Wed, 06 Aug 2003

author Tim	location Inari, Lapland, Finland
posted 01:58 EEST 07/08/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Starting the Long Journey South ( 3 photos )
Eventually giving up fighting the bright light and waking up, we had a further look around the complex, taking the obligatory photo next to the official marker.
We considered for a while a walk around to Knivskjelodden. This is the actual end of the continent, which you can see quite well from North Cape. In a similar fashion to John O'Groats, North Cape gets all the glory since it has a road and parking for tourist buses, while Knivskjelodden has two things against it. For one, it requires an 18km round trip walk, and secondly it has a name which is hard to pronounce and doesn't immediatelly mean "right up north" to anyone who hears it. Isn't marketing wonderful?
For us the first of these two things meant it wasn't going to happen for us, as the weather was sour and looked to be turning worse. As we drove ourselves back South (haven't done that for a while), we rapidly decided we had made the right choice. Windscreen wipers on full speed and holding the big bus against the wind, we were content with what we had seen and done up here.
Back to Honningsvåg, we grabbed some coffees (one thing we can't do on a BBQ - anyone want to send us a billy?) and breakfasted in the carpark overlooking the water.
We spotted plenty more reindeer on the way out again, paid the same huge toll to use the bridge to get off the island (I wander what they do if you refuse?), then wound our way down through uncharted territory.
First stop was Karasjok, the town which is the centre of the Sami parliament. We had a little look around, and drove out to a place where they sell Sami knives (I have had my eye on these for a while, but want a genuine one rather than the touristy ones you can get pretty much everywhere). It was, however closed by the time we made it there, so on the road again as we headed towards the Finnish border.
We saw it coming with the bridge on the river, and it was time to bid Norge a very fond farewell. I think we spent a great amount of time here, and it has provided us with some amazing memories.
(Our travels continue in Finland).

author Tim	location Inari, Lapland, Finland
posted 01:05 EEST 07/08/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Nordkapp ( 20 photos )
Hitting the road, we drove not too far down the road to the town of Alta. On the outskirts on the way in, we found what we were looking for. The target was another thing on the World Heritage List (we are collecting quite a few now) - the Prehistoric Rock Art.
First though, we had a wander through the more-interesting-than-expected Alta Museum which the rock painting entry fee also covered. Topics were mostly local, but presented in interesting ways and worth the time we spent.
Wandering out into the cold to have a look around the rock art, we decided to just look at half of them due the to the size of the place. The works have been dated back to 4000 BC, with the typical stick figure being supplimented with plenty of reindeer, moose and boats. Most of them have been painted in red-brown in recent years to make them more viewable to the un-trained eye.
As is altogether too common, we were presented with a guide which told us "what the paintings meant". Is it too hard for people to say "well, we don't actually know, but here's a few educated guesses"? We had a decent look around before hitting the road.
By now we needed coffee badly, so we pulled into a service station where I managed to put the machine out of order with only one coffee in hand! We shared this as we pushed on towards our major goal - North Cape.
The first shock of the day came when Liz squealed as she was driving along while I was reading about where to go next. It turns out she had nearly driven into the antlers of a huge reindeer just off the road! By the time we stopped, it was a bit hard to get back along the narrow windy cliff road, so we let our zoom lenses do the important work.
Nothing we should have worried about however, as coming on our way into the Skarvbergtunnelen, our jaws dropped at the sight of about twenty reindeer just off the road looking at the scenery! We parked not more than ten metres away from them, and noted that the tour buses all slowed to a halt for their contents to get shots. Not that we were much better - this was what hundereds of signs since we had started heading north had shallowly promised we would see, now right here in front of us.
Driving the final sixty or so kilometres to North Cape (including an 8km tunnel across the island of Mågerøva where North Cape itself is which had a huge toll unexpectedly attached), it turns out that the entire area is set a side for Reindeer Husbandry, meaning we saw plenty more and even had do dodge them on the road in Honningsvåg, where we stopped for information. They were eating from people's front gardens!
It was here that we learnt that North Cape was not just a piece of land where you could sit on the edge of the continent and soak it all in. It has gone the way of Land's End and John O'Groats in the UK and turned into North Cape Land 2000 Plus. Or something. The brochure it says that this was "in response to increasing demand for new experiences and facilities". What is that? We just want to go as far as you can, and expected nothing more than a bit of land and maybe a seat.
We have to admit, the extortinate fee charged to enter this place was actually almost worth it. Driving over the mountain pass to get there, it enters your sights and before you know it you are forking over money to the guy on the gate. Here the blow was greatly softened - the tickets are valid for two days, and we could camp for free in the grounds. Much better than expected.
Walking out to the top end of Europe, we were suprised just how few others were there at the time. It was quite an amazing experience - a turning point for us as we often looked at maps and thought we wouldn't make it all this way. Other people's most common reaction was "do you know how far away that is??" Well, here we finally were, and it felt great to have made it.
After taking in the panoramic video experience, looking in the obligatory souviner shop and then travelling deeper into the bowels of the complex (well, we had paid by now, so it seemed silly to not have a decent look around), we sat with a cuppa at a bar called The King's View. This looked straight out at the water, due North. Nothing but water until you hit ice and then, in 2,100 km (only twice the distance from Sydney to Melbourne), you hit the North Pole. For reference, it was 2,160km south as the crow flies to Berlin, so we had driven a long way just from Deutschland, and were now closer to the pole. Wow.
Next task was some dinner, and it had to be cheap. Luckily earlier in the day we had grabbed some steaks and baking potatoes in foil, so we put the little barbie together again and fired it up (far less nailpolish remover needed this time - we are getting better!). In no time at all, were were freezing cold, huddled like crazy people over the coals blowing them to get them to catch, blocking the wind, and of course flying the Aussie flag, beer in hand while we looked out off the end of the continent into the vast emptyness.
The result was one of the greatest meals we have had for ages, probably because of the effort required, or maybe that we haven't had a BBQ since Australia Day back in Golders Green.
Not too suprisingly, we got lots of strange looks, although we made friends with a Deutsch family parked next to us who must have thought we were totally off our rockers. Perhaps we were, but it will remain a fantastic memory to the end of our days.
Having saved money on dinner, it was time to spend it again. This was easily accomplished by heading back into The King's View for two special souviner glasses of champaigne, sipped very slowly as we reflected on our travels so far for hours.
We would have liked to see the sunset (23:30), but that was not to happen due to the heavy cloud cover. Same for the sunrise only two hours or so later (01:30). We missed the midnight sun by a few days but it is still very light all night.
We are so glad we made it here, and had such a great night we don't think it could have been topped. It's all downhill from here, well down the continent anyway.

author Tim	location Inari, Lapland, Finland
posted 00:30 EEST 07/08/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Around Tromsø, the North ( 16 photos )
First on the agenda in the morning was to get some more of our money's worth by having another long hot shower. A nice change seeing that we are going a few days with out, saving money by not going into caravan parks where possible.
We drove into Tromsø itself, over the bridge then down to the south end of the island to have a look around the Tromsø Museum Universitetsmuseet. We headed there mainly to learn more about the indigenous population of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland - the Sami. There was an exhibition which was interesting, but most of it was set up in the 1970s, since when much has changed.
Sure, we learnt a bit, but the wildlife sections proved to be more interesting, showcasing stuffed brown bears, polar bears, wolverines, wolves, and highly strange whales with two metre tusks. All good since we haven't seen much wildlife in the wild.
Next on the list was a visit to the world's nothernmost (you hear those words a lot in Tromsø) brewery, Mack. This is attached to the Ølhallen pub, the oldest in the city at seventy-five years of age.
The tour was quite a bit more intimate than the one you get at the Guiness factory, for example. Here, you are escorted around the place by one of the owners in a group of twelve or so, watching the bottling, brewing, and monitoring of the beer.
Oh, and then at the end you get to taste some of course. We have tried a little of their beer as we have headed north, and it's quite good. They also bottle Coca-Cola, and claim it is the best in the world as they can just get the water out of the source, no chemicals required for purification.
Sitting for a while sampling the products in the pub (although not too much what with Norge's 0.02 blood alcohol limit), Liz decided to try some dried fish stuff out, presumably similar to that we have seen drying on racks around the place. Perhaps not too suprisingly, quite a lot of it went un-eaten.
Still on the trail of some gas, we headed to the North end of the island in search of a place who specialised in the stuff. It turned out they were next to useless, sending us instead to the huge hardware store next door. There, a helpful guy took one look and said "you won't get that in Norway". It seems that about three years ago, all of the Butane was taken out of Norway, replaced all over with Propane. No, we couldn't put Propane in our Butane container. So, at least we have a reason now, annoying as it is.
Heading south out of the city, we stopped in Nordkjosbotn for some fuel (it's cheaper than in Tromsø, perhaps the fuel truck has to make a special trip in there so the prices are higher?). Struck by inspiration, I spotted a cheap barbeque at the service station which was fairly rapidly purchased along with some coals. We were going to have cheap dinner yet! Next task was something to cook, and just across the road a shop provided the answer - Grillpølse. They looked kind of like sausages, so we grabbed them and hit the road.
We stopped to fire the new toy up just south-east of Olderdalen, alongside a beautiful fjord. Half a notebook, several brochures, and most of a bottle of nailpolish remover later, we had a fire! Opening up our food purchase, we noticed we had purchased the equivalent of frankfurts - they eat them everywhere here, but you wouldn't call them fantastic food. No matter, as it was better than tuna sandwiches we would have been eating otherwise.
Happy with ourselves for managing to organise hot food once again, we hit the road. Not much farther, we slowed to a halt for half an hour or so at a bad-looking traffic accident. No need to attempt to offer our help as the ambulances were already there. The sound of people being cut out of their cars reminded us to be careful on these roads.
We drove on until after midnight, taking in what I can honestly say is the most amazing sunset I have ever seen. We were constantly saying "look at that bit over there!" as we rounded every corner. No words for it, just pictures. Eventually we found a nice spot on a hill off the road a little to free-camp again, with not too much distance to cover North the next day.

author Tim	location Tromsø Camping, Tromsdalen, Troms, Norge
posted 20:03 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

North to Tromsø ( 4 photos )
After the last couple of days spending our time looking around Lofoten not really making much headway, we decided to drive quite a bit today.
This lead us winding first east to the main road E6, then further north towards Tromsø, the largest town for quite a long way.
The journey was not really notable, other than a service station that wouldn't sell us fuel (easy, just drive to the next one!), a couple of stops along the way for food (including a French war memorial complete with flags where we ate breakfasty food at lunch time), and a few more places which had no idea where to get the gas we need from.
Eventually we wound into Tromsø, a pretty place which is known as the world's most northerly University town, and also the town in Norge with the highest number of pubs per capita. Coincidence?
We found the town's campsite, which is nice but quite expensive. After locating a spot, we drove back across the rather impressive bridge into Tromsø proper. There are three parts to the city - the mainland (where we are staying), a small-ish island where most of the city is, and a much larger island where many of the suburbs are.
From the city, it was quite easy to see the Tromsøbrua (bridge) and Arctic Cathedral, which combined form Tromsø's answer to Sydney Harbour - the Cathedral has more than a passing resemblance to one of the sails of the Opera house.
Not to suprisingly, much of the town was closed down being a Sunday afternoon, so we had a bit of a wander around the town before deciding to head back to the caravan park and cook dinner.
It was tempting to buy something from town, but since we are still without gas, we thought it good to cook while we had access to a kitchen. We almost changed our minds since the kitchen had a TV playing crappy American sitcoms like Full House (complete with subtitles, of course) - the sort of thing we have not seen for months now and don't miss one little bit.
That sorted, we made the most of the free showers (probably why the site costs so much), before doing some travel planning and not much else besides.

author Tim	location Tromsø Camping, Tromsdalen, Troms, Norge
posted 19:37 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Around the Lofoten Islands ( 38 photos )
We got up and organised reasonably early, and headed straight down to the tip of the islands - a town called Å. Yes, just a capital "a" with a circle on top.
This was a nice enough place, most of which has been made into the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum. Choosing not to pay the official price and have the tour of things we didn't really want to know, we wandered for quite a while just looking at the old red huts built on stilts above the water and rocks, plethora of fish-drying racks, and interesting old buildings.
One of these old buildings was a bakery from 1844, where we grabbed some sweet rolls cooked in the old ovens to suppliment our earlier breakfast looking over the water on the way down.
Resisting the urge to sample the produce of Europe's oldest cod liver oil factory, we re-traced our path north, noting all the way just how harsh the scenery is, yet how people have managed to build and exist on land you would not expect them to. This is of course due to the plentyful fishing reserves all around the area.
One of the notable places we stopped into looking for an early dinner (still no Campinggas) was Henningsvær. Described in some places as 'The Venice of Lofoten', it was indeed very pretty. More so than Å, although this was at least partly due to the improvement in the weather.
After a little deliberation, we decided to eat at a café of sorts serving up an interesting menu, but we shunned the recommended local dish in favour of some rather nice chicken burgers. At the prices we are paying, we want to make sure we enjoy the food as our only meal.
Continuing the deceptively long drive North, we drove back through Svolvær where we grabbed some more cash from an ATM (lots of places don't accept foreign credit cards, notably for fuel, which is rather annoying).
The road lead us North until the road went no more at Fiskebøl, where we waited for a couple of hours for a large ferry to arrive and shuttle us across to Melbu. We relaxed with a couple of coffees as the half-hour or so ride was one of the roughest so far, which is to say not very rough at all.
From Melbu, we drove further north to Sortland, where one of our camping guides says that the caravan park has gas, but this proved to be incorrect. I think perhaps Norway in general has none of the required gas, but we have definitely seen it elsewhere.
The weather had turned great by this stage, and watching the sunset reflected across onto clouds and mountains provided some magic vistas as we drove along happily.
By now it was rather late at night, and we were thinking that our decision to eat in Henningsvær was a good one. The next decision was where to sleep - solved by the large number of people free-camping by the road, making us feel quite safe in joining them.
We pulled into a nice little area by a lake, and enjoyed a suprisingly quiet night's sleep.

author Tim	location Ørsvågvær Camping, Lofoten, Nordland, Norge
posted 22:46 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Towards the Lofoten Islands ( 22 photos )
It seems like we didn't come too far today, but we have seen quite a lot.
After taking it very easily this morning, getting our journals up to date (thanks Liz!), we hit the road and drove into town, seeking Campingaz. This is the magic stuff which lets us cook, and the way it works is you buy the first cylinder (which we of course have done), and then exchange it. It's actually just butane, but in a certain bottle which is supposedly easy to exchange across Europe.
The gas has lasted us a month and a half of fairly solid use, but finally gave in last night, meaning we were lucky to be able to finish cooking on the kitchen there - not all caravan parks have kitchens.
So, we had bene told that the local service station had the gas, but this was not so. Not to daudle, we sent off some post and did a little shopping before getting on the road once again, heading North.
We stopped in a few little places along the way asking after the gas, and eating our lunch, but in general had no luck.
At Ulvsvåg, it was time to turn West towards the coast to get a ferry across to another recommended part of the world - the Lofoten Islands. After waiting in the queue for an hour or so (so many holiday makers!), the ferry arrived to take us on the trip across to Svolvær, the capital of Lofoten.
Due to the length of the trip, the ferry was much larger than most we have been on, with a café, seating, and lots of people lounging in the fantastic weather.
The views here are quite different again to the fjord areas. There are few trees, lots of very high ragged mountains, and sparse scatterings of human settlements around the water's edge.
The ferry presented plenty of opportunities for photos which we of course didn't miss out on.
Upon arrival, we drove Rosie off looking for the Information centre. This suggested a few places to try for the gas, but with no luck. By now it started to occur to us that the only places which are going to carry it are camping places, not service stations. So, we will look for a large camp site to get some from in the next few days.
This left us not quite knowing what to do for dinner, as we had bought some mince and the fridge ain't too good either. No real matter, as we pulled into a campsite along the road which had a kitchen (however hard it was to find). It's also a very nice place thrown into the deal, although the young guy checking us in was more interested in the American sitcom on TV than serving us.
Here Liz cooked up some great spag bol, which we ate overlooking the fantastic views we can also see from the van. After dinner, we wandered down to the first pub we have seen out of a city here, and the first we have been into since Ireland.
We sat and chatted, mulling over the rather expensive beers while enjoying the views over the islands with the sun making its very slow way down behind the mountains (23:06 sunset tonight!), lightning striking nearby and boats making their way across the tiny harbour.

author Liz	location Fauske, Salten, Nordland, Norge
posted 10:36 CEST 01/08/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Into the Arctic Circle ( 11 photos )
On Thursday, most of the day was spent driving North along the E6.
We noticed a number of police doing speed checks along the road. The number of deaths on the road in Norway is high, and the national speed limit on nearly all roads is just 80km/h, so it was good to see the police enforcing this. It was a little alarming, however, when about 20 minutes later we were pulled over by a bunch of police, but it turned out they were pulling everyone over for breath-testing. Tim was quite excited as he was driving and it was his first ever breath-test. He was under the 0.02 limit (it was after all only 11am!), and after the Norweigan Policeman squinted at Tim's Aussie licence for a few minutes and discovered the expiry date, he gave us a smile and a wave and sent us on our way.
So the rest of the day ticked by as we roared by forests of fir trees, rivers and cascades, mountains and valleys, and patches of snow.
The most exciting point of the day was driving into the Arctic Circle. We were about 80km north of Mo-i-Rana when a sign appeared saying "Arctic Circle in 2km". So we pulled in at the big tourist shop, took some photos of the marker stone with Tim in shorts and T-shirt eating ice cream, and looked around the fairly barren rocky landscape.
Here it was raining heavily, so we got back on the road still heading north. After a while the sun came out again, and we had a nice evening sitting in the sun in a little caravan park just outside of Fauske, and enjoying the view of Saltfjorden and the mountains.

author Liz	location Fauske, Salten, Nordland, Norge
posted 10:30 CEST 01/08/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Trondheim ( 8 photos )
Wednesday was nice and hot, and we ended up spending quite a lot of the day in Trondheim.
Although we were still quite a distance from Trondheim, we had already paid a toll to get in about 45km out of the city. Then on Wednesday, as we drove into Trondheim, we were hit with another two tolls! Now three toll charges just to get into one little city is a bit much, but it was either that or a few extra hundered kilometres going around the city on roads marked with toll charges anyway.
We parked in Trondheim and wandered up to the town square where a produce market was being held. From there we went down to the fish market where we bought some fresh fish for our dinner. Then we spent an hour or so just wandering through the streets. The city is quite small and the main streets are all contained within a few blocks.
After a nice long chat to Tim's parents, we found an outdoor café where we sat chatting and drinking coffee and not moving much.
Earlier in the morning Tim had spotted an Internet Café, so went in to ask about connecting up the laptop and then did so.
By now it was getting late in the afternoon, so we had a walk around the town cathedral before driving out of Trondheim.
Now, after all those tolls in the morning, they expected us to pay a hefty one to get out of the city, but our Trondhiem guide told us how to get around that, enjoy the scenic coast and the join back up with the main road just outside the city.
We spent a few hours driving north, stopping at a picnic spot to have dinner and then stopping about a hundered kilometres north of Steinkjer. Here we spent the night at another picnic spot, where a caravan had also stopped for the night. We were close to the road and it was a bit of a noisy night, but free of charge.

author Liz	location Fauske, Salten, Nordland, Norge
posted 22:25 CEST 31/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Geirangerfjorden, Trollstigen Road ( 51 photos )
On Tuesday morning, we set the alarm nice and early, both had a quick shower, and then drove back down the road to the ferry port in Hellesylt.
We caught the 8am ferry and were one of the few people on board at that time of the morning.
The ferry took us up one of the most scenic fjords in Norway - Geirangerfjord, and we had chosen a fantastic day weather-wise to take the 1hr trip up to Geiranger.
We sat at the front of the boat, and although the sun was on us for a lot of the journey, it was still very chilly.
The on-board commentary, in five different languages, told us all sorts of interesting things... this fjord was over 200m deep (not much considering the deepest fjord in Norway is 1.5km deep), and stories about people who had tried farming on the steep desolate mountainsides and long-ago deserted their farms.
The views from the boat were great, but I think the best view we had that day was once we drove off the ferry (view from Geiranger), and up, twisting and turning and climbing steeply, until we stopped a viewpoint overlooking the fjord. Wow. The view was spectacular - gorgeous green-blue fjord water, green fur trees standing tall, rocky mountainside and clear blue sky. Another place I could have stood and enjoyed the view for a whole day.
But there were was lots more to see, so off we went again heading North.
We didn't have far to drive (and only one stubborn cow in the middle of the road to dodge) before we boarded our next ferry. This was a much shorter trip, from Eidsdal to Linge, and then we continued driving North.
Our next exciting drive was Road 63, up to and over Trollstig Pass, which is the next part of the Golden Route. This one had warnings all over our brochures and books to not take campervans and caravans along it, but Rosie is such a tough old bird we thought she would manage it. We needn't have worried, the road ended up being full of tourist busses crawling their way along the road.
The first part of the drive climbed gradually and we noticed quite a few large snowdrifts even though the sun was hot.
We were stuck behind a bus, so stopped in a great little spot next to a small lake with a waterfall cascading nearby and mountains all around us. We enjoyed the view and a cup of tea here and could have happily sat there for a week or two.
As we drove on, around the corner was the big tourist centre - filled with bus-loads of people - we thought we had definately enjoyed the best spot in the area.
The next part of driving along the pass took the longest - simply because we were behind a tourist bus that wasn't really built for hairpin bends, and had to do three-point turns all the way down the mountain! It took ages, but we got to enjoy the spectacular view of the waterfalls and the valley stretching out in front of us.
Down in the valley and past the bus, the road was all ours for a bit. We stopped in Åndalsnes for a quick toilet break (take note: use a flushing toilet whenever possible - most toilets out of service stations and big towns are pit toilets and not nice ones a lot of the time).
The afternoon was spent driving along a winding route gradually heading north to Trondheim. We passed lots of scening waterways, lots of tiny towns and a lot of farms. Everywhere we go there are farms, but it just shows how big Norway really is - only 3% of Norway is arable land.
At Rökkum, we caught our third and final ferry for the day across to Kvanne and kept going.
We started looking for somewhere suitable to camp for the night, but in the end we stopped about 40km out of Trondheim at a caravan park (Tråsåvika Camping og Hytter) overlooking the water and the sunset. It was very hot, so after dinner we walked down to the beach for a dip. Our "dip" involved us going in up to our knees, wading around for a bit, marvelling at the number of red starfish all around us, and then wandering out again! The water was so icy - it took twenty minutes for my toes to get their circulation back!

author Liz	location Fauske, Salten, Nordland, Norge
posted 21:49 CEST 31/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Mountain Passes ( 30 photos )
Monday was quite a big driving day. The rain had stopped and the sun soon came out, so we had very pretty views over the rest of Sognefjell (named after the Sognefjorden, Norway's longest, widest and deepest fjord).
We stopped at one spot to admire the view (still cold outside the van!), and as we prepared to drive off, a girl came up to the window and started speaking. Once again, she was Dutch, saw our numberplates and had started speaking Dutch to us! Again, we explained we were Aussies and had bought Rosie in the Netherlands. We weren't going where she and her friends were headed, so we waved goodbye and drove off.
In the bustling town Lom, we stopped to buy food and sit and enjoy our breakfast, then it was my turn in the driver's seat but not for long. We soon came to our next Scenic Road, marked for experienced drivers only, and no way was I going to do that so we swapped over.
This road, the 258, was another pretty route (so many of them), and like the Sognefjell Pass, and many others, it is closed for six or months of the year in snowy and icy weather.
The first part of the drive was quite scenic, with mountains towering high above us, and although our road was windy, it was not steep.
Then we did come to the steep bit, only we were already up high and just had to wind our way slowly backwards and forwards all the way to the bottom of the valley.
The view looking out over the valley, with snow capped mountains in the distance was again very beautiful, and I snapped away with Tim's camera while enjoying the view.
There were also some big waterfalls cascading down by the road with the spray misting over us as we puttered by.
At the bottom, we drove along the valley floor, and then through a few more tunnels.
We stopped by a pretty patch of water to stretch our legs, before driving in to Stryn for fuel.
While we were there, it started raining heavily again and the next bit of windy road down to Olden was a bit difficult in the wet. However, the view over the very tip of Nordfjord was worth it, even in the rain, and we parked close to the water and enjoyed our lunch.
Back into Stryn, and then on a new bit of road heading west and then north through lots of forest and past signs warning of Moose in the area (still waiting to see one!).
The rain had stopped for quite a while when we drove into Hellesylt. This was where we were getting our next and most scenic ferry from, but as the weather was still very cloudy and not so good for sightseeing, we headed a short way up the road to a very nice and very cheap camping spot.
The afternoon was spent washing clothes (me), re-wiring part of the van (Tim), and enjoying our dinner. The sun even came out, giving us a nice sunset over the surrounding mountains.

author Tim	location Hellesylt, Møre og Romsdal, Norge
posted 21:28 CEST 28/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

No Trains Today, but a big long Tunnel ( 28 photos )
We had set an alarm to run around, have quick showers and try to get down to the train for one of the morning runs. We even got their 45 minutes early to get a ticket.
However, after standing in the queue for a good long while, we found out that the trains were booked up until mid-afternoon. The tour buses, cars and motorhomes full of people all wanting to do the Sunday trips were just not going to let us get on. We thought for a while, but would have been writing off an entire day, not getting back until late afternoon. And what to do with the morning?
So, we turned tail on the train, going back to do a few things we hadn't quite squeezed into the morning, like Liz's shower and breakfast. Being a Sunday the shops were closed, a fact we had forgotten yet again, meaning breakfast was a great thrown-together affair.
That all done, we found another challenge - the Aurlandsvangen-Lærdalsøyri Road Tunnel. Not just any tunnel, this one is the Longest in the World! Good fun, we thought, heading into the 24.5km of darkness.
Strangely, the distance was split into three by wide sections where they had all lighting set up, mostly blue and yellow. Is this a strange animal caught before dawn or just Rosie in the middle of the world's longest tunnel? You decide.
Perhaps it is an indication of the way the roads are valued and kept well in this country (and Scandinavia in general), but we expected a toll at the end but this was not to be. I'm sure if that was opened in Australia we would all be paying $20 per run for the next forty years until the private contractors were paid off and had made a tidy sum besides. Here, you just pay $20 for a coffee instead. OK, not quite.
We took a quick sojurn east along the E16 looking for a waterfall marked on one of our maps, but couldn't find it. Perhaps this is one of the ones they only turn on for a while, using them at other times for hydroelectricity. Or, more likely, our map was just wrong.
I say this because the very same map just a bit further west along the same road clearly shows a bridge, but the road just ends. Suprised, we looked around for a little while, before asking the kindly man running the ferry service, clearly used to silly tourists, whether the ferry went to Sogndal, one of the towns we knew to exist on the other side. Yes, came the answer. No sign of a bridge anywhere.
No real matter, we enjoyed the break from driving to arrive at the other side, and wound our way North before turning off onto the 604, a non-through road heading up to glacier country. We found the most amazing roadside stop purely by luck. Pulling in to have a closer look at what by now has become very common - strong blue-coloured water. Dipping our hands in, we knew straight away what it was all about - that thare's glacier water.
But this roadside stop had more in store - as I was turning to leave my perch from the middle of the rapids, I noticed a little further up a rope bridge across the fast-moving freezing waters running over rocks. Excellent!
We had to walk a little way through a very overgrown path to get to the end, but it was all worth it. The bridge was complete with rotting timbers and missing planks, all of which added to the Indiana Jones-ness of it all. Liz bravely showed she could do it to, crossing in style while making sure of every step.
Besides stopping in the middle to take movies and pictures, we basically got back to the van and drove onwards, searching for the source of the icy waters.
We had to stop to pay a toll to actually get right into the most accessible glacier - Nigardsbreen. As we did so, we were approached by a couple who said to me "asdfjkh34w5kjhsdf asdfj4ewh5 akhjweiu?" Well, it might as well have been, and I asked if he spoke English. A little confused, he said that he and his female friend had booked a boat trip across to walk around the glacier itself, but didn't know it was 3km walk away, and it left in ten minutes. We happily let them clamber into the back of Rosie, pushing some junk out of the way and trundling on down the road. As we chatted, the full picture was revealed - they were Dutch, and due to our numberplates, thought we were too! This wasn't the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last. We need to learn how to say a few choice phrases in Dutch to explain our confusing situation.
Anyway, they made their boat and we were stunned almost to wordlessness (quite an achievement for Liz!) by the view before us. As is so often the case, photos don't really do justice to the scale of the glacier, the blue colours of the ice and the way it looks like it is just one big river frozen as it attempts to wander down the valley. Look closely at that photo and you might just be able to make out people walking on it.
Deciding that an expensive guided tour and wander around the glacier itself was beyond both our budgets and equipment we had brought with us, we took a quick look in the visitor's centre before heading off.
Next we headed south to re-join the 55 east, another of the National Scenic Routes fabled for being amazing drives. It did not disappoint, taking us to another record - the Highest Mountain Pass in Northern Europe. Not suprisingly, it is both closed in winter and marked as not for in-experienced drivers. Both of us are becoming more and more experienced piloting Rosie, let me tell you.
Our path up to Sognefjell Pass was long and winding, lots of hairpins to keep us going. The heat of the driving was getting a bit much for Rosie, and we stopped a few times to make the most of the view for photos while she cooled down. However, she didn't disappoint, getting us to the top in style.
In the space of a few short days we have changed climates totally. Here at the top, 1440 metres above sea level, we were surrounded by glaciers, snow, rain and wind, and had to be well rugged up in our winter warms we haven't worn in quite some time and almost didn't bring with us.
A little way down the other side, we found a place to stay called Krossbu which offered not much other than toilets, but we were at least with other people in a designated safe place in the horrible weather. We found a spot to park which was beside a not far from freezing lake.
The heavy rain which pounded us and the van we thought might fill up the lake and sink us but this didn't appear to be happening so we braved the night.

author Tim	location Hellesylt, Møre og Romsdal, Norge
posted 20:25 CEST 28/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

North-East from Bergen, Flåm ( 18 photos )
After packing up at the caravan park, we headed back East (this was as far west in Norge that we intend to go), stopping in Kvamskogen to try to locate a youth hostel that my parents stayed in many years ago. The story goes that nobody there spoke English, and they were presented with an over-large breakfast that never seemed to end. To this day they are not sure whether they were supposed to pay or indeed whether someone had accidentally dropped a wedding banquet off for them to finish between them.
A helpful local pointed us at what is now the Kvamskogen Inn, and matches the description. I'm not sure if the Youth Hostel Association dropped this particular one after it found out about the over-spending on breakfasts. (Update quite some time later: May parents believe this was not the place. Have to look again next time.)
Pushing further on, we rounded the head of the relatively tiny Eidfjorden, before taking a detour into the town of Ulvik. Tucked away in the middle of several mountains miles from anywhere, we had a lunch at this pleasant location, only interrupted by a local fisherman who we suspect wanted the spot we had parked the van in. Not wanting to face the wrath of his granny-mobile, we had finished anyway and followed our path back up the steep winding road and out of there.
Pushing on North, we passed through the town of Voss, which we didn't really feel in the mood to explore.
We are challenging poor Rosie with the trickiest roads we can find here, and as such Stalheimskleiva, the road up to the Stalheim hotel was a must. Billed as one of the steepest roads in Northern Europe, we actually ended up going down it, which was a nice enough change. Don't worry, we found plenty more.
We got out for a brief wander around Gudvangen, the port at the head of Næroøfjorden. As you might expect, there were some touristy shops there where we grabbed a couple of bits and pieces (holding back quite well overall, though), before driving through some long tunnels to Flåm.
I had wanted to come here to check out the highly-recommended Flåm-Myrdal Flåmsbana Railway, which heads up and up through the mountains, giving you a great view in the process. However, it was late at this stage, so we elected to go just up the road to the caravan park for the night, planning to do the train the next morning.
The caravan park was something else. After paying at the front gate, the lady told us that her husband would show us to our spot. Strange, we thought, usually we get a map or some simple directions. Following him on his bike like Alice chasing the White Rabbit, we rapidly found out why. We had been given the highest spot in the place, with amazing views out across to the trains, ferries and of course the fjord and surrounding mountains. Best spot so far. A word of advice - do without electricity for your van if/when you can - we have consistently found that we get better spots when we don't have to be near power connections.
Dinner was washed down with a strange invention we haven't seen anywhere else and just had to try - Hansa Pilsener (a beer), sold in 1.25 litre plastic bottles like coke. Didn't even taste too bad, and given how hard the government try to make drinking not worth the expense due to the hefty taxes they put on all alcohol, it was even reasonably priced.

author Tim	location Bergen, Norge
posted 22:56 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Bergen ( 24 photos )
We have just spent a great day exploring Bergen - a quaint little city which it is hard to be believe is the largest for a big distance.
We spent a slow morning doing the washing up, some washing and lazing around a bit, before paying for another night staying at the same caravan park, and getting a Bergen Card each. This covered all our sightseeing expenses, bus trips into the city and quite a few other things. We were a little peeved to find out that many of the museums are only open short hours, so unless you plan your day very well, you aren't going to get the best value out of your card. Nonetheless, we had enjoyed ourselves.
The bus dropped us off at the central bus station, from where we stumbled our way around a bit before finding the stretched octagonal lake Lille Lungegårdsvann which forms the focal piece of the city. We located the old city gate, then wandered past the first and possibly strangest museum that our card covered, the Leprosy Museum. With a nurse in tow, we had to wander in to take in Norway's contribution to the eradication of the disease. Interesting, but in hindsight we spent too much time there as the other museums were all closing!
From there we wandered up to a great internet café, where I plugged the laptop in and performed a long-overdue journal upload, email check, and learning of exchange rates (important!), while Liz got oriented around the city. Sorry it has been so long, but Internet connectivity up here is patchy at best.
We wandered down to the Fishmarket which Liz had located, looking at the large number of stalls all competing for business. We settled on a couple of bread rolls with various seafoods on them, a nice hearty lunch which filled us up for quite a while, sitting by the docks with their famous view across to the old part of town.
We were very close there to the Fløibanen Funicular Railway. For those not familiar with the term funicular (I wasn't), it seems to mean "climbing really steeply up the side of a mountain". Similar to the Scenic Railway at Katoomba if you know that. Flashing our Bergen Card, we jumped in a queue before being rapidly transported to the top of the mountain. The view from there was totally amazing, as the clouds which blighted the latter part of the day hadn't quite made it in, so we could see for miles around.
We wandered around a little, again resisting the tourist shops there before grabbing the train back down, savouring the views along the way.
We did quite a bit more wandering around the streets of town with nothing particular in mind for a few hours, stopping for a while for a coffee on one of the pedestrianised streets. We also saw the Bryggen area (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) where the old historic buildings had been converted in to, you guessed it, touristy shops selling all manner of things that would probably get confiscated by Kingsford Smith customs - knives, antlers, deer hooves, and lots of different animal skins.
We asked at the main tourist office if there was any live jazz going on in town, but they couldn't locate any, before settling in for a good relaxation session just outside in the expansive area filled with people chatting, eating and drinking. Not to be the odd ones out, we ordered a pizza and couple of rather expensive beers, sipped them very slowly and enjoyed the view.
We typed replies to a few emails before dropping back into the internet café to send them - don't know when we will find a connection again. Dad was online at home so we had a chat to him for a while which was good - always nice to "hear" friendly voices when we are over here.
By now it was time for home, so we navigated back to the labyrinth of a central bus station and stumbled across the correct bus back to the caravan park.
Since then we have done little other than chase a hedgehog around trying to get it to stand still for a photo with little luck. It's our first piece of non-bird wildlife over here, we have expected to see more actually.

author Tim	location Bergen, Norge
posted 23:36 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Hardanger Fjorden ( 27 photos )
After spending a night "roughing it", we set off early from our camping place so as to not disturb the locals, finding ourselves a great little spot nestled amongst some rocks by a lake for breakfast with the sheep and the four other cars which drove past in the half an hour we were there.
On our way back down the mountain to complete the loop, we stopped for the five-minute-ly photo stop (don't worry, we take more as we drive along as well) on a flat section of a long hair-pin wind down the hill. There were some sheep there, and one amazingly tame and inquisitive one came over to see what the big red bus was all about. Liz dug around and found some bread which the sheep and her two lambs snapped up. We have never seen a sheep that didn't run away from humans, this one almost jumped in the van with us!
After passing some goats which we had to carefully drive through (they were sleeping just a bit more than a car's width apart on the road, oblivious to the dak-dak going by), we re-joined the RV13 for a while.
This brought us past a waterfall we had seen the day before, but not stopped at due to there being no parking (there are so many people travelling around these parts - we see the same people over and over). Called Låtefoss, there were two falls which passed under a road bridge, making plenty of splash and noise in the process. Someone had cleverly built a tourist shop right there, so we had a quick wander around before managing to keep most of our money.
Back to Odda which we had passed through yesterday, we tried to operate a cheap petrol pump with no humans around which just takes cards, but none that we had, before taking a different road through the newly-built (so new it's not even on our 2003 Europe Road Atlas - we found out it existed in Lonely Planet) 11km tunnel under the Folgefonni mountains. That's the longest we have found so far, and we stopped half way to take some pictures of the seemingly never-ending low-lit blackness either way.
Emerging the other side, we found that we had to pay a toll which we didn't know about either (we are pretty much used to handing over money here, it's either that or go home). A little further on, our road passed over another huge powerfall waterfall which warranted a stop - all this water spray is making Rosie just that little bit cleaner - ok, not really - she has a pretty amazing collection of bugs on the white high-top at the front.
We drove down to the village of Rosendal, where we stopped for a wander around some shops, tried to get fish and chips but had to settle for just the chips, learnt that the exchange rate for Norweigan Krone against the pound means that things aren't quite as expensive as we were fearing, and learnt that there was a ferry not marked on our Road Atlas which would make our lives much easier, from just back up the road at Løfallstrand.
Heading there, we drove luckily drove straight onto a nearly-full ferry, which took us across the fjord to Gjermundshamn (no, we can't pronounce these names, but typing them is easy) via Varaldsøy, a village on an island in the middle of the fjord. Enough people seemed to live there, and a very nice place to live it would have been too.
One wrong turn later, we were off the ferry and heading North again along the RV49 on the West side of Hardanger fjorden, through the district of Kvam. All along here there were the most beautiful little settlements, there's no real words to describe them, so try a picture instead.
After joining back with the main 7 road at Norheimsund, we quickly stumbled on Steindalsfossen, yet another huge, powerful waterfall, but with a difference - this one you could walk behind. Awe-inspiring stuff, just watching vast quantities of water in free-fall in the foreground with nice mountain scenery behind.
Having seen pretty much enough for a little while, we drove on through plenty more tunnels towards Bergen, choosing a random caravan park which turned out to be very nice. We are overlooking a lake which people were swimming in earlier, and there are canoes around for hire too.
Tomorrow we aim to get the bus into Bergen for a look around for the day.

author Tim	location Bergen, Norge
posted 22:42 CEST 24/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Exploring South a Bit ( 38 photos )
Setting off to have a look around in a southerly direction, we didn't make a huge deal of progress on this day, but saw so much.
First on the list was the better-than-it-sounds Hardangervidda Natursenter at Øvre Eidfjord. This started off with an amazing sickness-inducing panoramic video presentation all about the amazing scenery around the area. Think IMAX, only of places we have just been to from different angles, and places we might get to soon. As Liz said when we left "well, we can go home now".
The remainder of the place was also quite interesting, with displays on fishing, wildlife, camping, and various recreations you can partake in in the area.
At the exit, there was an excellent scale model of the area showing roads and the like - we were down in the valley pointed to by the red flag. This is some seriously steep country-side.
We managed to find our way from there to the road leading to Kjeaason (Great photo I wish I had thought to go and take), a farm which someone had the interesting plan to stick 600m up the side of a fjord. To get to the place itself, we had to wait for a few minutes before we could drive up the 5km tunnel to get there, as it is all one-way and every half an hour it changes from up to down! Liz piloted well, and we emerged at the top, wandered around and were stunned to realise that from the top it just looks like any other piece of farm land. Only it's 600m up in the air, on much more of a slope, and until twenty years ago, only reachable by rope ladder.
Driving south along the RV13 beside Sørfjorden, we stopped for a snack at one of the villages where Liz only just managed to stop me from jumping in for a swim. The water was not as cold as we expected, though I suspect I would have thought differently once I was in.
There were a couple of particular roads that were recommended from various places, and we plotted this day's travels around them. The first was the 13 which we were already on, taking us along Suldalsvatn (another fantastic water-course) towards the town of Sand. Here, we queued for a ferry across to Ropeid which put us on an even more spectacular road (and noted as "only for experienced drivers" when driving anything bigger than a car), the 520. It was along here where we stopped beside the road, a few hundered metres up and cooked dinner. We had views from our "dinner table" all along the Ryfylke of mountains, clouds and of course plenty of forest.
Not too much further along, we found other people camping in a small area up high in the mountains, and decided to join them and save some money for the night.
This meant that we had almost completed our loop for the day, and boy was it worth it. At least one of those roads is pending "National Tourist Route" status, and I'd vote for either of them any day. The rocks, hairpin bends, tunnels, single-lane roads, closed-in-winter mountain passes, sheep and almost total lack of other traffic made it a great day's drive.
So many pictures of waterfalls lakes and amazing back-drops have been taken that it's all we can do to try and sort through them for the best ones.

author Tim	location Måbødalen Camping og Hyttesenter, Hordaland, Norge
posted 08:46 CEST 23/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Forest, Frost and Fjords ( 32 photos )
A very diverse day yesterday, as we drove East towards the coast along the RV7 road, which interestingly is the same road my parents drove along the otherway back in 1976. We were in forest to start with, as we wound our way along through Gol and stopped at Ål to watch the Bergen-Oslo train go through and have some lunch.
Not much futher along, we were winding up through the mountains to the closed-for-seven-months-of-the-year Hardangervidda Pass. About here we started to wonder what those little specs of white were far away on the hill tops.
Our suspicions were confirmed when we stopped to go and play with the stuff. Snow. In Summer. Getting out to walk over to it for the obligatory snowball fight and photos, we were immediately hit with a cold wind, the reason the snow still exists from the winter falls. But we were swimming only a couple of days ago!
Back in the van to warm up, we kept east until the road started to fall back to sea-level in the most fascinating way. It was as if someone had taken a giant cork-screw and attacked the mountain with it, the resulting tunnels were then turned into roads where you drove in the top and out the bottom.
Upon reaching the bottom of a series of four or five such tunnels, about four kilometres in total, we stopped at a little "museum" in the middle of nowhere (well, actually right next to some very high steep fjord cliffs) to work out what these things were and where we were (none of this was on our maps).
It turns out we had missed the one thing in the area which we have circled and under-lined on our maps as Do Not Miss, and to get back to it we had to go back up the cork-screw thingamies again! This we did, and eventually noted the poorly-signposted turn-off to Vøringfossen just at the top of the corkscrews.
Perhaps the tourist buses, cars and campervans should have given it away, but we were too busy admiring the scenery the first time. This is a huge noisy waterfall with a hundered and fifty metre or so vertical drop, the highest in Norway. We wandered off through the forest in the direction of the noise, taking care to stay away from the cliffs (no child and adult proof fences in this country - they expect people to look after themselves, which I think is good since you see everything in its natural state).
It was quite a spectacular sight, as we trudged through a bit more forest then back to the start for a drop into our first Norge tourist shop, cloaked in the local fashion with grass and plants on the roof, presumably for insulation. Strange that we have seen so few such touristy shops, but I guess that's because we have stopped in so few big touristy places. I purchased the obligatory Moose soft-toy, which is now named Chocolate and sits to guard the van when we leave it for a while.
We then walked the other way to the "official" viewing platform where you got a good big-picture view of the falls, but not as close.
From there, we needed to attack the cork-screw one final time to head onwards, and we found a caravan park not far from the bottom. Both tired, we stopped in and got a site here in the quiet only interrupted by the noise of the river. From our van door, we can see the clouds around the high cliff-faces all around us - a nice area to spend a while.
I cooked dinner last night, but it had to be done again properly by Liz after I managed to drop the first load of pasta onto the ground as I was draining it. So it was more of a combined effort :)
We did some planning last night and will spend a day or two driving south from here along some highly-recommended scenic roads, maybe take in a bit of the coast, before heading back north through Bergen and continuing our journey mostly that way.

author Tim	location Elvenga Camping, Veme, Hønefoss, Norge
posted 21:10 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Oslo and Surrounds ( 35 photos )
(Continued from Sverige 1)
Now into yet another country, this one is Norge, which English-speaking people refer to as Norway.
We stopped just over the little-marked border with Sverige for a look around the private landscape that comprises Berby. The forests, lakes and waterfalls of this particular area are all technically privately owned, but practically the area is no different to anywhere else nearby.
And by that I mean absolutely beautiful. We had a quick wander around for some photos before jumping back in the van and working on fixing our first problem for the day - our rumbling stomachs.
This was done by pulling into a supermarket at Halden, and working out another problem - that we didn't have any Norwegian Krone. Yet another currency to find a pile for. It turns out we could pay with Visa, which we did with a happy checkout girl who was over-excited to be able to say "Thank You!" to us in English - we think that not many tourists make it to this particular town.
Driving up the road looking for somewhere to eat, it became fairly rapidly apparent that there are not nearly as many rest places on the roads here as there are elsewhere we have been. Or perhaps that was because we were on a smaller road. No matter, as we solved this problem by parking in someone's very long driveway for a while. They didn't mind, as their house must have been about 3km away over a hill.
Relaxing in the sun and not doing much except reading about yet another new country, we resolved to head North to Oslo. Our path there took us through more great country side, before getting lost and finding ourselves again on the jumble that is the entrance to Oslo.
Another thing about Norway as distinct from other countries up here is that there are lots of toll roads. Needing to pay a toll to get into Oslo itself, not having any of the local currency at all, and noting that Norge is not in the EU, let alone the Euro, we needed some cash fast.
Someone had helpfully put a service station right at the toll gate, so I went inside and joined a cue of lots of other people doing the same thing to withdraw some cash. Once again, not really knowing the exchange rate is either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it, so I pressed a button and was presented with some more strange papery notes. One of these I exchanged for a Coke and a pile of other notes and coins with the service station attendant, and one of the resulting coins was close enough to the toll required to enter the city. Great!
So, enter the city we did, following our noses to find some parking in the centre near an information place, run there to grab some maps, run back to the van and then drive to some more permanent parking on Tordenskiolds gate, right in the heart of the city. This required paying for, of course, which I was able to do with a credit card, thereby not loosing any more cash. Very handy, but we can only guess at how much it really cost us.
Lonely Planet Scandinavian Europe in hand, we took in a suggested city walk which started not far from where we were and took in plenty of the city sights. We had managed to catch the city on an exceptionally rainy day, where we had to wait in alleyways for quite some time for rain to clear, and carry our bags on our fronts to protect the contents while huddling under an umbrella.
Along the way we wanted to plug the laptop in to update the journal, but one cafe wouldn't do it and the other one was flooded. What we did manage to see included the Domkirke (cathedral), which we entered more to get out of the rain, but was impressive in its own right, Eidsvolls plass (a square filled with fountains and statues), the Nationaltheatret, University of Oslo and the royal palace Det Kongelige Slott.
From there we wandered down to the dock area, home to the Rådhus (Town Hall), which is decorated with scenes from Norse mythology, plenty of statues and fountains, and of course lots of boats in the docks.
There was a fishing boat selling prawns to the unwitting tourist, so of course we had to have some to eat for dinner. Curiously, they were sold by the litre...
Sufficiently drenched by now, we wandered not far at all back to Rosie, where we changed clothes, before Liz took the pilot seat for a drive "somewhere North" to a caravan park. However, not far out of the city, we actually did some thinking, changed tact, and headed North-West instead, eventual destination the Western Fjords and Bergen.
Locating a caravan park which looked cheap enough (no sleeping rough tonight, I haven't had a shower since... (censored for when Mum reads this!) ), we picked some more back roads, taking us through Roa and Hønefoss to Elvenga Camping, on the 7 road. Plenty of pretty scenery was to be seen, including our first fjord (all though not one of the crazy ones) Randsfjorden.
We ate our prawns, the rest of the lunch cheese and salami we grabbed earlier today and some bread, before taking me to the shower for decontamination and removal of my ape-like layer of face-fuzz. I am now much more presentable.

(customised)