Our sleep was accompanied, all night long, by the drumming of rain on Basil’s roof. By the time morning arrived both Sarah and I had mentally decided we would head for Oslo and cut our final three days in the Western Fjords short. When we peered out of the windows, our minds were made up. Low cloud and drizzle.
The short, two mile, drive down the rough track to the main road, saw us come our closest to a collision in the last 11,000 miles. As we rounded a blind bend, fortunately very slowly, a Norwegian car came in the opposite direction, far too quickly. Both Sarah and I thought he would hit us, but he just pulled up inches from trembling Basil’s front bumper. A close shave.
Twenty miles into our journey saw us crossing Sognefjorden on our last Norwegian ferry. It was a short 10 minute ride across the glass smooth fjiord. We will miss these little ferries, but not parting with large wads of cash for the privilege.
I had spotted on the map, that our route to Oslo would take us past another Stave church at Borgund, so we pulled off the road for a quick look. This time we did not pay to go inside but were suitably impressed with this thirteenth century example, complete with obligatory dragons on the roof.
Borgund Stave Church
Borgund Stave Church
Even though we did not travel though any particularly well known tourist areas today, the scenery was still beautiful. We crossed another bleak stretch of high moorland at 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) and then along a number of steep sided, pine forested valleys. Is there any part of Norway which would not rank as an “area of outstanding beauty” if it was located in Britain – probably not.
A random view of the scenery we could see at lunchtime
We could not find any suitable overnight stops on the main road, except for small laybys with nowhere to walk the dogs and the promise of endless traffic noise. So for once we settled for a campsite and chose Stavn Camping (60.428181, 9.330579). It’s a nice little campsite for anyone wanting an overnight stop on the E7. It is located directly on the banks of a fast flowing river, populated with trout or salmon I would guess from the fly fishing taking place. It is only 180 Kr (€19.19) plus 35 Krona if you want electricity. A bargain in this part of the world.
Basil is now poised for a 75 mile lumber into Oslo tomorrow. It looks like we will have to pay through the nose for a campsite in the Oslo area, but we would like to spend at least a day looking round Norway’s capital. Providing buses in Oslo allow dogs, which I think they do from my research, we will base ourselves at a campsite and get a bus into the centre on Monday.