Goldilocks and the Sleeping Spots, The Long E6 South

Zagan the motorhome’s feeling a bit Goldilocks. He’s sat in his 3rd potential kipping spot of the day and is thinking, perhaps, hopefully, this one is just right. We’re alongside the Rauma River, in Norway among forested hills as the mist and rain falls on us (N62.27030, E8.16348).

Zagan alongside the Rauma River on the E136 in Norway

The Rauma, rumbling steadily alongside tonight’s kipping spot

From Trondheim, heading south, there seemed to be two options: 1. Head for Kristiansund and do the famous Atlantic Road, or 2. continue down the endless E6, turning west at Dombås and heading up to Andalsnes ready for a run south over the Trollstigveien then down to Geirangerfjord. Reading Our Bumble’s blog, and having chatted with them and some other folks, we decided the Atlantic Road wasn’t for us. It sounds spectatular, but in an invisible sense when viewed from the ground, so we’ll save that one for when we can afford a helicopter. So option 2 it was.

£2.90 in tolls got us out of Trondheim, which we quickly recouped by using a free service point 20 mins south of the city before rumbling on for what would turn out to be another 4 hours of driving. Our Michelin Scandinavia Map‘s great in the sense we can fold it out and see all of the Nordic countries on one sheet, but flipping ‘eck, it disguises the BIG distances between places in these countries. Popping somewhere just an inch or so south of us into satnav: that’ll be two hours please. WHAT!? Since we’re both wusses when it comes to doing any distance in a day, that probaby explains why we tried out two other kipping spots before we settled on this one: neither of us wanted to face up to a 4 or 5 hour stint, on top of the longish drives to get to Trondheim.

We rode the E6 down to the decidedly sad-looking Oppdal ski resport (all ski places give off an aura of mothballs out of season), sat in the kipping spot beside a weed-camouflaged chair lift (N62.60982, E9.65056). Lunch munched, we looked out at the rain-sodden view and packed up. Next up: Lesja on the E146, a layby set back off the road among pines (N62.16104, E8.66412). Not bad, not great, and a motorhome with 3 burley-looking chaps piling out sealed its fate as they were clearly doing some sort of BBQ-based drug deal in the woods. Off we went, resigned to another 80 minutes of driving to get to Andalsnes, when we spotted this place and pulled in. Feeling good here, we’ll catch some ZZZs (the Northern Lights predict level 5 tonight – visible all over Norway – but we’re under cloud) and maybe breakfast by the river in the morning. Hmmm, might even go for a dip if the sun shines.

A few pictures of the road over moors, past rivers and through farmland as we’ve hummed along to 80’s Now That’s What I Call Music tunes to get here:

Cheers, Jay

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