Summer has arrived!

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Wednesday.
Our neighbours popped around to say they were off to find some internet, we thanked them again for a pleasant evening and sent them on their way with homemade cookies. Housekeeping and maintenance have decided to stay for a few hours, there's washing to do, the sun is out and there is a breeze to dry it, the hob still needs another looking at and of course the water heater always could do with another looking at. It was 3.00 pm when we left in search of a supermarket and a camper service area. On our way out of the car park we had a look in a mountain hut on the hill opposite, it was small but had a stove, a wooden bed a small table with some food left on it for the next occupants, if they needed it, in the corner was a wood burner to make it cosy on a chilly day. We drove to Gaupne and did our weekly shop then drove following a scenic route up into the mountains. Half way up the engine temperature got very hot again! Les pulled over and found that the cooling fan wasn't working. He was able to make a temporary repair until we stopped for the night. We found a place close to a hotel where there was a mixture of campers, caravaners and tents, with sheep and lambs wandering around, their bells tinkling as they ate the grass. We cooked outside and sat in the sunshine until it disappeared behind the mountains. We are way behind with uploading the blog and photos, luckily for us the hotel has WIFI that doesn't need a password! Thank you for sharing with us. It's getting late so I uploaded some photos ready for tomorrow when I can copy and paste the notes that I have made. Thursday. The tinkle of the sheep bells has woken Les this morning. After breakfast he changed the fuse on the radiator fan and all seemed ok again, we hope so because Dream Catcher is going to have to work hard to take us up the scenic road over the mountains. We finished uploading the blog, the WIFI was a bit hit and miss this morning and it took longer than we expected. We are in desperate need of a camper service area today, the loo is full and we're almost out of water, we haven't had any difficulty finding one before so we're optimistic that there will be one at the other end of the mountain pass at Ovra Ardal. The road over the pass was as usual a long snake up with ever improving views, the area is still quite snowy in places, Dream Catcher didn't have any further problems on the long climb. We stopped at a view point and then drove down hill a little way before climbing again. At at second view point there was a group of young adults all in wheel chairs, some close to the edge, I hope they have good brakes and have put them on, the wind up here would soon have them over the edge! At the summit a little further on was the toll booth, 80NK, almost £8 to pass. The drive and views were worth it! We checked with Doris just how high we were, 4475ft. The highest so far in Norway. The drive down the other side wasn't as pretty due to massive electricity pylons all the way. As we were dropping down a steep section, there was a busy car park on the left with a compulsory view point. So we pulled over, it was certainly worth it. The viewing platform had glass panels at the end giving superb views over Ardalsfjorden. The last very steep section had some very tight hairpin bends, three of them so tight that we had to shuffle to get around them.At the town we looked for a service stop, but there wasn't one. We had lunch and used the facilities at a shopping centre before heading off to Laerdal, apparently the second driest town in Norway, but there wasn't a service point. We decided to pay to use the ones at the camp site. Feeling happier to have sorted that problem out we set off again to find a place to stay. A short way along the road there was a large picnic site on the edge of the fjord, a couple of campers were already parked up so we joined them. We enjoyed the sunshine and again ate outdoors. We watched the sun going down, but up here it moves round to the north as it's going down. It seems quite bizarre to us. So instead of just disappearing behind the mountain across the fjord, it followed the angle of the side of the mountain, and an hour later and it was still on its way down. Friday Retracing our route for a few miles we decided to have a look around Laerdal, it was an important trading town in the 18th and 19th centuries. We had a pleasant stroll around the timber hotels, houses, warehouses and fisher folks shacks. There is an audio guide available at the tourist office, but it was closed. Next there is a choice of either the worlds longest tunnel 34 kilometres, or crossing Snovegen, snow road, an easy choice on a beautiful day, the scenery as usual was stunning, nicer than yesterday's drive from sea level up to 4426ft. Where it opens out to a boulder strewn plateau. There were several places to stop and look at waterfalls, lakes and snowy vistas! But brrr it's cold up there. We then set out for Bergen, surrounded by seven hills and seven fjords Bergen was the capital in the 12th and 13th centuries, the sheltered harbour drew in merchants from Germany, Holland and England to trade grain for dried fish. The road passed through so many tunnels today, we certainly exercised our window winding arms, closing the windows entering tunnels to keep out the collected fumes and opening them again upon exiting. We weren't meaning to drive all the way today, but we couldn't find anywhere to stop overnight, so we arrived early evening at Bergen camper stop, basically a large area of ground where 100 campers can park for approximately £15 for 24 hours. Most cities have this sort of facility, if that's what you can call it! For the last 50 miles or so it once again seemed that everyone was going in the opposite direction, there was a constant stream of vehicles heading the other way, everyone must be going away for the weekend, or on holiday. Most Norwegians take their annual holiday from now until the end of August, also did I mention that summer seems to have arrived! We sat out and enjoyed a cold drink with our meal, after all it is Friday. Saturday.Just outside the camper park is a tram stop on a line between the city and the airport, we walked to the station, leaving Logan in Dream Catcher with all the blinds closed and the small fan on so it stays fairly cool inside. We purchased our tickets and a tram which according to the information board run every 11 minutes, arrived and within another 12 minutes we were in the centre of Bergen. Using a map which our English friends with the palatial camper gave us, we orientated ourselves and headed towards the UNESCO World Heritage site, Bryggen built on the side of Vagen Harbour, is an area of wooden buildings from the merchants heyday, built in parallel and often leaning, rows of gabled buildings which housed the trading offices, warehouses and accommodation. Each building had a crane for unloading from the ships and a large assembly room where employees ate and socialised. The buildings now house upmarket souvenir shops attracting the money from the Korean and American tourists who's cruise ships are in the harbour. After exploring the area we visited the fish market, again very overpriced fish, some of it available plated up to eat in the little seating areas behind the stalls. There were live king crab and lobster in tanks and on the counters prawn,salmon, crevettes and whale, you could even buy fish and chips! There is a youth band festival in the city this weekend, every square and neatly kept park had a band blasting out marches and well known Disney tunes, some had majorettes performing in front of them, we sat and ate our picnic lunch listening to one of the bands in the park, all their belongings were strewn across the bank at the side of the path, Les noticed a man rummaging through a small rucksack, he then moved onto a handbag, he asked the man sat next to him if he thought it was suspicious, we decided it was probably a parent looking for something, then a parent confronted him and after a conversation he moved on, I'm pretty certain that he had taken a phone from the bag, as he walked away he handed something to a lady who had walked off with him, we wish we had done more to stop him, but we don't speak the language. It surprises us that even in a city we haven't seen a single police person, throughout our trip we have only seen them on a couple of occasions. After lunch we wandered around the sights for an hour or so before heading back on the tram. It's a warm day and 4 hours is long enough to have left Logan. Back at Dream Catcher we decided to move on to get out of the city, we chose a spot just 30 miles away, a small marina at the head of a fjord. We were soon there and parked up with a lovely view, chairs out, cold beer and sunshine, the perfect way to end the day, entertained by three boys aged around 9, getting up to mischief, throwing bigger and bigger rocks into the marina, then charging around in an abandoned shopping trolley. In the evening lots of people came and went on boats, it looked like the local young folks were having a party out on the fjord,many of them carrying cans in Spar bags, later before we went to bed a group of young ladies were brought back to the marina, they were having a great time playing on a swing in the adjoining small park whilst drinking from cans and bottles. Luckily they dispersed before lights out. Sunday. A day on the road for us, we're heading east hoping to make it to Copenhagen to visit my cousin before she goes on holiday next weekend. The route passed numerous waterfalls, we had to stop at a couple of them to take pictures, because that's what tourists do! At Steinsdalfossen their was a path that took you behind the waterfall from the top of the path their was a great view down the valley. The whole area is very alpine looking. Further along the route we opted to take a ferry from Torvikbygn to Jondal cutting a large distance of driving off. Jondal is a pretty village with a lovely marina where we stopped for lunch. There are a lot of locals taking their boats out on to the fjord, it's a lovely day for messing about on the water. The down side to having taken the ferry was two long tunnels, one 10k and the other 11k, I,m still amazed by the engineering of these tunnels, with inclines, descents and corners. The rest of the afternoon we drove across the Hardangervidda plateau, Europes largest mountain plateau,dotted with boulders and dark blue lakes. By 4O'clock we decided to find a place to park up, we pulled over on to a track and found the perfect place at the side of a small lake, there was a small beach area next to us, and goats wandering on the grassy slopes on the mountains behind us. After sitting in the sun for a while, I suggested that we took a dip in the crystal clear water, it was very refreshing to say the least and took your breath away, but we soon warmed up again once we had got out. During the evening several camper vans drove across our track looking for somewhere to park, but we had the only place where you could pull off! They all turned around and headed off again, leaving us to enjoy this beautiful place.

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