some distance.
BJORN: Yes, it does.
So the next stage is presumabIy then you have to buiId up the sides.
Yeah, that's true.
Most wooden boats normally start with a frame, then the planks are fixed on.
But these boats are different.
The planks are built up one at a time, each overlapping the last, placed at precise angles.
his wiII be the Iine pIan that we use for buiIding this boat.
-Oh, it's that one? -Yes.
Not a, sort of, wonderfuI architect ship drawing.
No, it's not.
his is not something you get from a computer.
See, these are the dimensions.
And the numbers wouId be the degrees that the pIank has.
-HORON: AII right.
-And wouId be the width of the pIank.
-And how do you measure that angIe? -We use this one.
-that's just a simpIe use of the gravity.
-AII right.
-So there you've got the angIe of the pIank.
-Yeah.
that's true.
-At, say 27 degrees, just there.
-Yeah.
And here it is, then, at 27, which is there.
So you just here it is there.
that's it.
that Iooks about right.
HORON: The Vikings built all their vessels this way.
Their long ships, their fishing boats, everything.
BJORN: his is the new one.
HORON: Once the planks are in place, they must be secured with special nails, which are a bit like rivets.
HORON: So that goes Iike that, doesn't it? This type of construction is called clinker.
Bjorn is trusting me to put the last nail in his new clinker boat.
HORON: I hope I'm not breaking your boat.
BJORN: No, no.
BJORN: WeII (LAUGHS) As good as it gets.
BJORN: So what you're doing now is cIinking.
-In Norwegian what we say cIinking.
-that's the origin of the word cIinker boat? BJORN: Yes, it is.
HORON: So BJORN: So that's very good.
With the sound, you'II hear that the hammer wouId answer.
HORON: Right.
An experienced boat buiIder wiII say that that's a good sound.
HORON: The construction of these boats shows why they were so successful for the Vikings.
Because the overlapping boards aren't tied to an internal frame, the boats are flexible, able to bend enough to ride rough seas, and their flattish bottoms can cope with shallow rivers.
Ultimately, though, they were replaced by a different style of vessel, where the planks fixed separately onto the ship's skeleton.
That way, you could build bigger boats.
But for me, these hills will always be alive with the sound of clinking.
OLIVER: In open water, very big boats hold sway now.
As the age of the Viking faded into the sea mist, their renegade trade was gradually replaced by more everyday commerce.
On our journey north, there's a city which prospered as part of an exclusive trading club, Bergen.
Seven hundred years ago, this was the commercial capital of Norway, with links to Britain and beyond.
Bergen was the northern outpost of the Hanseatic League, a sort of early common market.
At its height, this league of gentlemen traders operated out of ports around Europe, including Hull, Norwich, Bristol and King's Lynn, as well as Bergen.
As Iong ago as the 1 4th century, it was one of the key cities in Western Europe.
And that harbour over there wouId have been teeming with saiIing ships ready to make their way back and forth across the North Sea.
Today, trade is still key to our relationship with Norway.
And, in Britain, we benefit from one of their largest exports, fish.
Look at that.
Now that's fresh caught.
-OLIVER: Is that whaIe? -hat's whaIe, yes.
-What sort of whaIe? -Minke whaIe.
Minke whaIe.
How big is that when it's fuII grown? -en tonnes, maybe.
-en tonnes.
What a monster.
It's the back Iegs of a king crab.
Now that wouId give you a fright if you saw it in a rock pooI.
I'd dread to think how you'd go about catching one of these.
These crabs have come from the very top of Norway, right on the Russian border, near the town of Kirkines.
The king crabs are newcomers to Kirkines.
They've made their way there from Russia and they're moving gradually southwards.
They've already been spotted halfway down Norway's coast.
Eventually, they might even reach British shores.
One man who grapples daily with king crabs is diver Lars Petter Oie.
OIE: The king crab were introduced to the Bering Sea by the Russians in 1961.
The first crab we found here was in 1976, and even since then it has been increasing.
Maybe one day you'II have the crabs even in Britain.
It's always a challenge to be 100% sure where to find the crabs.
But we have so much experience, so we know approximately where to find crabs.
The biggest we caught here was one metre and 70.
It's exactIy my own height, actuaIIy.
And it was about eight kiIos.
But commerciaIIy it has been caught crabs up to 15 or 16 kiIos.
A crab Iike this, this is Iike four, four and a haIf kiIo.
You wouIdn't afford to eat it in London.
his is, this is a Iot of money, actuaIIy.
So, here's meat aII the way from here and aII the way here.
As you see, it's very tender.
And it's even sweeter than normaI Iobster.
his is the way you shouId eat it.
It's straight from the sea.
(OASING IN NORWEGIAN) OLIVER: On my own journey to the north of Norway, I'm coming to a spot that's a real emotional draw for me, a little town called Televag.
It's a picture-perfect postcard type of place now, but in World War II, Televag was transformed to become a terrible example of Nazi oppression.
I've got this photograph that was taken in 1945 and I'm trying to position myseIf so that I'm right where the photographer stood when he took the snap.
And it's important to remind yourseIf what this pIace Iooked Iike at the end of the war, because the town was compIeteIy erased.
The story of Televag's destruction begins with the German occupation of Norway in 1940.
Before long, the country's resistance fighters looked across the sea to their British neighbours for help.
Fishing boats started to ferry refugees and resistance agents to and fro between Norway and Shetland.
This secret boat service became known as the Shetland bus.
I've seen one side of the story already on Coast when I visited Scalloway on Shetland.
OLIVER: 23, 28, 21, 21 -Just wee boys.
-Just boys.
OLIVER: Many brave young men died running the Shetland bus.
And here in Norway, an entire town paid a terrible price for their part in resisting the Nazis.
Barbara, can you show me a photograph of Arna? -Show me what he Iooked Iike.
-Yes.
OLIVER: Shetland lass, Barbara Melkevik, married a Norwegian member of the Shetland Bus.
He was called Arna and was from Televag.
I met him when he first came to ScaIIoway.
He was going to work on the fishing boats, which they were to use on these secret missions to Norway, and I was not to ask any questions.
-If I did, I couIdn't get any answers.
-OLIVER: Right.
On one fateful night, Barbara's husband, Arna, set sail on from Shetland with a secret cargo on board.
These were dangerous waters.
As well as rough seas and strong winds, the fishermen had to avoid the constant threat of patrolling German aircraft and U-Boats.
But eventually Arna's boat managed to reach a small creek just outside Televag.
It was right here, in the dead of night, on ApriI 21, 1942, that Barbara's husband, Arna, arrived to deIiver two agents of the Norwegian resistance.
heir names were EmiI Gustaf HvaaI and Arne Vaerum.
The two agents were taken to a house in the village of Televag.
They managed to hide for a week, until their cover was blown and the secret was out.
The Nazis stormed the house and, in the ensuing shoot-out, two SS officers and one of the Norwegian agents were killed.
In a furious display of vengeance, the Nazis systematically destroyed Televag.
Families were split up.
Some were sent to concentration camps.
It was the worst act of reprisal in Norway.
Long after the war, Barbara's husband, Arna, struggled to come to terms with the devastation he'd unwittingly brought upon his hometown.
MELKEVIK: Just came bit by bit, now and again.
He was so pIeased that it was aII over, that he couId get back to a normaI Iife, that he just didn't Iike taIking about it.
OLIVER: Televag wasn't wiped out by the Nazis, because those who survived returned to rebuild it.
Their new town now stands as a testament to the resilience of Norwegian and British resistance to the tyranny that stalked these shores.
Our links across the sea aren't just woven into stories of war.
They're also etched in the landscape itself.
Further north along the coastline, we're in the heart of fjord country.
Wide openings reveal the start of giant inlets, some of which snake over 100 miles inland.
Nick Crane has come to one of Norway's most famous fjords to explore a distant connection to our shore.
WouId you Iook at this? Geirangerfjord, what a view, and what a scaIe! This spectacular fjord is nearly nine miles long and over 700 feet deep.
It looks extraordinary, very different to our terrain at home.
But there are more similarities than you might think.
It's aImost impossibIe to imagine that the mighty forces of nature that gouged out this Iandscape are the ones that aIso shaped ScotIand.
Our connection to these rocks goes back millions of years.
Here in Norway, we can still see how Britain was built.
But to do that, I need to go high above the landscape.
(RADIO CHAER) It's an epic story, with action that really is ground-breaking.
We're heading inIand to the upIands to find out how fjords were made.
See how the forces that shaped Norway and ScotIand are stiII at work.
(RADIO CHAER) As an amateur geographer, this is one of the most exciting days of my Iife.
Ice, the irresistible force that can cut through rock.
What an amazing sight! hat's the BriksdaI ice faII.
It's Iike a frozen waterfaII.
his wouId have been a common sight in ScotIand back in the Ice Age.
What we're Iooking at is an aImost verticaI gIacier.
It's carving a U-shaped rocky trench out of the sides of the vaIIey and carrying with it Iots of rock debris, which it wiII drop further down the vaIIey.
It's an incredibIe sight.
his is gIaciation right in front of your eyes.
It's happening right now.
The Norwegian and British coasts are connected by water now, but go back 20,000 years and the link was ice.
A giant sheet of ice that stretched from Norway to Britain as far south as Norfolk.
Our landscape still bears the scars of that moving crust of ice.
It's eroded all but our toughest rock, sculpting the peaks of Scotland and gouging the deeply carved valleys of the Lake District.
And what's so great about coming to Norway is you can see what glaciers in Britain might have looked like 20,000 years ago, before our ice melted completely.
oday this monumentaI Iandscape seems to be at compIete peace.
here's a timeIess stiIIness about it, but bits of it are far from stiII.
As the glaciers retreat inland, the steep cliffs either side of the fjords no longer have anything to prop them up.
And, every so often, great hunks of land just fall away down into the fjords.
The rich vegetation covering the cliff sides masks long, potentially lethal fractures in the rock.
Just Iook at this.
his chasm has been formed because the mountainside is spIitting.
Parts of it are moving at 20 centimetres a year.
At some point in the next 300 years, aII this is going to thunder down into the fjord.
Up here on the mountainside, I'm meeting Kjell Jogerud, whose job it is to monitor the impending landslide.
CRANE: HeIIo, KjeII.
JOGERUD: HeIIo.
-Very good to meet you.
-Nice to meet you, too.
Can you teII me what is happening to this mountain? JOGERUD: Yes, as you see beneath us here, more or Iess everything you see is moving.
And when these masses hits the fjord, they wiII transport them to the bottom, across the fjord, and move up on the shoreIine up on the other side.
You're saying that this mountain wiII reach the far side of the fjord? Yes, yes.
And they wiII set off deposits across aII the fjord and create quite a Iarge tsunami.
-A tidaI wave? -Yes, yes.
CRANE: As the land slides into the fjord, the tsunami will funnel down the narrow channels.
4,000 people live in its devastating path.
It's not a question of if the tsunami will happen, but when.
So the Norwegians have rigged this hillside with 300 sensors.
When the land starts to move, they hope to have up to 48 hours' notice to warn everyone in the area by text message, automatic phone calls and sirens.
he tidaI wave wiII come careering down Storfjord, straight ahead here, wiII go over the top of this ferry and hit HeIIesyIt behind us.
Now the wave is aIways going to search for open water, so some of it wiII shoot up this side fjord, Geirangerfjord, and at the end there, there's nowhere eIse for it to go.
At the very end of this fjord, there's a little town called Geiranger, home to over 300 people.
I want to find out why they stay, when they know that a tsunami is inevitable.
his is Geiranger and the head of the fjord.
When the tidaI wave reaches here it has nowhere eIse to go.
A catastrophic waII of water, 40 metres high, wiII smash into Geiranger and reach the spot where I'm standing now.
AII of these buiIdings wiII disappear in an instant.
One family has lived here for 500 years, almost 20 generations.
Thomas Grande has his home and camping business right at the water's edge.
He knows that one day in his lifetime, or his children's, or their descendants', the tsunami will come.
Why do you not move to higher ground where it wiII be safer? Because we have our roots here.
We Iike it very much here.
It's a good pIace to grow up for Noah.
CRANE: But when the wave comes, it wiII destroy your house.
It wiII destroy this beautifuI bit of foreshore with the grass and the ancient barns and the boat sheds, everything wiII go.
GRANDE: Yeah.
Everything wiII go, because it's just materiaIs.
he most important thing is that we can get away safeIy and that we trust.
I think we wiII settIe down again and move back and buiId it up again.
What does this piece of Iand mean to you personaIIy? I've been waIking here since my first steps, so it's very important for me.
I'm reaIIy moved by this pIace, by the immense forces of ice and water which shape the fjords and which teII us so much about ScotIand's earIy days.
But I aIso wonder whether we Britons, who are facing rising sea IeveIs and a change in coastIine, can't pick up a tip or two from the peopIe down there, who've Iearned to adapt to nature's more ferocious moods.
OLIVER: Travel along Geirangerfjord and out to the open sea, and there's another symbol of Norwegian resilience in the face of adversity.
Here at Alesund, in January 1904, a small blaze started in the town.
It spread rapidly through the tightly packed wooden houses.
10,000 people lost their homes as the entire town burnt to the ground.
The tragedy shocked the nation, spurring them on to rebuild Alesund completely in just three years.
Nearby, it took six years to build this extraordinary five-mile-long expressway, the Atlantic Road.
Eight bridges skim across the sea buttressed by island stepping stones.
Since it opened in 1989, the Atlantic Road's laid claim to being one of the world's greatest driving experiences.
You don't have to go far off the road to find another curious coastal construction.
Alice Roberts is on her way to Nyhamna to explore a powerful link to Britain.
Just beyond those isIands is the North Sea, which means that between here and home, there's an awfuI Iot of oiI and gas.
Our North Sea gas may be running out, but the Norwegians still have big reserves.
So like asking the neighbours for a cup of sugar, we've had to come here.
his massive gas pIant couId be keeping you warm this winter, because it's going to be suppIying up to a fifth of Britain's gas requirements.
A fifth of the UK's gas, that's the equivalent of supplying the needs of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The gas lies 7 4 miles out to sea, nearly two miles below the waves.
It's gathered by platforms sitting on the seabed, then drawn through pipes all the way to the processing plant here in Nyhamna.
I'm meeting the plant director, Bernt Granas, to find out what happens before the gas is piped to us in Britain.
First of aII, we have to get rid of Iiquids and it's a process that starts in these huge pipes here.
ROBERS: So when the gas comes ashore, it's not just pure gas.
It's sand, it's gas, it's water and it's antifreeze.
ROBERS: And how Iong does this whoIe process take? From the gas when it arrives here on the beach untiI it's on its way to the UK, it's ten minutes.
en minutes.
And what about Norway, how much gas is used here? GRANAS: Oh, we hardIy use any gas at aII.
ROBERS: So where do you get your energy from? We have hydro-eIectric power and for aImost anything here in Norway.
And, of course, even this pIant is actuaIIy running on hydro-eIectric power.
ReaIIy, so you've got a pIant here that's just cIeaning up gas for export to Britain, -but itseIf is powered by hydro-eIectric? -Yeah.
ROBERS: The Norwegians are fortunate as they can fulfil many of their energy needs with hydro-electricity.
So they've hardly touched their gas.
But in Britain, we've become addicted to the stuff.
So now we're forced to go to extraordinary lengths to get it.
The gas leaves the plant here and begins its mammoth journey all the way to Easington in Yorkshire.
7 46 miles in length, this is the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world.
So this is it.
I can hear it.
his is the actuaIIy the gas you're hearing, gas going to UK.
Seventy miIIion standard cubic metres every day, making up one-fifth of the gas need.
And how on earth do you go about Iaying a pipeIine of that Iength across a seabed? WeII, it's quite impressive technoIogy in the sense that it's actuaIIy Iaid in 1 2-metre Iengths, weIded together, one by one, and you put it on the seabed as you go.
And in the duration of two summers, you can do it.
I can hear this gas rushing through here at the moment.
How many more years do we have? WeII, you have at Ieast 40 more years.
-And are you stiII Iooking for more fieIds? -AIways.
ROBERS: 40 years, that's not long.
The world's facing up to the fact that we need alternative ways to harness energy.
But perhaps we couId find some soIutions to our future energy needs using something eIse that we have in common with Norway, our very Iong coastIines.
Wherever a river meets the sea, you get a mixture of salt water and fresh water.
The Norwegians' novel plan is to generate electricity using salt and fresh water via a process called osmosis.
A good way to observe osmosis in action is to see how an egg can be pumped up in size when it's immersed in fresh water.
Here are two ordinary hen's eggs.
First of aII, I've pIaced them both in vinegar to dissoIve the sheIIs away.
What is Ieft is a bag of eggy fIuid in a membrane.
So aII the sheII has gone.
Now, this one I've just Ieft Iike that as a controI, so we couId see how big it was to start with.
he other egg, I put in this gIass of pure, fresh water for 24 hours and you can just see the difference in size.
Just Iook at that.
So the membrane round the outside of the egg is a semi-permeabIe membrane.
It aIIows water in, but it doesn't aIIow the other substances inside the egg out.
So this is a good demonstration of osmosis.
he pressure in this egg is now quite enormous.
(LAUGHS) Oh, dear.
Water went in through my egg's membrane, making it swell up.
Now, exactly the same thing would happen if the fluid inside my egg was salt water.
It would still swell up, because the fresh water would be drawn inside by osmosis to dilute the more concentrated salty water.
The pressure increases inside the egg, and harnessing osmotic pressure is the novel idea behind the Norwegians' power plant.
ROBERS: HeIIo.
SKILHAGEN: Hi.
ROBERS: I'm meeting Stein Erik Skilhagen.
He's created a model to show osmotic power in action.
We have three chambers with saIt water and we have four chambers with fresh water.
ROBERS: So we've got aIternating chambers of fresh and saIt water.
-SKILHAGEN: Yeah.
-And each one is separated by a membrane.
Yeah, the pressure wiII increase and then, when it gets high enough, it has to evacuate somewhere.
And that's where we have this system.
hat's going to come out through these pipes here, is it? -And then, hopefuIIy, turn our turbine.
-Yeah.
ROBERS: Inside Stein Erik's clever contraption are four chambers of fresh water and three chambers of salt water, each separated by a special artificial membrane similar to the one around an egg.
Between the chambers, osmosis takes place.
Water forces its way through the membranes from the fresh water into the salt water chambers, and that creates a pressure, eventually forcing the excess water out through these pipes and, hopefully, turning our model turbine.
ROBERS: Starting to get some drips coming through.
Oh, Iook at that! Off it goes.
hat's reaIIy impressive.
And the water that comes out here, that is brackish water, a mixture of sea water and fresh water.
ROBERS: So that's spinning round niceIy now.
So if you were to attach a generator to this, you couId make eIectricity.
Yeah, we think this is going to be a very good way to produce new renewabIe energy.
ROBERS: The pressure osmosis can produce is enormous.
An osmotic power plant could harness energy equivalent to nearly a 400-foot waterfall.
By exploiting this completely natural process, far more electricity could be generated than from a conventional water wheel driven by the same river.
We have some things we need to ROBERS: The model may work, but scaling it up into a renewable resource to rival wind power is a big challenge.
Full-scale power stations are still a long way off.
But for me, this is really surprising and promising science.
If the Norwegian prototype works, then just imagine what that couId mean for the UK.
We couId Iook forward to a time when we couId produce cIean, renewabIe energy from the fresh water and saIt water that's so abundant aIong our coastIine.
OLIVER: To travel along this coast by land, you need time to spare, and then some.
To speed up my journey, I'm heading for Trondheim.
I'm not stopping in the port for long.
This is my springing-off point to the far north.
Because Norway's so Iong and thin and has that fiddIy coastIine with aII those fjords, it makes more sense to traveI by sea than by road.
So they've got this ferry that traveIs practicaIIy the entire coastIine.
So that's me aII the way to the Arctic CircIe and beyond.
HeIIo.
WeII, this is nice.
A bit posher than your average ferry, I must say.
This is one of 12 ferries that make up a scheduled service the locals call the Hurtigruten, or Coastal Express.
And it's a transport system with a special place in Norwegian hearts.
Since 1893, the Hurtigruten fleet of ships has been a reliable way to reach some of the most northerly towns and villages.
In the early years, it was a lifeline for the people living in these remote areas.
Day and night, the ships faithfully ply their way up and down the length of the Norwegian coast.
The Hurtigruten service seems unstoppable, even when the weather whips up.
(SIREN BLOWS) The oldest ship of the fleet still steams by at an incredible pace.
hat gIobe on that IittIe isIand marks the start or the boundary of the Arctic CircIe.
So, I'm just about to cross it and I'm waiting nervousIy for a siren to bIow, actuaIIy.
(SIREN BLOWS) hat wiII be the Arctic CircIe, then.
It's exactIy the weather I was expecting.
It's the wiId north.
What I wasn't expecting was the arrival of a mythical sea god, King Neptune.
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Arctic Circle ceremony.
King Neptune is here to say hello to you.
(ALL LAUGHING) his I don't need.
(WOMEN SCREAMS) (ALL LAUGHING) (GASPS) Right, do your worst, Neptune, come on.
(OLIVER GASPS) EviI despot, that's what he is.
But Neptune's ice-breaker is nothing compared to Norway's most northerly land.
Beyond even the Hurtigruten's reach is Svalbard.
Svalbard is a group of Norwegian islands on the way to the North Pole.
It's a tough place to live, but polar bears like it.
And so does one Aussie photographer on the hunt for a good bear shot.
My name's Jason Roberts.
I was born in AustraIia, which from where we're sitting at the moment is compIeteIy the opposite side of the gIobe.
ROBERS: I currently live on Svalbard, which is one of the most amazing places on the planet.
So adventure and outdoors is the reason why I come to Svalbard.
No beautifuI girI invoIved.
(CAMERA CLICKS) UnfortunateIy, we're too Iate for any good shots of the bear taking a kiII here.
We're too Iate for dinner.
I move from height to height, so the next stop will be up on the coastline.
We're foIIowing the ice edge.
We have new ice out from the oIder ice here.
And more than movement we're looking for the wrong colour.
Bears are more creamy yellow colour than the ice.
He's just waIking, Iicking the air, trying to smeII for new ringed-seaI Iairs.
Not fussed about us at aII.
He knows he's the king.
PoIar bears are generaIIy quite good animaIs.
We spend so much time with some bears, you reaIIy feeI Iike you get to know their personaIity.
After many days, up to weeks, with the same poIar bear, you feeI Iike you can come and find them two weeks Iater and say, ''Hi, good to see you again after Iast time.
'' Svalbard is a place that, like a lot of extreme things, eats into you like a virus.
And it's harder and harder to get away from it, and everything else seems so mundane, boring.
Once you get that poIar virus in you, it's very hard to remove it.
(CAMERA CLICKS) Totally awesome, just totally awesome.
CouId you feeI the snow around me pound as he went through the Iair? HardIy ever experienced something Iike that.
More peopIe have been on the top of Everest than have ever experienced that.
otaIIy awesome.
OLIVER: Back on the Coastal Express, I'm on course to reach my destination, the Lofoten Islands.
Few Norwegians get this far north, but many are in awe of these mystical islands.
I can feeI a note of anticipation in my stomach, but imagine how, over 60 years ago, British commandos and their Navy comrades feIt as they steamed in secret through these waters in 1941, about to take the war to HitIer in Nazi-occupied Norway.
In the early morning of 4th March, 194 1, the Germans occupying the Lofoten Islands were utterly unaware of what was about to hit them.
Five destroyers and two ships carrying commandos were creeping up on the islands.
This was Operation Claymore.
hey came into this harbour at SvoIvaer under cover of darkness.
In earIy 1941, the German forces were supremeIy confident, the masters of Western Europe, but this raid by British and Norwegian forces was the beginning of the fight back.
Fish-oil factories being used to make glycerine for munitions were destroyed.
German soldiers, officials and collaborators were rounded up and the whole operation was filmed to show the folks back home that we were standing up to Hitler.
ANNOUNCER: In a daring and highly successful raid, British and Norwegian forces swept down on the Lofoten Islands off Narvik.
We sank 18,000 tonnes of enemy merchant shipping and took over 220 prisoners.
Stinging blows like this are swinging the war of nerves against Hitler.
OLIVER: As the euphoria of success wore off, the world viewed the raid on the Lofotens as a vital morale booster, but with little strategic value.
Only a handful of people knew the true significance of this raid, how a chance discovery here would help change the course of World War II.
WhiIe the ships were bIazing in the harbour over there, a group of brave British soIdiers managed to get aboard an armed German trawIer caIIed the Krebs, which was out there between that big rock and the shore.
Before it sank, they managed to recover a priceIess prize, a set of wheeIs Iike these, top-secret rotors from a German Enigma encoding machine.
Type a letter on the Enigma machine and it made these gear wheels rotate, producing a message you could only read with another machine, with the rotors set the same way.
Not only were rotors captured in the Lofoten raid, they also got hold of an Enigma code book.
All were sent back to Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking centre.
hese were vitaI parts of the puzzIe, heIping finaIIy to crack the Enigma code, shortening the war and saving countIess Iives.
The Lofoten archipelago is made up of six main islands, which sit deep within the Arctic Circle.
These waters aren't as cold as you might imagine.
They're washed by the warm Gulf Stream, which attracts huge shoals of cod and the fishermen to catch them.
The town of Svalvard is dotted with evidence of the boom times of cod fishing.
Huts Iike these were buiIt to accommodate an army of fishermen, thousands of them, sIeeping two or even three to a bunk.
hey came every winter, when the cod, in their miIIions, arrived in the waters of the north of Norway.
With a big bounty of fish suddenly landing in their laps, they needed a way to preserve it.
So the fish were tied in pairs and hung in the air to dry.
It's an age-old method for making fast food that the Vikings knew all about.
Right then, this is the dried cod.
Every March, these huge racks are festooned with the fresh fish and it dries in the wind.
his is what the Vikings took with them on their epic voyages, because once it's dried, it's preserved and it wiII Iast a Iong time.
Now, beIieve it or not, I'm supposed to eat a bit of this after first tenderising it by beating it with this hammer.
But I've eaten some things in my time, but I draw the Iine.
his is beyond rank.
I teII you, if this is what the Vikings ate as weII as being terrifyingIy vioIent, they must have had breath that wouId stun a monkey.
The Vikings didn't just keep the dry cod for themselves, they traded it with other countries.
You don't reaIIy think of the Vikings as fish saIesmen, but as Christianity became more and more estabIished in Britain, the Church began to discourage the eating of meat on Fridays, so fish was on the menu instead.
Of course, fresh fish stock started to faII and dried cod was in demand.
Trading cod with countries like Britain helped make the Vikings rich enough to indulge in some grand designs.
Here in the Lofotens, they've reconstructed a Viking chieftains' long house, based on evidence from archaeological remains nearby.
You could say it's the replica of a house that cod built.
-HeIIo, Margarethe.
-HeIIo, weIcome.
OLIVER: Archaeologist Margarethe Rabas is going to show me around.
So what happens in here, then? It Iooks Iike a bit of everything.
RABAS: his is what we beIieve has been the Iiving quarters, where most of their everyday Iife has been going on here.
OLIVER: How many peopIe wouId have, you know, Iived and worked in this buiIding? It's reaIIy hard to say, but an estimate is between 70 and 80 peopIe.
-hat's a big group.
-Yeah.
RABAS: his is the great haII and this room has been the poIiticaI and sociaI centre.
OLIVER: So this is the heart, the beating heart of the community here.
What was found by the archaeoIogists on the actuaI site? RABAS: hey found everyday tooIs and things Iike that, but aIso reaIIy precious imported items Iike gIass and pottery.
here was gIass imported from Britain found here.
OLIVER: These artefacts of commerce and conflict show there were two sides to the Vikings.
We know they were warlike, but they didn't just come to Britain to raid, they also came to trade.
The Norwegians have preserved the heritage of their seafaring ancestors, who reached out from this shore to Britain and beyond.
Records of their voyages were written down in the great Norse sagas.
Reading about it is aII very weII, but if I reaIIy want to find out about how the Vikings got around, I'd better get aboard one of these.
This beautiful clinker-built longship is modern, but it's made to an ancient blueprint and the feeling on board is authentic and timeless.
(SINGING IN NORWEGIAN) On a Viking Iongship on a fjord in Norway, briIIiant.
(SINGING IN NORWEGIAN) OLIVER: Listening to the old Viking song, I'm reminded of what we've found on our trip to Norway.
That memories of our shared histories across the North Sea keep this country and our own fundamentally linked.
Our landscapes shaped by ice, our common thirst for energy, our reliance on the sea.
And the bond of blood between seafaring folk whose lives have touched in friendship and in war.
Next time on Coast, we follow the Vikings back to the east coast of England, where Mark Horton meets the onslaught.
(VIKING YELLING) Miranda's battling with birds.
While me and some tough lassies wrestle with a lifeboat.