Saturday, July 30, 2011

How does a boat come down the mountain ?

What ever I did or wherever I turned to, the last week had been the toughest and heaviest not being able to sink in the tragedy that struck  us all here in Norway.  Having resolved to face the hatred with more love , life started to move on.

Today let us experience the wonderful descent of  a boat from the mountain top to the valley below approx 23 m or  75ft . Here is the Queen of the Canal - Ms. Victoria in sight meandring its way from the mountains to the sea on its daily sojourn repeating it for over 100 years . Lots of people like me and lots more on the boat are equally excited to experince this.  

 Victoria heads its way into a narrow canal to descend through the  5 locks to reach the valley below.

Here IT is waiting for its first descent. 

And the challenge is to get to the level below.

Kids  around had  put  their thinking caps on trying to guess how the boat can jump down :-). They have formulated various theories of their own. But I did not hear anyone guessing it right :-). Anyone game for it? Ok here is how it works through the locks. A lock is a section of canal or river that is closed off by gates which control the water level so that boats can be raised or lowered as they pass through it.The water is now pumped from the upper level where the boat is, to the lower level  where it has to sail to


It's fascinating to stand and watch the water level rise and drop before the eyes. As the water goes down the boat goes down too.


When the water reaches the same level on both sides , the gates are opened and the boat sails further for the next descent. 


 After completing its 75 ft descent through the 5 locks and gates it sailed off from the vrangfossen locks for yet another descent in yet another place.

 

linked to Sundays in my city 

19 comments:

  1. Its just like the Ballard Lochs in Seattle. Quite amazing!

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  2. Amazing! Thanks for sharing this, never saw it before.your newest follower:)

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  3. super awesome!! thanks for sharing!!

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  4. Oh this is superb. Thanks for sharing such an awesome thing with us. Had never seen anything like this before. :-)

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  5. Shanti, after such a terrible event, it is so good to see healing beginning to take place. Those are beautiful shots and very interesting, that whole architecture:)

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  6. Amazing photos. I believe much of the world is feeling the loss. What happened was so sad, so very sad.

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  7. Really beautiful and amazing. Never seen such a thing.

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  8. MARVELOUS!!!!!!!! We've got locks like that near me, but not nearly as big or deep or as many levels! I always find this fascinating though!! Thanks for posting this!

    And the whole world is feeling your pain and your countrys pain. Just so sick and tragic. My heart goes out to you all.

    I have something that might interest you on my blog.

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  9. Beautiful Shanthi! There was a similar lock dam in Minneapolis, US and it was an awe-inspiring sight to see. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Norway!

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  10. This is one of the best posts ever! So interesting. I would like to be on one of those boats and experience going through the locks first hand, but this post and great pictures helped satisfy my curiosity. I am going to send this link to some of my family.

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  11. Yes, I have seen them in Erie :). Very cool way to travel.
    My3

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  12. First I want to say that I am so sorry for your tragedy there and your first photo is a reminder that love can and will truimph over evil.

    And Wow!! thanks for sharing this little adventure . . . I don't think I have ever seen such a lock system with that descent before.

    Stopping by from the gulf coast of Texas via SIMC, Kim

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  13. Oh my gosh.. thats simply amazing!! wow!! Thank you Shanthi.. for linking in to CD.. Totally makes my day!!

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  14. Really amazing! very spirited, thanks for sharing.

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  15. the whole world feels norway's pain...good to see the healing begin.

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  16. What a great pictorial. Always been fascinated with the whole lock system.

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