What do all the above have in common? Well they are all located in Bygdøy, Oslo and pretty much in the same spot. Yesterday I visited them all. The Fram Museum is centred principally on the polar ships Gjøa and Fram but is a museum telling the story of Norwegian polar exploration. Especially the amazing tales of Roald Amundsen, the first person to have reached both the South Pole and the North Pole. There was also this terrific photo display from the explorer Fridtjof Nansen. Nansen required a ship especially adapted for the harsh conditions in the Arctic. The biggest danger to the ships in the age sailing in the northern ocean was to be trapped by ice during the winter freeze. Expanding ice would exert ever-increasing pressure on the hull of the ship, eventually crushing it completely. Nansen envisioned a ship that could ‘float’ over the packed ice. The shape of the Fram’s hull was designed in such a way that it would slowly deflect the expanding ice. Ice would slide down below the ship’s body and slowly lift it unharmed. Furthermore, the rudder and propeller were designed to be retracted into the ship, to protect them from damage. The Fram could pack enough supplies to sustain its crew for at least five years. It's hull was heavily insulated to ensure protection from the cold. The ship even included a windmill, which ran a generator to provide electric power for lighting by electric arc lamps. Commissioned in 1890, the main designer of the new ship was Colin Archer, a Norwegian shipbuilder of Scottish descent. The ship was given the appropriate name Fram, meaning “Forward” in Norwegian. This was a good couple of well spent hours and highly recommended. Across the road from the Fram museum is the Kon-Tiki museum. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl a crew of five others sailed 4300 miles, from Peru to the Pacific islands, in a raft they had constructed from balsa wood. Many people thought it was a suicide mission, but on August 7, 1947 after 101 days in the open ocean the Kon-Tiki (the name given to the raft) crashed onto a reef on the Raroia island. The men had successfully rafted 8000 kms or 1/5th of the way around the earths circumference. The trip was made into a documentary and won an Oscar in 1950. There was also a movie (on Netflix) made in 2012. In later life Thor built and sailed rafts made from reeds from Africa to South America - Ra1 and Ra2. BTW the food here in Oslo is sensational - last night I had one of the best fish soups ever followed by some Reindeer rissoles.
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