30th
July 2015
It starts to all
become more Scandinavian.
More rain during
the night, but it was actually dry as we packed up and headed north out of
Gothenburg. Once again we tried
repeatedly to keep to the minor roads, but as previously, kept getting forced
to return to the freeway when the minor roads just didn’t go in the right
direction ! Eventually, near a town
called Uddevalla, where we were trying very hard to stay off the freeway, there
was a big fjord and we had to use a big bridge on the freeway to cross it – Or
go about 30 kilometres to the east to get around the head of the fjord. We gave up and stuck to the freeway !
Apart from seeing
more of the countryside, the other reason we wanted to travel through the
smaller towns was to look for both a bakery for some bread, and a supermarket
for some supplies. On previous days we
had seen supermarkets in the smaller towns, but today, nothing. So maybe we would find one on the main
highway ?
Eventually, at
Tanumshede, we found a big shopping complex right beside the freeway, and
pulled off to explore. Success – Not
only did we find a good supermarket with all sorts of supplies, but we also
found bread, and, equally important, a towel.
A towel ??? Yup – Whilst in the
UK I had bought two new nice fluffy bath towels to replace the somewhat seedy
ones that we had been using for the past year.
Then in France, I had stopped for lunch at a roadside stop and put my
blue towel on the side of the bull bar to dry – As I always do. But this time, after I had finished my lunch,
I drove off forgetting the towel, which of course must have blown off not 100
yards later as I picked up speed. So I
have been looking for a replacement towel – and today found one. So success all round. In addition, in the middle of the shopping
centre car park they had a nice little picnic area, with tables and
benches. So having bought our supplies,
we then proceeded to enjoy our lunch in the car park, sitting in the nice warm
sunshine (for a change). As we left the
clouds came over again, and we set off north towards Oslo and Norway on an
increasingly gloomy afternoon.
As we travelled
further north, the scenery was quickly becoming more “Scandinavian” – And by
that I mean the rolling fields and crops and fairly flat landscape quickly
became hillier, and we started crossing quite deep gorges and fjords. A lot of rock was becoming evident, sticky
out of the countryside, and tunnels, some quite long, were becoming more
common. Then, we crossed a bridge over a fjord, and we were in Norway – A small
sign beside the road
told us so ! Then
a little further down the road we came to a sign over the road with a Green
Light and “Nothing to Declare” over one lane, and a Red Light and “Goods to
Declare” over the other lane. I stayed in the Green Light lane and the road
continued without a break, while the Red lane got detoured off to the
side. Easy was to go through Customs –
At 100 kmh ! For a while I watched to
see if any cops of customs officers chased after me, but nothing, so I presumed
I, and all my stuff, were now safely in Norway ! So, since leaving S America, still the only
place any one from Customs has even spoken to me was crossing from Denmark to
Sweden when the lady officer just asked us about our trip !
Once in Norway we
continued up towards Oslo, passing some very scenic lakes, until we came to a
small town called Hvervenbukta about 8 kms south of Oslo, where we found a good
campsite just back from the water. They
seem to have had lots of rain here too, and told us to go in and see if we
could find an acceptably dry spot before we paid – Which we did, finding a
great little spot up on a hillock that
was not only dry but was in flag an area of paving stones, so no mud at all
! Perfect.
We went for a
walk around the shores of the fjord and then turned in, and as usual when on
the road, slept like logs.
Photos here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0315GothenburgSwedenToOsloNorway?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPqj-u05aqpbg
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