A long time has passed since we left Oslo and it has been full on, so I’ll try to reduce some of my usual waffle but can’t promise too much.
The beautiful sunny weather looked set to continue for the next few days as we left Oslo behind. We headed about 90kms away to a place called Kongsberg where we stopped at Max Camping, set in a lovely pine forested area with lakes and rivers bubbling through. The owner made a point in coming round and we discovered Max was in fact his father who had died 20 years ago. I took the opportunity to use the washing machine, while Colin did something very out of character and went for a dip in the lake. I think he regretted his stupidity pretty quickly.
The following morning, we drove a short distance to a small town called Notodden which has Norway’s largest wooden church, called Heddal Stave, dating back to 1147. It is a very striking structure with a tall turreted spire and set in a lovely location.
We picked up a leaflet here about a peak called Gaustatoppen which on a clear day (as it was this day) they say you can see one-sixth of Norway from its summit. Even more appealing is it has a cable car that saves you having to walk 8.6 km to it’s 6,300 ft peak. It was the most spectacular drive to it, along narrow winding roads lined with wild lupins, and as we climbed higher there were patches of snow on the roadside. The cable car turned out to be a funicular railway running up inside the mountain like no other found in Europe. It is a battery powered carriage that transports passengers around 850m horizontally into the mountain. At this point we had to change onto another line that runs upwards at an angle of 39 degrees for over 1,000m. After disembarking there were steps up a few more hundred metres to the viewpoints. There were no handrails, so it felt unusually exposed, but we did enjoy the expansive views.
We were surprised to see that there was more to this structure than just a tourist facility. As the mountain is much higher than nearby ones, it is very suitable for radio comms for the armed forces. When it opened in 1959, it was commandeered as a NATO facility during the Cold War. It’s exact use by NATO we don’t seem to be able to find out.
We headed back down to a pleasant town called Dalen which sits at the end of the 65-mile-long Telemark Canal. The town wasn’t anything special, but after quite a long day behind the wheel we decided to park up in a car park on the waterfront and get the Brompton’s out for a spin in the evening sun. We called in at the Dalen Hotel, described as a storybook sight, set in lovely surroundings. We had a drink on their lawn before heading back to Lo11y.
We had another long but stunning day behind the wheel. After a steep climb out of Dalen, our route took us on roads with stunning lakes and snow topped peaks in the distance. We passed lots of houses with grass roofs which Norway is famous for. We deviated off towards a place called Lysebotn where we had planned to park that evening. It sits at the end of the beautiful 26 mile Lysefjorden which was formed by huge glaciers in the Ice Age and is surrounded by big mountains. Again, the road was stunning and quite hard driving for Colin on the narrow sections where we could only pass other vehicles in passing areas. We stopped at the visitor centre for the start of the Kjeragbolten hike which takes you to the famous photo spot of a boulder wedged between two cliffs which intrepid hikers stand on to have their photo taken. We both agreed we don’t have the head for heights to do this, and we decided we would make our way to the other traveller bucket list hike at Preikestolen.
We retraced our steps along the windy road and pulled over by a nice lakeside spot for a couple of hours to take it easy for the first time on this trip. We continued on to a place called Sandnes where a ferry takes vehicles over the fjord and within striking distance of Preikestolen car park. The weather forecast looked perfect for the following day, and as one of the most popular hikes in Norway, made even more famous by Tom Cruise climbing the cliff face in a Mission Impossible film, we knew we had to get there early to get a parking space.
We made sure we were on the first ferry at 6.15am. When we arrived at the visitor centre we got one of the last motorhome parking spaces available (a big thanks to the two English driven motorhomes for making space for us), so it was a good decision. We had breakfast in Lo11y before setting off on the hike. It is a four kilometre hike to the lookout called Pulpit Rock, which is a flat topped cliff sitting 604 metres above Lysefjord. The flat area is about 25m square and again with no handrails on a windy day we stayed clear of the vertical drop-off. The trail was very well constructed and there were sections of rocky steps which levelled out to flat sections of stones or wooden walkways. Although we were there early, the trail was pretty busy although not as bad as our return journey when the tour groups had arrived. We were rewarded with stunning views at the top. The walk back down wasn’t easier than coming up, with big uneven steps to navigate and bottlenecks of hikers coming up. It had taken us around 4 ½ hours in total which wasn’t bad.
Our next destination was Stavanger, a town that has expanded on the back of the oil industry and is today Norway’s fourth city and renowned for its food. We took the faster route which took us through long tunnels (some 13 km long) and some with roundabouts in the middle. The engineering of Norways tunnels is mind-boggling. We have registered for toll collections on an App, but it doesn’t show what we have incurred so far, which I think is going to be a shock when the first invoice arrives.
We’d not planned on stopping the night in Stavanger, but as we tried to find a central parking area we were turned away being told the road was closed and by chance we found ourselves at the only official motorhome parking spot by the port. There were no spaces, but as we sat debating what to do, a German van let us know he was leaving, so once parked up we decided we might as well park for the night.
My legs and feet were feeling the effects of the hike, so I was relieved we were only stones throw to the central area around the harbour. What we hadn’t realised is there was a big festival in full flow, and there were food stalls set out all around the harbour and the place was mobbed. We think it was the Gladmat Food festival which attracts huge numbers of visitors to tuck into street food.
We weaved our way around the crowds and eventually found ourselves outside the Oil Museum. Colin was very keen to visit this and find out more about how oil and gas has made Norway one of the richest countries in the world. I would normally be up for this, but the thought of walking round a museum when it was hot and sunny outside and my legs were starting to malfunction made me decide to sit outside while Colin went in. Of course, within 10 minutes I experienced FOMO, even more so when Colin came out and told my how interesting it had been.
Colin's top takeaway facts:
The latest drilling platforms in the North Sea have ten storeys of accommodation (see photo of model below)
Norway knew when it started drilling for oil and gas that it would eventually run out one day, so they created a wealth fund which is run by the government and is invested in sustainable and environmentally sound businesses around the world excluding Norway and is currently worth 1,600 billion dollars. For example, they own 8% of Tesla.
In the 1970's when the first workers on the oil rigs earned well above the average wages, they would come home on leave and buy American muscle cars which still seems to be a hobby as we see quite a few of these on the roads in Norway.
After a freshen up we headed back into the thronging crowds. A lot of the food stalls were doing burgers and waffles which wasn’t really what we fancied. Eventually we found an enclosed area and spotted a space at a table, where the locals kindly offered to shift up to let us in. We ordered some drinks and enjoyed soaking up the lively atmosphere of people relaxing with a few drinks on a beautiful summer evening. The ladies next to us started chatting to us. They said they were from a town called Bryne not far from Stavanger. They said that is where Erling Harland was from, and their claim to fame is that they used to babysit his father. The husband of one of them was the trotting champion of Norway – we felt bad we didn’t have anything interesting about us to rival these. On the way back to Lo11y we stopped at a food stall doing Indian street food and had some tasty snacks.
The next day the fine warm weather had sadly come to a halt. We headed to an island called Karmoy which we had planned to cycle around. After several tunnels, bridges and a ferry we reached the island. We couldn’t work out what the weather was going to do – there were big black rain clouds one side and sunshine the other. We called in at the main island town of Kopervik and there was a quick downpour. We still debated whether to get the bikes out, but there was 40 mph winds forecast and we thought better of it. Instead, we drove to the most southerly point called Skudeneshavn which sounded like an interesting place. Of course, it didn’t rain and the cycle path and roads looked tremendous. The little town of Skudeneshavn was charming – white timber houses and a nice harbour area. We visited the smallest café in the world – we’re not sure if that is true, but it was cozy and we had a brown cheese pancake, followed by a freshly bake cinnamon bun. After following a walking trail around the town, we headed back up the island and called in at a place called Avaldnes where there was a historic church and Viking Farm to visit. Unfortunately, as we pulled up the heavens opened and by the time we made it back to Lo11y we were totally drenched.
We had to change into dry clothes before heading into a town called Haugesund to purchase a Norwegian SIM card. Our easiest attempt at this yet – the assistant talked perfect English, registered it and sent us on our way within 10 minutes, and when we put it in our truck router it worked!!
Our destination today was to meet up with our Norwegian friends, Monica and Luiza (who is actually Polish) just a few miles from Haugesund. We met them on a cycling holiday in Albania in 2016, coincidentally while the Euros were being played. We had a really enjoyable time with them, and over the years we’ve kept in touch by the odd email here and there. Before our trip we thought we must contact them to see if we could meet up in Norway, but they beat us to it when they contacted us in March to say they were coming to the UK the first week in June for a cycling holiday from Oxford to Bath. Originally, we thought we would have already set off to Scandinavia by then, but our house sale put our departure date back and we did manage to meet up with them in Bibury in the Cotswolds and cycle part of the way to Cirencester with them It was great to see them again and they said we should call by in Norway if it fitted with our timings.
Luckily it did work out, so we rolled up onto Monica’s drive where we think we shocked them how large Lo11y is. They gave us the most wonderful hospitality. Within five minutes of arriving, we had a glass of Monica’s home-made wine in our hands, and the food and drink just kept coming over the next few hours. We had a Norwegian potato dish with chunks of ham and sausage in it. This was accompanied by pureed kohlrabi and washed down with sparkling wine and aquavit (a strong spirit drunk in Scandinavia). We had fresh prawns and crab, and a tasty Norwegian dessert, again all washed down with wine and port. It was a terrific night (from what we can remember…). We were introduced to Monica’s collection of military hats from around the world and fridge magnets. Colin bailed out first which was probably just as well as us ladies went on to have a serious discussion on the joy of menopause into the small hours.
It was a slow start the next day, and they sent us off with a good breakfast and lots of good tips on where we should visit after leaving them. We hope we can return some of their hospitality when they are over in the UK again.
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