Touring Norway, summer of 2010

[Norbullitt]

I have posted this trip report on a few other forums.
but since I spend more and more time here on ExPo,
Ive updated the report to post it here as well.

Now this is not an extreme or amazing trip,
like many of the others on this forum.
But it is the biggest one I have undertaken, and I enjoyed it alot....



It all started in desember 2009, when I bought a 1987 VW Caravelle with a semi-camper interior.
The car was low mileage, in great shape and had been in one caring family most of its life.
I purchased it with summer vacation in mind. But didnt exactly know where to go.

The car, just after the purchase

There was a few places up in the mountains I would like to see.
Started making a list of potential places to go, and kept adding more and more destinasions until a plan started forming...

The thing is; A few years earlier I had a VW Syncro that I wanted to drive all the way up to North Cape.
However that car was not excactly in its prime and at the time money was very tight,
so unfortunately that trip never happened.

So I decided the time had come to finaly do this.
And since I was driving to the northern point of Norway I might as well start from the south tip rather than the Oslo-area where I lived,
as it wasnt that much of a detour.
And starting from the south I could also go up the west coast
which includes alot of fjords, ferrys and tunels.

The final plan included driving through 19 of Norways 20 fylker, which is the equivalent to countys.
And also some parts of Finland and Sweden. I eventually had to skip Finland, but here is the route I ended up driving:

This was a long trip with twisty coastal roads, motorways and mountain passes.
Even though my car was a low mileage one, I still had to make sure it was reliable.

My father helped me alot with this part. He is a mechanic,
and spent many years at a VW dealership.
What we did was the following:

* Did a full service, including cambelts and tensioner

* Replaced the head gasket and also the cylinder head at the same time,
as I had found a brand new one at a reasonable price.

* Got new tires, as driving on bad roads in a potential rain storm
with old tires was not very tempting.

* My dad checked alot of other things, and finally gave me the green light

I also got a subscription to a decent recovery service, in case something did go wrong.

The car itself also got some modifications to make it more suitable for an extended trip.
Originally it was a Reimo conversion. Which meant it had some cabinets, a fold down bed and not much else.
So I added a small poptop, fridge and sink with fresh/grey water tanks.
This made a huge difference in terms of comfort...

Fitting the poptop

Now over to the trip itself.
I will split it up in parts.

Part one:

The first day I departed from home and drove southbound.
This part of the country I have seen many times,
so I drove rather rapidly through it without taking pictures.
Stopped to visit a friend at her summer place and had a great lunch,
before continuing south.
Eventually ended up at Lindesnes,
which is a lighthouse that marks the south tip of Norway.
It was quite late when I got there, so I found a spot amongst the RV's in the parking lot and went straight to bed..

That lighthouse is actually a roundabout where the road out to Lindesnes begins.
No points for spotting the dog in the drivers seat


The next morning I got up. Took the dog for a walk around the area
and took a few pictures of Lindesnes before starting the drive up the west coast.

The Lindesnes lighthouse

The sign to North Cape. Now that distance is if you take the shortest possible route. I ended up driving around twice that.


After leaving Lindesnes I started driving up the west coast. There is ofcourse a main road, but I choose one nicknamed The North Sea road instead.
Its the old main road. Twisting up and down between the sea, hills and small mountains its a very scenic drive.
The first stop of the day was Jøssingfjorden. Its some old houses built underneath a huge ledge in the mountains.
I believe they where a few hundred years old, and inhabited until the start of the last century.
But what was more interesting for me was the road up from this little valley.
It was basicly chiseled out of an almost vertical cliff wall.
Now this road was awesome in itself. There was a tunel at the midpoint with about 150 meter drop straight down at the exit of it.
But this was aparently a newer tunel. Part of the old one was still left and went on a ledge on the outside of the newer one with several open sides.
That must have been one seriously scary drive.

The new tunel. Look at the road below to get an idea of the height.

On the left you can see the start of the old tunel

Continuing on that day I drove for a while, then stopped to stretch my legs and take the dog for a walk.
While doing so I found a beautiful beach.
Norway is not exactly known for its sandy beaches,
so I was quite surprised to find one that looked almost mediterranian.
After this nice rest I drove abit further, then made camp at a marina near Stavanger.

The dog is exploring the beautiful beach

The beach must have been atleast 5 km long

Ending the day at a marina

The next day started with the first of many ferry rides this vacation.
After that I drove to Bergen where my GPS got very confused and froze all the time before I finaly managed to navigate out to a campsite on Sotra, and Island outside Bergen.
The camping spot I got was one of the best one the entire trip.
It had an almost panoramic view towards the sea.

On the first ferry

The camping spot, next to a german RV

Fantastic view from the camping spot


The next day I went to the Bergen aquarium.
Beeing an animal person, I love visiting zoo's and aquarium's. Took a bunch of pictures,
but as this is not a fish forum, I wont bother you with alot of those.
They did however have a tunel under the shark tank,
and after a few attempts I managed to snap a pic of the sharks from below, which I think was kinda cool.

Now Bergen is a nice city, but there was one thing that put a damper on the enjoyment.
We have toll-roads in most parts of Norway, but the density in this area was extreme.
There seemed to be a toll booth around every turn. So I was glad to finaly leave the place and drive up in the mountains.

I continued to Voss. Voss is a mekka for extreme sports, like rafting, paragliding and so on. Since Im not into that,
I didnt spend much time there, but drove further into the mountain range. Stopped and looked at a part Jostedalsbreen, which the biggest glacier area in the country.
Had never seen a glacier before, so that was very cool.

Beautiful cascading waterfall just outside Voss

Jostedalsbreen glacier

After that I drove up the mountain pass. It was time for
some food and rest so I looked for a suitable place to stop,
and found the perfect one.
Out in a river with glacier water I spotted a small island.
The river was quite deep and wild at one side, but there was only a shallow stream on the side closer to the road.
I could see tire tracks leading up on the island. So I forged a few inches of water to drive up on the island and parked there.
That was one of those absolutly fantastic moments. Having dinner in the middle of nowhere surrounded by glacier water...

Starting up the mountain pass. The camera lens distorts this perspective abit.
It was an almost vertical wall forming a semi circle around the road.

At the end of the pass,
parked on an older section of the road no longer in use

Dinner in the middle of a river

After dinner I drove to Strynefjell before going to sleep...

 

[Norbullitt]

Next morning I woke up ready to start driving Gamle Strynefjellsveg (Old Strynefjells road).
This was one of the very first things I decided I would like to see when planning the vacation.
Its an old mountain pass built by hand around 100 years ago.
Winding its way for 18 km's over Strynefjell mountain.
Theres a new road around the mountain now, but this road is kept as one of Norways national tourist routes.
And it did not disapoint. Stunning scenery. Its a gravel road with cobblestones as guardrails,
and driving it early in the morning with noone else around almost felt like beeing in a different era.

My camp spot from the night before

First part of the road

A lake at the highest point of the pass

After this nice road, I continued towards Geiranger
On one of the mountain passes I stumbled upon a place I had never
heard of before; Dalsnibbla.
It was a small narrow gravel road with no guardrail starting at the altitude of 1050 meters I was already at,
twisting its way up a 450 meter peak with a viewpoint at the top overlooking an almost vertical 500 meter drop to the surrounding area.
It was well worth the detour, and actually driving up and down that
access road was just as thrilling as seeing the view from the top.

Finaly at the top of Dalsnibbla.
I think it was the only time during the trip the engine fan kicked in to regulate the temperature.

The road 500 meters below leading to the Geiranger fjord

Geiranger was my next stop. This fjord is one of the more spectacular ones, and Geiranger itself is visited by alot of foreign cruiseships during the summer.

To get you an idea of the size of this fjord,
the little black dot you see in the middle of the water is actually a decent sized ferry carrying about 50 cars!

Next up was Trollstigen (The troll ladder).
This is probably the most famous piece of road in Norway.
Its basicly the start of a mountain pass rising a few hundred meters
with 11 hairpin turns. Theres also a nice stone bridge infront of a waterfall in the middle.

Some of the hairping turns. Its hard to catch it all in one shot

The waterfall

The same waterfall from further down the road

The last thing I did this day, was to drive Atlanterhavsvegen
Its a 8 km piece of road stretching between reefs and rocks out in the atlantic ocean. It was however abit of a let down.
The road was more sheltered from the ocean than I thought, which also affected the view.
The weather this day was however dead calm which is a rare thing on this road.
I think this is one of those places where you need some rough weather to get the most out of it.
If you have seen one of those car commercials
where a car is driven around some stormy roads close to the ocean,
alot of those are actually filmed on this stretch.

The Atlantic road

The next day I started driving towards Trondheim,
but suddenly realized I wasnt that far away from an island called Hitra.
I spent a vacation there as a little kid, and decided to drive there and see if I could find the place again.
It figured it was around 27 years ago (man I feel old now ),
so there was no guarantee the campsite still existed.

This huge wooden "fixer-upper" of a boat was in dry dock at the entrance to the island.
I thought it was kind of a cool picture

The island has 2 campsites now. The first one was near the tunel over to the mainland. I remembered we drove for a while to the campsite on the island all those years ago, so I headed for the second one.
And lo and behold, after arriving there I immediatly recognized it.
The place had not changed abit.
I rented a camp spot and had a great day there just strolling around the area thinking about that great vacation so many years ago.

The area around this island is renounced for its ocean fishing.
And germans in particular loves ocean fishing.
So this campsite was almost like beeing in Germany.
I think I spotted one danish and one french RV. The rest was all german...

The house in the background is the one I stayed in as a kid

The view just outisde the campsite

The weather was bad the next day, so I didnt do much exciting stuff.
Just drove most of the day. The only stop I made was at Stiklestad,
which was the site of a viking battle about 1000 years ago.
They do host a teathrical reenactment of the battle, but I was a few weeks too early for that.
Theres a museum as well. But I didnt visit it, just took a walk around the area, and made some low quality shots with my cell-phone,
as the camera was left in the car.

The Stiklestad memorial monument.


This concludes the first week of my vacation.
I'll post some more when I get done sorting and uploading
the pictures

Stay tuned for part two......

 

[Norbullitt]

And now for...

Part two

Monday morning of the second week I woke up to beautiful weather
after spending the night at a rest stop.
Next to the parking area there was a lake with a tiny beach and pier that even included two boats free of use to any visitors.
For some remarkable reason noone had stolen those boats.

Even though starting to get far north at his point the water temperature was ok.
So I decided to go for a little swim. The water felt great once I was in.
The dog is a bit nervous about swimming,
but after a little convincing and putting her lifejacket on she swam aswell and seemed to enjoy it.
After this we headed back to the car for breakfast.
What a great way to start the day

The plan for this day was visiting a friend, so I headed northwest towards the island of Rørvik.
He lives on the mainland but I had some time to kill before he got home, so I decided to drive out to the island itself and visit a museum there.
The weather had acted up into a small rainstorm now.
Crossing the bridge was quite "interesting" as the wind came in strong bursts. I had to swerve across both lanes during the wind-gusts, fortunately there was no oncomming traffic.

The museum was a small but very new museum about coastal life,
and included a headset with audio guidance as you walked around.
Before leaving I decided to treat myself to a nice lunch in the restaurant,
and ordered grated scallops.

The museum with the mainland bridge in the background

Yummy !


The wind had thankfully calmed down when I got back to the car,
so I headed back over the bridge to visit my friend.
After staying there a while, I continued northwards.
The weather had been horrible most of the day. But as I was driving along a deserted road in the evening,
the sun suddenly broke through the clouds just as it was about to set behind a mountain.
It was such a stunning sight that I just had to stop and take some pictures of it.

Sunset in Nordland

Didnt make many pictures the next day. The weather was bad
and I spent most of the day just driving. There was a big moment however, I crossed the arctic circle!

The arctic circle

In the evening I arrived at the place I would spend the next day;
Polar Zoo. I rented a spot in their tiny campground, made some dinner, and went to bed.

A very nicely airbrushed MB Sprinter in the parking lot outside Polar Zoo.

I woke up the next feeling fully rested.
As I now was above the arctic circle meant daylight 24/7.
But found it hadnt bothered me one bit. Sleeping was no problem.

The weather was also great that day. This was perfect as I planned spending most of the day in the zoo.

After walking the dog and having breakfast I was eager to enter the park.
Polar Zoo is one of the northernmost Zoo's in the world. Their focus is animals that belongs in this climate.

The park is surrounded by mountains

They have 4 bears, and one of the younger ones is
actually an albino

The albino bear named Salt

Theres also a wolverine. I had never seen one before
so that was quite cool. They are funny looking animals.
Looks like their head has shrinked.

Wolverine

Although I like Zoo's and animals in general,
my main intention was to visit the wolves.
I find them to be the most magnificent animals,
and have visited wolf enclosures before so this was somehting I was realy looking forward to.

First I got to go in and help feed the wolf pups.
This was a great bonus, as I did not know they had pups, let alone that I could be allowed inside their pen

Me and the wolf pups

Later in the day I got to meet the adult ones.
There where 3 of them. The pups where going to be introduced to this tribe soon.

Meeting the wolves where as expected a fantastic experience,
that I will repeat as soon as I get a chance.

After a nice meal, I started driving straight west towards the peninsula
of Andøy

Had to get a picture of this,
as the name on the sign is the same as my last name...

 

[Norbullitt]

New day, and I start it by driving to Andenes, the only town on Andøy.
Just before I enter the town, I also drive by Norways nerve center for our space program. The rocket field:

Yes, that is actually all of it.
The base nicely fits in one image with some nature as a bonus.
I think the biggest thing they have sent up is a satellite. Not quite the size of NASA.

I entered the town, and drove to the docks.
The tourist information is located next to a lighthouse where you can buy a ticket go inside.

For some reason I have always wanted to see the inside of a lighthouse, so I gladly payed and got handed the keys.

As expected the view from up there was very nice.

View of Andenes from the lighthouse

I can see my car from here!

After the lighthouse I let the dog run freely for awhile
on the docks, before heading towards the ferry queue.

This is the location of Andenes:

The ferry goes to the next peninsula further north.
The crossing is much further out in the ocean than any other
ferry's I have been on so far, and Im not very fond of boats.
But theres rumours saying that you can occasionally get a glimpse of orca whales during the crossing,
rather than paying alot for a whale safari that still cant guarantee whale sightings.

So I make sure I get a seat next to the window in the lounge on the boat.
And sure enough about 15 minutes into the crossing I spot
something. It disappear, but moments later I see the unmistakable shape of fins.
Theres 4 wales, and at one point they all break surface at the same time. Very cool...
Unfortunatly I missed that shot. This was the best I managed to get
with the limited zoom on my lens:

Orcas


The next day its finaly nice weather again. I start driving
and soon come up on a beach close to the road.
So I pull off and park next to the beach and let the dog play in the water for awhile.
I want you to realy enjoy this picture, before I tell the story of The Incident!.

You see, as I parked the car I noticed the sand was alot softer than I thought.
And sure enough when I try to leave the tires starts spinning very easy. It does move though, but its very close to digging in.
Between this area and the beach itself theres a rocky area, so I back the car onto that to get some more traction for getting back on the road.
Big mistake! If I had looked closer, I would have seen that those rocks are all round and polished from sea-water with hardly any friction between them.
As soon as I apply power, the rear wheels instantly dig straight down to the axles.
Now Im very much stuck. I did have a picture of this, but cant seem to find it again...
I do have breakdown coverage but figure it would take ages for someone to arrive in this rural area, so I might as well try to do something myself.
I bring out the jack and find some driftwood to place it on,
and start the following process:

1. Jack one wheel up in the air

2. Fill the hole with piles of rocks, sand and whatever I can find

3. lower the wheel gently on top of the pile

4. Do the same for the other side of the car

5. Very gently apply power until it starts spinning again

6. Start rocking back and forth until it starts spinning even more

7. Repeat from point one

This goes on for a long while. I progress maybe an inch at a time.
At some point I remember to air down the tires which helps slightly,
but its still quite a struggle. I spend around two hours doing this..

Now I'm a very calm person by nature.
But the sun is baking down, making everything harder.
Also theres insects which keep trying to bite me. I think you call them horse flies. And they hurt.

So I keep getting angryer and angryer.
And finaly for probably the first time in my adult life I completely loose it
I go into a mad frenzy, yelling, cursing and start throwing rocks around at the insects.
Then jump in the car and start rocking it back and forth with lots of power this time. Its a small wonder the gearstick didnt break of from the force I used on it.
But it did help, and I actually get the car away from the loose ground.

So I start calming down slightly, but are now faced with another problem.
I still need to get past the sand that caused problems in the first place.
And its on a slight incline to get back on the road.
There is however a small strip of grass parallell to the sand and road.
I back all the way on the grass to use it as a runway.
For a moment I consider to trying the carefull approach. But as I have been stuck for so long I opt for the Jeremy Clarkson way instead.
Yelling POWER I floor it building up alot speed before the end of the grass, where I turn diagonaly towards the road and just BARELY make it up.
My bloodpressure quickly returns to normal and I stop to air up the tires, before continuing happy along with a sence of triumph...

Not much else happened the rest of the day. I drove to the city of Alta, where I spent the night at a campsite...

Not sure exactly where this was, but its still a great view

The traffic jams here are different from back home

Im getting near to North Cape and also the end of the trip.
That and the wrap up will be posted in Part Three.

 

[Norbullitt]

And now finally, part three of my journey:

After a good nights sleep in a not so good campsite,
I head towards North Cape.
Its only a few hours away, and I start by crossing some plains.
This is part of the Finnmark plains. Home of the Sami people,
the native population of northern Scandinavia. More on that later.

After a nice lunch break, the scenery changes and the road is now twisting
and turning between steep cliffs and the ocean.
Unfortunately I didnt snap any more pictures on the way up there,
even though there where some great views.
Kinda forgot as I was eager to get there I guess..

Anyway, after a few more hours I reach North Cape
(You can cheer now)

This is actually an Island, but has mainland connection through a tunel.
And its still the furthest north you can drive in Europe.
71° north to be precise for those skilled in the arts of navigation....

The area is a plateau with a viewpoint
located at the tip of a cliff about 300 meters above the ocean.
Theres also a visitors centre. I head for the viewpoint first.

Strangely enough there was noone at the viewpoint,
even though the car park was packed. But the reason might have something to do with the weather.
It doesnt show on the pictures, but there was quite intense wind and rain.

This globe is a famous symbol of North Cape.
My plan had been to get some tourist to snap a picture of me besides it,
but as they where all hiding inside from the weather, I had to make do with some pictures of the dog there instead.



Somehow I managed to keep the camera lens dry even though I got completely soaked myself from the rain.

When I was happy with the pictures and admiring the view,
I stopped by the souvernir shop and bought a miniature version of the globe before heading back to the car and started driving south again.

I just wanted some calmer weather, so I continued south for
a few hours before setting up camp at a rest stop...

The next day I drove down to the city of Karasjok
this is the capitol of the Sami people. I visited an open air museum
showcasing the Sami culture

They traditionally lived in tents on the plains herding reindeer.
Some keep it up today, atleast part-time but they dont live in tents anymore.

These tents are called lavvo's

These are traditional costumes, worn on special occasions

After the museum I stopped by the Sami parlament building.
Interesting design. Part of it is made to look like the lavvo tents..

The Sami parlament

At this point my plan was driving into Finland and finaly Sweden on
my way home. Karasjok is very close to the finish border.
However I needed a vaccination certificate
for my dog in order to visit Finland.
Unfortunately those papers got delayed, so Finland was not an option at that point.
That was a bummer for two reasons;

Firstly I had been looking forward to visitng Finland for the first time, as my great grandfather was finish.

And secondly I was far northeast in Norway,
and a narrow part of finland separeted me from northern Sweden.
In order to get around Finland I had to backtrack for two days before entering Sweden.

Some rock people aparently liked signing

A nice rest stop I stayed at just before crossing into Sweden

Sweden has much more and better motorways than Norway.
So it was a very efficient way to drive home, but not much to look at.
Therefore I didnt take many pictures while traveling through Sweden.

Some meteor crater close to the Norwegian border

I crossed back into Norway close to the city of Røros.
This was only half a days drive from home.
My final stop was at the Aukrust Centre;
A small museum showing the works of author/cartoonist Kjell Aukrust

This is probably not well known in the states, but he wrote the script
for a puppet-movie called Pinchcliffe Grand Prix
Its about a bikecycle repairman that builds his own Grand Prix car.
A great movie that I have seen a ton of times.

It got translated to a bunch of languages too.

The car called Il Tempo Gigante, from the movie

After this place I drove straight home.
Its always nice to come home ofcourse, but at the same time
I was sad that the trip was over...

I ended up driving 7250 kilometers.
The car performed like a champ.
I only had to fix one thing the entire trip,
and that was replacing the wiper blades. I can live with that

Its was not fast with its 70 diesel horses, but kept up with traffic
everywhere except the steepest mountain passes.
It also averaged 7 litres/100 km. I have no idea what that translates to in mpg.
My overall water/oil consumption was about 2 litres of each.
Not bad considering I was running in a brand new cylinder head during the trip.

Living in the car for 3 weeks was great,
and was actually quite comfortable.
My only real complaint was the lack of cabinet space.

Shortly after this trip I sold the car,
as I needed to free up cash while buying a house.

I held out for 2 years, before the urge for a similar car became to strong.
So I purchased a 1990 Caravelle Syncro:

This one is not as nice as the previous van,
and requires both some mechanical and body work.

It does however have 4wd, bigger wheels and a 1.9 turbodiesel engine.
That makes it a great starting point for building my idea of the ultimate VW campervan.
Got lots of plans for it, and will try to keep you updated on the work...

 

[Clem]

Wonderful adventure!

Thank you for sharing,

Clem

 

[bunduguy]

Wow- Norway is gorgeous!
nicely done.

 

[Rot Box]

Great report and pics! Thanks for sharing :elkgrin:

 

[Mitubitchy 3.5]

x2

Thank you!

I know Norway only from Wintertrainingtrips, a wonderfull Country...

Stephan

 

[nasko]

thanks, very neat

 

[Groove222]

Thanks Norbullitt - Nice post and detailed description. I am planning a similar trip for 2014, driving from Fankfurt Germany to the North Cape - North through Norway and back south through Sweden. You have highligted some of the sights I will put on my list.

Rick