Week 4 . 21st – 27th June 2025. Gothenburg to Briksdalsbreen, Norway – 496 miles
Saturday 21st June 2025 – Gothenburg day 4
After a couple of days of walking around and exploring Gothenburg, Hayley plans a quieter day today. First, there’s the mundane, yet necessary, task of doing the laundry. We take our washer at home for granted, and it can be a struggle on the road sometimes to find decent laundry facilities.
The laundry at this campsite is the best, £8 for 2 hours exclusive rental of the laundry room with washers, dryers and an iron. Hayley gets 4 loads done and ironed – result! The rest of the day, she sits in the sun and reads before setting off for a look at the forest and trails that are near the campsite.
Sunday 22nd June 2025 – Gothenburg day 5
Del is back today, woohoo! He’s not due until 4 pm, so Hayley tidies up the van and goes for another long walk. At last, he’s safely back, and it’s been a successful job that he has enjoyed. Hayley has also had a good few days in Gothenburg, but now we’re back together, we can resume our travels.
The logistics have worked out well. The campsite is excellent, in a good place near Sweden’s second biggest city, which just by chance has an amusement park with a world-class coaster in it. The airport was only 45 minutes away, with good flights back to London.
Tonight we celebrate with a rather expensive dinner in the city (Sweden is expensive, but nothing compared to Norway, so we hear).
Tomorrow we will move north towards the Swedish/Norwegian border.
Monday 23rd June 2025 – Gothenburg to Åmål – 110 miles
We slept well last night despite bursts of heavy rain drumming on the roof.
We pack up, check and refresh Jess for a 100-mile drive today to the small town of Åmål, which has a campsite called Örnäs camping, located right on the banks of Lake Vänern. The lake is not only the biggest in Sweden but the biggest in the EU, with a length of 140 kilometres (87 miles!!!) That’s a big lake… We have some heavy rain along the way.
We get a nice pitch right next to the lake. The sky is heavy with lots of grey clouds, but it’s nice and dramatic.
We manage a walk through the forest to a marina and back. There are some good walks here, but it’s a shame that the weather today is so unpredictable.
Tuesday 24th June 2025 – Åmål, Sweden to Gata, Norway 146 miles
It’s a bright, hot, sunny morning with coffee outside by the lake today. Strong gusts of wind are blowing across the lake, though.
After a large breakfast, using up some Swedish potatoes, which are banned in Norway, we set off. We have some Swedish kroner to get rid of, so we fill Jess up with diesel and buy some bits and pieces from a supermarket. There are a lot of motorhomes on our route today, mainly going in the opposite direction. Most people going to Norway take the ferry from Denmark, travelling clockwise, we are doing it differently as we went east first to have a look at Poland. Norway is very popular with motorhomes and can get extremely busy, we shall see.
During our picturesque drive to Norway, the weather changes. The rain showers are back, and the sky is grey. We have a good drive north and we cross the border into Norway at around 2 pm, stopping at a peace monument that straddles the border of Sweden and Norway.
The scenery in Norway, as expected, is wonderful and by all accounts it will only get better. We want to do some wild camping today, a free place in a forest. We try a few places, but they don’t really do it for us. Eventually, we find a spot, two miles down an unpaved road, 10 km south of the nearest town called Gata. We really are in the middle of nowhere.
In Norway, like Sweden, you can camp anywhere you like, so long as there is no sign expressly forbidding camping, and you are 150m from private property.
The place we have found is fantastic, no sounds, nothing. No moose either, although there are droppings nearby. We are right in the middle of a wood. We are off-grid tonight, relying on batteries and bottled gas. No problem for Jess as we settle into a fantastic dinner and watch the final episode of Clarkson’s Farm.
Wednesday 25th June 2025 – Gata to Ringebu – 84 miles
Last night was a fabulous stop, off-grid, wild camping in the middle of a Norwegian wood, fabulous. Today, we are planning on another wild camping spot,stopping at a secluded place by a river. We have a few things to do, though. Jess needs her grey water emptying, fresh water, diesel, LPG, a wash and we need some local currency!
After breakfast, we set off, heading north.
First stop, Diesel, a litre here is about £1.40 – £1.50 which is not as bad as we thought. Next, we are driving to a marina, en route to empty the grey water tank and fill up with fresh water. After ducking under a 3m bridge, we arrive at the marina. (Jess is 2.95m, we make it just). Norway is great for free motorhome service points, maybe even better than France.
Next, Jess needs a wash. The heavy rain and mud from yesterday have left her looking like a rally car. We have found the most expensive car wash in the world. £10 gets us about three minutes. To wash Jess to her normal standard, that we have achieved everywhere else, would have cost £50.00!!!! She looks worse than before she went in!
Finally we need LPG. We have two bottles, one is almost empty, and we like to keep them full. You never know… This was a bit of a challenge as the place was off road in the yard of a garage, very rustic, and very muddy, and we have just had the most expensive ‘non-wash’ of Jess.
We are all done, and finally, we are on our way to our river stop. The weather is glorious, the roads are lovely to drive on, winding along the lakes. The scenery is just breathtaking, the best.
We pass a campsite about 30 minutes from our proposed stop, which looks fabulous, and after a bit of a ‘shall we, shan’t we‘ moment, we decide we shall. We turn around and head for it.
This is one of the best sites we have stayed in. Elstad Camping, near the town of Ringebu, is located right on a wide, long lake, you can pitch right on the edge. It costs us only 23 euros for the night, and it is just stunning. Across the lake, there are steep mountains covered in pine trees.
There is a Stave church here in Ringebu. A Stave church is a medieval wooden church which is a regular sight here in Norway. Once we get pitched up and comfortable, we head up the hill to the church. It’s a bit expensive to get in, £8.00, but inside it’s very cute and is worth the money. The surrounding grounds are spectacular and so beautifully maintained.
Back at the van, we share a beer and enjoy the rest of the afternoon and later dinner outside. It never seems to get dark here.
Thursday 26th June 2025 – Ringebu to Geiranger – 130 miles
It’s a fantastic sunny day today, and we slept really well last night. The view this morning is incredible—towering, tree-covered mountains with a slow-moving river winding through the landscape. It’s a wonderful sight to wake up to, especially with smoked salmon and poached eggs for breakfast. Fabulous.
After finishing our hearty breakfast, we clean up and set off, making sure everything is ready after a full service. Tonight, we’ll be off the grid, so we need to have everything stocked up.
We’re still on the lookout for an ATM, but they’re scarce here, and very few shops and outlets seem to use cash. The Scandinavian countries, in general, don’t seem to like using cash, but we do need to have some for showers at campsites and some service points.
It’s a fabulous drive today as we climb higher, above 1000m, and the snow-covered mountains flatten out. Our drive takes us along rivers and lakes. The scenery is something else here in Norway. They’ve got some good stuff here.
We find our chosen overnight stop and pull in after negotiating a rather interesting road, narrow, with deep rivulets carved by other vans. We’re a little concerned the raised middle might scrape the underside. We make it, but only just.
It is a spectacular spot—difficult to describe how stunning it is. The temperature has dropped as we’ve climbed higher, and the mountains are snow-covered. We get settled in. This will be the furthest north we’ll go; in fact, it’s the furthest north we’ve ever been on a van trip.
Hayley suddenly has an idea: while it’s lovely here, we really should be heading to Geiranger, with its spectacular fjord. She finds us a campsite, and off we go. So much for the off-grid night by the lake!
It’s a good drive, but the roads are getting narrower, twistier, and more perilous. Your wheels hug the outer marker line, and some drivers either don’t understand that or are so scared themselves that they drive far too much in the middle.
Twice we have our wing mirror clipped. It’s okay—our mirrors have sacrificial covers and are designed to fold inwards—but the noise of clipping is quite disconcerting. Comes with the hobby. As long as it’s just clipped mirrors!
Mirror drama aside, the drive is probably one of the best scenic routes we’ve ever done. Every corner reveals another jaw-dropper—huge mountains and aqua-coloured lakes. We get a fantastic view of the Geirangerfjord, which currently has two cruise liners docked.
We arrive at the Vinje Campsite in Geiranger, which is quite high up. We have a very nice pitch with a view of the fjord and a huge waterfall that runs right through the camp. Noisy!
Once settled in, we set off down the hill for a walk to the fjord and the town of Geiranger. There’s a large cruise liner in, AIDAprima, which we think we’ve seen in Southampton before.
The place is a massive tourist stop. It’s busy, full of buses and people from all over the world. A popular place for cruise ships to stop. We walk around, the town is nice, but nothing really to write home about—everything is overpriced and done up for tourists.
We take the steep walk back up the hill to Jess and our little campsite, where we have a fabulous (and simple) dinner: beans on toast with a poached egg. We don’t normally carry beans, but Hayley has ‘stocked up for the wilds of Norway’, thinking we could be stranded without shops for days…!
We are wiped out after the challenging drive and the walk down to Geiranger and back, so we turn in early. A good day.
Friday 27th June 2025 – Geiranger to Briksdalsbreen – 70 miles
Despite the waterfall outside the van, we slept well. Today we’re going to stay at a place near the Briksdalsbreen glacier. The drive is another challenging one, and today it’s Hayley’s turn.
We’re not sure why, but today there are so many coaches on the road—long ones—so the climb up the winding road is a difficult one. The traffic often comes to a standstill as coaches and motorhomes try to pass each other on hairpin bends. We are probably averaging 8 mph. The locals must be fed up with this chaos every day.
Once off the mountain road, Hayley thinks she is clear until she encounters a number of narrow tunnels of 4km each, which are not even wide enough for a centre dividing line, and have low rocky roofs. We swap over when we fill up with diesel, and Del has the next drive. The road leading up to the campsite we have reserved is even narrower, and Del is forced to reverse to let some traffic pass. It also has the creepiest tunnel ever.
Finally, finally, we arrive at the campsite: Melkevoll Bretun, which is surrounded by glaciers, mountains, and waterfalls.
The people here are lovely, and we get our pitch that Hayley had pre-booked. Again, to our right is a massive waterfall; to our left, a huge glacier; and straight ahead, another one. You can’t move for them!
We get dressed for a walk—boots, weatherproofs, etc.—and take a 4km hike along the Briksdal glacier trail. We get a few heavy showers of rain, but so what…
The glacier is in front of us the whole way and is quite an imposing sight. It’s hard to believe that these glaciers are moving forward down the mountain, while global warming is making them recede even faster.
We arrive at the base—or as close to the base of the glacier as we can get. Wow! is all we can say. We walk around, taking pictures for half an hour before heading back down to the campsite.
After a short break, we get changed and head for the on-site sauna. There’s a glacial stream next to it. You’re supposed to spend 20 minutes in a sauna, then take a dip in the stream before going back in. We do the sauna no problem, but the stream bit… that’s a bit harder. Hayley manages to get up to her knees before the pain of the icy water forces her out in a rather ungraceful fashion, losing her flip-flops and nearly falling over in the process. Ice-cold water, straight off the mountain… Hmmm.
After a shower, it’s back ‘home’ for a fantastic dinner of Swedish meatballs, asparagus, and crushed potatoes, washed down with a cold white wine.
A perfect end to a perfect day.
We are hardly scratching the surface. Its fabulous. We would love to do a cruise. We have see some nice…