Country: Norway
Distance travelled:
Weather: Sunny and warm turning to rain in the afternoon

I woke this morning to a patch of incredibly bright blue sky showing though the skylight above our bed. The colour stretched from horizon to horizon until it met with the mountains surrounding us where it changed to the brilliant white of sun on snow. We dragged ourselves out of bed with less enthusiasm than the beautiful day merited after our late, late evening. We’re still not used to watching the clock to regulate the day and I, in particular, find it difficult to go to sleep in full daylight.

One thing we are finding in this part of the world is the plentiful bins and regular occurrence of public toilets. In this particular location was a little slice of home – a pit toilet in a wooden shack with a piece of well worn string not really doing its job as the door latch. If the structure had been facing a different way, the door could have been left open for the view but alas no, it faced the road….

At the first campsite we passed we stopped to ask if they sold replacements for our blown fuse. No luck, but the lady kindly recommended the next, larger campsite along the road or failing that a service station in the town ahead, Lom. The next campsite was unable to help so when we rolled into Lom, we stopped at the first service station where we filled the van with fuel since the tank was three quarters empty and the price was right. They had no fuses either but recommended the other service station at the other end of town. Lom is a quite small ski resort type of town and we had driven though before we realised but managed to turn back for the second service station where our luck was in! We bought two fuses so as to have one in backup in case the same catastrophe befell us again.

While we were in town we decided to replenish our depleted cash reserves. A quick visit to an auto teller fixed that although Mark is still peeved about the limit in cash we can withdraw at any one time. The bank will make a fortune off us in fees and charges, I’m sure, unless we can find a fix. A side trip to the bridge over the river which runs through the centre of town to view the cascades finished off our whirlwind tour of Lom and we were off again.

Lom also marked the start of our next scenic drive, Sognefjellet. The first stop we were aiming for, an architect designed picnic spot, unfortunately did not cater to motorhomes as the access road was too narrow for any vehicle over two meters wide. There was a small designated bus and motorhome parking spot out in the sun which didn’t really appeal to us. We ate our lunch anyway and continued onward and upward.

It wasn’t long before we were above the snow line again. Our first stop was at a location where two waterfalls thundered down the cliff and slipped under the roadway to appear again on the other side. Drifts of snow clung to the rocks around us and the torrents of water slid under deceptively solid looking areas of snow and then out again to rumble further down the hillside to join with a river flowing down toward the canyon floor.

Onward the tourist route wove it’s way over the mountains and further upward into the snow. At one stage we were driving past drifts of more than a meter deep at the edge of the road. Distant from the road, where I assume a lake would be once the snow completely melts, if it did ever does, were stretches of aqua blue ice. A concrete barrier across one stretch gave us the impression that a lot of water builds up in that valley come the summer melt.

At the last lookout we could see a change in the weather coming to meet us. Or were we going to meet it? We took the last steep and winding stretch of road down to the next fjord, Lustrafjorden, with the dash cam running most of the way although I’m not convinced I will ever want to relive that experience. I just love hairpin bends! Once we were on the horizontal roadway again, it didn’t get any less winding or narrow just not steep and with a distinct lack of cliff edges.

We pulled up to consider our options for tonight’s camping location in a layby across the fjord from yet another waterfall. Unbelievably we could hear its roar from where we were parked at least a kilometer away! Most of the car parks along the waters edge were for picnics and rest stops with very definite ‘No Camping’ signs and there was nothing suitable listed in Autoroute for quite some distance. A quick decision to turn onto a minor road led us into the hills and we have ended up in a rest stop nestled in a steep valley with three more waterfalls running down the valley wall opposite our parking spot.