Trondheim | The Skinny Bit [7,8,9,10] | Soundtrack (right click and play on repeat in another tab in the background)
After the highs of Kvalvika it was time to jump on our first ferry (the first of maybe 10 or 12 ferries on our trip) and keep pushing south. We'd lost a day or two on (Let's Get Lost) Lofoten, so taken were we all by the magic of the place. That meant an extra 100kms onto our daily driving target but we had a comfortable car with air conditioning, cruise control AND our playlists at our fingertips on the iPod so it was rare we complained .....and without question Lofoten was worth it. We took the ferry from Moskenes to Bodo. Worth noting that on ferries I found myself unusually hands free of a steering wheel, a map and/or tent pegs, so feeling liberated to take photographs of *something*, "ferry furniture" provided a soft and stationary target and is way over-represented in the photograph stakes.
Moskenes to Bodo, come in Bodo.
Ferry Furniture
Ferry Furniture
Ferry Furniture
The "independent clock tower" of Bodo Cathedral
Cortado a Bodo
The first iteration on what became a habit.... drive/ferry/drive then pull up in any random town round about mid afternoon for kafee und kuchen, or cortado und kuchen as it became. Norway knows how to do good coffee, good cafes and we know all about the pastries. Here we are in Babel of Bodo. I bought some books in a library booksale in Bodo. The phrase "Bodo Bibliotheque", liberally stamped throughout my purchases, is now a euphemism for robbing / shoplifting in our house. I did not rob those books. We also took some time to knock into the local Radisson to.... freshen up.
Bodo Egg-Carton Brutalism
Reconnaissance
Q'ing for the ferry from Halsa to Ågskardet
The girls' road setup. Notebooks were bought for the girls in Tromso and by the end of the trip they'd filled both notebooks with the most wonderful art work (which I'll share if they'll let me). The imagination is the most portable form of entertainment.
Ferry Furniture
Briefly deserted notebooks
The Norwegian Royal Family
We're all hella shellshocked in and out of the frame of this photo. This was taken somewhere on the outskirts of Mo-I-Rana. We'd been on the road since early morning and had targeted Mo-I-Rana to pitch up. After another wrong-side-of-the-road-row we got to our target campsite, paid, checked in and then got attacked by what we believe were Norwegian Hornets, a highly aggressive, kamikaze-cross between a wasp and a horsefly. M got stung within 2 mins of getting out of the car as we were trying to pitch. We tried moving to the other side of the campsite and I was attacked by a fresh batch of the bastards. I feared for safety of my family and drove away at speed (with my family onboard of course.) The only other option in the area was a low rent mostly deserted campsite on the outskirts but one quick spin around it told us we would not be welcome there. So we went out the road and stopped for an icecream in extreme heat and gathered our bearings. We do not have fond memories of Mo-I-Rana. So we kept going, onwards to....
......Mosjøen. Much better.
......Also Mosjøen
......Mosjøen
REMA 1000, Mosjøen
The campsite we checked into reminded us of Monte Hermoso. It had a bowling alley, it;s own pizzeria and restaurants and was a model industrial sized campsite / RV park. We had a difficult time getting to sleep so vast and noisy was the campsite. One old phlegm-filled biker guy camping solo right beside us woke us regularly with some chronic hocking and spitting. This was definitely the low point - we hadn't come to Norway for overcrowded roadside camping with our tent overshadowed by row after row of towering RVs. We told ourselves in the morning that we always knew we'd be tearing through the skinny bit and that this roadside pitch, within sniffing distance of the traffic on a national artery, was an interim stop off and never a destination in itself. All that said, Mosjøen itself was a nice historic town with plenty of museums and cafes for the distracted tourist.
Puffy smushins after some industrial camping. This is likely the most typical childhood campsite photo you'll ever see.
Dashboard and bonnet of our utility vehicle. One of those green bowls never made it back.
Mosjøen to Trondheim
Roadside picnic table, cucumber wraps, chocolate milk, Happy as Two Larries
Another Roadside Café
We got to our chosen pitch, an old-school campsite overlooking the ferry terminus outside Trondheim, around 4pm, got the last good pitch, stuck on a wash and headed back into the city for some food. Trondheim is a beautiful and interesting old university / cathedral city which we'd liked to have spent way more time in had time allowed.
On our way to our first real Norwegian meal at "no-gnocchi" Frati in Trondheim.
Trondheim
Trondheim Cathedral. For long stretches of our trip we got into an anti-pattern where we'd hit our destination, or sometimes interesting points along the way, just at the time things were closing or closed for the evening. This is a great example. As was the entire town of Mo-I-Rana.
Summer In Trondheim
Bymarka
Before shipping out of Trondheim, early the next morning we drove up the mountains above the city to a place called Bymarka, a mostly wooded area criss-crossed with hiking trails, and hiked a pretty demanding trail. The girls ate the pizza doggy bag from the previous night's meal.
Elgsethytta Hut lookout point at Bymarka
Elgsethytta Hut lookout point at Bymarka
Roller Skiers. Uphill Roller Skiers.
Bymarka
Trondheim to Alesund
Traaavelin'
Unforced pose with kitchenware background, Alesund
We travelled to Alesund specifically to witness its "architectural eccentricities". The story goes that in 1904 a huge fire burned the town down leaving the population homeless. A huge reconstruction program began and the city was rebuilt within 3 years, but in the Art Nouveau style. I'll be honest, I didn't see too many Art Nouveau artistic marvels or "folkloric, whimsical flourishes", however there were some attempts at Club Singer style eccentricty - "I can turn a corner". We had a damn fine cup of coffee and some pastried carbohydrates in the top-rate Lyspunktet Cafe where the girls opted to have their refreshments independently, seated on a table on a balcony away from their parents. The first shot in the War of Independnce has been fired.
Raining In Alesund
This girl likes music. Sold.
Softy Selfie
Alesund to Geiranger
Geiranger [11] | Soundtrack (right click and play on repeat in another tab in the background)
Onwards to our first trophy fjord. The Geirangerford is one of the region's smallest fjords, but one of its most breathtaking. Our approach to the town of Geiranger was indeed breathtaking :
Co-Pilot Nutrition Tricks Revealed
The road into town featured an aggressively sharp descent with more switchbacks and hairpins than I've ever experienced on a single stretch of road, made all the more hazardous by the tide of RVs and tour buses we fought on their way up the fjord.
The descent. Note also the Geiranger Hellesylt ferry. More anon.
The town of Geiranger on the Eastern end of the Geirangerford in the background. Cruise ship for scale in the background.
We spotted what looked like some great trails across the top of the fjord as we rolled into town and so it turned out. We pitched up in the beautifully located and well equipped "Vinje Camping" halfway up the other side of the fjord, had a rushed tea dinner and drove straight back up to the top of the fjord to go for an evening hike.
Next Generation of the Fearless Leader. Hiking at Geirangerford.
This leader lost his bottle for the first and only time on the trip on this hike. 30mins into our hike we found ourselves skirting across the side of the mountain on a narrow, root covered sheep trail, only wide enough for single-file, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other with nothing but a near sheer drop into the rock covered valley below on your right hand side. S'ín was sure-footedly leading the way not a bother when seeing only another several hundred metres of similar pathway and knowing we'd have to back track along the same path I made a risk mitigation decision to turn around and chase another path. I knew that was a good call when, only minutes later, we watched another family hurtle headlong to their demise down the rocky valley wall. Only joking. We don't give up easily in this family apparently and I had to negotiate another 50m with S before she finally agreed to give up. In fairness the scenery was spectacular but sometimes you gots to follow your guts.
Tiring Ourselves Out On Geology
Happy Hikers
Chin up for the selfie
Endorphins Achieved
Geirangerford WAAAAY before breakfast.
Medium footprint eco-tourism
We had several potential routes from Geiranger towards Bergen to choose from and all seemed viable and desirable. After a late night confab on a picnic table at the campsite with a map, a guidebook, Google Maps and about a thousand Korean devices charging in the background, we decided we'd make our way inland towards a National Park and do some more wild camping. We also desperately wanted to do the Geiranger to Hellesylt ferry which brought you straight up through the S shaped Geirangerford. Unfortunately those ambitions were in directional conflict and we couldn't figure out how to knit them together without adding a couple of hundred kilometres and a couple of additional ferry hops to our journey. So we went with the couple of hundred kilometres and ferry trips (see map at the start of the next post). The Geiranger to Hellesylt is "one of the most celebrated journeys in the whole of Norway" according to our rough guide (a boxer from Athy). After a quick timetable check down at the ferry terminal we knew the early sailing was 07:45. As the ticket office was closed we knew that ferries were first come first served for any unreserved space. Given it was high season and this was a very popular ferry journey, I felt it would be best for us to be up early and down at the ferry terminus in plenty of time.......
What too early looks like. I'm so glad I made that call.
Chicken noodles dripping with guilt and abandonment
Passenger on uncrowded ferry
Geiranger to Hellesylt ferry
The S shaped Geirangerfjord
M really enjoyed this one
Shocked by their early morning start and disgusted by the expensive pot noodle breakfast I offered up by way of an apology, the girls stayed mostly in the indoor lounge area for this one.
Ferry Furniture With Sunlight
Selfie coercion headlock
Hellesylt. S: "This little guy followed me around Norway" When she finally met one she was shocked to discover he was "squidgy"
Join us for the final post in the series that takes us through Jotunheimen National Park, the Sognefjellsveg to the final leg towards Bergen and Oslo.
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