After months of anticipation, gathering information, and creating a rough plan/itinerary, the first Friday of August brought our 2023 summer holiday up close, with us picking up our ‘wheels’ for the coming 3 weeks – a 4-berth camper, picked up in Lelystad and driven back to Hilversum. Here we personalised our ‘home’ for the coming weeks, loading provisions, walking gear, bikes, etc.
Our Norwegian road trip launched the next morning, with our intention being to get onto Swedish soil for our first night – a 4-country drive, heading east into Germany, and then north to Denmark & Sweden. We had chosen to drive the entire route so as not be dependent on any reservations; our only pre-purchases were for the Storebælt and Øresundsbron toll crossings in Denmark & Sweden, as well as a Scandinavian electronic toll badge (for use on roads & ferries). Our further intention was to make use of the allemannsretten – the right to roam and make use of the great outdoors, adhering to some basic rules – and so be flexible with regard to our overnight stops. Furthermore we would make use of a variety of apps and maps to locate potential locations along our route for overnight stops.
The first day was a long drive, some 950km, unfortunately somewhat delayed around Hamburg by (eternal) German roadworks, but crowned by a sunset crossing of the Øresundsbron (the bridge made famous by The Bridge), and successfully achieving our goal of Sweden – our first overnight stop was just north of Malmö.
The destination for our second day was simply to be in Norway, and then preferably some distance beyond Oslo. The 600km drive was pretty much all motorway via Gothenburg, a fuel stop providing us with some automotive entertainment from a group of supercar drivers (a kind of Gumball rally with Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini & Mercedes). En route we stopped in Moss for a meet-up with Kim, one of Luc’s PlayStation gaming buddies – Mayra got her first compliment here for her grip on Norwegian (self-taught in preparation for the trip!). Our stop for the night was a quiet(ish) parking area overlooking the Tyrifjorden. After some map consultation we realised that the island we could see was Utøya, scene of the mass murder in July 2011.
Day 3 was our first full day in Norway, and the first without any specific destination or distance needing to be covered. The weather had turned somewhat overnight, and this was our introduction to storm Hans. Grey skies, and rain, rain, rain … 🌧️
We had an uneventful drive, having a brief shopping stop and a water stop in Flå (disposing of grey & black water, and topping up fresh water), visiting our first stave church (stavkyrkje) in Torpo, and choosing a lakeside parking spot overlooking the Holsfjorden near Hol for our overnight stop.
Storm Hans was still with us on day 4, and now interrupted our plans – our intention had been to drive the route from Hagafoss to Eidfjord and visit the Vøringsfossen along the way, but we couldn’t even get to Hagafoss due to flooding damage. A police officer at the roadblock shortly after our departure from Hol told us dryly “Take the long route around.” Very funny … 🙁 But we headed up the valley with a revised destination, and elected to overnight at the top of the valley at the Geiteryggtunneln.
The Norwegian Roads Authority keeps their website up-to-date, and as a result we were pretty well informed – to the point that we were aware of the southbound roadblock at Hagafoss, but also of one northbound beyond this valley, effectively blocking our exit. A lack of traffic added weight to this, but we did enjoy the companionship of sheep and the remoteness of our location.
On day 5 we realised that we were now more on the storm perimeter, experiencing a lot less rain and wind. We undertook a walk along a local track further up the valley, Ellen & Luc eventually walking all the way to the Geiterygghutte. Once back at the camper it was clear that there was more traffic passing, even public transport. A quick chat with a friendly Norwegian couple convinced us that, if there was indeed a roadblock in the next valley, it would be to prevent traffic coming our way. We packed up: destination Aurlandsvangen, Flåm and Gudvangen. The drive was our introduction to Norwegian road tunnels, and in particular the interesting combination of tunnels descending to Vassbygdi – quite reminiscent of the Spiral Tunnels in the Canadian Rockies. Here we were also afforded our first real fjord view, driving along the Aurlandsfjord to Flåm, with the surreal view of a cruise ship docked there(!). In Gudvangen we had a water stop before heading off the beaten track to our overnight stop in the Jordalen valley.
Day 6 was going to be our first tourist day, with a number of waterfalls on the itinerary. Our route would lead us to Vossevangen and on to Granvin, driving alongside the Strandaelvi which frequently was a serious white water course; en route we stopped at the Tvindefossen (an impressive cascade with a height of ±150m) and the Skervefossen – both waterfalls clearly full thanks to storm Hans.
From Granvin we drove the Hardanger scenic route (our first Nasjonale Turistveger), following the Hardangerfjord with a number of hairy moments when passing traffic in the other direction(!). Quick stops at the Kvanndal and Ålvik harbours gave us our first sea-level impressions of the Norwegian fjords … 🙂
The last waterfall stop of the day, the Steindalsfossen, was reached via Øystese and Norheimsund, and here we took our time, being able to walk behind the waterfall. From here it was a relatively short stint to our planned overnight stop at Tysse – this would turn out to be a little bit of a white-knuckle drive on a very narrow road, bringing us to our intended overnight location next to a sports field – Nick was exhausted by the last part of the drive, and was concerned about getting away from the location again.
We elected to do our dinner here, end then to drive further after dinner, so as to be able to achieve 2 goals: firstly, to avoid any delay the next morning in getting back to the through route; and, secondly, simply to have less travelling time in the morning to get to the camper location in Bergen (which we expected to be busy due to limited space). Getting to the provincial route was thankfully easy enough, and we then followed the coastal road to Osøyro and then inland beyond Søfteland to an overnight stop some 20 minutes from the camper location in Bergen. Mission accomplished …!
However, the peace was soon disturbed … 🙁
After having had the feeling that we had been clearly photographed by a local after a slow drive-by, we were buzzed by an irritated farmer on his enormous tractor – he made it clear that we weren’t welcome here, and that previous campers had always left rubbish behind. In the absence of a No camping sign we did our best to impress upon him that our intentions were different, and he departed a lot cooler than he arrived. Maybe that a pack of Dutch stroopwafels helped here … 😉
📍 Take a look at the map below for an idea of our route for this section:
📷 A photo gallery with more photo’s is available here.