A motorhome view of Nærøyfjord, Norway

Zagan the motorhome is spending the might in the big smoke, parked up in the centre of Voss (N60.62767, E6.41773), after a wonderful couple of days in the fjords.

Rewind to Sunday morning, yes I do sometimes know what day it is, and we felt the need to head out for a jog. In between rain showers, we donned our trainers and headed up the navvies road. This road was built to enable the Flåmsbana, that we rode on the day before, to be built and as we jogged along we were amazed at the willpower and engineering that would be needed just to build the road, let alone the railway.

I managed just over 6 kilometres and Jay was feeling great so he carried on after I turned back and covered around 10 kilometres. After showers and a quick hair cut for Jay it was time to move on from Flåm camping. As Jay sorted Zagan at the service point, I collected up a couple of handfuls of the many fallen apples from the trees on the site. I’m sure we’ll be able to rustle something up with those for a pudding one night.

We didn’t have far to drive to our next stop, which had been recommended by Kate and Steve (who we met when we first got into Norway over two months ago). I can hardly believe it that we have been here this long, and still there’s loads more to see. The parking spot was 20 kilometres from the campsite; we didn’t realised that 18 of those 20 would be spent in tunnels. The first one was six kilometres long on a fairly steep incline. We popped out of the darkness with just enough time to blink and for a junction to head off from the road, before plunging into an 11 kilometre long downhill tunnel. Turning off at the bottom of that we thought we were done, but no. A cheeky 1.5 kilometre single track tunnel took us along the fjordside.

As we parked up on the patch of land next to the fjord (N60.90123,E6.86180) we were greeted with a rainbow. Here we were in one of the most beautiful places in Norway (UNESCO listed to prove it) and a huge rainbow arcs across the fjord. Around us the only sound was from the waterfalls tumbling down the mountainsides. It was one of those moments in life I’ll remember forever.

What a welcome when we parked up

We were both shattered from our morning run, and it rained most of the day, so we spent a lazy day watching the boats and kayaks go up and down the fjord and writing our 10 top tips for motorhome travel in Europe. The road was so quiet that only a handful of cars went past all day and we slept soundly to the hum of the waterfalls.

This morning we drove a little bit further along the fjord towards another parking spot, disturbing a large gathering of goats reluctant to move off the dry, warm road. Parking up we set off to walk up part of the Rimstigen, a track which for many centuries was the only means of access to these mountain areas. After yesterday’s rain, the track was slippy and muddy but we climbed up through trees and wild raspberry plants – if only we had been here a month earlier when they were full of fruit, we would be leaving with full tummies and bulging pockets. As the path got steeper, Charlie struggled with his arthritic legs so I carried him for a while. At one point Jay looked ahead and deemed it better if Charlie and I stayed here as it was getting steeper, how happy were we?

Slightly different Monday morning traffic jam

Rimstigen walk Norway

Jay went on further up, but the views were obscured by trees, so we made our way back down to the treeless part, found a rock each and sat to watch the boats go through the narrowest part (250m) of the narrowest fjord in Norway. It was picture postcard stuff and a lovely way to spend a Monday morning.

We could sit here all day and watch the boats

In the morning the water is so still it is like a mirror

On our drive back along the single track road, we all held our breath as we neared the ‘goat’ section, only to find no goats. The reason for this could have something to do with who was there, along with two horse friends of his – we did have a moment where we thought we might find out what impact horns have on Hymers, but fortunately after sniffing Zagan they all peacefully moved along.

Monday lunchtime traffic jam

Once back on the main road we asked satnav nicely to take us to the Staheim hotel, in return she tried to make us turn the wrong way up a one way road. After several more tunnels, which wound up though the inside of a mountain, we were spat out next to a sign for, you guessed it, the Stalheim hotel. Parking up just along from the hotel, as the car park had a ‘no motorhomes or caravans’ sign. We wandered back and manned up. To see the amazing view you need to be on the hotel terrace, to get to the terrace you have to walk through the hotel. The hotel was big, and posh and we were a tad scruffy, but we went for it and not an eye was batted. Walking along the outside terrace you could see down the magnificent Nærøy Valley. We could also see cars going down the famous 13 hairpin bend road that was build up to the hotel for the days before the tunnels. After many hairpin bends recently, we opted to give Zagan’s brakes a rest and drive back along the ‘boring’ way.

View from the Stalheim Hotel terrace

How to level your shed when living on a mountain Norwegian style

By now it was getting on so when we spotted a nice picnic spot by the lake in Oppheim we pulled in and Jay cooked up bacon and avacado sarnies for us with our Camping Stove on the picnic bench. We sat and chilled for a while with the sun on our faces, it felt so good after the past few days of cloud and rain.

Lunch view

As we approached Voss we made one final stop at the out of town shopping area, there were several supermarkets so I nipped into Co-op Extra. After cashing in our bottles and cans (they have a deposit on them, you simply pop them into the machine at the supermarket and it gives you a voucher for the money off your shop) for the princely sum of 4.5 Nok, I grabbed a couple of cartons of milk (no UHT milk in Norway so we keep having to stop for fresh) and a cooked chicken. We alternate who cooks and who writes, but as I didn’t write anything yesterday and Jay cooked, it’s my turn to cook and blog today. Writing these takes a couple of hours, so a cooked chicken seemed like a great plan – until Charlie got a sniff of it. He’s now taken up residence outside the cupboard it is in.

Arriving in Voss, we paid 30 Nok into the parking machine (about £3) which will see us through until 9.41am tomorrow. After demolishing the chicken I think we’ll have an evening stroll around the place. Not too late mind you, as for us tomorrow will be an early start!

Ju x

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