Along the Norwegian Coast

Miles on trip: 4104 miles

Countries: 8

Days on trip: 35

Number of ferries taken in Norway: 10

After having spent a fair amount of time at the fjords it was time to make some distance up north. After all we don’t want to spend the entire year in Norway (although there would be plenty to see). We could take the quick route up north – via the E6, but then again we weren’t in that much of a rush either and we wanted to see the landscape rather than take the quickest way up.

Our first road along the coast was the Atlanterhavsvegen. To get there we had to get two ferries. They were both short and ran frequently. So it was just a matter of turning up and waiting a couple of minutes. Eventually we made it to Bud, the start of the Atlanterhavsvegen tourist route, and then drove up along the coast enjoying the Atlantic on our left. The scenery was completely different to the fjords. You felt like you were close to the ocean (okay, not a surprise) and everything was pretty flat. There were a lot of rocky islands or peninsulars and one of them had a pretty impressive bridge going over it. You drove 30m over the Atlantic with a view of mainly water (and a bit of land) on both sides.

We stayed in Kristiansund (at a camp site) over night and then drove further up north the next day. For the next few hundred miles there wouldn’t be any tourist routes but we kept driving along the coast towards Trondheim. Near Trondheim is a town called Hell. There isn’t much about Hell, except for the name but since it was only a detour of 10km, we figured it was worth a visit and since we needed somewhere to stay the night we thought why not find something in or near Hell. This is where we found our best wild camping spot so far. We found somewhere in the woods, away from the road, right next to a lake and a little stream. The spot also had a little bench and people had previously been there and had a camp fire. So after our dinner (bbq’ed salmon) we decided to collect some wood and get the fire going. With the heat from the fire, the beautiful view and a nice glass of wine this was definitely not hell.

To get to the start of our next tourist route, Helgelandskysten, we had to go a bit further north and take another ferry. We have now officially entered Northern Norway. Helgelandskysten is the longest of the tourist routes with 433km and has 5 ferries along the route. It jumps to different islands and peninsulars past farmed country side, rocky islands and beautiful ocean views. It also crosses the arctic circle (on a ferry). Martin was especially excited about that since he had been asking Andi for several hours whether we had already crossed it.

We stayed mainly on the tourist route but there are a lot of people who come here to cycle and hop to the different islands. Andi could definitely see that charm in it, especially when she found out that one of the islands has puffins.

Our next stop would be Lofoten and we had several options of getting there. From Bodo there are ferries to Moskenes, in the south of Lofoten. The ferry ride is supposed to be a little rough and takes 3-4 hours. It is recommended that you book in advance because otherwise you will have to wait for several hours at the port. Another option is to drive all the way north and then south down the Lofoten. However, since that’s quite a bit of driving, fuel money and time (we wanted to make it north to catch the end of the midnight sun) we decided on the ferry.

However, the fast 3-4 hours ferries were all fully booked when we went online the day before. So it was either drive all the way to Lofoten, spend a night in Bodo to take a booked ferry the following day, wait in Bodo and get a ferry at midnight or book a 7.5h very via Rost and Vaeroy (two islands). We decided to go for the long ferry. So at 8.30pm the day before we started booking that ferry. Bookings had to be done by 9pm. Plenty of time, except everything was in Norwegian and we had to google translate it all so that we’d book the right thing. (Of course we translated and read all the T&Cs.) Flipping back and forth between google translate and the website we were finally ready to press the last button at 8.55pm. Right then our roaming decided to give up and we had no more 3G. Luckily it came back a few min later and we didn’t have to resubmit the form. All good.

The next day we had one more short ferry to get to Bodo and then the big 7.5h one. The ferry to Moskenes wasn’t the most luxurious one but we played on our phones, watched an episode of Top Gear and did some route planning. When stopping at Rost and Vaeroy we were planning on taking some photos of the islands but visibility was pretty bad so that you could barely see what was in front of you. Luckily as we entered Lofoten the view got a bit better and it was a spectacular way to arrive in Moskenes. Nice rocky islands and the layers of cloud gave the place some sense of mystery.

The next day we explored the Lofoten. We started in A, the village furthest south and then drove up north via a few detours. The scenery was stunning with amazing views. Driving through different parts the weather kept changing. In some areas there was terrible visibility and then a couple of minutes later it was nice and sunny, blue sky. There were also some lovely, white, sandy beaches. With the sunny weather they looked very inviting so we dipped our feet in. Okay, water temperatures aren’t quite those as in southern countries but at least we can say we were in the arctic water. (Others were braver and went in completely.)

One of the detours we did in the Lofoten was to Henningsvaer, also named the Venice of the Lofoten. There were a few bridges (of course) and more lovely views and since it was close to the end of the day and the sun was shining we splashed out and enjoyed a Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. Life is good.

This was also the last stop in the Lofoten. From here on our journey would take us further inland.

The Land of Fjords

Miles on trip: 3106 miles

Countries: 8 (+ Norway)

Days on trip: 29

Number of hairpin bends up or down mountains: eerrrr maybe 80?

Everybody says Norway has breath taking scenery. Martin had never been to Norway and Andi had only been to Stavanger and Oslo airport hotel (if that counts). Our plan was to explore the country by visiting the fjords and then driving all the way up north.

Initially the first stop was meant to be Oslo. However, given that, as before, cities are difficult with Baloo and nobody said Oslo is a must see we went straight to Eidfjord. Eidfjord is at the edge of the Hardangervidda national park and at the tip of what was going to be our first fjord. The road there was amazing.  We passed mountain lakes, drove over Northern Europe’s largest mountain plateau (via lots of hairpin bends), saw a landscape partly covered in snow (1300m above sea level), drove past one of Norway’s most famous visited waterfalls (Voringsfossen) and finally saw our first fjord. Only at the end did we realise that a lot of the way we were on one of Norwegians national tourist routes. Tourist routes are specific routes in Norway with very nice scenery, passing by the most spectacular landscapes. And in fact our plan for the rest of the time in Norway was to follow as many of these routes as we could – following the advice that Norway is not about the destination but the scenery in between.

In Eidfjord we stayed at a camp site right next to the fjord and we put ourselves as close to the water as we could. It was very pretty. Our first day in Norway did not disappoint!

The next day we decided that despite avoiding cities we should head to Bergen as the gate to the fjords. Leaving Eidfjord we first drove along the fjord a little bit and then along the Hardanger national tourist route. Again it went up into the very pretty mountain area (via hairpin bends) and past waterfalls – one of them we could even walk behind the waterfall. Whilst up in the mountains Baloo got attacked by a sheep. We’re not entirely sure why but thought that maybe the person who feeds the sheep usually drives up there in a land rover. Anyway, with Martin’s best sheep impression we managed to scare the sheep away and continue on our route.

This was also the first day we decided to try proper wild camping. So far we always stayed at campsites but to get the full experience and also to save some money we were planning on wild camping a lot more. You can’t really wild camp in Bergen. So about 50km out of Bergen we thought we should look for something. We didn’t really know how to go about doing it so we just drove into a smaller side road and looked for a place where we could put ourselves for the night. We found a spot next to a not so busy road. It wasn’t the prettiest but we decided it would do. We had dinner and watched an episode of Gotham on our computer when a Norwegian dad and his daughter passed by, stopped and said hello. They clearly knew what we were doing (it’s quite common in Norway) and told us that if we drive 5min further down the road there is an abandoned power station next to a lake. It’s away from the road, we have our own space and a lovely view on the lake. We followed their recommendation and indeed, we found the spot and it was much nicer than what we had before. With a lovely view on the lake we enjoyed the last few hours in the evening and then went to sleep.

The next day we drove into Bergen, however, parking was difficult. Part of the problem is that Baloo is a little taller than most normal cars. So we can’t just go into any car park as they usually have height restrictions. Anyway, eventually we found somewhere where we could stay for 1h. It wasn’t much but at least we could check out the fish market, Bryggen and Bergenhus before we continued our journey.

The wild camping experiment the night before went pretty well but to be able to wild camp much more we’d have to buy a few more water containers. We had several big ones which we got from Craig (the guy who we got Baloo from) but they were pretty old, needed a decent wash and since we couldn’t find anything good to sterilise them with we decided to buy a new container. To fill up the container we decided to go back to normal camping for a night. We stayed in Gudvangen, pretty close to a waterfall. Once more a lovely spot to spend the night.

From Gudvangen we took the Aurlandsfjettet, another tourist route. Via some hairpin bends Baloo slowly managed his way up to the top. At Stegastein there was a lovely viewpoint on the fjord and from then onwards we again enjoyed the lovely mountain plateau, snow, fast flowing wild rivers, and being far away from cities. (We can’t exactly say far away from people because there are enough tourists.)

Once we descended from the top we drove towards Vettisfossen. One of the brochures we picked up said there is a nice 1h walk to the waterfall and since we had done a fair amount of driving Andi thought it would be nice to walk a little. However, when we got to the car park the waterfall was 2h away – each way. So instead we decided to do some of the walk and then head back, just to get to walk a little. This is as close as we got to Jotunheimen national park. There are supposed to be lovely hikes there, especially along the Besseggen ridge but we decided to give it a miss.

The plan was then to wild camp somewhere. We decided to put the next destination in our sat nav and wild camp somewhere on the way. Little did we know that this route would get us back up on the mountain. We weren’t planning on going up hairpin bends again. Partly because we thought it would be nice to call it a day and partly because these hairpin bends and 10% inclination ascents and descents aren’t the easiest for Baloo. He makes it, just not very fast – at one point even a bus thought he had to overtake us. Anyway, whilst we could wild camp at the top it also was quite a bit colder up there. So we had to wait until we were down in the valley again. Eventually we managed to find somewhere to stay the night. It was near a fjord with very turquoise water. The turquoise water is something we’d see a lot more the next few days.

We were now close to Jostedalbreen national park. This is a national park with lots of glaciers. You can only get on the glaciers with a guide for safety reasons. We had previously done a glacier walk in Iceland (which was amazing!) so for this trip just driving up close to the glacier was enough. Also, it was raining, so we didn’t a fancy a 4h hike and getting soaking wet. In Fjaerland there are two spots where the glaciers come all the way to the road. We went to visit them both and saw at least some of Supphellebreen glacier and Boyabreen glacier.

From there we headed to Loen to find somewhere to stay the night. Again, all the water there was turquoise and eventually we found a great spot away from the road, right next to the turquoise water with some small purple flowers in front. Another successful wild camping spot.

The next day was going to be our last big Fjord: Geirangerfjord. We drove there along the Gamle Strynefjellsvegen – another national tourist route. The road itself is 100 years old and was build with manual labour. So the scenery, as well as the road was an attraction. Again, beautiful landscapes and a road that once more got us up in the mountain (via hairpin bends) and when we descended back into the valley we saw Geiranger. There aren’t many roads into or out of Geiranger, except via the mountains and since we didn’t want to climb up another mountain we decided to spend some time in Geiranger and then find somewhere to stay.

Since it was raining we first spent time in the souvenir shop. There was a bit cruise ship in the harbour, so the shop was absolutely rammed and it was difficult to walk anywhere. But once the cruise guys started to board the boat again and the rain stopped we walked up to a waterfall and then found a place along one of the roads to stay the night. We had a nice view on Geiranger (fjord and village) and could wave the cruise ship good bye.

As we were leaving town the next day we once more had a view over the fjord and had our last big mountain ascent and descent for a while. We drove along the Geiranger – Trollstigen tourist route. Beautiful views and just before heading back down the mountain we got a very good view of what a road with lots of hairpin bends looks like. This was at the Trollstigen view point. –The people there clearly are trying to make money out of this whole troll thing. There are statues everywhere and you can buy your own little trolls in all the shops.

Right, we’ve had enough fjord in our life for a bit so thought let’s check out what other scenery Norway has to offer.

Off to Scandinavia – Are we still in Northern Germany?

Miles on trip: 2240 miles

Countries: 7 (+ Denmark & Sweden)

Days on trip: 23

 

There is an overland way to Denmark. However, since we want to make it down to the Balkans (after Scandinavia and the Baltic States) when it’s still warm there we had to take a short cut and got a ferry from Fehmann (Germany) to Rodby (Denmark). The ferry was pretty similar to the one from the UK to France. It took about 45min, you got out of the car and had the opportunity to buy all sorts of stuff on board.

Our first (and only) stop in Denmark was Mons Klint which was about 1h drive from Rodby. Getting off the ferry the landscape still pretty much looked like Northern Germany. Okay, it’s not like we were particularly far away from Germany. But still, Andi wanted to see something new. The drive to Mons Klint was very nice though. We drove over lots of islands (connected by little bridges) and always had water on our left and right.

 

Arriving at Mons Klint we found a camp site – and a good one as well: free wifi, free showers, free mini golf, free table football, free tennis, free bouncy castle, … Not bad! And a great location to hike to Mons Klint from the next day. Mons Klint is a large chalk cliff. The walking path led through some woodland, along the edge of the cliff (where the path constantly had to be changed when more of the cliff eroded) and then we had a nice stretch at the bottom of the chalk cliff … until the path ran out and only resumed 100m later after wading through water.

In the evening we had a little mini golf competition (we drew) and table football (Andi won) and then we met a guy called Dennis from the UK. He is really into kayaking and regularly goes to Norway to explore the waters there. Meeting him was great. He gave us some good advice on where to stay in Norway and suggested going to Glaskogen in Sweden (which was conveniently on our way).

 

Originally our plan from Mons Klint onwards looked quite different. We were going to visit Copenhagen (Denmark), Kalmar (Sweden) and Gothenburg (Sweden). However, cities are quite difficult to do with Baloo. Finding parking is always a pain. On the other hand, cities are easy to do for long weekends once we have a job again. (And also Andi had already been to Copenhagen.) Anyway, so we gave Copenhagen a miss. Kalmar would have been nice but a bit out of the way. Also, you can’t go to Kalmar and not make the few extra miles to pop over to Gotland. Gotland is definitely still on our list of things to visit but since it was out of the way and would take a little too much time we decided to keep that one for a future holiday as well. And Gothenburg, well nobody really said anything too positive about it, so that eliminated that one.

 

Instead of the original plan we headed straight over the Oresund bridge to get from Denmark to Sweden. The bridge is pretty impressive with the border of the two countries right down the middle. In Sweden we first stopped at Moelle. We didn’t know much about it really but it had some nice pictures on the internet, was on the way and since we didn’t have a better plan – why not? Moelle is at a tip of land that stretches into the Baltic and right at the edge is Kullaberg. So the next day we did a little hike out there. We walked down to a cave and to the edge with the light house and some amazing rocky landscape reaching out into the sea. It was very nice just to sit there for a little bit and stare into the distance … until it was time to leave and head to Tjoern.

Tjoern is an Island in Sweden. It’s a little bit too big to walk around so instead we had a drive around Tjoern and Orust, the neighbouring island. The scenery was very pretty (you’ll soon get bored of us saying it because so far all the scenery has been stunning). It was nice to see the variety of beach, rock, yacht harbours and forest in such a small area.

It’s all been very pretty so far but probably so far all places that could resemble different parts in Northern Germany (or maybe Andi is biased). So far we stayed pretty close to the water. However, this was going to change soon. We drove to Glaskogen nature reserve which is in country. On the way there we drove through some deep forests with a few lakes occasionally but mainly trees. Finally it felt like we had definitely left Northern Germany … and maybe entered some other part of Germany (only kidding). The campsite in Glaskogen was recommended by Dennis (the guy from Mons Klint). It took us quite a while to find it but was definitely worth it. It was right in the national park where we had a nice spot in the woods by a lake. Facilities were basic. The toilet was a hole in the ground and the water you had to pump up manually – and forget about warm water.

 

The next day we had a nice hike in the park. Granted we didn’t quite manage the way we had planned because we got lost but instead we did the culture walk which was very kids friendly and had a few question and activity points along the way, like: what tree does this leaf belong to?, can you hug a tree?, who can throw cones the furthest? So whilst not quite as planned it was still a very nice walk and had some really nice stretches along the calm and remote lakes.

This was our final stop in Sweden for now. Depending on how we get on we may enter Sweden again up north but for now: Good-bye Sweden, we’re off to Norway. (Spoiler alert: since it’s taken us so long to find suitable wifi, we can now reveal that we did in fact enter Sweden again further up north.)

 

Home Sweet Home – Germany

Total number of miles since start of trip: 1479

Countries driven in: 5 (+Germany)

Oil changes in Germany: 3

There are a few very important stops we wanted to make in Germany. The first one was visiting Andi’s aunt, Annette, in Glandorf (near Osnabrueck). We proudly showed her Baloo, looked through our wedding photos and toasted with some wedding champagne. It was a little wedding celebration to share the moment with Annette.

The next day we went into Glandorf city centre – okay more like village centre. Martin was impressed with the size of Glandorf after imagining it more to be the size of Lower Withington, where he is from. Shops, post office, and church are all in walking distance. Most importantly though it has an ice cream place in the centre. So we sat down, had an ice cream and enjoyed the sunny day. It was a nice little treat, although not like we can complain that we didn’t get treats throughout the day. We had some cake and in the evening we had a BBQ. It was a really nice stay. Thanks, Annette, for a lovely stay at yours.

Also on our list of places to visit was Wolfsburg, which was well situated half way between Glandorf and Dresden (where Andi’s parents live). Also, Margret, Andi’s mum, works in Wolfsburg. So we could visit her and spend the evening getting a tour of the town, see all of Margret’s favourite places, check out a big outlet and visit the Autostadt (“car city”). Wolfsburg is the main town of Volkswagen. So of course everything there is all around cars. In the Autostadt there were a few car museums. One of them was about the history of cars, starting with the very first motorised vehicle all the way to modern cars and even concept cars. We found a few nice cars, including the first 4x4WD. However, at the end of it we decided to stick with our Baloo.

In the evening we had a wonderful meal with Margret and then enjoyed a circus performance before heading back to the hotel and to bed. Some people have to work the next day. – That’s Margret, not us. 😉

The next stop in Germany was Dresden. We of course wanted to stay at Andi’s parents and show them Baloo before we drive off into the distance. Also, we had to do a few admin things here. Andi had to get her international driving license. And we also became residents. So we are now resident in two countries. Wohoo. And Martin can say he’s living in Germany.

Whilst in Dresden we also had a little get together with friends and Andi turned 30.

Overall we had a very nice time there. Thanks to Margret and Karl-Heinz for spoiling us.

Before leaving the UK we had already decided to send Baloo through a service – just to have another check and also to change the oil. Rather than waiting in the UK and doing it there, Karl-Heinz, Andi’s dad, kindly arranged for a garage in Dresden to look at it. During the service there were a few other things that came to our attention, like new brake pads and some sealants, which we got done at the same time. The oil we wanted for Baloo was 10W40 but when we got the car back (oil change #1), they had put in 5W30, which isn’t viscous enough for us. We called them back and when they realised their mistake they did another oil change (#2) to give us the right oil.

So with the right oil in, we left Dresden on Tuesday, 5^th July. We were now heading up north towards Denmark. But since that’s a bit far in one go for our little Baloo we decided to stop in Schwerin on the way up north. We found a nice campsite by the lake and a supermarket nearby. From now on all the countries are going to get more and more expensive, so we decided to stock up a little.

The next morning we did our normal pre-drive checks including all the fluid levels. We saw that the oil level on the dip stick was significantly over the H mark and well within the danger zone. We got quite worried since we just had the oil change and there shouldn’t be more in there. Also, the oil was very light, much lighter than we were used to. We called the garage and they said it’s all fine. The dip stick they said is the wrong one and we should use the home made grooves and the oil is light because it has just had two oil changes and therefore two clean-outs.

Hmmm, we were still a little worried as this was definitely not the level we had previously checked for. So we found the nearest garage and explained the situation. The garage was run by Russians. And they suggested we can drain the oil to see exactly how much is in there. So that’s what we did. They didn’t have any measuring cylinders but they took a few bottles, cut them open so that the oil could pour in and we could use them as rough measurements. In this case we were wondering whether it was 7l in there or 14l – so this rough style was fine and practical. They poured the oil out, getting quite a bit on themselves in the process. Indeed it was 7l. Phew, so it looks like the explanation with the dip stick was right and our main worry (diesel in the oil) was not the case.

The garage poured the oil back in and made a few more marks on our dip stick and all was good. (Oil change #3 although technically we poured the same oil back in.)

All was good. They didn’t want any money. So we gave them some beer. And it was interesting to see the dynamic between the Russian mechanics. Even though we may not make it to Russia we now know a bit what it may have been like to send the car to a mechanic in Russia (except for that communication in Russia may have been much harder).

Lack of internet

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of wifi here. And even when we have some internet it isn’t good enough to load stories and pictures. However, as soon as it is possible we’ll update you all again.

 

In the meantime, we’re now in Norway. We left Germany just over a week ago, spent time in Denmark (Mons Klint), Sweden (Moelle, Tjoern, Glaskogen) and now driving through the beautiful Norwegian countryside (Ovre Eidfjord, Bergen and now near Sognefjord).

 

Baloo is doing great and we are getting used the the camping lifestyle. Last night was our first night wild camping (took us a few nights to make sure we were prepared).