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August 2018 Budgets

September 2, 2018April 12, 2019ricklongboard1 Comment

After blowing our budget in July by shopping in preparation for Norway, covering huge distances and French & Norwegian toll roads, we were hoping that a more conservative travel programme would leave us better off in August – I’m very happy to say that has been the case.

The big save has been on groceries. We spent heavily in Germany getting every nook & cranny in the van filled with food and wine. This proved its worth. A 3 litre cask of wine (and very nice too) cost €9 in Germany. The cheapest cask in Norway was around €45. On the downside … only 3 litres left in our stash for September. Apart from ongoing foodstuffs such as bread, biscuits and fruit we’ve spent little on food this month – we still have some frozen food in the deepfreeze, but this will all soon run out. I did make Tom Yum soup last night with fresh prawns …

Diesel has been another area where it’s difficult to squeeze the budget. The typical price is NOK15.50 a litre, or €1.69 or NZD2.78 or £1.45. That’s not cheap. I rather suspect that this is an area that will see continual overruns. It’s funny to say that eating out has been cheap – the prices are so horrific that I simply can’t spend the necessary in order to sit down and have a tiny portion of fish & chips at €18, in a cardboard tray.

Ferries we’ve blown the budget, as expected. The tolls are a problem for the future as we’ve signed up with a toll company and will be billed sometime in the future. We’ll add that in at that point – I think it will be a big number. Laundry is another cost, albeit small, but it’s better than having wet washing draped around the van – and a happy Niki is certainly worth at least double these costs.

All in all … €742 under budget for the month … YYeehaaah!

2018-09-02 07.22.27 pm

Bergen

September 2, 2018September 2, 2018ricklongboardLeave a comment

We are camped at a lovely little tarred area off the E39 on the way to Stavanger, outside Rommetveit, after leaving a verrrry busy Bergen behind. A tale to be told, though!

We were all ready to leave our delightful parking place from Gudvangen early in the morning in order to maximise our stay in Bergen. Early light breakfast and off we set. Turned right in Voss to head towards Bergen … road closed due to mudslides. OK, no real disaster, we’ll head further south and then catch a smaller parallel road up the Hardanger fjord. Missed the turnoff at Gravin and then immediately entered a long tunnel, complete with roundabouts!! Ignored the GPS voice of doom insisting that we ‘take the third exit on the next roundabout, kept going, eventually bursting into glorious sunshine. For about 6 seconds. Back into a tunnel with no opportunity to exit. Left said tunnel after another dwarf-like sojourn underground that went on for miles before exiting onto a bridge. Cost us €15 to cross the bridge to find a place to turn around, then another €15 to return back to the tunnel. Any chance Norwegian Tollroad operators are going to be merciful? Back underground for our two very long tunnels, then eventually turned off in Gravin, heading in the right direction towards Bergen.

Hmm, not that simple! Road narrows, then reduces to single lanes at every corner with no opportunity to see oncoming cars, buses, trucks – all that was missing was a caravan of camels. OK, only 120km of this, we’re doing OK. Except that, far off on one of the promontories, I see traffic starting to back up. Found a place to turn at a ferry stop and headed back the way we came. Clearly every form of transport that was heading towards Bergen is now on this single lane – with interesting results.

And so we found ourselves in Voss. The town is much larger than expected, with a town centre almost 100m long and running down the better part of two streets, the whole lot carefully hidden behind roadworks and construction of a new gondola line that ends in the middle of town. On the upside, a quiet night at a carpark for €3, next to a huge park and lake made up for a day spent mostly underground, retracing routes and going, for the most part, nowhere.

We did eventually make it to Bergen on Friday when the road opened. Hmmm, how to describe? A very pretty town that tries hard to live up to the overweening pretentiousness of colourful houses photographed in great light, and in the absence of 5 cruise ships that, combined, literally quadrupled the town’s population. Add to that the expense of absolutely everything, and the day took a little more effort than it could have. We eventually had a beer (€18) in gorgeous sunlight in front of the old town (15 houses on one street) and Subways (€12) at the docks. This seemed a better option than local crayfish (lobster) at €130 per kg. That’s going to cost you around €200 a crayfish, or NZ$350, £180 or ZAR 3200. And that excludes the fried chips!! In perspective, last year we bought 30 crayfish in South Africa at $2 each …

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One other thing that is noticeable in Norway is that every place has a plethora of museums. Bergen must have 12. And they are pretty awful – sorry about that. For example, we took a tour to the Rosencrantz tower (captain from Denmark, in charge of Norway, friend of Hamlet etc etc) – We might well have looked in 12 or 16 rooms, all but three were bare! Even those three seemed to have some afterthought stuff trucked in. One room had large posters explaining a sea battle between the British and Dutch involving the Rosencrantz tower. Apart from the posters … two cannons. That’s it! Another two rooms had a cannon each – neither of which, by the way, were used in land battles. The tour cost €12. To get into the next building – part of the same complex – was going to cost another €9, for more empty rooms. This is a pattern throughout Norway, and inclusive of the various Viking exhibitions – large rooms with 8 items. I get the idea of creating alluring tourist attractions – but then they should be alluring. I feel the next time a cultural exhibition catches my eye I may well enquire as to the number of items on exhibit before forking out another €15 or so. Hmm, I did say early on that I’m sure to offend each country as we meander across Europe …

Apart from all the above, Niki loved Bergen.

Today we did have a rare opportunity – a free event! We had a great morning at the composer Edvard Greig’s home. They host an annual international pianist competition in an amazing recital hall built at his villa. We spent a couple of hours listening to gifted young pianists who just brought the venue alive -and what a setting!

FlÅM

August 30, 2018August 31, 2018ricklongboardLeave a comment

We are currently in a carpark alongside the main road to Bergen, which is about 150km away. Our original plan, to stay at the head of the Næroy fjord was scrapped when I looked past roadworks, a mining operation and through rain to a narrow, they-shall-not-pass kind of road, chickened out and turned back to the main road at Gudvangen. One of those afternoons – two Polish drivers were washing down their tourist bus, so I asked if we could use the hose to fill up our 120l fresh water tank, which was looking pretty low. Very helpful guys, gave me the hose plus their nozzle attachment, and waited patiently in the rain as I filled up. Turning the nozzle off, however … well, the thing came off, dropped to the bottom of the freshwater tank. My new Polish friends smiled, and politely offered to open the tank for me, which would have resulted in 120l of water flooding the bottom of the van. No problem though, I opened the bottom drain, they waited patiently in the rain, sharing helpful comments in Polish (I think the comments were helpful!). Drained all the water, scrabbled around and found the nozzle, filled up with water again, as my Polish friends waited in the rain …

We also travelled through the world’s longest motor tunnel … The journey was broken up with rest stops every 6km where you could pull into cut out areas, bathed in soothing coloured lights, before beginning the next section. For ourselves, 24km was long enough – we wanted out.

We’ve had a great two days since coming away from the glaciers. Last night we camped at the fjord, about 5km from Flåm. Very noisy, as it turned out, with trucks engine braking down the hill, or straining up it. Nevertheless, we watched huge cruise ships come up the fjord, there were waterfalls all around, and we spent the better part of an hour watching dolphins just a short way below us.

Flåm

P&O Liner, Flåm

Today we got into Flåm early, got the bikes down and headed off towards Myrdal, 20km away, but with an 850m climb. Absolutely stunning ride. The road is in excellent condition, the gradient mostly gentle (8%) and very little traffic. The last 3km really goes uphill, at a fairly constant 15-18% and on gravel. Heads turned as we flew up the inclines, thighs of steel … the Bosch motors were of some assistance.

Note: We’ve both got full suspension mountain bikes, but with a small Bosch motor, powered by a 500Ah battery, which gives us around 120km assistance on flat roads, around 50km when doing mountain trails. The slow 18% grind is exactly when we need a bit of help, now are getting older & more rotund. The bikes give as much as you do – you stop pedalling, no assistance. At 25km/h assistance cuts out. I saw a stat showing 70% of bike sales in Germany are now e-bikes. And they last – My son-in-law and I did 2600km last June, Geneva to Lisbon, and I’ve clocked over 10 000km now without a hiccup (holding thumbs).

Lots of people walking their bikes down this section. I’m happy to say that Swiss trails were a great training ground, and we swooped/fluttered/staggered around many steep corners, mostly in control. Video coming as soon as I get free WiFi.

On the way down we stopped at Kaupanger to see the Stave Church – a traditional style comprised of large wooden columns supporting the building, which has wooden cladding reminiscent of boat building styles. The church dates from the 12thC … and, like many churches we’ve stopped at, either closed or too expensive to view, or both!

Our current campsite is hard up against a river and then serious cliffs comprised of Anorthosite, in a layer 2km thick. The info board states that the next closest layer of similar size is … on the moon!! For myself, just happy to be here, warm, beef stew on the stove, rain absolutely tipping down – contented

Jostedalsbreen Glacier

August 27, 2018August 27, 2018ricklongboard2 Comments

I know, I know … I’ve really got to stop doing this!

After a really interesting drive over what turned out to be the flat part of Trollstigen, we swept over the plateau, all 150 meters of it, before commencing our descent down the winding reverse side, towards Geiranger. If there’s a fjord that seem to be the archetype, Geiranger has to be it. The roads across this section are so winding as to be a bit of a headspinner. Add to that the fact that you don’t know whether you are at sea level (fjord), lake (somewhere above sea level … maybe), heading towards the coast, or not. I’ve a couple of friends who would, no doubt, point unerringly in some direction and state, without hesitation, ‘Of course that’s North-East’ … Aaron T! Not me. (Hover cursor for captions).

Gudbransdjuvet Viewpoint

There are flat roads …

Geiranger Fjord

And not so flat!

Coming down towards Geiranger – what a view – we found a carpark with a large section marked No Parking, and 3 spots with a ‘P’ sign. We had a chat with a lovely guy from Argentina who has been travelling since May (Where do these guys get the money?) who vacated the P area, and we moved in. So happy to have a room with a view across the fjord, and dry and warm as the drizzle started again. Our two companion vans – not so lucky, clearly lacking an onboard loo, and necessitating numerous walks across the road to some track in the bush. So instead of heading off to our intended spot at Dalsnibba we, of course, settle back and enjoyed another taped episode of ‘The Terror’ (Great book!!). Woke in the morning to find the No Parking area filled two deep, and enterprising bivvy set up on the central grass of the turning circle, cars with tarpaulins stretching from door to grassed area – sagging under the weight of the night’s rainfall. We just have to get better at ‘reading’ the no parking signs, but at €60 a parking ticket these are expensive lessons.

Another day, another Trollstigen, up to Dalsnibba – and this really was up!!, and then down to Stryn, before climbing again to our present campsite at Mekevoll Bretun. Hmmm, how to put this … Camping at Geiranger (€0) what just outstanding. Camping at the base of the Jostedalsbreen glacier is a different order of magnitude. Glaciers ahead and to the right, waterfalls to the left, our van is parked meters away from the terminal moraine – WOW!

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I took advantage of the sauna, which is on for 2 hours every evening, and then bowed to peer pressure from a full sauna to exit and have a swim in a glacial pool right at the door. I think this is why some Scandinavian countries have a vodka issue – you have to have a couple to get the heart going again. In fact, enjoyed the cure so much I’m intending to replicate the process tonight. Followed that this morning with an easy hike up through the forest (avoid the main hiking trail!!) to the glacier itself and spent a couple of hours just drinking in the scenery. We are also surrounded by interesting and nice neighbours – A couple with a 2 yr old child, older Belgium couple etc etc – had some great chats and guided campervan tours!

On a sour note – I think the various Trollstigens have caused our SatNav to self-destruct. We’ve tried re-setting, updating, disconnecting… No go. We do have an atlas, with Norway covered in4 pages, so not exactly high definition (I know I’m confusing epochs), but there’s really only one road from here to there, and I’ve tracked down an audio shop in Bergen, 4 days away (depending on the Navigator), so let’s see if we can get this thing sorted or replaced. Been less than impressed with some of the routing options! But until then, we’ll end up somewhere beautiful, without a doubt.

Åndalsnes & Trollstigen

August 23, 2018August 23, 2018ricklongboard2 Comments

We are parked at the top of Trollstigen, a hop & jump from last night’s stop in Åndalsnes, and what a trip this has been. Seriously – when you think you’ve seen beautiful, and then it gets better!!!

Following our overnight stop after our musk ox walk (let’s hold on ‘safari’ please) at the carpark we made our way, at a sedate 70km/h, down to Åndalsnes, breaking away from the major E6 route. We headed into what looked like grim weather, but apart from some light drizzle and low cloud, oh and a 75km/h crosswind, we weren’t too badly off. Very light traffic made things easier, now that Norwegian schools have started. We had no idea of what to expect along the route, so imagine our surprise as the road descended, the cliffs ascended, and we found ourselves at the base of the Trolls Wall, Europe’s highest vertical cliff! I think this was made even more spectacular by the low, broken cloud, which gave glimpses of sheer walls, leftover snow, tremendous waterfalls and gigantic bowls carved out by glaciers. Hidden peaks and the grey cloud & rock simply added to our sense of awe. We took some time out to stop at waterfalls along the way, came across this stunning church, and generally had the best 2 hour drive of our lives. Who knew it was going to get better? The Romsdal Valley has just completely blown us away with beauty on a scale that I’m not sure we’ll see again. Knowing Norway, I’m bound to be wrong.

Romsdal Valley drive

Restaurant view, Troll Wall

Just another view from the van

Trolls everywhere

Åndalsnes has a bit of a history, being central to Norway’s efforts in 1940 to keep their gold reserves out of German (and British) hands, with a tale of falling bombs, sinking ships, a Norwegian royal family and various derring-do, all quite inspiring. The town itself is worth its place in the Norwegian picture card icon, although there is little to do in the town itself. Having a newly discovered fear of heights, both Niki and I avoided the key current activity, mountain climbing … the real thing. The beautifully designed climbing centre/info has a fantastic indoor climbing wall – paid for entry only, so I’m going on the oodles of pictures on the wall. A very quiet night spent in a free car park next to the railway station (love Norway!!), and then, next day, off to Trollstigen.

That’s the sea in the distance

Trollstigen

Niki, confident before the drive!

I’m going to post a short video of tunnels and passes to give some idea of what this looks like while driving – Navigator’s view of course – I’m not even taking a hand off the wheel for the obligatory wave at oncoming campervans. In any case – a few photos of the Trollstigen should explain why this road is iconic.

Colour co-ordinated for the survival photo

So we are parked on a bit of a slope – water won’t drain out the shower too well, and both Niki and I are fighting gravity (not old age wrinkle slumping stuff, but the real thing), but on the up side I get a cuddle when Niki rolls downhill tonight…

Oh, and bumped into Dave K at the top of the mountain!