The Full Circle

 Hard to believe that our week in Norway has almost finished.  We are staying in a hotel near Oslo airport before returning the rental car and flying back to London tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing Ella again.

We left Fagernes this morning under a grey and cloudy sky, a big difference to the glorious sunshine of yesterday.  Our journey took us mainly thorough valleys, as we slowly made our way back down to sea level.  Driving though the lower, forest covered mountains, was a pretty contrast to the grandeur of the mountains.  The colours of the fir trees, blending with the bright now growth of the deciduous tress was really lovely.  We started to see more blossom and spring flowers as well.

The other difference was that many of the houses and buildings are painted different colours compared with further north.  Lots of white and mustard, most of which had clearly been recently painted.  We also couldn't believe the amazing public toilets - one we stopped at today was fully tiled and heated and was on an open stretch of road that didn't seem to be particularly busy.  

Our first thought, arriving back in Oslo, was that it reminded up of Auckland in the way that it is built around the harbour.  Thank goodness for GPS as we negotiated our way thought the labyrinth of roads and tunnels.

We did mange to find our way to Oslo old town.  There are a few streets that are still cobbled and have quaint little houses painted in an array of colours.  Nice to see more spring flowers and to meet a local cat who allowed me to give it a scratch - the first and only Norwegian cat we have had the pleasure of meeting.

The city was busy, as you would expect for the Saturday afternoon, on a long weekend, but we couldn't believe the queues of people lining up to get into the hotels, cafes and bars that we passed by.  Guess that happens in cities!

Finally made our way to the hotel where we will be sorting and repacking before the last part of the journey tomorrow.  

National Worker's Day

 So far we haven't had any mishaps during our travels thankfully, but today was a near miss.

We left our cabin and drove back to Lom to visit the Stave Church.  It was built of wood around 1170 and is one of the oldest churches in Norway.  The brown wooden exterior and triple nave helps to make it look really impressive.  Unfortunately were weren't able to go inside, but walking around the ancient gravestones gave a fascinating insight into the length of time that some families have been in the area.

On our way again, we headed toward the Valdresflye Pass that climbs to 1389 metres.  About 30 km into the drive we stopped to look at a frozen lake and David discovered that he no longer had his phone.  So, off we went, back to the church in Lom and, thankfully, the phone was sitting in the grass.  Bit of time wasted but a positive outcome in the end.

Back to the pass where we drove past more frozen lakes, snow walls alongside the road and lots of trees.  Definitely more growth on the mountains the further south we have travelled.  Today's picnic alongside a frozen lake was abandoned because of the cold wind.  Temperature varied from a low of 3 degrees to a high of 18.  We even needed the AC on for a short time.

The amount of traffic today was significantly increased from all previous days and we passed many, many cars parked along the pass, with people cross country skiing.  We drove through Beitostolen, a mountain village popular for skiing and hiking, and had a massive ski lift right in the middle of the township.  The houses were very pretty nestled amongst the trees, with now on their roofs.

Once through the Pass, we drove along another valley toward, our destination for tonight.  We are staying in a campground on the shores of Lake Strondafjorden, in a cabin without a grass roof!  This is a really popular holiday spot, especially as it is only three hours northwest of Oslo.  Lots of permanent caravans, camper vans and cabins.  

When we went out to find a supermarket to stock up, we discovered that today is National Worker's Day, a public holiday.  No wonder everything was so busy today.  We managed to find enough food for dinner and will restock tomorrow.

We were very excited that the camp ground had a public washing machine and dryer.  Apparently not a thing in Norway as everyone has access to washing facilities in their homes.  I did read that a laundromat would go out of business very quickly here.

Lots of people out enjoying the sunshine but did notice that no-one was brave enough to go swimming.

A Cabin With Grass on the Roof

 It's easy to run out of superlatives when trying to describe what we are seeing each day.

We left Stryn driving toward the Lom region, expecting to be travelling through valleys with the possibility of a few tunnels just for good measure.  Instead we found ourselves climbing up through the Strynefjellet mountain pass, that did include some tunnels, and travelling along the Gable Strynefjellsvegen scenic route.  It was originally built as the main road.  There was still plenty of snow around and lots of frozen lakes.  It was amazing to see houses in a region that seemed so isolated and bleak, but clearly comes to life in the summer.  Lots of evidence of boating and fishing in the area.  A very pleasant picnic lunch break on a lake shore.

Continuing through Fossbergom, we headed to the Sognefjellet Pass, which reaches a summit of 1,434 metres.  We started in the valley where it was green and lush and ended up at the top of the pass, with snow walls on either side of the road and barely enough room to pass ongoing cars.  Near the top we came across 50 plus cars parked along the side of the road where people were heading off alpine skiing and rock climbing.  It must have been a well known spot for locals as it seemed like a pretty random place for so many people to have gathered.  The views were stunning and the drive what we have come to expect over the last few days.  

We are staying at Sugared Storrvik, about 14 km from Lom, surrounded by national parks, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  It is a heritage farm stay with log cabins that have grass roofs.  The farm buildings are amazing, so dating back to the 1600s and has been in the same family for 21 generations.  The cabins were built in the 1980s from logs harvested from the farm.  Clearly he was smart enough to realise that tourism was heading this way and was a good way to increase income from the farm.  Now 80% of people who stay are from across the world with a significant number from the Middle East.  The only down side is that there are two very low doors into the cabin and both of us have managed to hit our head on them - talk about slow learners!  Another day of awesome scenery. 

Blueberries and Glaciers

Last night we had a stunning view of the fiord and mountains and this morning woke up to it being completely blocked by a large cruise ship, anchored about 100 meters in front of our hotel.  Bit of a surprise!

Quite mild as we set off toward Stryn, our stop off for the night.  From Molde we caught a ferry across to Vestnes, a crossing of 38 minutes.  As we are becoming used to, it was an efficient and pleasant way to connect to the next stage of our journey.

This country is incredible, just when you think that it can't get any more picturesque, you round another corner to find more snow capped mountains, valleys starting to burst into spring colours, fiords with water like glass or quaint houses painted in so many different colours.  We drove through lots of different tunnels, the longest bing 6.5 km long, and one with another tunnel intersecting in the middle.  It was tempting to turn into the second one, just to see where it went - we didn't!  Plenty of photo opportunities.

Our aim for this afternoon was to walk to the Briksdalbreen glacier, near Stryn.  This is clearly another significant tourists attraction and the camp grounds and other tourism ventures are preparing for the busy season.  It reminded us again of how lucky we are to be here in shoulder season.  The drive to the glacier was narrow, windy and full of locals who don't slow down, but we made it safely.

The walk was about five kilometres with a couple of good climbs.  When we set off, a bus load of tourists arrived, were loaded about some golf cart type vehicles, and driven up stop about 500 metres from the end of the trail.  Much easier than our climb.  The bush was pretty with its new growth and the woodland anemone blanketed the ground amongst the moss covered moraine.   While we were watching a few large pieces of ice broke off the glacier face,  The sound echoing around the valley was something else.  I wouldn't like to be there if a really big piece fell.

As we travel south signs of spring are becoming increasingly obvious.  Today was so mild, think we got up to 18 degrees.  Mind you, apparently it snowed in Stryn, last Friday, so think we have just been lucky.  Today was such a contrast from the bitter cold of the Atlantic Highway yesterday.

Our food find of the day were blueberries that would be close to the biggest and sweetest we have ever eaten.  Another awesome day.

Heading North

 We woke to a very brisk -2 degree morning after a pleasant stopover in our little cabin.  New Zealand could learn a lot from the Norwegian buildings as a similar type cabin would never be as toasty warm as the one we stayed in.

Heading North we thought that we may not be able to do everything that we had planned, due to the distances, but the roads were surprisingly quiet.  Shoulder season definitely seems to be the time to travel if you want to avoid the crowds.  Speed limits are considerably lower than the main highway we travelled on yesterday, with a maximum speed of 80 km/hour.  It does make everything feel a little safer, especially for those of us not used to driving on the right hand side of the road.

Our first stop was to visit Trollstigen Pass which is a crazy road with 11 hairpin bends that is built into the side of the mountain.  The pass is closed over Winter, due to snow and the risk of avalanches, but reopened today.  David was so excited about getting the chance to drive some of the road - me, not so much.  We compromised and drove about half way to the top, before turning around.  It was a bit like the Crown Range on steroids.  A few cars went through while we were there but I could't believe it when we saw a car towing a double horse float winding it's way to the top,  It's a popular tourist destination, so imagine that it would be really busy in Summer.

From there we drove through villages and around the fiords toward Molde.  Lots of bridges, tunnels (including one that went deep under a fiord, and then onto a ferry.  There are many ferries crossing the fiords and linking up the roading network very efficiently.  

The aim for the day was to drive The Atlantic Road, an eight km road that links the region of Averoy and the mainland via seven bridges, over the Hustadvika Bay.  One of bridges is really steep and has appeared in movies and advertisements.  It was a stunning drive and can imagine it would be spectacular in wild weather.  We had a 'moody' sky which added to the atmosphere.  Again, we expected it to be busy, but wasn't, mind you, the freezing cold wind and threatening rain may have kept people away.

That was our Northern most part of our Norwegian adventure as we headed back toward Molde for the night.  In the tradition of rental car issues that seem to stalk us, a warning light came on in the car.  A slight detour to get it checked with the company who confirmed that we should just continue to drive and they would sort it once the car was returned.  It was the outcome we wanted, but keen to make sure that it was their decision, just in case.

Our hotel tonight looks over the fiord, with snow capped mountains in the background.  Ferries regularly glide across the bay and it is nice and warm inside.  All in all, a pretty pleasant place to be.

Norway Adventure Begins

An early start this morning, leaving Ella's (sorry for waking you up) at 6.00 am, to make our way to Gatwick Airport.  Our Norwegian Air flight left at 9.20 and was fantastic.  Calm with only a few bumps and we came in to land, I could almost get use to flying if it was always like that.  The views across the sprawl of London were great, flying north toward the Eastern coast line and then across the fiords as we came into land in Oslo.  I did have second thoughts about leaving the glorious weather that London is enjoying and exchanging it for the 6 degrees it was when we landed

Once again the customs and immigration process were really efficient, but our bags took ages to arrive.  Collected our rental car, a Suzuki Vitara this time, and started our long drive Northward.  We did detour to look for a supermarket and then struggled to figure out exactly what we were buying.

Our drive from the airport to Dovre was 284 km and took about three and a half hours.  Much of it was on a 110 km/hour highway which then changed to much narrower and windier roads,  Still struggling to relax on the right hand side of the car, being close to the edge of the road.

We really just wanted to cover as much ground as possible so limited stops (and photo opportunities) on the journey.  Did pass by Lillihammer where the 2016 winter Olympic games were held.  You can still see the massive ski jump (think Eddie the Eagle) on the slopes above the town,

Dovre is a tiny place and we are staying in a wooden cabin under the shadow of the snow capped mountains.  The country brings back lots of memories of Iceland,  The town does have an unusual church, built in 1736 and covered in slate.  It is part of the Pilegrimsleden or St Ola'v Ways, a trail fromOppdal in the North to Sel in the South.  There was a sign saying that there were Commonwealth War Graves in the cemetery, but it was too cold to spend much time looking for them.

I think that bed will be calling early tonight before we embark on day two of our Norwegian adventure.

View out our window