Scandanavian Journey Part 4 Forums

labbad

30 June to the 8th July
We left Oz and headed towards Oslo the first town we came to was called Roros it is a world Heritage site, the centre of the town has century old houses on little narrow streets that are architecturally significant. We travelled through Lillehammer which was the 1994 Winter Olympic host town, at this stage it struck me as being a small and nondescript kind of place. We finished up in Dokka where we're booked in to a campsite to get a fill of water and our toilet emptied, David tried the showers and they were useless. We went for a Chinese meal in Dokka and it was a fine feed for around €10 a head.
Saturday the 30th saw us leaving Dokka at around 12 midday, having got stuck in the wet grass, we did a fair good job of ploughing up the sites lawn, we got out of there as quick as we could. Meandered down towards Oslo beside a lovely lake, we had intended staying in a campsite outside Oslo but couldn't find it so finished up in a campsite in Oslo called Ekeberg which was bloody expensive at around 295 kroner (€33) a night. However it was a beautiful site on a hill overlooking Oslo with every amenity imaginable.
Our first stop in Oslo on the Sunday was the museums which are all reasonably close together in a particular part of the city. I was interested in the old Viking ships of which there were three dating back to the eighth and ninth centuries they were very impressive. From there we went to the Kon Tiki Museum where we saw Tor Heyerdahls two craft the Kon Tiki and the Ra which he used on his expeditions, finally Amundsens Museum which housed the ship that he used to travel to the South Pole. Returned to the city centre where I found parking, Alan and David went for a walk around the city while I made a cup of tea and dossed. Returned to Ekeberg for the night.
On the Monday we headed towards Torp airport at our ease, we went on a round about sort of way through Drammen, Konsberg, Notodden, Quarve and Skien. We found a handy place to park at the railway carpark at Porsgrunn.
Went for a Chinese which wasn't great I had lamb which was rubbery Alan came out the best he had chicken satay David had squid which was also rubbery. We got a fill of diesel in Shell station which also had a system for emptying the toilet and we got a fill of fresh water.
Tuesday the third, the lads last day, torrential rain all day, went to the airport where we parked up made tea and read until it was time for them to leave at 6:30 p.m.. At 7 p.m. my other son Brian and a neighbour Alison arrived and we went to the railway carpark at Porsgrunn again where we bedded down for the night. At 12 midnight we got a rude awakening, there was a most spectacular display of fireworks over the town, I still do not know what it was for.
We left the car park at around 8 a.m. and headed north it was raining and a miserable day. As we got into the mountains we had some beautiful views of the mountains shrouded in clouds as we got higher the snow became heavy on the ground on both sides of the road in places and there were 10 to 15 foot high drifts. We finished up in a place called Rodal, in a beautiful campsite surrounded by mountains, there were literally dozens of waterfalls coming down the mountains due to the heavy rain.
On Thursday we continued north towards 0dda. Brian was hoping to see the glacier Folgetonni which is the third largest in Europe. The road to 0dda was spectacular. We stopped in Odda and parked down near the quay, the two lads went for a walk around the shops I had a snooze. It was a very pretty town with some very colourful buildings. Headed for the glacier and finished up in a tunnel that went under the glacier an 11 km tunnel that seemed to go on and on and on. So we finished up on the other side just near enough to get a few distant photos of the glacier.
Stopped in another beautiful little village called Rosendal and had a few ice creams and a cup of tea. Continued to Yesse and found a campsite on a hill overlooking a fjord called Handangerfjord with the little village of Yesse in the distance at the head of the fjord it was really beautiful.
Voringfossen the waterfall was our next stop, so we left our lovely campsite at 10 a.m. and headed in that direction, about 90 km away. The sad nav must have been set for the shortest route because it took us over a narrow little mountain track about the width of the van, definitely skid mark time again. It was a bit scary but we got through it and the views were spectacular, however progress was painfully slow and at 12:30 p.m. we had just about half of the 90 km covered. We had to cross Eidjford for the second leg of the journey so we got a ferry at Bruravik to Brimnes. Travelled through Eidfjord and on to Handanger Nature Centre there was a clothes shop that sold native woollens which are very colourful, we bought a few bits and pieces, but that is not the end of that story more later. It wasn't far from there to the waterfall but was uphill all the way, we climbed to about 2000 feet up a spectacular mountain road. The waterfall is the highest in Europe with a straight drop of over 600 feet is really spectacular. After the viewing we made some tea and had a few sandwiches before continuing on the road. We only travelled a short distance when we saw what we caught was as stone dam, a little further on we came across a small road that seemed to lead in the direction of the dam we followed this road and came to a car park overlooking the dam. It was a most spectacular and beautiful spot. You could look back down the valley for miles and miles, behind the dam you had the reservoir and beyond that the mountains covered in snow and the mass of a glacier between the mountain peaks, the place was really something special.
Left at around 10 a.m. the following morning that was Saturday the seventh and headed for Hamer it was a beautiful journey across the top of Norway with plenty of snow on the ground. Had a good feed of hamburgers and chips in Dokka and got a fill of diesel as well. Reached Hamer and stopped at a campsite called Hedfortoppen which was full to the gunwales it was so full there were stewards out in yellow jackets directing traffic, we discovered it was some kind of a religious festival/meeting. Our Irish number plates got some peculiar looks, Irish Catholics they were not, so we got out of there as fast as we could. We went into Hamer which is just south of Lillehammer and found the carpark to the ice skating stadium for the 1994 Winter Olympics, there were half a dozen campers and caravans there already it was a grand spot beside a river.
Had a look around the Olympic Hall on the Sunday morning before we left, thought it was surprising that it was all closed up, I thought there should have been some few locals out practising or training etc. We headed for Oslo and arrived there around 12:30 p.m. Brian and Allison headed off to have a look around the city they were not interested in museums, but had a good look around the shops.