The Road North to Bodo

Since our last blog in Odda we have travelled 1316 kilometres north to Bodo where we are catching the ferry across to the Lofoten Islands. Averaging around 65 km/h through some challenging terrain, and enduring a lot of roadworks, it’s taken us almost four full days of driving to get here. But this was expected. When we planned our Norway trip we focused on two areas to spend time in, the Ryfylke area with the beautiful Lysefjord in southwestern Norway, and the Lofoten archipelago in the northwest. Both areas are renowned for their beauty and our time in Ryfylke and surrounds certainly lived up to our expectations.

After leaving Odda we continued to wind through the fjords along narrow roads running beside cliff edges. There were many hair-raising moments, especially when meeting large trucks on tight corners, and in one instance we were held up while two trucks worked out how they were going to disentangle themselves after trying to squeeze past in a particularly narrow part. Norwegian drivers, being used to these roads, are polite and patient so we never felt unsafe or hurried.

A few hours into our drive, after coming around a sharp corner down from a mountain pass, we found ourselves looking over a beautiful fjord with two large cruise ships docked at a pier. It was quite surreal seeing these huge vessels in the narrow inlet, surrounded by high peaks and sheer cliffs. This is the village of Flam, a popular tourist destination with its sightseeing railway that runs up into the peaks for magnificent views across the fjords. The place was humming with people and we decided it was an ideal place to stop for our lunch. While eating our reheated pasta in the sun outside our van a couple of British tourists from one of the ships stopped for a chat. They saw we had GB number plates and presumed we were Brits. Intrigued about life in a camper, we gave them a tour of our home on wheels, and promoted NZ as a great destination for their campervan tour.

From Flam we went through a series of long tunnels before coming across the Laerdal Tunnel, the world’s longest road tunnel at 24.5km. It was quite an experience. There were even rest areas on the way through, lit up with green and blue lighting to resemble life above ground. Surprisingly there were no tolls to pay when we emerged, although we’ve certainly paid our fair share towards roading in Norway, with more to come.

Speed cameras are frequent in Norway, and after passing a few we started to get concerned as they always flashed. However, we were relieved to be told “this is what they do”, by an English couple we met in a rest area. The sight of our scarce GB plates united us in conversation, they were just the second motorhome from the UK we’d seen in Norway. Most motorhomes on the road here are from Germany and the Netherlands, with a handful of French, Spanish and Italian vans.

As we drove further inland the landscape became much softer, changing to forests, lakes and farmland, and then up into the alpine landscape of the ski areas. We stopped for the night in the ski resort town of Beitostolen. The camping ground here was one of the nicest so far with excellent facilities and parking area, and with lovely expansive views across the alpine landscape.

The next day our drive continued through spectacular rocky alpine moonscapes with snow drifts still lying on the side of the road, then down through forests and alongside beautiful lakes and rivers. In Norway you are never far from water.

All along the roads in Norway there are signs warning of moose, or elk as they’re called here. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a sighting of this iconic image of Norway. Somewhere on the road after Beitostolen I got lucky and saw my moose. A massive slick grey beast crashing through the undergrowth beside the road, much larger than a cow. Hopefully it won’t be the last one I see.

Our destination that day was Trondheim, the third largest city in Norway. We camped in Flakk, a small village on the waterside 10kms out of Trondheim and drove into town the following morning to have look around. Trondheim is not a destination city, but is pretty enough on a warm summer’s day, and we enjoyed a few hours there. The impressive 11^th century Nidaros Cathedral, built over the grave of the patron saint of Norway, Saint Olav, and Scandinavia’s oldest secular building, the Archbishop’s Palace, were both worth visiting.

Mid-afternoon we set off again, as with 700 km’s still to go to Bodo we were keen to eat up some kilometres before the day’s end; I’d like to say before dark, but there is no dark here. To pass the time we did a survey of how many motorhomes were on the road compared to other traffic. It’s rough science but after half an hour 22% of the vehicles that passed us were motorhomes, and the number seemed to increase as the days went on. Sticking to motorhome etiquette of waving to each van that passed becomes quite exhausting.

About three hours out of Trondheim we stopped at a lovely campsite right on the lake in the small village of Namasskogan and took advantage of the sunny evening to wash our van, she was starting to look a bit road weary and after over 5,000 kilometres there were a lot of splattered insects to scrape off.

From Namasskogan we drove through even more spectacular landscapes, with picture postcard views around every corner, and drawing ever closer to the Arctic Circle. I was super excited and a bit emotional about driving into the Arctic. I’ve always wanted to go to the top of the world. Mr Love, not so. He had never really put much thought into it, and this adventure into the far north has been driven by me. Luckily, he has fallen in love with Norway and is not in too much of a hurry to get back “down to Europe”. We crossed the Arctic Circle at 3.30pm on June 30th. 

A night on the waterfront in Fauska, 50km’s out of Bodo, and then a short drive to the ferry the following morning, and we are on our way across the Norwegian Sea to the wild and rugged Lofoten Islands, the place many say is the true Norway.