Arriving in Norway 🇳🇴

Heavy rain in the night has continued throughout today. When we awoke, we were both a bit worried that Molly Moho might be stuck in the grass but she did us proud, and John drove off smoothly. After emptying the loo and the waste water tank, we were off to our next new country, Norway.

We’ve followed meandering roads hugging endless strings of lakes, occasionally with river torrents bouncing through gorges and over rocks. Of course, there’s been even more forest, and we saw a couple of deer bouncing into the trees but, sadly, no moose yet. The lakeside villages have pretty churches, red and yellow timber houses, and mown lawns between areas of colourful wild flowers. Everywhere is a vibrant spring green.

After a while, we crossed into Norway, shrouded with torrential rain, low cloud and mist. Visibility was very poor at one stage. Despite the weather, the landscape is still very beautiful.

Our Garmin Camper sat nav wanted to go a long way round, but we chose a shorter, more direct route. This turned out to be on narrow winding roads, just wide enough for 2 cars, but not 2 motorhomes. Thankfully, there were plenty of passing places and John didn’t find the driving difficult.

At midday we were startled by a loud noise coming from our phones. I picked up John’s and there was an emergency message in Norwegian. Thankfully, when I looked at mine it was in English and was just a test. It made us jump though, and thoughts of avalanches, tidal waves, earthquakes and landslides ran through our heads, despite the lack of snow and sea nearby!

After a couple of hour’s driving, we stopped for lunch at a viewpoint. Afterwards, the road took us in and out of Sweden again before getting even narrower and becoming single lane. Fortunately, the roads have been very quiet today and we’ve rarely seen another vehicle.

We continued through ice-scoured mountains with patches of snow then reached our first Norwegian tunnel. It was single lane and we assumed the green light meant we could continue. Luckily, we didn’t meet anyone coming in the opposite direction, although there were passing places.

At about 2.45, we reached Nyheim camping in Namskoggan where we’re staying tonight on a pitch next to the river. I don’t think we’ll do the walk we’d planned in this rain. I think I’ll take the opportunity to wash my hair instead!