Month: July 2025

Week 8. 18th to 24th July. Tønder, Denmark to Home – 817 miles

Saturday, 19th July 2025. Tønder, Denmark to Rotenburg, Germany – 170 miles

Our ferry home is on Thursday, so we don’t have much time left, but a lot of miles to cover. Today we are leaving Denmark and heading home on our last week. We will go through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, but quite quickly.

A very nice breakfast this morning, outside in the sun. Very nice. We get packed up, do a service and off we go. We don’t know where we will be later, but we would like to get as far south as Bremen in Germany. Jess is filthy, but really bad, so we have another go at finding a jet wash, but fall short. There is nothing to be had. It is going to be a potentially long day today. To get to Bremen, we have to skim past Hamburg, which has the worst road works, according to reports.

Del is set to do most of the driving today. He loves it, says he can just drive for miles… Hayley is happy for him to do it as she researches the route, where to stop and what and where to eat. The border between Denmark and Germany is just a few kilometres away. Hayley does the first bit of driving. We stop at a filling station. Once we cross the border, the roads are very different. Gone are the smooth, bright roads of Denmark; now we have the patchy, bumpy roads of Northern Germany. Who’d have thought? We are sure they will get better.

It’s a lovely day, hot, almost 25 degrees. We are soon on the motorway and heading towards Hamburg. Sure enough, after about 45 minutes, the northbound A7, is at a standstill for a good few miles because of roadworks and the discovery of a bridge with bad workmanship that needs urgent attention. Going south, we have a good, clear road. Today Jess clocks up 35000 miles after seven and a half years…!

Hayley has found a place that will allow up to 10 campervans to park. It’s a hotel/restaurant and we fancy a schnitzel… We like them a lot. The hotel is the hotel restaurant Heidejäger in the town of Rotenberg, just east of Bremen. We have made good progress today, 170 miles. Once we arrive and get settled in, we sit outside and have a nice cold German beer, which is a third of the price of a Norwegian one! It’s hot, 28 degrees… nice though. We just relax. Del does some homework for his next work outing while Hayley plots up the last few days of the trip. Just by chance (yeah right!), she has found a spare day so we are going to the Walibi Holland amusement park for her to do some roller coastering and for Del to hold the bag. He’s not done that in a while, can’t wait…

Dinner tonight is at the hotel where we are parked for the night. We are looked after by the staff who are very nice and serve us an excellent dinner.

They have a robotic cat that moves around the dining room and delivers your order to your table. An unusual thing to have in a traditional German restaurant.

All fed with schnitzel and salad, we go back to Jess and have a cold Jagermeister followed by a couple of games of chess…

Lately, Del has been beating Hayley, but tonight it was one all. Before turning in for the night, we stick our 4 new country flags on the back of Jess to join the others.

Just as we are putting them on, the local storks turn up. They are quite popular here, by all accounts. The hotel has built them a nesting stand; no idea where they go all day, but both of them flew back, clattered their beaks and preened themselves before settling down. Just as we did the same… All in all, a good day.

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Sunday, 20th July 2025. Rotenburg, Germany to Elburg, The Netherlands -181 miles

Another warm, balmy night last night, cloudy but still warm this morning. Today we are going to be in the Netherlands. We need to get a bit of a move on, so it’s a quick breakfast and off we go. We have checked on the nesting storks from last night, but they have gone. They will return tonight, as they do. It has been a lovely stay here at the Heidejäger hotel/restaurant. It’s warmed up some more for us, and the sun is out. There are a couple of things we need to do today. Jess has not had a wash in weeks. The last time was at the start of Norway, where we paid £10.00 for 2 minutes!! She is looking a bit sorry for herself. We also need some diesel.

Hayley has been on the Google machine and found both. First, the car wash.

What a place. Several large booths to drive into, where you can pamper your vehicle to within an inch of its life. On the other side of the large forecourt, there are rows of vacuum cleaners and a vending machine selling all kinds of potions for your car and bags of Haribo. 30 minutes later and 15 euros lighter (£12.00), Jess is back to looking like she was fresh out of the showroom. Finally.

Next, we fill up with diesel, and we are done. Hayley has done a good hour driving, but she gets bored very quickly, so Del is soon in the hot seat, loving it and driving us to a campsite in Elburg, Holland. The German roads, for the most part, are shocking, which surprises us; they used to be ok. You get patches of motorway goodness, but by and large, they are a bit of a disappointment. As soon as we cross the border into the Netherlands, it is bliss. Lovely, clean, wide, smooth roads.

We get checked into the campsite in Elburg, Veluwe Strandbad Camping. We are given a fabulous pitch near to all the facilities. Del spends half an hour spot cleaning Jess, who just looks fabulous. (The van. Not Del!)

Now that Hayley is feeling better, and we’ve not done it in a while, we finally, at last, get the bikes off the back and set off for a bike ride into the town of Elburg itself.

We are pleasantly surprised. This is a beautiful town with cobbled streets, lovely houses, shops and restaurants. We take our time cycling through it and soaking it all up. There is a small canal running through it with a crossroads on a bridge full of little cosy restaurants. We are tempted to have a drink or an early dinner, but we do need to get some exercise done, as we have let it slide badly over the past few weeks.

Sadly, there is heavy and prolonged rain forecast. We get another couple of kilometres under our belt and head back to the campsite. Just as we are putting the cover back on the bikes, it rains, and Jess has just been cleaned! No matter she needed a clean all the same.

We get settled in for the night. Time has flown by. A nice, simple dinner with some music and red wine. Smashing. Tomorrow, Hayley is off to Walibi Holland. Great….!

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Monday, 21st July 2025. Elburg, Holland to Heibaart, Belgium -104 miles

We are up early, have breakfast, clean up and get away, fast… This morning we are going to Walibi Holland so Del can carry and hold a bag for half a day while Hayley does coasters! She has never moved so fast to get out of a campsite…!

It was a very nice stay last night, but today we are moving on. The plan is that after visiting Walibi Holland, we will then drive south towards the border with Belgium. The drive to the park is 10 minutes. We arrive just as the park is opening, so Hayley is in pole position.

It’s a good day. The park is fabulous, not full even though it’s summer. There are lots of rides and things to see, and Hayley has a great day ticking off her bucket list of rides.

By 2:30, we have had enough and get back to Jess to set off south. There is heavy rain threatening. It is motorway for most of the drive, lots of it, and most of it has terrible traffic jams, not because of accidents, but because there is a huge concentration of motorways all interconnecting with each other and all in a small land mass. It’s chaotic in parts. We have had another incident with Jess; this time, we have lost the bike cover.

There was a small tear in it a few days ago, which has grown on the drive today, which now has to be shredded to get it off. There’s another expense to add to the list for when we get back.

Hayley has found us a place not far from the border. It has space for 10 to 15 vans or tents, but when we arrive, there is no one to help to get a space. Del has a walk around. There are hens all over the place, and in the back space where you camp, it already looks full, with people in large tents outside doing barbeques. As soon as they see Del, it is a bit like one of those cowboy films where everyone goes quiet and looks at you… Stranger…! Needless to say, we didn’t hang about too long, reversed and left. Very soon, Hayley has found another place.

With knowing or noticing, we had crossed the border into Belgium. We are going to a cow farm called Het boerenijsje, or in English, “The farmers’ Ice-cream”. For a staggering 4 euros you can stay the night, for another 4 you can have electricity, so for 8 euros you get to stay on a working dairy farm which has a fantastic little restaurant attached to it specialising in ice cream, pancakes and waffles.

Just as we arrive, the skies open up to what we think is the worst rain we have ever seen.

Unbelievable rain and hail that lasts for about 10 minutes, which later reveals a lovely summer evening. We have dinner on board, then go off to watch the cows for their 8 pm milking. It is fascinating watching the cows being herded into a large shed, and as if they knew where to go, they line themselves up for milking for 10 minutes before a barrier rises and they all leave to go back to their pens.

The owners allow you to go anywhere on the site, so you get to see the days-old calves, the teenagers and then fully grown dairy cows. A fascinating place, and we enjoyed looking around.

Back at Jess, the rain is back on, not so fierce this time. We are a day ahead of our planned schedule, and we didn’t expect to be in Belgium tonight. Tomorrow, the plan is to stay in one of our regular stops in the lovely Belgian area of Westvleteren.

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Tuesday, 22nd July 2025. Heibaart to Poperinge -114 miles

We are now nearing the end of our 7 and half week Scandinavian trip. We have two nights left, the second of which will be in Calais. Our night on the cow farm has been a pleasant one. We have a good hearty breakfast, courtesy of Del. After we get cleaned up and ready to go, we have a look around the cow farm again. The whole thing is quite fascinating. There is a lot of work that goes into getting a pint of milk on the table, and this place is at the cutting edge of technology to do that as cheaply and as efficiently as possible. It’s all open to public scrutiny as they let you wander freely around the place.

Time to move on. It will be a long drive again today. We are heading for a place that has been a regular start and end point for our trips into Europe on Jess. It’s a small farm that welcomes campers. Situated in West Flanders. They always find a space for us, so we should be ok tonight. The drive is long. The motorways are just stuffed with traffic, most of which is made up of trucks, lots of them. They stretch for miles, and there are so many exits and interconnections in this part of Europe connecting Holland to Germany and France.

We are finally on the home stretch. The traffic has thinned out, and we are soon on local roads again and trundling through the Belgian countryside. That’s better… We have arrived in the town of Poperinge in Belgium and in a supermarket stocking up with some fine Belgian beers to take home. Our next stop is the farm campsite, Stal ‘t Bardehof. This was the first stop we made in Europe when we bought Jess… We like it, it’s a bit rustic but nice.

Today we are going to have dinner at the Sixtus Abbey. The abbey is famous for producing what is considered to be the world’s best beer. They also have a nice restaurant called In de Vrede, which we fancy trying for dinner. It’s now 5 pm, and once we get settled in we are on our bikes making our way to the abbey for an early dinner.

We have a Westvleteren 12 beer, which is just superb, and we order dinner. The beer is going down well while we wait for dinner, which is excellent and reasonably priced.

It’s filling up just as we finish, so it’s back on the bikes to the campsite. We secure them back on Jess and have a cold beer at the campsite, again another excellent Belgian beer, a Rochefort and a  Karmeliet. We have them outside next to the goats that have been here a while. They are very tame and like to be fussed over, which suits us.

Back at Jess, we settle in for the night after a shower and a couple of games of chess. Tonight Hayley wins… Twice…

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Wednesday 23rd July 2025. Poperinge, Belgium to Calais, France -50 miles

Our last full day in Europe today, and it will be a busy one. We are up and about for breakfast at our normal time, which is always late! A full Jess service, so fresh water in, grey out, and a toilet change.

Today we are going to the St Bernadus Brewery in the town of Watou. St Bernardus beer is one of our favourite Belgian beers, so it will be worth the 10-minute drive.

There, they do a guided tour, you can see the beer being made, there is a restaurant and of course a shop. Unfortunately, they don’t have a car park suitable for us, but we do find one that requires us to cycle a 5-mile round trip. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.

To get to the carpark requires Hayley to drive some very narrow roads. The area around here in Westvleteren is very agricultural and the local road network is just wide enough for a tractor, that’s it…

The car park is empty, so we secure our van and get the bikes off the back, helmets on and off we go… The 2.5-mile cycle is a bit up and down hill, but nothing too taxing. We are able to lock our bikes up at the brewery. We are given a gizmo for the guided tour, which we find very interesting. There’s a lot to see and discover, and we really enjoy the story, seeing the beer being made and the high-tech bottling process. Fascinating stuff.

They have a beautiful restaurant here with a fantastic high view of the fields stretching out across the region, with their own field of hops below us.

We have a platter to share. Included in the entry fee of 17 euros, you get two tokens each to sample any of the beers they offer, as well as a 5 euro discount on anything in the shop. The platter and the samples were excellent.

While we were loving the whole thing and tucking into a cheese and meat platter, it had started to rain. We have to cycle back to Jess for 2 miles… In the rain… It has to be done. Fortunately, it’s not too heavy, and the cycle back isn’t too bad. Bikes secured, we are back on the road via the brewery to pick up some goodies from the shop. We buy a six-pack variety box, some pate, and Del gets himself a 4 pack of Watou Triple, one of his many favourites…

All loaded up, we are now heading for Calais to a stop where we are in place for the ferry tomorrow at 7 am. Without knowing, we have crossed the border into France on the narrow of narrowest roads. Soon we are back on the motorway and Calais is about 40 minutes away. We do a quick pit stop at a wine warehouse for a couple of cases of wine. We are sounding more like a milk float than a camper van with all the beer and wine jingling about…

Tonight we are eating out. Despite all the bad news, Calais is actually a nice town. There are some lovely eateries, and the promenade has recently been redeveloped and is lovely to walk along. For our last night, we are eating at a Michelin-rated restaurant that we have dined at before on a past visit.

We get showered in the van and put our finest clothes on (well, a pair of long trousers on and a clean shirt), then take the pleasant walk along the prom to the town.

Summer is in full swing here. It’s a lovely evening and everyone is out. Our dinner is at the Histoire Ancienne, Bib Gourmand with an excellent menu.

We have an aperitif, starter, main, dessert and a half bottle of red all for about 70 quid…! Try getting that at a Harvester!

We have eaten out in a lot in a lot of countries, some countries do excellent food, some… well, not so good, but you can always trust the French to do a good dinner and a glass of wine, if you know where to go. A fabulous night out as we walk back through the local summer fairground and back to a rather hot Jess.

Tomorrow we are up at 6 am for the ferry home.

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Thursday 24th July 2025. Calais, France to Home! -182 miles

We are up at 5:45 am today, and the alarm really hurts this early. We do a quick service before leaving. The Ferry port is just a 10-minute drive away, giving us an hour and a bit before departure. We get through the French passport check quickly enough, but at the UK border (which is on the French side), we are delayed. A few cars up, there is a German-registered car that seems to be getting the third degree, but instead of pulling him to one side and getting everybody else on the ferry, we wait and wait. The time that we did have spare has all gone, and there is no doubt that in the long line of cars behind us, some if not all, will have missed that ferry.

We drive straight on and cast off almost immediately. The crossing goes quickly, as the grey cliffs of Dover are almost upon us. It’s the usual routine for disembarkation. Traffic going the other way to leave the UK is packed; in fact, the trucks have been lined up on the outside lane, and it stretches for miles. We are not exaggerating; there are hundreds of trucks for miles, all waiting to get into Dover. If it’s bad now, wait until the ETIAS arrives, which is soon, you’ll need to get to Dover three days before… It doesn’t bear thinking about how chaotic that will be. We will all need one if we want to go to Europe. Can’t wait.

The drive from Dover to Portsmouth is thankfully uneventful, with Del doing the whole run. Once in Portsmouth, we find a jet wash for a final van clean. We are early, and fortunately, we are able to get on an earlier ferry for home.

30 minutes later, we are on our 15-minute drive home, where we unpack, clean down Jess on the inside, take her to her lock-up and get the cover on her. It will probably be a while before she gets out again; we shall see. Sometimes we get the odd occasion to do a few campsites on the Isle of Wight, some of which are excellent.

Thoughts…

Our trip, which we called the ‘Scandi Loop‘, has been a good one, if maybe a little rushed. We took a different route from the usual. Most people get to Denmark and go straight to Norway and return via the bridges, but we thought we’d go east and do some of Poland, which was not bad. We probably need to see more of Poland. We found the campsites a little on the expensive side, supermarkets in short supply, and the weather awful at times!

Sweden, we loved. Very calm and laid back, very relaxed about camping, where you can park for the night wherever you like as long as there are no signs clearly saying that camping is not allowed and you are 150m away from private property, and of course, you don’t leave all your rubbish behind. The scenery was very nice, and we stayed at some very nice places. Food and fuel were a little more expensive than in the UK, not as scary as we were led to believe, but alcohol is strictly controlled. You can only buy wine and spirits from state-owned off-licences, beer is sold in supermarkets, which are brilliant by the way, but no more than 3.2% alcohol, and it’s expensive.

Norway was the best. The scenery was just stunning, and the driving was interesting. You needed a mortgage for alcohol, which, again, is only available through state-run off-licences, and food and fuel were expensive. Car/van washes, forget it, extortion comes to mind. The most you can get out of a chemist is paracetemol, anything else has to be prescribed by a doctor, and even then it’s herbal and stuff you can get from a corner shop in the UK, as we found out when poor Hayley became ill… In Norway, of all places. Saying that we really liked it, although Hayley may have a slight, but only slight reservation…

Denmark, again, is a lovely, laid-back place, but deserved more time from us. We were in and out in the blink of an eye, but what we did see, we really liked and will go back. Prices were roughly the same as in Sweden, slightly cheaper than in Norway.

There is no doubt, having been to Scandinavia for the short time that we were there, that they do a lot of stuff right; they also do a few questionable things, but when you think about the oddities, they do make sense (but you may need some time to be convinced). The countries are clean and well-maintained. The people are laid back, polite and helpful, although we did note that Norwegian drivers, particularly truck drivers, can be impatient and on two occasions, we were ‘bullied’ to get out of the way.

Miles covered: 3724

Diesel cost: £730 (so 19p per mile)

Total nights away: 53 nights

Here is a small collection of Dels’ photos taken during some of our stops in Scandinavia. Again, thanks to our family and friends for following us on our journey. We wish you all good health and happiness. Until the next one…

Del, ‘H’ & Jess

Week 7. 12th to 18th July. Stavanger, Norway to Tønder, Denmark – 509 miles

Saturday, 12th July 2025. Stavanger to Ualand – 60 miles

Today, Hayley is feeling better, but still tired. There is still this very nasty chesty cough which really brings her down, but generally, she is feeling better. We shall see how the day goes. It’s very hot this morning… At last, the European heatwave has reached us. We leave quite late and find we can’t get any water for our tank at the campsite, it’s off.

We have no idea where we will be staying tonight, so we like to keep our options open by having the van fully prepared. There is another service point nearby, but we see a rather rough-looking van, empty their toilet down the grey waste (that’s a no-no) and then stick the freshwater hose inside their toilet cassette to rinse it out!!!! (That’s a VERY big no-no). We decide to find somewhere else.

A 15-minute drive away, there is a large motorhome servicing company who have provided a point for free use, very kind. All good here. We get a full service, and we are back on the road.

We pick up some groceries and set off in the general direction of Kristiansand, where we are due on Tuesday. Hayley finds a campsite on route – Lega Camping.

It is wonderfully quiet and rural, and we settle into a spacious private pitch and enjoy the afternoon warmth.

Despite Hayley feeling better, she can’t be bothered cooking properly, so we have one of our freezer dinners (bought for when we are ‘in the wilds‘ of Norway!) It’s disappointing as these things usually are, but it’s jazzed up with a bit of wine and cheese afterwards. Not too bad, especially with the view, which is even better with the warm sunny evening.

We sit out and play chess with a cup of tea. Del has yet to beat Hayley.

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Sunday, 13th July 2025. Legåveien to Lindesnes – 72 miles

Just an update on last night. Del beat Hayley two times in a row at chess. Not bad considering he has lost to her probably 6 times!!!

It’s day 10 of Hayley feeling yuck! We have had a wonderful night here, very quiet and so peaceful, and we both slept very well. We have a big hearty breakfast before setting off.

Del has had a look at the map over breakfast and stuck a pin in an interesting place on the Norwegian coastline. We are heading for the southernmost point of Norway, called Lindesnes. We can go to the campsite there, but we decide to go to the paid parking spot first, which is next to the Lindesnes lighthouse, not only is it the most southern of Norway’s lighthouses, but it is also the oldest.

It’s not a bad drive, and the weather gets hot and sunny for the last thirty minutes. We go through many tunnels and navigate the usual twisty roads that are the hallmark of Norway. We arrive at our place for the night and pick our spot. There is a strict rule here about campers being 4m apart, and by all accounts, it’s enforced; we shall see. We pay and take a walk around the Lindesnes Lighthouse Museum. It’s a beautiful sunny day with a good breeze. Hayley is still a bit wheezy, so we take it all nice and slow for her. Fortunately, the walks are not too taxing.

The coastline is amazing, very striking, but when the weather gets bad here, it becomes even more striking. There are lots of photos and videos showing just how bad it can get here. It’s a gentle walk up to the lighthouse, which sits on a hill and inside the hill, there is a maze of tunnels and rooms that lead to what looks like gun placements. They are so well preserved, and one of the rooms has been converted into a photo gallery.

We spend a good couple of hours here; it’s a fascinating place with some extraordinary coastline views. We make the descent back to Jess, it’s hot.

We do a bit more manoeuvring to ensure we have the 4m gap between us and our German neighbour, who seems to have taken charge in making sure people observe it.

A very nice day in a very nice, interesting place. Traditional dinner tonight of meatballs! Well, when in Norway and all that.

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Monday, 14th July 2025. Lindesnes to Øvrebø – 53 miles

It has been a long day today, all 53 miles of it. We leave Lindesnes late after a rather nice, hearty breakfast. The weather is fabulous, upper 20s all the way. We stop to do a van service and a small shop. Del has a Zoom call booked for work, so we stop at a very pretty parking spot for the 45 minutes of the call.

The Norwegians are starting their summer holidays this week, so the roads are busy, and any town that’s near water is busy.

Today is our last full day in Norway. Tomorrow we are leaving on a 2:30 pm ferry from Kristiansand to Hirtshals, northern Denmark. Because the roads are narrow and twisty, it feels like a long, long drive to our campsite for the night. We arrive at 4 pm. We are staying at Bjønndalen Camp, in the town of Øvrebø.

On the way there, we have noticed that the roads around here seem to get used for ‘doughnuts‘, the practice of spinning your car around on the spot at full acceleration, thus wrecking your tyres, and making a hell of a noise! And they do this for fun.

It’s very popular here in Norway and very much so in this area. Almost every town and major junction shows evidence of this practice. Anyone interested in trying this, here is a short video to get you started. Have fun!

For an hour or so, we sit in the sun planning the last week or so of the trip. We can only afford 3 to 4 nights in Denmark, as it will take a good 4 nights to get to Calais. We have put a provisional plan in place, which will be flexible enough for any change of plans, as long as we are in Calais on the night of the 23rd July for the ferry home the next morning.

Today, Hayley feels that she has made some progress. She still has a cough, but much less today. It is such a shame for her, and for us both, as she has been ill for 11 days! Even during the ‘recovery’ days, she has had no energy to do anything, as she is so tired fighting off whatever infection had been left behind after the flu that she had caught, a good half of the Norway trip has been wiped out.

Other bad news, we have also discovered that we have no red wine, just a cheap Hungarian white! Just as well, really, as the price of alcohol is through the roof here in Norway. For example, a 6 pack of simple pilsner beer, nothing special, £14.00!!!! As for wine, forget it, you’ll need a small mortgage for that!

We end the evening with a rowboat on the lake. There are boats free to use, and the sun is just starting to set, there’s no wind, and it’s lovely and quiet, so why not…

We take turns rowing the boat; it’s a bit old, but it floats, and it sounds nice gliding along in the still evening water.

Back at Jess, we have another glass of Hungarian white and watch the sun set behind the Norwegian pines across the lake. Not a bad end to our Norway experience.

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Tuesday, 15th July 2025. Øvrebø, Norway to Hirtshals, Denmark – 105 miles

Today, we are leaving Norway and moving across the sea to Denmark. The ferry leaves from Kristiansand in Norway, arriving into Hirtshals in Denmark 4 hours later. We have had a nice stay here in Øvrebø. Last night Del could hear cars ‘doughnutting‘ in the distance!

We do a full van service, and we set off at 10 am. The ferry is a 2:30 pm, so we plan to do a little sightseeing in Kristiansand. It’s only a 30-minute drive and we find a parking spot for our size of van, just, which is just a ten-minute walk into town. Once we get parked up, we set off. It’s cloudy but warm.

The town was a fishing port, but is now popular as a cruise ship stop. Today, there is a huge cruise ship in, the AIDA Nova, a German cruise liner.

The town is packed with an extra 5000 people milling around. It’s very busy.

We have a good walk for the hour and a half that we have. We check out the Marina and the town centre. It’s a very clean and tidy place, but very busy. We need to be checking into the ferry an hour before, and we are getting fed up with the crowds, especially when we go into he cathedral and find that it is rammed solid. Never have we seen a place this full of people. We’ve had enough. We want the fields, lakes and fjords back!

Before we leave the parking spot, we have a quick sandwich as we have about 30 minutes to spare. Once we get cleaned up, we are off again and soon in line for the ferry to Hirtshals.

We drive into the belly of the beast of the Stavanger Fjord ship, quite a beast.

We are directed to our place, and that’s us for the next 4 hours. The ship is absolutely crammed. It’s the start of the summer holiday, so the ship is just heaving with families and screaming kids!!!

There is also a very limited supply of seats, so some are forced to pay extra just to get a seat. Very crafty. After paying our fee, we get a seat in the lounge for £14.00 each and sit out the ferry after an average lunch. We watch a bit of Netflix stuff to kill the time, which does go quite quickly, and soon we are being called down to the van and rolling off into Denmark.

It’s a warm but cloudy evening here in Hirtshals. We don’t have far to go as we have booked into a campsite just around the corner called Kjul Camping. At £37.00, it is the most expensive on the whole trip so far. It’s very nice, though with big spaces and a short half-kilometre walk to the beach. As soon as we get settled in, we take the walk to the beach. It’s a fabulous view, very nice. There are day campers on the beach in vans, which you can do, so we will probably give that a go for breakfast tomorrow.

Back at Jess, we sit outside with a cool drink and watch the sun set. It’s a nice warm evening, a bit cloudy, but it’s nice to sit outside in the fresh early evening, still air, listening to the birds. Lovely.

We have no idea what or where we are going tomorrow. We need to have a think as we only have three, maybe 4 nights at a push here in Denmark.

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Wednesday, 16th July 2025. Hirtshals to Løgstør – 66 miles

We have had a very pleasant stay here in Hirtshals, very nice. We do a full service at the campsite, as we have no idea what we are doing or where we are staying. ‘Wild camping’ is not generally allowed in Denmark, unlike Sweden and Norway, but we feel we need to be prepared for anything.

This morning we shall have breakfast on the beach. There is a short drive to the beach here where you are allowed to day camp. It’s a very long, wide, white sandy beach, which runs from the port of Hirtshals to… no idea… It seems to go on forever. We have a quick coffee on Jess, buy some Danish pastries from the local camp shop and set off.

It’s a lovely warm morning, the sun is out with a few scattered clouds. The short drive to the beach is about two minutes. There are a few people here already swimming and just enjoying the morning sunshine. Once parked, Del gets the coffee pot on and very quickly we are sitting in our chairs enjoying the sunshine, the coffee and the Danish pastries… Well, why not…?

Time to move on. Del wants to go to Rubjerg Knude to see the sand dunes and the old lighthouse that was set back and rebuilt because the land was eroding. There is free parking there, and if we want to, we can stay overnight. First, we need to do a shop. We are running very low on supplies, and we still have a good week and a half to go. We find a very clean and new Lidl on the way to Rubjerg Knude and do a good shop, which costs a fortune. Yes, Denmark can be expensive as well…

We arrive at the carpark at Rubjerg Knude. There is plenty of space. There is a tractor that pulls a trailer where, for a small fee, he will take to to the base of the sand dunes. It’s quite a ride and doesn’t go where we expect it to go. There are a few moments when we thought the trailer would tip over as it gets pulled through unmade tracks and small sand dunes.

We have safely arrived, and to get to the lighthouse, you have to climb a sand dune. It’s quite steep and requires some effort to stop yourself sinking into the very fine powder-like sand.

Once we get to the top, the view is spectacular and well worth the effort. There is a fantastic view of the northern Danish coastline and the North Sea. The lighthouse, which is now abandoned, still stands tall. Traces of the old one are still evident right at the edge of the sandy cliff.

The walk back is easier and less ‘dangerous’. Back at Jess, we have a light lunch and set out for the town of Løgstør, which is about an hour and a half away. Hayley has found a parking place in the marina in the small town.

It is a lovely drive to Løgstør. The Danish countryside may not be as spectacular as Norway and some parts of Sweden, but it is lovely. Lots of green fields and wild meadows. Smashing, and the roads are great to drive on, so it is a rather pleasant drive.

There is plenty of space for us in Løgstør. There is not much here, but it’s tidy and very smart. We are right next to the marina. For £24, you get everything you need. Water, electricity, showers and there is a launderette that we will take advantage of later, but for now we are off for a short walk.

We like it here. We have done the laundry, done a deep clean of the van, had a walk in the tiny town and along the marina wall, all before dinner on board. The weather is warm and sunny. Today has been our first full day in Denmark and we like it…!

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Thursday, 17th July 2025. Løgstør to Hvide Sande – 112 miles

It’s a hot, bright, sunny morning. By Saturday, we have to be in Germany in order to get to our ferry in Calais on time, so our time in Denmark is unfortunately short. Today we are going to do a long drive. Tonight will be our penultimate night in Denmark.

After a short breakfast, we pack up and set off. Hayley is at the wheel again, now that she has recovered. She is still tired, but she can manage a drive. Denmark is flat compared to Norway and Sweden, but it is very smart, very pretty and lovely to drive through. Generally, the roads are great, you get the odd one or two dodgy ones like anywhere else.

Del is in need of a strong coffee, not feeling his best today, so we stop at a Circle K, which is very popular here at petrol stations. A very tasty coffee and a… yes, a Danish pastry. We are heading for Hvide Sande, which is on the long thin strip of land on the west coast of the country, a very popular holiday destination, especially for the Germans. It’s easy for them as the border is only a couple of hours’ drive.

We make a stop at a beach in Hvide Sande that has some wind turbines on it. You can go right up to them. There is a nice day park right by the beach, and after a three-minute walk, you are standing right under one of these beasts.

They are huge, close up, and when they are underway, they make quite a noise as they cut through the air. The beach isn’t too bad either, very popular.

We are now looking for somewhere to stay the night. There is one parking place at the docks in Hvide Sande which has a fish and chip stall that, according to all the reviews, says that it’s the best. We shall see about that. We park up and order one fish and chips with all the trimmings.

Yes, it wasn’t too bad at all. We cleared the plate and thanked the lady for a good job!

Tonight we will park in another area of the port with an excellent view of Ringkøbing Fjord. Very nice, it is too. We leave Jess and set off to explore this popular holiday destination. It’s very busy. We have had the fish and chips, now it’s time for a local item, the Polser.

Basically a hot dog with fried onions, mustard and ketchup. Hayley is not a fan, but Del loves them. We find a little microbrewery here and stop off and try a four-flight of beers. You choose 4 from the 11 on offer. We sit in the sun and enjoy them.

They are served in small glasses, and we sit in the sunshine enjoying them. Lovely. We finish off the afternoon with an ice cream. We have eaten some junk today!

Back at Jess, we just relax. Del does a bit of homework and some photo processing for his photo site (do have a look). Suddenly, there is a tremendous storm, thunder, rain and hail. Probably the biggest, sharpest, loudest storm we have had in Jess in 7 years, and in the blink of an eye it is over to leave a nice clean fresh evening. We have a light dinner and play an escape game.

It’s been good today, shame our last day here in Denmark is tomorrow. So soon…

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Friday, 18th July 2025. Hvide Sande to Tønder– 84 miles

We are woken up early this morning. For the second day, it’s hot in the van in the morning. Denmark is giving us good weather at the moment. Our journey will continue south today. We are heading for the town of Ribe, which is by all accounts the oldest town in Scandinavia. Del wanted to go and see some old Viking stones, which are a UNESCO item of interest, but was talked out of it as it was too far east, the wrong direction.

After breakfast, we set off. We enjoy driving in Denmark. The roads, for the most part, are very good, and they have a low speed limit, which makes trundling along in your motorhome enjoyable, watching the scenery go by, which is lovely.

We get the last parking spot in the town of Ribe and do the short walk to the town. It certainly is very old and very nice, but because of its status, it is very busy with a lot of tourists eating in some very expensive restaurants. We have a good walk around the town and enjoy the cathedral, which, despite its age, 800years, is very bright and clean.

Back on the road, and we are going to the town of Tønder, which is just a stone’s throw away from the German border. Again, a very nice drive. Hayley has found a nice, cheap place to park just out of town and next to a campsite. We get a lovely spot in the sun, with electricity and superfast wifi. The UK has a long way to go in this regard. Wifi in places that we camp in is free and super fast. Mobile reception, for the most part, is 5G and really fast, and it works everywhere. There was only one place in the middle of Norway between two huge mountains where it was patchy. We have been in tunnels of many kilometres and had internet. The UK is way behind…

Once we get settled in, we sit in the sun with a beer and then take the short walk into the town. Tønder is absolutely beautiful, better than Ribe.

It is so peaceful and laid back, with lovely shops and places to eat and drink. Wonderful. Del can’t help but have another Danish hotdog or Rød pølse. Delicious.

Back at Jess, we have a glass of prosecco in the afternoon sun, watching the campsite fill up as the day goes on, followed by a smashing dinner.

Denmark… Very short, but sweet…. Tomorrow Germany…

Week 6. 5th July 2025 to 11th July. Gudvangen to Stavanger – 230 miles

Saturday, 5th July 2025. Gudvangen to Ringøy – 52 miles

The bad wet weather is with us once again… It’s raining. It’s that horrible sticky rain that soaks you just by looking at it! Hayley’s health has deteriorated since last night; she’s not well.

We are still leaving today, though. We did think about another night here in Gudvangen to help her recover, but we feel we need to get to a pharmacy. We do a full van service and head off towards the town of Voss, not far away, where they have an LPG filling station which has just been repaired. After the fill-up, we next head to a small mall to do some shopping and to find a pharmacy for some kind of over-the-counter remedy. Norway is not like the UK. Almost everything has to be by prescription, and they only offer paracetamol and ibuprofen.

It’s decided that Hayley will do an online doctor consultation, so we are waiting in a car park for the video call to take place. At 2:30, we call the doctor, and she says she will email us out a prescription to take back to the pharmacy, after 10 minutes it comes through…. it’s for paracetamol, which we already have. Looks like Hayley is going to have to tough it out.

Still, the rain is falling, visibility is awful, and it’s a bit on the chilly side. We are heading for a campsite in the town of Ringøy, not very far.

To get there, there are the usual long tunnels that the Norwegians do very well; however, two of them have a twist… They have a roundabout in them. How novel, a tunnel with a roundabout.

It has been a long day with not much progress, 50 miles today, and we have seen nothing except a car park and a pharmacy. We arrive at the campsite, which is grass. We have already witnessed a van’s front wheels spinning, let’s hope we don’t get bogged down tomorrow.

Another early night for Hayley, poor thing, after watching a bit of Netflix. She can’t stand it anymore. Bed by 8…

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Sunday, 6th July 2025 Ringøy – Day 2

Not a good day today. Hayley is very poorly today. She has the Flu, but it’s nasty. She didn’t sleep well last night because of body aches and fever, and at 2 am, she’s up, in pain, coughing and just restless.

We decide to move on, but halfway through the preparation to go, she is desperate to lie down and needs to go back to bed, so Del resets everything for her to return to bed, we will stay here again tonight.

The weather is calmer today, with no rain, but everything is wet, very wet. Del manages to get out now and again for a walk for some fresh air, but his main job today is to look after Hayley. Poor thing.

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Monday, 7th July 2025 Ringøy to Herand – 25 miles

Hayley wakes up this morning feeling a bit better and can sit up, so we decide that we will move on today. She ventures outside the van for the first time since arriving here and discovers that the place is beautiful in the morning sunshine.

Today we are going to a town called Herand, as tomorrow we hope (Hayley being well enough) we can see Steindalsfosseen – a waterfall that you can walk behind. We set off for the ferry at Kinsarvik and take the 30-minute hop across to Utne.

From there, it should be a short trip to the harbour where we have planned to stop. When we look at our large map of Norway, it’s very hard to tell which roads are wide and which ones are narrow. It is the latter. It’s one track most of the way around sharp bends, with passing places along the route. We average about 20 mph.

The harbour park up is great, good value with all amenities and a fabulous view.

Around the corner is an ‘honesty supermarket’. At 5 pm, the staff go home, but you can still shop if you scan your debit card as you go in. You are then left to shop, pay for your items and scan yourself on the way out.

After a simple dinner, Del sits outside in the sun with a well-deserved wine. He’s worked hard looking after H these last few days. Tonight she is in bed early again.

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Tuesday, 8th July 2025 Herand to Ølensvåg – 94 miles

It’s a lovely place here, we like it very much. Today, we are setting off on a bit of a waterfall tour. Today also marks the definite turn southwards for Denmark. With only a week left in Norway.

Hayley today is still not good; in fact, she thinks that she has gone backwards a little. She’s not in a good way.

We pack up and set off after a full van service and head for the town of Jondal for a short ferry across to Tørvikbygd, from there it’s a short drive to Steindalsfosson. It’s an impressive water wall that reaches out so far that you can walk behind it.

We have arrived at the waterfall parking and it’s busy, but we manage to spot a lady preparing to leave, and boy did she take her time in doing so…! The walk from the car park is short, and the view of the waterfall is spectacular. Amazing, and in the sunny weather we are having, it looks fabulous.

The walk-up isn’t too far. We get to walk behind the torrent and pop out on the other side to view it from a viewing platform.

However, Hayley is tired and breathless, it was all a bit too much of a walk to the platform, so we head back to Jess for the drive back to the ferry to return to Jondal.

From Jondal, our drive will take us south through 20 km of tunnels to another waterfall called Latefossen, very impressive, but we can’t stop, the carpark is full, but Hayley gets us some photos from the passenger window.

The last waterfall for today will be Langfossen. More tunnels to get there. This time there is parking and a place to buy an ice-cream.

This one is a real roar of a waterfall, big and noisy. Hayley is feeling the chill being so close, we are very close to it, and it gives off a lot of spray.

It’s getting late, and Hayley is now feeling really ill again. We need to stop somewhere and have something to eat. After a few more tunnels, we are heading towards a spot near the town of Ølensvåg. There is a campsite there that has a great view of beautiful hills and mountains to your left and a massive oil rig to your right! Let’s see.

The roads are good here in Norway, but some of them, as we have said, can be narrow, but very narrow. Twice we have had a tap on our wing mirror in Norway, but not from locals. Some ‘foreign’ drivers are scared to get to the edge of the road and end up forcing you off the road on your side.

We are approaching a road where the centre line disappears, that’s always a clue, the road may not look narrow, but it is. We approach a car that does move over, their wheels almost off the road, allowing us to pass, even though our wheels are just as close to being off the road. No problem, we wave and pass.

In the distance, there is a van approaching, quite fast. Del moves to the edge of the road as much as he can, then… BOOM! Our mirrors collide, smashing the small lens for the indicator and cracking the housing and leaving our blind spot mirror swinging in the breeze.

It was bound to happen one day on these roads. We drive to the next pull-in to survey the damage. The lens is smashed. The indicator still works, and the movable mirrors in the housing both work once reset. Not bad. Del snaps the housing back into place, and with a couple of clicks, it’s all back into shape. The sacrificial cover we had on top is now in pieces on the road.

Suddenly, the driver of the van appears behind us. We shake hands and say hello. He’s Turkish on a courier mission via Germany. He has sustained similar damage to us, the lens and a cracked casing. Fortunately, we have a dash cam, and we pull up the movie. It clearly showed the car before him well over, while Del is also well over, followed by his van approaching with a good half meter between him and the edge of the road on his side. He didn’t move over enough for the space of the road and the size of the oncoming vehicles. Del couldn’t go anywhere except forward! The wheels are on the edge already!

We are impressed that he came back to find us. He was also very sorry after seeing the dashcam footage, but in the end we agreed that, as it would be complicated and probably more costly to get the insurance companies involved, that we should look after our own expenses. For us, the lens is 10 quid and 70 quid for the fancy sacrificial covers that campervans stick on their mirrors, for this very purpose. We will just have to superglue the casing underneath, and no one will ever know. We shake hands, agree to drive with care and go on our way.

By now, we really have had enough and arrive at the campsite with the beautiful hills on the left and the oil rig on the right, just as described.

A long, long day. Hayley is not feeling her best, and the mirror incident has just made her day worse. Del gets to work waterproofing the damage, then gets on with making some dinner.

Time for bed…

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Wednesday 9th July 2025 – Ølensvåg to Vikevåg – 52 miles

It’s very quiet this morning. Hayley’s health has not improved, so today we are going to find a doctor. First, we pack up, perform a service, and drive to a local pharmacy to purchase a COVID-19 kit and obtain the telephone number for a local doctor.

The Covid test is negative, so Del asks the pharmacy to call the doctors for us, who have asked us to attend whenever we are ready.

Fortunately, the surgery is only a short 4-minute drive. We are seen very quickly by a doctor as soon as we arrive and check in with reception. A blood test is taken straight away, a CRP test, which looks for any inflammation in the body, which comes back clear.

The doctor is very rigorous and checks everything, blood pressure, breathing and blood oxygen. Everything is in good order. The diagnosis is flu with a bad cough, which we kind of suspected. She suffered with intense aches and fever on Saturday and Sunday, and what she has been left with is a very nasty cough, wheezing and a general feeling of being unwell. So not Covid, nothing serious, just the after effects of a very nasty case of the flu. Despite asking the doctor for some strong meds and stuff to make Hayley sleep, she prescribes a herbal medication that we have already purchased. A visit to the doctor and the chemist here in Norway is not the same as in the UK. What we would do for some Night Nurse!

In a Norwegian chemist, you can only get Paracetamol, ibuprofen, vitamins and other very low-level drugs. If you go to a UK chemist, there are shelves full of cough remedies. Not here. You can only get 1 type, and it’s herbal. Anything else has to be prescribed by a doctor, and even then, they are very, very cautious. One pharmacy told Del that antibiotics are rare here; they have them, but the doctors hardly ever prescribe them as they do in other parts of the world. It’s all very different and can be a point of frustration, as we found out.

We finally get away and move further south. We had a bit of truck bullying today. The speed limit here, for the most part, is 50mph or 80 km/h, more or less. We always try and keep to the speed limit if it’s safe to do so but today it isn’t fast enough. We have a very large Scania truck with a double trailer, probably 52 feet long, barreling down on us, flashing at us and driving so close he is almost on our bike rack! The speed limit is 60 kph where we are, with warnings of cows and deer crossing the road as well as the roads being very twisty. He might be used to the roads, being a local, but the tactic is very unprofessional and dangerous. It’s the second time this has happened to us in Norway.

We are in a very watery, islandy bit of Norway, so a 25-minute ferry crossing is required to get to an island where we will stay the night (oh, and the truck driver that bullied us to get past is on the same ferry, so he has achieved nothing!).

It’s a small marina with space for 6 campervans. 15 minutes later, we are parked up, it’s a lovely spot, very peaceful.

Different scenery but very nice, all the same. We settle in and get outside with a cup of tea. We have had better weeks, and this week has kind of tarnished the whole trip. We shall see, we have two weeks left.

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Thursday 10th July 2025 – Vikevåg to Sokn – 5.6 miles

Despite another night of hardly any sleep, for both, Hayley does feel a little better today and manages her first decent breakfast in days. We are not moving far today, 10 minutes down the road, in fact. The idea is to check into a campsite for 2 nights and give H another day to recover so we can go to Stavanger on the bus.

Del has a quick work Teams call, and then we set off. The scenery around here is interesting, very different from the north with its steep fjords, glaciers and big lakes. Here we are travelling through islands on the west coast, mostly connected by bridges and of course tunnels, this time under sea tunnels.

We are at the campsite, Camping Sokn, on the island of Sokn, and set up our pitch. It’s a busy place, and it now seems the school holidays are in full swing, so the place will be almost fully booked tonight. We have an easy day today. Hayley is still recovering, and now Del is dead on his feet. After doing some laundry and having a nap, we have dinner outside in the sun. H cooks tonight for the first time in almost a week.

It’s a beautiful sunny evening. Bed early… Again…

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Friday 11th July 2025 – Sokn day 2

We both slept well, but for Hayley, it was the best sleep she has had in 7 days, so she woke up this morning feeling much better; however, as the morning goes on, she declines a little. She has the most awful chesty, noisy cough, which comes on in fits and she’s also very tired despite sleeping.

We are going to go to Stavanger, which is only 30 minutes away by bus. We have breakfast, get cleaned up and showered and set out.

Stavanger is the oil capital of Norway. In the late 60s, they discovered oil here, kept it to themselves until the 70s and 80s when they started to extract oil and gas. The government in the 80s created a wealth fund. The current value of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, also known as the Government Pension Fund Global, is approximately $1.8 trillion USD. It is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. What a pity the UK didn’t do the same when we started to extract oil at roughly the same time. There is a good website here that tells you all about it.

The town of Stavanger is very pleasant. It has a lovely marina with the usual collection of fancy restaurants and souvenir shops.

They do get cruise ships stopping here, so the prices are high for simple things.

For example, we pay £26.00 for two single-sliced bread open sandwiches and one coffee…! There is a very nice old town just up the hill away from the marina, which we stoll through, all very nice in the afternoon sun.

The town itself is clean and tidy in parts, but there are a few streets that look like they may have been forgotten. We find this whole Norwegian oil thing fascinating, so we go to the Norwegian Oil Museum. Sad innit…? But no, it’s fascinating.

They could have done with putting a few more explainers in along the way about how some things work, but we found it fascinating and has given us something else to research on the internet with the help of YouTube. The stuff involved in getting oil and gas out of the seabed is staggering, not only the technology, but the cost is unbelievable.

We are on the 5:10 bus back to Sokn and the campsite. At the bus stop, there is a huge carpark and camper stop, and parked up there is a Thai takeaway.

We are both feeling a bit tired again, so Hayley decides to get a small dinner to share of spring rolls, fish cakes and a pad thai to take back to Jess.

It’s another lovely warm summer night here in Sokn as we eat our takeaway outside.

Tomorrow we will move on. We don’t know where yet, but we have a ferry booked on Tuesday from Kristiansand to Denmark for the last 9 days of this trip. The trip has been good, but we have had better weeks than this week for sure.

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Week 5. 28th June to 4th July 2025. Briksdalsbreen to Gudvangen – 271 miles

Saturday 28th June – Briksdalsbreen – day 2

Water, water everywhere… We have had a good night’s sleep, but all you can hear is the waterfalls around us and the river that runs through the campsite. We now have more water… Rain… Lots of it, heavy rain, which is forecast to be on and off all day today. We are keen to get out and walk.

We are in need of some laundry and they have machines here, so to kill some time, Hayley legs it out in the rain with an Ikea bag full of washing. Where would we be without Ikea bags? Del gets on with some homework for future work.

Finally, there is a break in the rain. The campsite has a smart little coffee shop, and they do waffles with brown cheese and jam. Brown cheese is a speciality of Norway, so when in Norway…

We sat and chomp through them with a view of the fast-moving river. There has been a lot of rain, and it’s running fast, so much so that the ice pool has been closed due to flooding.

We get our waterproofs on and get booted up. We are setting off for another glacier, which is a good two hours each way. It’s a fantastic walk as we do a steady climb up through the woods.

The scenery here is big… We stop now and then to take it all in. There is the odd shower of rain, but they are short.

It’s a long way, and Hayley is still aching from yesterday’s hike (and the day before that too). Just past halfway to this glacier, though, we decide to call it a day, turn around and head back to Jess. It’s a good job that we turn back when we do. When we get back to Jess, just as we open the door, the heavens open with heavy rain and strong wind, but this time for a prolonged time. Even though we have some waterproof gear on, it would have made for a very wet walk back.

We have done a good walk despite not going all the way to the glacier. We saw the best one yesterday. We spent the rest of the late afternoon in Jess. We have showers and dinner on the van.

The rain and the wind is occasionally battering Jess. Meanwhile, at home in the UK, there is a heat wave, again…! But we know where we’d rather be!

Tomorrow we are moving on.

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Sunday 29th June – Briksdalsbreen to Dragsvik- 122 miles

Hayley went to bed very early last night. She was wiped out! Del stayed up and caught up on some homework for a few hours. At 11:45 pm, he called it a night, looked outside, and it was still daylight!!!

The rain and some very strong winds started at about 10 last night, and it hasn’t stopped. Real heavy rain for over 12 hours with no sign of it stopping. We had a bad sleep last night.

We are doing a full service on Jess, as we expect to be off-grid tonight. Hayley is starting the drive, and she will have her work cut out. Heavy rain, some wind and some very narrow roads as we head north again, then do a left, then back down south towards…? Well, we don’t know yet.

You can’t just cut across, you have to drive around. There are some rather large mountain ranges here.

There is no let-up with the rain. It’s just constant. On the way, we find a supermarket. There are strict rules here in Norway regarding opening hours and square footage of your shop! If the shop is over 100 square metres, then you can’t open on a Sunday… We pull into the town of Skei, where there is a supermarket measuring 99 square metres, so it’s open. It does, however, have a big sign on the alcohol shelves. “SUNDAY. NO ALCOHOL AVAILABLE”, which is stuck over the door of a big fridge full of cold beer. Humans. The things we dream up!!

Back on the road, this time it’s Del at the wheel. No change in the conditions. Still lots of rain and narrow twisting roads. It’s great fun. We are heading for a place where you can park for free overnight right next to a waterfall on the Fossestien trail, which is a 27 km long trail of 14 waterfalls and 7 lakes, with bridges and boardwalks. There are a couple of vans and cars parked, but enough room for us. As it’s still raining, we put on boots and waterproofs and set off for the short walk to the waterfall. Wow… Amazing.

It’s the loudest, fastest flowing body of water we have seen up close (apart from Niagara Falls last year), and there is a small steel bridge that you can walk over. It’s a shame the weather is a no-no, as we would have liked to have followed the trail. We head back to Jess cold and wet. Del gets the kettle on!

It’s only 3:30 pm, and we are thinking that maybe it would be best to carry on and see some of the Norwegian countryside, rather than just settle down here, watching and listening to the rain. We both agree to press on.

Despite the terrible weather, the views are just jaw-dropping. The views from the roadside of massive lakes, mountains, and so many waterfalls and streams coming off them are just breathtaking, even in bad weather.

We make our way to the Gaularfjellet viewpoint, where you can look down into a very deep ravine. You can see the narrow road winding its way down.

This place has been redeveloped to expect a lot of tourists, but not today. We mostly have the place to ourselves.

We get soaked and cold, but it’s worth it. The view, the low cloud gliding through the valley, and the heavy rain are just as good as a bright sunny day!

We are off and on our way again. We are so cold and damp. Del takes us down the narrow, winding road and back to sea level. High revs, low gear to keep us from using the brakes too much. It’s a fantastic drive down.

We are now making our way to a campsite in the small town of Dragsvik. We all need a rest. Jess has worked hard today, hauling us up steep inclines and back down again through terrible weather. We are cold and wet, and tired; everything in the van feels damp. We arrive at Veganeset Camping, which is right on the shores of the biggest fjord in Norway, Sognefjord (known as the King of Fjords).

The rain is now very light, but there is no other noise of waterfalls or rivers and streams, which makes a change. Peace at last…

Hayley goes for a shower while Del sorts out the van, drying her out, cleaning the floors and setting up a little heating for when H gets back. We swap over, Hayley gets some dinner on, which goes down a treat. After dinner, we sit and look at the spectacular view of the fjord from our warm, cosy van. A good day. We are hoping for a quiet, restful night tonight. Fingers crossed.

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Monday 30th June – Dragsvik to Tyinstolen – 77 miles

We both had a good night’s sleep last night; it was so quiet and peaceful. We are not exactly sure where we are going today; we know our route, roughly, but where we will stop for the night is not so clear. After a full service, we set off to catch the small ferry from where we are, Dragsvik, for the ten-minute crossing to Hella. The ferries here are something else. There are lots of them. With all these mountains and all this water, there is a need to get about, so the ferry service is modern and efficient. So modern that they are electric.

The boats are clean and well-maintained. We hardly notice when we slip away from the port; it’s so quiet. Wonderful. We dock at the other end, and the plugging and unplugging for charging is fully automated.

Once the boat is lined up, a box opens up and a large cable with a magnetic plug lowers and plugs itself in…!

After a quick shop and dropping off a birthday card at the local post office, we set off for a campsite on the other side of the huge fjord that we stayed at last night. When we arrive, we’re not crazy about it, plus it’s a bit too early in the day to be pitching up, and there is stuff to see. We set off onto another ferry, this one is a 15-minute crossing, so it has a full lounge and cafe service, amazing. Being from the Isle of Wight, we have low expectations for ferries but have been pleasantly surprised by the Norwegian ones. We head for the Hjellefossen waterfall, which is 365 meters high. There is some debate about that, but who’s bothered, at around 365 meters it will be impressive. Located in the valley of Utladalen, a valley that has the highest concentration of untamed waterfalls. Another wonderful drive, every corner is just a fantastic view.

We park up at the carpark next to the waterfall and do the short walk. Yes, it is big… very big, very wet and very noisy. We try and get as close to it as possible, we get soaked for our efforts, but it’s worth it. A wonderful force of nature. We head back to Jess and get the hiking gear on, and set off for a 2.5km hike upwards, following the waterfall. It’s quite a challenge, and sadly, we don’t make it as it’s a bit treacherous because of the slippery rocks. We enjoy what we do manage, however, as we make our way back to Jess.

It’s now late in the afternoon, and we probably need to find a place for the night. We are making it up now. Do we do a free park up or a campsite? Hayley finds a nice little free spot just off the road and about 30 minutes from the waterfall.

The route involves a steep climb again, with hairpin bends inside unlit tunnels, very strange. When we arrive, there are a few cars in the small place already, but there is enough space for us, and the cars won’t be staying the night.

Once the cars are gone, we move into a better space.

They get a lot of snow up here, and there are still huge piles of it. There is one right outside the van, a big one that never melts over summer because of its size and then gets lots of heavy snow on it again during the long winter they have here.

It’s a lovely spot, so we get settled in and set off for another hike up the side of this “mini glacier”. Another challenging walk, almost vertical and very wet. We get quite a way up, and while looking at it, Hayley is not happy. “What happens if there is an avalanche, and all this snow hits us? I’m not happy…” So we trudge back down, decamp and set off to look for another spot. It’s now 6 pm. Granted, it doesn’t get dark until gone midnight, but we want some dinner now…

We pack up and drive east towards another spot, which will costs us £8.00 to stay in. We are about 1.2 km up, and the scenery is fascinating. As we are driving, we see lots of little cabins and bungalows scattered all over the place.

These are private places that people own; they don’t necessarily live there permanently, but they have them as “getaways”. It’s an extraordinary sight to see. Some are on their own for miles, others are in clusters, all with grass roofs.

We arrive at the spot. It’s well worth the move!! It is stunning. We have a view of a massive lake. We are high up, so we are seeing the tops of the mountains all around us, and below us are lots of these cabins. It’s a fantastic spot to stay the night. There is a little cafe next door, we are in the middle of nowhere, mind you. He is just closing and will open at midday tomorrow. We will be there!

We get settled in, and we are staying here for sure. We get Jess working… Gas is on for the heating and the cooking, her battery will be working hard tonight, we have a full tank of fresh water, an empty grey water tank and a fresh empty toilet, we can stay off grid for 2 to 3 days. It’s the toilet that’s usually the first to go!

Dinner is fantastic. A nice pasta dish with salad and white wine, looking at our lake and mountain view, helped along with some Norwegian jazz that had to go by the cheese course…

A good day. We had no real plans; we had a rough layout on a map, but today we went off-piste in another direction. It was well worth doing…

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Tuesday 1st July – Tyinstolen to Gudvangen – 71 miles

At about 4 in the morning, Del just happened to wake up and could hear the tinkling of a bell, a bell that sheep wear. It was getting closer and closer, then it stopped. Suddenly, there was a light bang that rocked the van, just a bit, and the tinkling started up again, fading away into the night. Clearly, one of the sheep doesn’t approve of us being there!

After an excellent night’s sleep, we wake up to the pattering of rain on the roof…, again. We are having a relaxing start to the day, a light breakfast this morning as we want to try the cute little cafe next door and have some waffles, again with the famous brown cheese and jam. We have a productive morning planning. Del gets on with some homework.

After 12, we take the short walk to the restaurant. We are greeted by a very nice, friendly chap who serves us delicious waffles with the traditional Norwegian brown cheese and jam, served with tea and coffee. Just how we want it. It’s delicious.

The man continues to tell us that in April, there’s normally 2 metres of snow here and the lake is frozen solid to about a metre, golly. This is an extraordinary place. Huts are scattered on the hillside, and this fabulous restaurant is out here, high up in the middle of nowhere. Despite its location, it’s a popular place.

We leave our beautiful park-up spot and head down the hill towards the Borgund Stave church, which is 30 minutes away. This is the best-preserved example of this type of traditional Norwegian wooden church, which was built in 1180. We’ve seen pictures and videos of this.

It always looked bigger, but when we see it for real, it almost looks like a model. It’s tiny compared to the other stave church we saw a few days ago in Ringebu. It’s still quite spectacular, though, with a fabulous visitors centre that explains all about the history of stave churches and how they are built.

Next, we are heading for a campsite that we have booked for 3 days in Gudvangen. We have had a lot of damp, mucky weather, and Jess and everything inside her needs a good airing, so we are hoping to get some dry weather and do a good clean out and freshen the van up.

To get to Gudvangen, we have to travel through the Laerdal tunnel, which is the longest road tunnel in the world – it’s 24.5km (15.23miles) long and even has 3 rest areas inside which are large caverns lit up in blue where you can get out and stretch your legs. Work started in 1995 and was open in 2000, 5 years to build a 15 and a half mile tunnel. Amazing… Quite an experience.

In total, today we have spent over 40km in tunnels by the time we eventually pop up out and into Gudvangen.

Our campsite is such a wonderful place, quirky, and it has the most magnificent views of many waterfalls along the mountains that tower over us; we are situated in an impressive valley. The campsite is also very reasonable. Tomorrow we will be taking a (rather expensive) fjord cruise on the stunning Naeroyfjord here, the next day we are going to a Viking village to do some axe throwing, watch out, Del.

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Wednesday 2nd July – Gudvangen – Day 2

Finally, at last, we have woken up to a spectacularly sunny day! It’s beautiful here in the Gudvangen valley. It’s not hot, but it’s warm enough for us to have the first coffee of the day outside, followed by breakfast. No rain…!

Today we are taking a two-hour cruise along the Naeroyfjord to the town of Flam, that’s later this afternoon, so this morning we spend some time giving Jess a good clean and getting some laundry done, and just generally give the van a good airing and clearing out after all the wet and damp weather we have had this week. Del also gets on with some homework.

With all the jobs done and Jess all clean and smelling fresh, we take the short walk to the ferry port here in Gudvangen. It’s busy here at the port today. This is the port where the local fjord cruises and ferries depart from. It is also where the Viking village is located, where you can see how Vikings lived and try your hand at some axe throwing. That’s tomorrow.

At 2:30 sharp, we set off on the “Legacy of the Fjords” for our two-hour cruise to Flam. The boat is fantastic, five years old and done out in a very Scandinavian fashion, all minimalist but excellent. No corners have been cut on this boat; it’s immaculate.

We are cruising through one of the top 2 most beautiful fjords in Norway (the other being Geirangerfjord), the views are just some of the best we have seen, the mountains tower over us, with many streams and waterfalls carving their way through the rock. Spectacular.

Towards the last 40 minutes of the trip, we go below decks and have a glass of prosecco served in old-fashioned champagne glasses, how charming, and sit indoors at the back of the boat watching the world go by. What a trip…

We arrive in the town of Flam, negotiating our way around the moored-up P&O Cruises IONA, currently on a 7-day round trip from Southampton. This thing is enormous – 5200 passengers and 1800 crew. We would love to do a cruise, but for us, this is way too big. We fancy at most a couple of hundred people, but that would probably be way out of our budget.

Flam doesn’t really have much to offer. It’s an interchange really for the cruise liners, railway and ferries. A few shops are selling overpriced clothes and souvenirs, plenty of places to eat and drink, but that’s about it. It’s from here that we are getting on the bus for the 20-minute drive back to Gudvangen and the short walk back to the campsite.

Back at Jess, we get showered and relax in the late afternoon sun. The campsite has a fire pit on, so we wrap up a bit more and have a cocktail and a glass of red wine by the fire to end the day.

Back at the van, we have a light supper outside before calling it a day, and a good day it was too. Tomorrow is our last day in Gudvangen.

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Thursday 3rd July – Gudvangen – Day 3

We wake to a bit of a dull day today, but at least it’s not raining. Today we are off to Viking Valley, which is right on our doorstep and is very popular with the tourists, of which we are one…! We have a light breakfast, as there could be some fighting in the village! We set off pretty sharpish before it gets too busy.

The village is a reconstruction of a typical Viking settlement, and there are about 30 people living and working here in traditional Viking roles, such as blacksmith and textile production.

We get a chance to try our luck at axe throwing and archery with mixed results. Axe throwing is a lot harder than it looks. “Just throw the axe…!” No, it’s much harder than that, especially if you want it to go in and stay in…

There is a free guided tour which runs for about an hour; it’s very informative. We learnn lots of interesting facts about Vikings from our tour guide, Richard.

We learn stuff like the Vikings had shallow light boats for creeping up rivers and surprising the English, they also used them to get as far as Asia. They also used different types of weapons, from daggers to axes. We also learn that they never had horns on their helmets; that was something made up for an opera by Wagner. The stuff you find out.

We spend a good couple of hours there. We watch the blacksmith making rivets for a shield, a fight between two drunk Vikings, and the tourists having plastic sword fights with the “locals”.

It was very good and well worth the time and money to go to. We finish our visit off with a hot drink and…, yes, some waffles with Brunost, brown cheese.

We wander back to Jess just in time for the rain to start. We are leaving tomorrow, but we still have a bit more laundry to do. We take turns getting wet, going back and forth, but we get it done. We have had to fill our shower with some wet chairs and table covers that we left outside in the rain while we were out. It’ll be ok by tomorrow.

Our stay in Gudvangen has been excellent. We managed to get everything done that we wanted, so despite the weather, it has been an excellent stay, but tomorrow we have to move on. We have 12 days left in Norway, and there is still ‘stuff‘ to see.

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Friday 4th July – Gudvangen – day 4

We have woken up late today, very late, not saying how late! After careful consideration and a lot of thinking, not, we have decided to stay for another day. There is rain all day today, which is expected to be on and off for the most part. It’s nice here, and there is a short 2km hike we can do, and we have Jess where we can just chill out.

To wake ourselves up, and to feel more with it, we have a shower and just read for the most part of the morning until the afternoon. We get spells of sunshine, which makes it all look and feel very pleasant. We finally get a spell of no rain, so we get the hiking boots in and set off for a 2km round trip hike with a 190-meter climb, so whilst it doesn’t sound much, 2 km, it is steep.

The weather holds. It’s a good hike, but we are ill-prepared, with no water and no sticks, as some of the walk is quite challenging, with a few rocks to climb over, and steep, slippery tracks.

Del finds a couple of sticks which he wrangles to a good size to help Hayley with the climb. Finally, we reach the end of the trail, which is exactly 190m high, and it does feel like we have done a 1km uphill climb.

The view is spectacular. We can see the Viking Village below and the start of the Fjord that we were on yesterday.

After 15 to 20 minutes, we start the descent, which goes a lot smoother and a lot quicker than the ascent. The weather is still holding, so we nip into the Viking Village restaurant for an early dinner. We have read good reviews, and it certainly matches them. The food is excellent, and because of the rain, it’s not very busy.

Back at Jess for more relaxation, we still don’t know where we are going tomorrow. We read and have early showers, and just settle in for our final night. We mean it this time though…! Hayley goes to bed early as she’s not feeling great.

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