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Before getting to today’s travels (all 46km of those) …

Best wishes to friends around the world as you prepare for the new school year. Many of you are now in new schools, or in new positions of responsibility. Best wishes, one and all, for an outstanding year, and, where appropriate – lots of love to accompanying partners and families.

Eggum was so beautiful that, instead of our planned overnight we spent three nights there. The weather has turned decidedly Norwegian (at last), although a local did tell us that they had snow in the middle of June, followed by this European heatwave. Good to know that experts and data remain ignored in the great debate about massive climate anomalies (perhaps a more palatable means of speaking of global warming?) We thoroughly enjoyed the downtime, did some (rainy) cycling, read, Niki commenced on her puzzle (the jigsaw kind, not the meaning of life) and appreciated the large lounge area in our small camper – particularly as we watched numerous folks setting up or taking down tents in the rain.

Leaving Eggum for Haukland saw us searching for dumpsites for waste, both grey and black water. We ended up going past the Haukland turnoff to reach Leknes, where the local petrol station offered a €2 service – what a bargain (here’s looking at you, U.K.!) then a short, but winding trip to Haukland. We were going to take a detour to Unstadt Beach – hailed (in Norway) as the best surfing in Europe. Sorry Nazare (Portugal), your 65ft waves apparently don’t count as Norway adds latitude to swell size, giving them an unbeatable home town advantage. In any case, we never got there. The single lane roads were bad enough, but…

when we got to a tunnel advertised as 3.2m wide (our van is 2.35m wide), then having roadworks on both sides, with oncoming traffic … Well, reverse gear was found and I backed up 80m. If you’ve ever seen me reverse you would know that this was a monumental achievement, particularly as I only had to go forward twice to correct some very severe angles caused by me unnecessarily turning the wheel.

We also took time out to visit the Eggum Art Gallery, met the artist, Rolf Aarøe Arnesen – check his work on http://www.gallerieggum.no What a lovely hour with a delightful host!

Well, on to Haukland. The pictures should speak for themselves. We are currently parked next to the no-camping sign, looking out over yet another potential sunset (were it September, for example), a white sand beach, and surrounded by a glaciated landscape. If I recover from being dragged by Niki (Fitbit, I hate you) on a 12km walk today, we’ll climb the hill/mountain (perspective is everything) behind us in the morning. Tomorrow would normally be a work day, but I think we are going to be OK here, as Contented Campers.

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And to end – lots of love to family – missing you, so come and join us J