Scandanavian Journey Part 2 Forums

labbad

14th to 17th June

8 a.m. Thursday 14th and I am out of bed having good intentions, decided to make a hot breakfast so put on the porridge unfortunately used too much water and drank the porridge like tea, so much for that good intention. Made it to the road for 8:50 a.m. and headed towards Dokka, for the first time since I left my home on the 4th of June, the morning was dull and overcast. I was again climbing mountains and as I got through Hovda I ran into a full blown blizzard the snow was coming down thick and heavy, this went on for over half an hour. The morning in general was wet and miserable and I seemed to spend forever going up one side of a mountain and down the other in very poor visibility and at very low speed. When I reached Lillehammer the site of the 1994 winter Olympics the weather cleared and I had a lovely run north beside a river called Lagen. Not spectacular scenery but very pleasant later in the evening the wind got up and I got a bit of a shaking in the van.
I called in to a little country garage to get a fill of diesel and the woman behind the counter must not have liked the look of me as she told me that my Visa card was no good so I had to pay her with cash, this was a worry at the time because if she was correct and there was a problem with my credit card it might have been a very short holiday. However I soon discovered my credit card was okay and the entire episode was a result of her dirty suspicious little mind and I a picture of innocence.
The day finished exactly the opposite to how it started with the sunshine back, it was a beautiful summer's evening. The campsite called Saeta was beside at beautiful broad river the same River Lagen which was now filled out the whole setting was very picturesque.
Woke at around 7 a.m. on Friday the 15th to a most beautiful day. Decided to spend the day with a few jobs that needed to be done. Tidied and cleaned for a start, my main ambition today was to get a loose fan belt tightened. With this in mind I spoke with the site owner and asked him where I could go to find a mechanic to tighten the fan belt and stop it screeching. Now the Norwegian for car is bil so the garage he sent me to was called Oya Bil when I got there, there were two mechanics out sick so they could not do the job and they sent me to another garage called, wait for it "Killi Bil". Unfortunately they were unable to help me either.
At this stage I returned to the camping site got out my deck chair and turned my belly to the sun.
I was slowly winding my way towards Trondheim where I was to collect my son Alan. Ryanair have flights between Dublin and Oslo for 40 euro return and I was able to get him a one-way ticket from Oslo to Trondheim for €53. He was arriving on the 18th and Saeta campsite was around 200 km from Trondheim so it was within easy striking distance and I had three days to get there.
Now a weird thing happened on the following day Saturday the 16th. Woke up at around 7:30 a.m. poked around the camper had something to eat had a wash didn't have to shave as I had decided to become hairy. At about 8:30 a.m. I opened the blinds to behold the German gentleman who had his caravan next door and his big Volvo car with a mechanic buried under the bonnet from Killi Bil garage. I asked the mechanic when he had finished with the German to tighten my fan belt which he did for the equivalent of about €10 which he didn't want to take, fair dues to him.
I went on the road at around 10 a.m. heading for Domas which was a lovely journey not spectacular the road wound along a beautiful valley the river Lagen at its centre and snow covered hills down both sides. I pushed on to Andalsnes at the head of Romsdalsfjorden and stopped at a Statoil station to get diesel, as I suspected the Visa card was perfectly okay it even got a hotdog smothered in potato salad (so much for my diet) for me. I decided on lunch at around 12:30 p.m. so found a little layby beside a small waterfall in an idyllic spot.
Anyway I continued on the road which was very picturesque till I came to a lake called Eikisdalsvatnet which is a small lake by their standards but it was without doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, I found a good spot beside a small stream with a waterfall coming off the mountain. I decided when eating to try “wild camping". Legally in Norway you are entitled to camp anywhere you wish, the restrictions being that you are outside 150 m of a dwelling house and it's not agricultural land, once these criteria are filled nobody can say boo to you, this is not the full list of criteria but the main points. The lake was surrounded by snow-capped mountains that fell shear into the water, the place was totally awesome. I also had my first experience in this spot of the midnight sun, I woke up at around 2 a.m. and it was as bright as when I went to bed at 12:30 a.m..
In the morning I had to give the van a blast of the heater for a while as it was quite chilly at around 7 a.m., not but it was another glorious sunny morning. I left this beautiful spot at around 9:30 a.m. and headed for Molde then on to Kristiansund and Trondheim. I found a large layby near Kristiansund and stopped for a cup of tea I then dozed off until about 5:30 p.m.. I was now within 60 km of Trondheim and I found a lovely spot beside the sea it looked like an old cleared building site of four or five acres. There were four other camper vans there before me so I had company for the night.