Sunday 22 July – Round tour
We went on the road hoping to make a nice hike somewhere along the way. We decided not to go over the highway as it doesn’t make us go any faster with Bloomie than any other main road :). We followed the Fv243, not knowing where it was going, but enjoyed the views. It was very quiet on the road and occasionally saw someone camping along side the road. What a special experience that would be: camping in such a quiet place with those magnificent views. Something we will do again in a couple of years but then with T3 fit out as a camper. We held a short stop to let Livia eat some fruit. In the meantime Ewout and Anna made a snowman in the remaining hard frozen snow. Walking across the top of the mountain we discovered a nice stop down the road, Flotane. We grabbed picnic stuff in the direction of the waterfall and found a nice spot and enjoyed the view and lunch. After lunch we continued our journey to drive past Stegastein. When driving away there was someone honking at expressing appreciation, always fun when people are enthusiastic about Bloomie. But he kept on it for a long time and there was a guy waving as well… did we hit him? As it turned out after we opted to stop; the tailgate was still open… duh…
With all our gear in the bus we arrived at Stegastein where it was a busy.
Understandable, because the view over the fjords are beautiful. We made some nice pictures and started the descent. Unfortunately we could not descend at our own pace, but there were big campers for us who often could not pass upwards traffic. Bloomie’s brakes where getting hotter and hotter of all this continues braking and at the bottom of the mountain we where close to on fire. The breaks where smoking heavily. We drove back to the campsite via the E16 and came through the Laerdal tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world. The tunnel is partly lit with colors; a nice idea for the Gotthard tunnel. All in all a nice day, albeit with no proper hike.
Monday 23 July – Laerdal to Olden
We were woken early by our little ladies on what was an advantage today. We had a travel day and were able to go after packing and breakfast at 8 o’clock. We were just missed the ferry from Fodnes to Mannheller; but next one in just 20m. On the other side we continued our way. We made a stop at the Glacier Museum. A film was shown about a trip across the glacier. Beautiful, but probably the film was older than Bloomie. We continued on the 5th and arrived at Olden at lunchtime. Next to the supermarket was a nice picnic table for our lunch. Early in the afternoon we arrived at camping Oldevatn where we stayed for a few days.
Tuesday 24 July – Briksdalbreen glacier
From the campsite we drove up the road to the end where the Briksdalbreen glacier lays. We were on time and walked further up to the glacier. A nice walk where a raincoat is recommended because of the spray of a waterfall. We climbed the stairs and eventually reached the bottom of the glacier. Along the way was indicated to where the glacier still reached in earlier years. Felt strange to walk where sometimes just 100 years ago ice has been a 100 meter high for centuries. The clouds getting darker and we quickly decided to go back to Bloomie. Just in time we were back. A downpour started. We ate lunch in the car and then drove back to the campsite where we had a lazy afternoon.
Wednesday, July 25 – nothing special
The day started with rain. We had no plans and decided to go shopping. We enjoyed our lunch at a picnic spot at the lake side and didn’t do much else . Sometimes nice also!
Thursday 26 July – Heidi in Norway
Today we took the Skylift at Stryn. Since Anna had seen the mountains, she had asked us almost every day when we would go back to a cable car. Finally the moment was there. We were nice and early to go up before the crowds. The first ride was ours. We decided to take a route that would bring as back where we would start. Anna changed into Heidi and enjoyed herself. She scrambled and climbed and ran far ahead of us. And on each ‘stone pancake pile’ a stone was added. On top of the mountain we stopped at a beautiful spot and made lunch while Livia fell asleep, unaware of the beautiful surroundings where she slept today. In the early afternoon we went down again with the elevator and we enjoyed a last afternoon on the nice campsite and the lake. This place is highly recommended.
Friday July 27 – On to the beach
We left Oldevatn camp and went to Refviksanden on the way. On the way it turned out that braking became increasingly difficult for Bloomie. The road was fairly flat and with the help of the handbrake Bloomie could also stand still on the ferry. At the beginning of the afternoon we arrived at camping Refviksanden, and camping at and on (!) the beach. We expected it to be busy, but not this busy! We could just get a spot on the lawn at about 200 meters behind the beach. Unfortunately not a nicer spot closer to the beach, but good enough with soft thick grass and electricity thanks to plugging in at our neighbor camper do we did not have to miss the morning coffee.
Saturday 28 July – Beach day
In the morning we did a blog and we looked for a new gas bottle for our burners. Unfortunately no gas bottle that fitted. The gas was almost finished, but the evening we could still cook. There are limited facilities on this camp ground, only a toilet block and 1 shower. At most other campsites in Norway there is also cooking facilities and sometimes even an oven (!) and microwave. Ideal. But not here, so tomorrow we eat salad and cook the sausages for Anna in the kettle. We enjoyed the pearl white beach. Weird but true to see something like that in Norway.
to be continued…
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