Start point.. Nidelv Camping, near Kristiansand, Norway.
Finish Point.. Skare, 200 km from Bergen.
Distance.. 300 Miles.
Total.. 1550 Miles.
Woke this morning to a damp and dreary start so what better day to visit a museum, so after breakfast I headed down to Kristiansand and the Kanonmuseumto look at the impressive 380mm Naval gun the resides there, on arriving at 10am I found it deserted, so checked the web and found it opens at 11am, also found out why there wasn’t much traffic on the road, it’s Ascension Day and everywhere is closed except for a few small convenience stores, not a good sign, I decide to take a walk around and get what pics I can anyway, by the time I head back to the van past the entrance its all opened up, I part with my 100 NOK and go for a look around, unfortunately the gun itself is having some maintenance done so no access to it at all, but the museums other exhibits were worth the money, mainly thanks to the Germans for recording everything they did, including photographing everything.
The detail and quality of the engineering that went into these fortifications is outstanding, every last little detail is thought of and over-engineered, It amazes me how they managed to lose the war when you look at the skill that went into their war effort.
The 380mm gun covered for maintenance.
The big gun all covered over for maintenance work.
After leaving the museum I headed up to Lysebotn which is famed for its road that switchbacks down to bottom of the fjord, dropping nearly 1000 metres, the 120 miles to get there took over 4 hours, the last 20 miles is single track road over 2 mountains, the scenery has to be seen to be believed, some of it is like a moon scape, the weather was still doing me no favours on the way over but the return journey saw the mist and clouds lift to let the sun shine through, and what had been hidden earlier was breathtaking.
I spent a lot of time stopping to take pictures but it got to a point where enough is enough, trying to cover such a large mileage everyday and fit in the sights and stopping for photos has made me realise that I may not have the time to reach as far north as I wanted, its difficult to get a good average speed on these road and they are sticklers for adhering to the limits as the fines are massive if caught speeding. I’ve got 500km before I get to the Atlantic road, and I’ll how I feel when I get there.
The phone signal out here in the wilds is a hit and miss so I apologise for the late posting. It will probably be like this the rest of the time I’m in the hills.
Delscampertour 