Another day in the driving seat! All we seem to have done since leaving Geiranger is drive all day each day. Today was no different, but today’s passing scenery blew us both away! The whole journey today was through truly breathtaking scenery dominated mostly by mountains. It’s hard to imagine scenery on such a scale. I know I’m tending to go on about it, but I’m just struggling to express how incredible this place is.

Before leaving Rognan we filled up with water and dumped the black water. Funny how that always seems to be my job! When we first surfaced this morning it turned out there were two other Brit vans on the car park. One was parked right behind us and the other had just turned up. We had a quick chat with them and found they were heading south on the way home. We’re heading north on the way to Nordkapp, having decided last night that now we’ve come this far it would be a shame not to.

When we left, the GPS sent us the wrong way again. As soon as I made the right hand turn (south) I knew that couldn’t be right. Looking at the map it transpired that GPS lady had decided to send us 25 miles south to a route that would take at least an hour longer than the one I had in mind! For goodness sake why? So we did a big U-turn and headed off north. Then the GPS spent the next 30 miles or more trying to get us to go back the way we just came. Along the way we stopped for diesel and I went into the store to look for adblue as the van was demanding more again. I was amazed to find that they have a pump outside specially for Adblue and it’s as simple as filling up with petrol. Brilliant! It cost about £10 for over 11 litres. Why couldn’t we have it on a pump in the UK? As always, we seem to be 3 or 4 years behind everyone else!

We spent the rest of the day travelling coupled with a bit of shopping. That’s fun. Most men will know the mental anguish of shopping with a woman who has to read the label on every product in the shop before making a purchase. Well imagine if said woman had to look up a translation for the label on every frigging product in the shop! Well, that’s my world folks! Having said that, we did go in a shop yesterday that had a nice line in spades but unfortunately I couldn’t find the bags of lime anywhere!

At about 5.30pm we reached a town called Narvik which looked very industrial with what looked like lots of oil tankers in the port. Not a pretty place at all but not long afterwards we found a lay-by to stay at. At the moment there are 6 vans here for the night one of which is Spanish. Lynne just made some biscuits because she couldn’t translate ‘those’ labels! She even allowed me to eat one (yes, one!). Generous to a fault. What does that even mean?

This morning we set off from our wild camping spot not far from a place called Skomo. We were quite early for a change and on the road before 9.00am. As soon as we were on the road we started seeing more spectacular scenery but as usual nowhere convenient to stop to take photographs. We made good progress on the 76 and soon we were back on the E6 heading north toward Mo i Rana, strange name I know but that’s how it’s spelt. Apparently the Mo part comes from an old farm that used to be near the modern town. The name of the farm comes from the Old Norse name Moar, which means sand or grass lowland. Rana means quick or fast probably relating to the swift flow of the nearby Ranfjorden. Anyway, the locals apparently just call it Mo, so much for all that history!  Anyway, after all that we never even stopped in Mo i Rana on the way through. It just looked like another large characterless town. We did stop for a short while just outside the town though as I saw this lovely little waterfall with a wooden cabin at the side of it right on the main road. I had to dodge quite busy traffic and time my shot just right from the other side of the road but I think it was worth it!

After Mo i Rana we carried on toward Krokstranda knowing that the Arctic Circle Visitor Centre was about 20 minutes further on. This all took far longer than we’d expected because for practically the whole journey there were road works and by road works I mean a massive construction project to build a new road to replace the current E6. The new road is obviously going to be wider and faster than the old one but the devastation of the countryside along the way is heartbreaking to see. I couldn’t help trying to imagine how the homeowners on the route must feel seeing this huge scar being cut through what must previously have been a pristine alpine landscape.

As we got nearer the Arctic Circle you could see the landscape gradually change and become bleaker by the minute. It was a few minutes before we reached  the visitor centre that we saw our first reindeer grazing not far from the side of the road. After all the anticipation I couldn’t help feeling a slight anti climax and then later on we saw loads of them chomping away at the grass further up the mountain sides. We had a wander around the visitor centre looking at the usual troll figurines and assorted knitwear. Lynne bought a few gifts for people back home and we then set off for our next wild camping destination.

Which brings me to the present, we’re in a rest stop just outside the town of Rognan. Motorhomers are well catered for here as there is free drinking water and a place to empty the toilet! Whoopy doo!! Seriously, it’s nice because those facilities are provided free of charge and the area has benches and seating along with play areas for kids (of which there are none, thankfully!) So we’re settled for the night, with no real idea of where we’ll end up tomorrow. All part of the fun I suppose!

 

 

 

We spent more or less all day driving today. The plan had been to get to Trondheim and spend at least one night. The campsite we had decided to use turned out not to exist anymore. That was a pity as it was a nightmare to find after the GPS took us to the wrong place. I ended up having to pick my way along by looking at google earth on the iPad and doing it street by street only to find when we got there that there’s construction work in progress and a note pinned to a lamp-post giving GPS coordinates for alternative camping. Problem being, I have no idea how to use them so we decided to carry on driving north instead.

We’ve spent so much time in remote rural locations now that every time we get near a big town or city we go into some kind of culture shock. I don’t quite know how else to put it, except to say we just don’t like being in or around the big towns. Maybe a bit too much like being home!

We carried on north on the E6. That was quite a big road with lots of traffic (relatively) and we didn’t see anywhere that we thought might be suitable for wild camping so we decided to turn off and head for quieter roads. Before we came off the main road we came across an American Diner called the Pick Up Cafe. What a brilliant place with loads of old American memorabilia  and various cars and fire engines parked outside for effect. It was a really charming place very well done but slightly let down by the service in the cafe. We chose our food from the menu (burgers) and I ordered at the counter. Lynne wanted a Sprite to drink and I was told they’re in the fridge, help yourself. Charming! That’s obviously the way they do it here but it seems a bit lacking somehow. Also I can’t get used to the idea of paying  the bill before eating. Somehow it doesn’t seem conducive to leaving much of a tip. Actually I don’t think we’ve tipped wherever we’ve gone in Norway, Maybe we’re just getting tight now we’re poor old pensioners! Also the cost for two burgers, one Sprite and a strawberry milk shake of roughly £45 doesn’t help much!

So, not long afterwards we left the E6 for the 17. We drove for a long while without ever seeing somewhere to wild camp for the night. Finally we came upon a campsite called Holmset Camping and pulled in. We quickly agreed to stay for the price of 230 NOK. It was a huge relief to finally settle somewhere for the night as I was well and truly knackered by then. The people in the motor home next to us were German and the guy didn’t seem to be able to stop staring at our van. Sometimes you would think because our  steering wheel is on the other side to theirs we must be off another planet. Personally I thought he should have paid far more attention to his knuckles dragging on the floor! The campsites free wifi was fairly good so we settled down with a gin and tonic and watched a couple of episodes of Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime.

As I write we’ve just had a very similar day to the one in the previous paragraphs. We didn’t start out until 11.00am and then, thinking we were being clever, decided to get off the beaten track. However, one wrong turn later and we found ourselves lost! Found ourselves lost, is that what you’d call an oxymoron? Well you know what I mean! Having backtracked for about 20 miles we then turned into a road where a signpost informed us that the road was closed in 25 kilometres. So on to plan C, whatever that is. Finally we started following signs to take us back to E6 which seems to be the best option for getting South to North relatively quickly. Having said that, I would advise anyone considering traveling through Norway that by road at least, there is no really quick way. It’s only in the past couple of days that we’ve started seeing 90 kmh (56mph) speed limits. The general terrain just doesn’t lend itself to having 6 lane motorways cutting through the landscape and as yet I don’t think we’ve seen anything remotely like the motorways we’re used to at home.

We keep seeing road signs warning of Moose crossing the road. I don’t know whether or not to believe they actually exist because we’ve never seen a single one in all the miles we’ve (I’ve) driven! Seriously though we’ll keep our eyes peeled in the hope of seeing one and failing that, I’m given to believe that as you go further north your chances of seeing Reindeer increase significantly, so fingers crossed.

Not long after starting out this morning we went to Namsos and found an LPG depot. It was unmanned and I couldn’t read the instructions as they were quite naturally in Norwegian. Therefore unwittingly I authorised a 999 NOK payment (about £90) and still couldn’t get the pump to work. There was a big warehouse type of place across the car park so I went over and walked in. At first I couldn’t see anyone in this vast warehouse but eventually a man appeared and having said hello I asked him if he spoke English? “Nei” he replied “I don’t work here”. Funny I thought, that sounded English to me. “Oh so you don’t speak English and you don’t work here?” “Nei”. Thankfully he decided without prompting in English or Norwegian to go and get someone who would admit to speaking English. This guy was very helpful and came out to explain to me how to use the LPG pump. The 999 NOK I had authorised will be refunded and we had a receipt from the machine confirming this. In the end I pumped 34 NOK (£3.18) worth of LPG and now we’re full again. All this stems from us not knowing how long a tank of gas will last, but we’ve wild camped 5 times and done lots of cooking and still not used much more than a quarter of a tank.

One last photo which was taken yesterday along the way. I’ve totally lost track of where this was but I think it’s worth including anyway as it is such a beautiful scene.

This morning we left Geiranger and set off for Kristiansund on the west coast of Norway. The initial drive away from Geiranger was a steep climb for what seemed like miles. There were 11 hairpin bends before we reached the top and the road levelled out. We stopped on the way up to photograph Geiranger behind us and which had another huge cruise ship in port. Lynne was worried about the smell of burning rubber but I thought it was pretty normal for the engine to get hot after such a long climb in low gears! The view was spectacular and the sun seemed to break through the clouds just at the right moment and lit up the whole scene!

After about 25 miles we came upon the first ferry of the day, the Eidsdal to Linge ferry. I never know when to expect these ferry’s. The sat nav just says with very little warning, “please board the ferry” and that’s the first you know of it. That brings us back to blindly following ‘sat nav lady’. We did enquire about the Fjord1 ferry card which would save us 50% on most ferry trips but the guy selling tickets advised against it. It costs 3400 NOK (about £318) too so we decided to give it a miss. This trip cost us around 130 NOK.

The passing landscape had changed quite dramatically since leaving Geiranger and now reminded me more of our own Lake District but without the mental traffic. It has to be said that generally, driving in Norway is a pleasure. In almost 2 weeks of driving through the country and some of it’s towns I don’t recall seeing any of the kind of boy racer antics that we’ve come to expect at home. There’s been a couple of occasions when I’ve had traffic behind me and I’ve pulled over to let them go only to find that they seem to go slower than I was once they’re in front! It seems to me that as a rule most people appear to adhere to the speed limits which rarely go above 80kph (50mph). We saw this interesting old house along the way and actually did a u-turn just to go and photograph it. The only trouble was, when I turned around I lapsed into twat mode again and drove down the road for a good 3 or 4 hundred meters on the wrong side till a car coming the other way started flashing his lights at me. Oops!! Anyway the old house looked like a bit of a project but Lynne decided, and I could see her point, that when we saw the photo it looked like the kind of place that might have a ghostly face at one of the windows. Can you see anything? I hope not!

We had one more ferry to go before reaching Kristiansund. The Molde to Vestnes ferry. This one was 204 NOK so we asked again about the Fjord1 card and this time we decided to get one. So considering it was supposed to save you 50% I couldn’t quite work out why the crossing still cost us 119 NOK. When we reached Kristiansund we immediately decided it didn’t look nice at all. What didn’t help was getting lost and driving through some pretty desperate looking areas. Also the parking I’d looked up and set the GPS (got fed up with sat nav) to didn’t seem to exist when GPS lady told us we had arrived at our destination. If I’d taken the left turn as instructed we would have found ourselves in someone’s front room!

So having taken a dislike to Kristiansund without even stopping we agreed to carry on towards Trondheim and see if there was anywhere we fancied wildcamping along the way. That’s how we find ourselves in a large parking area a good distance  from the road overlooking the sea. There’s a small beach within a few seconds walk and we appear to have the place all to ourselves. I stood and watched a heron catching small fish for ten minutes before he flew off screeching all the way. It seems like a good place to spot Otter and there was a lot of movement in the water but I think in the end it was just a lot of hyperactive fish breaking the surface every now and then. After a week or more of having powerful waterfalls within earshot of wherever we’ve camped, the silence in this place is deafening! Getting here wasn’t straight forward though, we had to take our 3rd ferry of the day, the Halsa – Kanestraum. Even for Norway that has to be some kind of record. I did wonder though had we set the GPS  for Trondheim in the first place would we have missed one or even two of those ferrys out?

We caught up on the previous nights sleep this morning, sleeping till after 8.00am. Then we sat round doing nothing much until lunch time. In that time we saw 3 cruise ships arrive in the fjord the first of which was huge. It was Called Costa Favalosa and turned out to be full of Italian tourists. Later we went and did the waterfall walk which proved to be quite hard as there were 325 steps to the top but worth the effort as the waterfalls were more impressive than I’d expected. But predictably perhaps, we were surrounded most of the time by Italians and lets face it, they don’t do quiet do they? The whole walk didn’t take long though and soon we were back at the van as confirmation of yesterdays thought that we could have stayed just the one night instead of two.

All in all a pretty boring day really. Can we really have started to take these magnificent surroundings for granted so quickly? Anyway, here’s one of the photo’s for the day and guess what, it’s another waterfall!!

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that in the early evening I saw an otter swim to the shore and disappear amongst the rocks not more than 10 meters from the front of our motorhome. It was unmistakably an otter and the first time in my life I’d seen one in the wild so quite an event for me. (Yes, I know, I need to get out more).

We did take a brief walk around the touristy shops again so that Lynne could buy some gifts but the shops were every bit as boring as yesterday! We did however buy a nice tea towel! Yee haa!!

So anyway, apologies for today’s boring blog. I know none of them are likely to win me a Nobel prize for literature but this one was really boring on account of it being a boring day! Soz, whadda ya gonna do?

Last night was the worst nights sleep we’d had since leaving home. I worked out later that because the track which guides the bed up and down was at the front, the bed was tending to pull slightly away from it. Consequently every little movement caused the bed to shift and make an annoying knocking sound. Also, we were getting low on water in the tank so there was a warning light flashing so Lynne lay awake worrying about that. The heat was on too and Lynne seemed to think that might drain the leisure battery. At about 2.30am we were both wide awake with the lights on while I figured out a way to stop the bed knocking. In the end it took a wad of folded up card wedged in to stop the movement.

Even then I lay awake for ages before finally dropping off. I was awake again at 6.30 needing desperately to go to the toilet. Trouble was I knew the toilet cassette was full so I got dressed and snuck out to go somewhere discreet just to take a pee. Imagine my surprise on seeing there was snow everywhere! The motorhome had a good layer of snow all over the front and the mountains, what you could see of them, were covered in the white stuff! After going down some nearby steps to ensure being out of sight and having a pee I decided I might as well swap the toilet cartridges over as we had an unused spare in the rear storage. This gave the added advantage that at least Lynne wouldn’t be called on to sneak off and squat somewhere in the snow. (now there’s a mental image to conjure with). At no time while I was doing all this did it occur to me that there was a public toilet across the other side of the car park.

When I got back into bed Lynne was unsurprisingly awake. After all my banging about It would have been surprising if she hadn’t been. I was back outside at about 7.30 as the mist began to clear and I decided to try to shoot a time-lapse video with the go pro. As I was setting this up the young German guy in the tiny caravan had just surfaced and wished me a good morning. At about the same time another young German lad turned up on a motorbike and started telling us how he had camped the night in a tent just off the plateau. He seemed like a nice kid but I did think maybe he must have had a screw or two loose camping out in this weather as it was absolutely freezing. Anyway as the morning drew on more and more people in motorhomes and coaches started to turn up and Lynne and I decided to head off to Geiranger. Shortly after leaving the top car park we stopped and tried to do a video blog for facebook. People seemed to have liked the previous two and found them amusing but as we stood in the freezing cold we eventually decided it would have to wait for another day!

The road down to Geiranger was another scenic treat and there were lots more hairpin bends to negotiate but within 30 minutes or so we were in Geiranger. We checked in to  Geiranger Camping for two nights. 300 NOK per night which I thought was a bit expensive really but we found a nice spot right on the edge of the fjord. Walking around the local tourist shops it quickly became obvious that they all sell pretty much the same stuff (junk mostly). After the 3rd or 4th I’d had enough of looking at troll figurines and expensive knitwear! Does the fact that I find myself looking at tea towels with Norway emblazoned on them and thinking “ooh that would make a nice souvenir” mean I am well and truly in my dotage?

On reflection, it seems one day might have been enough in Geiranger but tomorrow we can do the waterfall walk. I have to say, we’ve seen so many waterfalls since being in Norway that I’ve become slightly blasé about them whereas previously I only needed to see a tiny trickle and I’d be rushing to point a camera at it. Not so much now!

This morning we had to leave Melkevoll Bretun after 3 nights. I was gutted to leave this magical place. We set off down the valley towards the lake. The weather was quite clear and it wasn’t long before we had to stop to do a photograph. The view back towards the glacier was beautiful and we hadn’t been able to see it on the way in 3 days ago because of the thick mist and rain.

As usual we blindly followed the sat nav after setting it for Geiranger. That wasn’t the actual destination though as I was expecting there to be a right hand turn that would take us up to Dalsnibba. Dalsnibba is apparently the highest fjord view by road in Europe at 1500 metres. Blindly following the sat nav doesn’t always work that well as after traveling for a couple of hours we arrived at a place called Hellesylt where the sat nav “lady” told us to board the ferry. Well I wasn’t expecting that! Sounds like a song! Yeah, that came as a bit of a surprise and looking at the map on an iPad I realised that this ferry would take us all the way to Geiranger from the opposite direction which had not been the plan at all. Lynne checked the price of the ferry and found it was in the region of £58 so we quickly decided to drive all the way back and approach Dalsnibba the way we intended in the first place.

That turned out to be a 2 hour drive but well worth it as some of the places we passed had views to die for. We stopped a couple of times for photographs and these were the results. One was the most complete rainbow I think I’ve ever seen, the other just a fantastic view with light breaking through the clouds after a downpour.

I’ve lost count of the tunnels we’ve gone through and this journey turned out to be no exception. The weird thing this time was, we were following what I think is a motorhome but with massive wheels and a military look. We followed him through 2 long tunnels and part way through came past a green light which I took to be a traffic light. This would suggest that the road was going to be too narrow but not long after the light we came upon cars coming the other way. The big military thingy in front made it quite a squeeze to get past. I’ve still not worked out what purpose the green light was serving.

Not long afterwards we came across the right hand turn for Dalsnibba. Turning onto the road you immediately arrive at a toll booth and have to pay 140 NOK for the privilege of using the road to the top. The drive up wasn’t as difficult as I’d expected though there were a lot of very tight hairpin bends to contend with and it was raining all the way up till we got closer to the top and the rain turned to snow! Yes it’s August 25 and it was bloody snowing! When we got to the top there were a lot of people about, looking at nothing, because there was no view on account of thick fog and snow falling. Absolutely amazing! I suggested wildcamping and waiting for the fog to clear. Lynne was ok with that so we settled down. It didn’t take long till we heard voices raised in excitement because the fog suddenly parted at least partially revealing the view of Geirangerfjord far below us. Fantastic, cameras and tripods appeared from nowhere. And not just mine either, there were lots of people suddenly setting up tripods and big lenses to try to capture their own take on the scene. The image below was mine. Once again a panorama stitched together in Photoshop.

After a while the crowds seemed to disappear and we were left with just us and a young German couple who looked like they were setting up to camp the night too in a small caravan. It was then that I noticed a camera bag sitting on a stone slab at the corner of the car park not more than 6 or 7 meters from us. There were literally no people other than us two couples. I went to take a look and could see into the open bag and there was a Nikon 85mm 1.8 lens on top of what looked like a woolly hat. I went to the German couple and in my best German said, entschuldigung, sie sprechen sie Englisch? Yes was the reply, I asked him if that was his bag and he replied that it was not. I asked him if anyone asked to let them know I had it inside rather than leave it where it was as anyone could come and just drive off with it.

As we sat talking about how sick someone would be to lose the bag and hoping someone would come back for it, a new wave of people were turning up. I had visions of someone getting a hundred miles away before realising it was gone. However, half an hour or so later Lynne commented on a man with a camera, saying it looked expensive because it was brown or something. I said, no it’s just a cover on the camera. At that point I watched the man and his wife and they were definitely looking stressed. It became obvious they were looking for something. I picked up the bag and walked out, I hadn’t walked more than 10 steps when his wife saw me holding up the bag and ran towards me with the biggest grin of relief and delight on her face that I’ve ever seen. I actually thought she would throw herself at me and knock me down! Instead she just hugged me and couldn’t thank me enough. Her husband too just kept shaking my hand. I had thought at first that they were Japanese but they turned out to be Chinese. He explained to me that as well as the 2 lenses in the bag, the other was a 300mm prime lens, there were cards in the bag with a months worth of photographs from their trip! I can fully understand how devastating it would be to lose something like that. So after a lot of furiously happy handshakes and hugs and him with his arm around my shoulders while his wife took a photo they went off only to return 10 minutes later when they saw us sitting in the van. I opened the door and they proceeded to thank us again and then the husband decided he would like to look around the van. It seems they don’t have anything like that in China! This really was an uplifting encounter with two lovely people and having done my good deed for the day I have to confess to feeling quite smugly good about myself.

What a lazy day today. We didn’t get out of bed till 9.00 am! Shock horror!! We’ve been using the internet while we’ve been away. The unit we bought from Motorhome wifi has been brilliant wherever we’ve been. Problem is the small wifi router is displaying a figure which I take to be data used and it currently stands at 48.4 GB. If I’m reading that right then it must mean our 50 GB allowance is almost gone and we don’t know for sure when or if it will refresh. So I decided to try to find out exactly what data we have left. This means registering for log in with Vodafone which I hadn’t thought to do before we left home. So you have to send off the phone number associated with the device (even though it’s not a phone!) and they send a code to that number which can’t be retrieved cos it’s not a pigging phone, stupid!

Eventually I resorted to going on their chat facility and found the very helpful Dinesh who managed to help me set up a user name and password. So now I can log on only to find that we already used 10GB from this months data which only started 3 days ago and that’s without even looking at any porn!👌. 50GB isn’t going to last long at that rate is it!

All that took us up to midday so we got ready to go out walking. This time we walked up the hill from the campsite towards the other glacier, the Melkevoll Glacier. It was quite a difficult path and I was worrying all the way about how Lynne would cope coming down. She always has a problem coming down when we’ve done a decent hike uphill. Coming down can sometimes take longer than going up because she has to be really careful of her dodgy knees. I’m her greatest admirer though because I’ve never known her to let that stop her doing it! Anyway, this time we didn’t get all the way mostly because we had no idea if there was anything at the end of this path and I thought the path was getting more dangerous along with a mist that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. So we headed back but not till I’d done some more photography. I’m really in my element up here and loving every minute of it. Todays only photo of note is of Volefossen on the campsite. I couldn’t resist using a bigger lens and slowing the exposure down so you get that nice milky effect.

Later we walked up to a gift shop which caters mainly to tourists coming by coach to the Briksdal Glacier. I bought myself a lovely Pair of fur-lined slipper socks! Woohoo, livin’ on the edge!😜 

Toasty feet R’us

Sadly we have to leave here tomorrow but I’m hoping this won’t be the last place in Norway that blows us away with its beauty. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve found myself just standing and staring in wonder at a waterfall or an epic view or the glacier. I’m already beginning to wonder about coming back next year!

We woke at 6.45 this morning to the sound of steadily falling rain. It didn’t stop all day. We decide to sit it out. Originally the plan had been to take a walk on a trail that starts right where we were parked and goes for almost 4 kilometres. It also promised fantastic views of the mountains on the other side of the valley but the heavy rain had rendered visibility almost zero. The mountains were a vague shape in the distance so we waited in the van and relaxed trying to decide what to do next. In the end we moved on at about 1.30 pm. It didn’t take long to reach Olden. From there we carried on out of the town which in spite of the fact that there seemed to be a lot of tourist coaches, looked pretty deserted. Not surprising really when you consider it hadn’t stopped raining all day.

The road up to Melkevoll Bretun was very narrow in places but there were plenty of passing places so oncoming traffic was never a problem. As we approached the campsite we could see how awesome the place was going to be. Looking ahead at the glacier and the surrounding mountains it was hard to imagine how the road could go much further. On arrival at the site we checked in for three nights which cost us 770 NOK after the cool dude on reception gave us a 5% discount for showing our Camping Key Europe card from the Caravan and Motorhome Club. The card cost us £7.50 so it paid for itself in one transaction.

Having checked in we went to look round and pick a pitch. We saw two British registrations on the site which surprised me because in the past two or three days we’d only seen a couple on the road. I filled the water tank and we chose a pitch further up the hill. We were surrounded by spectacular views in all directions, to the rear of the van   a massive waterfall that roared constantly. Right behind us a small river of fast-moving water making its way down to the lake. To the right a huge glacier called Melkevollbreen (Melkevoll Glacier) carving it’s way through the mountains and directly in front of us the Briksdal Glacier. To our left and down the valley you could see all the way to the Oldavatnet Lake nestled in amongst the mountains. I did some photography but conditions changed so quickly that I found it really difficult to capture anything I was really happy with. It just goes to show that just because you’re surrounded by magnificent scenery doesn’t mean it’s gonna be easy to photograph.

As I’m writing now we’ve just had our first full day here. We walked up to the Briksdal Glacier which according to the signposts was meant to be a 45 minute walk but took us more like 90 minutes with all the stops for photography. I took a number of photographs and was relatively pleased with the results but I have to say I don’t think Photographs or words can ever do this place justice. It’s almost impossible to convey the sheer size of the place. It truly is EPIC!

First photo is of Nellie (Lynne’ idea not mine. Women have to give names to everything!) at the campsite with the waterfall right behind. The waterfall is called Volefossen and is huge. I said before that a photo can’t do it justice, it’s just impossible to capture its sheer magnitude in a picture. We’re camped right by it and surprisingly  its relentless roar didn’t keep us awake although Lynne did think about asking what time it gets switched off at night.

Next is a picture of Briksdal Glacier taken with a longer lens from right by the van.

To finish off, a few photos from our walk up to the Briksdal Glacier. One is of another waterfall. I’ve deliberately left the woman in, in the bottom left hand corner to give a sense of scale. There are various information boards on the way up and one tells you that the water coming down is all melt water from the glacier and is flowing at a rate of 10,000 litres per second! Absolutely mind-blowing!

Here’s Lynne posing delightfully in front of the same waterfall.

Both of us at Briksdal Glacier.

Finally a shot down the valley from the campsite. I’d tried a few times to get a decent shot of this view but never was quite satisfied. With a wide-angle lens everything ends up looking too far away and it loses impact. This time I used a 70/200 mm lens at about 135 mm and took 6 shots to put together as a panorama. This compresses  the image and gives a better sense of the scale of the mountains!

We had a great day today, I did loads of photography in a place that I think is as awesome as anywhere I’ve been in my entire life so I was like the proverbial pig in muck. I’m not so sure Lynne was quite as happy as me but, hey ho, can’t have everything!! We have one more full day here so lets see what tomorrow brings!

We left Bergen this morning after deciding not to bother with a 3rd night. The camping was rather expensive at 285 NOK a night so we set off intending to wild camp tonight. We left at about 10.15 am. I wanted to head for Olden but the satnav wouldn’t let me enter an address there. So I put one in for Fjorde which is about halfway. Not sure what I thought my plan was after that but I was sure we could figure something out as we went along. What did we used to do before satnav’s? Well I suppose there were always maps!

We had to take another ferry along the way. Just the same as the other day, this ferry seemed to be a part of the E39 road. We drove straight on and within a minute or so the man came for payment. He asked how long was the vehicle and like a fool I said 6 meters. Then he started to say the fare would one hundred and something but quickly corrected himself and said it would be 300 NOK. Lynne duly paid and he handed her a receipt and walked away. As soon as she looked at the receipt she could see he had put us down as 6 to 7 meters. Well we have a laminated sheet that says we’re 5.999 meters! I took the sheet and the receipt and went to ask him if he had made a mistake. He quickly admitted it was wrong and gave me 160 NOK back.

I have to say that’s not a bad price difference based on a 1 millimetre difference in length! The crossing took something like 15 minutes at the most. We had sat in the van not even realising we were moving and suddenly the barrier at the front lowered and we were driving off. It wasn’t long before we were entering Klakegg, the destination I had chosen about halfway to where we actually wanted to go. I pulled into a supermarket car park and studied what to do next. The problem was when I put Olden in the sat nav then asked for a street name and I couldn’t find one. What I hadn’t noticed was that there was a small section I could have clicked on that said go straight to Olden! That’s me in Twat mode again. That seems to happen a lot! So now we had Olden in the satnav and we continued on our way. I lost count of the times she (the bitch in the satnav). I’ve got to stop saying that, but we don’t have a name for her. Anyway, I digress, she must have said a hundred times that the E39 was closed and tried to send us on all sorts of diversions. I ignored them all based on the fact that there was traffic including lorries in front of us all heading that way.

There were road works for at least 8 or 9 miles where traffic could only pass in single file but we came through it eventually and satnav girl stopped telling us the road was closed.

Once again we’ve passed through some incredible landscapes. We stopped at the roadside so I could photograph some rapids passing under a bridge. I never could resist falling water. We also stopped off at a lakeside or is it a fjord? Buggered if I know. Anyway there was a Salmon farm just off shore and with binoculars we watched them jumping out of the water and they looked enormous. I wonder if that was a vain attempt to escape or just something they do for fun?  There were many other occasions where I would have liked to stop for photographs but more often than not there was just nowhere you could stop. At about 4.30 pm we started looking for places to stay the night. Eventually we turned onto the FV60 at a place called Byrkjelo and almost immediately started to climb. About 4 miles later we had passed what I thought was the most dramatic scenery we had seen and I was desperately looking for somewhere to stop when we came across an official stop where we could camp for the night. As soon as we were parked we went off for a short hike to the top of a small hill (on the mountain, like a nipple on a tit) which I was hoping would give us good views over the valley below. The following photo is the result. Again it’s a panorama of 6 images stitched together in Photoshop.

Lynne did dinner as we hardly ate yesterday. We’re eating lots of salad and fish which can only be good. As I write we’re parked next to what I think is a French family in a motor home not too much bigger than the on we’re in which begs the question, where the hell are they all sleeping. What’s even more disconcerting is that they all seem to be taking it in turns walking around the car park brushing their teeth with what looks suspiciously like the same tooth brush! Strange lot the French!!