Norway Heading North - Week 5

We had our first cruise on a Fjord!! OK it was a Ferry from Oppedal to Lavik, but it felt like a cruise lol. It was easy to use, when the first line of traffic is full you use the second, then the third etc. The lady comes round to sell you a ticket (ours cost 300 nok (about £27) for a Motorhome 6-7m with driver plus 1 passenger) and you can pay by card. You have to make sure your gas supply is switched off first and you can sit in your vehicle if you want to. 15 mins later you’re driving off the other side.

Just for fun we did a “St Swithin’s Day Menu”A la chez HarrietDinner ...
Danish Pork Fillet in an ‘Ah Bisto’ and English mint sauce gravy
Swedish Potato Gratin with a side of Norwegian steamed vegetables
Desert ...A walk around the Fjord followed by Greek peaches (aka Del Monte) and good old Evaporated milk 😁😁😁
Drinks ...M&S coffee & Typhoo tea.

Most of our shopping in Norway has been done in the Rema 1000’s. I think it’s similar to the Lidl/Aldi stores back home. Maybe a little bit better? Guess how much the shopping cost today though ...

1 Courgette
1 Fruit Yoghurt Pot
2x 1.75ltr Milk (fresh 👍)
3 Tomatoes
4 Bananas
5 Mushrooms
... £11.79 😳
It’s an expensive country so I’m glad we packed a lot of food from home. Cereal, tinned stuff, toilet rolls etc. We also stocked up on bread in Germany. The stuff that is part baked and you finish it off in the oven. It’s really nice too. Might have to stock up on it before we get back home 👍

The following day we did some truckin’ & lookin’ from Skei to Geiranger. On the way to Geiranger, we stopped on the edge of this beautiful fjord after spotting the Loen Skylift. It goes from Fjord to sky in 5 minutes and made your ears pop!! It climbed 3300 feet to the top of mount Hoven above the Nordfjord with a gradient of 60%. Poor Andy was holding on for grim death and even though I'm ok with heights, it made me feel a bit wobbly lol. The views were spectacular and if we had worn sensible shoes (tuts) we would have been able to walk around the many hiking routes. There was definitely more up there than we had anticipated. It wasn't cheap, but definitely worth it.

It was another really hot and sunny day so when we got down to the bottom, we soaked our feet in the cold water of the gorgeously clear Fjord. Heaven!!

We trucked on to Geiranger and the Trollstigen Pass. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the scenery!! Photos just can’t do it justice. You just have to be there!!

We came across the Dalsnibba toll road (about £14) and decided to have a look. We drove from 1000m to 1500m zig zagging up the mountain and ended up above the snow level. It was amazing and we camped up there for the night with a few other Motorhome’s. We watched the sun set at 11pm after playing around in the snow.

When we woke up the next morning and opened the blinds, we were taken aback at the most beautiful view of the top of the mountains.

We could see the route we were going to drive down the into the valley and up the other side. OMG what a drive!! Andy did an amazing job driving round all the hairpin bends!!

We carried on along the E63 to the ferry from Eidsdal to Linge.

We stopped for lunch and found a great little viewing point called Gudbrandsjuvet. If Carlsberg did viewing points this would be one of them. The Norwegians certainly know how to show off their stunning scenery.

Then ... we drove the Trollstigen pass!!!! There are some videos on YouTube if you want to see it. We literally followed the waterfall down the side of the mountain. We stopped at the bottom in awe of the drive we’d just done. Amazing doesn’t even come close!! Wow!!!!!

When we reached Andalsnes some time later, we filled up with water and emptied the waste at one of the many free Norwegian Motorhome service points and it rained. Well, poured down to be more exact lol. Luckily we’d driven down the pass in the glorious sunshine so someone, somewhere, is really looking after us.

That night we watched the sun set again over yet another beautiful fjord and went to bed.

We were woken up in the middle of the night by the biggest clap of thunder reverberating around the mountains! Nearly pooped my pants haha. It didn’t half rain too (thank goodness for ear plugs 😉), so in the morning we put our big boy trousers on (as opposed to shorts), thinking the rain would have cooled things down. We had the air con on all the way to Alesund so we didn’t notice how warm it was getting again outside. Nearly baked walking around the town!!Anyway, in 1904, there was a huge fire in Alesund that burnt down 850 buildings. They rebuilt the town (with lots of foreign help) in an Art Nouveau style, and it’s really pretty. It’s a cruise ship destination so it was quite busy.

Breaking Bad???

You can walk up the 480 steps to the viewing point or pay to go on a sightseeing bus or Dotto train. We drove up and after admiring the view, parked in a lower car park and had lunch. Just in time too, as another storm passed over.

After eating a plate full of chicken pasta salad we drove to Bud along the E39 via the Molde-Vestnes Ferry. Bud is the start of the Atlanterhavsvegen (Atlantic Way Tourist Route).So the next morning we went Island hopping to Kristiansund along the Atlanterhavsvegen. It’s not the most spectacular place in Norway we’ve seen, scenery wise, but the bridges and tunnels from island to island were amazing.

They’ve even built stopping points along the way to be able to view a particularly lovely part of the route or to admire their infrastructure. Everything they’ve done is so in keeping with the scenery around it and practical at the same time.

One of the tunnels we went through actually went under the Atlantic Ocean!! That’s when the clock said Harriet had reached 3000 Miles.

The weather was really overcast and yet you must admit, it’s all still stunningly beautiful ❤️

We found a camping spot right by the edge of the Fjord again that night and were joined by 2 other campers. We started talking to a young couple and swapped stories all evening.

The next morning we awoke to the most glorious view of the mountains. They’d been covered in fog last night. We said our goodbyes and carried on.

The best thing about having the freedom of a Motorhome is stopping when & where you want to. Sometimes we plan a route because there’s something we want to see and sometimes we just drive. You never know what you’re going to come across on the way. Our lunchtime stop was just a random pull in off the main road (E70). The information boards revealed that, through the gate was the biggest Iron Age burial ground in Norway - wow. Even though it had just started to rain (and thunder) we had to investigate.

We headed for the next tourist route Helgelandskysten.

We’d been on the road exactly a month on the 18th July, can you believe it?!! We thought we’d write down some stats and try and do it every month (if we remember lol. It’s hard to know what day it is sometimes). Scroll away now if you find these things boring, we won’t mind, honest 😁

Sooo -
Countries travelled -France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway
Miles travelled from home - 2422 miles
Fuel consumption - 30.14 average mpg
Fuel cost so far - £498.74
Favourite thing in Harriet - The engine brake, especially useful for all the hairpin bends!
Days it’s rained - 2 (well 1 and a bit)
Disagreements - 0
Ferries - 5 😳 and I don’t like sailing!!
Favourite things we’ve done - Spending the day with Sarah & Edwin and driving the Trollstigen Pass
Asbo’s - 1 (Andy parked in the wrong spot and got told off by a bus driver lol)

Harriet’s Hints ...We try not to put anything smelly down the sink, drained tinned tuna, milk etc. We put it in a jug with a sealable lid (ours is Tupperware), then empty it down the grey waste drain at the next stop. If the grey water does start to smell, we empty the grey water, pour down a bottle of cheap coke and by the time we’ve driven round for an hour or so, it’s clean again.