Mooching around Mosjøen in the middle of Norway

Zagan the motorhome has turned his back on the beautiful coast and is tonight sleeping in a car park in the middle of a town. Not just any town though, the car park in the middle of the town is in the town in the middle of Norway – Mosjøen (N65.84012, E13.18859) – pronounced moo-sher-en.

Yes it is all glamour for us, and yes that is a kebab van we are parked next to

This morning we were on a mission, and that mission was LPG. Norway has plenty of places to fill up, but as the country is so big they are often a bit of a drive to get to. With the nearest station on the coastal route being a good few days away (at our pace) we headed inland to Mo i Rana. As we drove along we noticed the flags outside everyone’s home, which seemed odd when we first got here but now seems totally normal, were at half mast. We last saw this in Finland following a mass shooting in France, we can only think this time they are for the lives lost in a terrible recent earthquake in Italy.

Satnav has been struggling to see satellites over the past few weeks, and today was no exception. She finally kicked into life about half an hour into our drive. Luckily it was pretty much one road and one turn off until we reached the town. Once in Mo (hey we’re on first name terms) we made a bee-line for the LPG station. Pulling in we waited, and waited. I tried to translate the signs while Jay went and asked if we are allowed to fill up ourselves. Yes it was up to us to fill up, then nip into the nearby shop and tell them how much we had used. We are really loving the trusting nature we’ve found across the whole of Scandinavia.  Ferries ask you how long your vehicle is – of course all us foreign motorhomes who think they can get away with it declare as under 6m (as the price more that doubles once you are over 6m), but I no idea what the locals do, are they as naughty as us? I somehow doubt it.

Today we witnessed another trust example. The Arctic Race of Norway has recently taken place and today we drove part of the route. People had decorated the route with brightly painted bicycles and signs and they were all still there. Seriously most of the bikes looked in perfect working order, but they were still propped up against bus stops and road signs. I half-joked to Jay that we should grab a couple, but sadly we’d have nowhere to put them as we took the bike rack off Zagan to make him a tad closer to the magic 6m mark.

We missed the race but saw plenty of sign and bikes along our route.

We came second to a caravan – the shame!

At Mo we had a decision to make. South on the E6 or west back to the coastal route. As dark clouds were gathered above us, and the weather forecast predicted similar conditions for the foreseeable future, we opted for the faster, less scenic route and jumped back onto the E6. Of course it would have been faster if we hadn’t hit roadworks, lots of roadworks. One set even had a sign up saying it could be up to 20 minutes before you were let through. It was just a five minute wait when we arrived, and five minutes in a motorhome is plenty of time for a few of Jay’s home-cooked biccies.

Roadworks, then a toll – presumably to pay for the roadworks.

Approaching an eight kilometre long tunnel another roadworks sign had us veering off to the left and over the fell on top of the mountain it plunged into. There followed a back-aching test of twists and turns on a narrow road with huge lorries charging us down from the opposite direction. How we still have two wing mirrors is anyone’s guess – including Jay who was driving.

Our alternative route, prettier than a tunnel but a bit more work on the nerves.

Reaching Mosjøen we parked up in a shopping centre car park as the one we had listed for here was full of cars. The shopping centre had a four hour time limit in the car park (having since been in and looked around the shops four hours is very, very generous) so we all hopped out and went for a look around the town.

Mosjøen is not only famous for being in the middle of Norway, the Mosjøen Aluminium Plant is one the biggest in Europe and the harbour is among the largest in Northern Norway. But we didn’t come here to see any of those, we came to see the Sjøgata (sea street) which has the largest concentration of listed wooden buildings in northern Norway.

In case you forget where you are, look down

The houses, shops, museums and piers were just around the corner from our parking place, so we had plenty of time for a good old mooch around. The best view of the area is from the opposite bank of the river Vefsna, but with no way of getting over there I made do with slipping over on some seaweedy rocks, clambering on a pontoon and dipping my boots into the river.

I have to say that Norwegian towns so far (apart from the ‘fishing village’ ones in the Lofotens) haven’t really appealed, they are more there for servicing and shopping than sight-seeing. Mosjøen suffers from the main road going through it and a lot of industry, but one tiny little corner has been preserved and it was like a lovely step back in time (apart from the prices in the cafes!).

Massive painting by numbers, completed by 101 children

Back at Zagan the cars in the unlimited car park were clearing out, so we shuffled round and squeezed in next to a kebab van. It looks like it hasn’t opened for quite a while! Tonight’s view won’t be a beautiful glacier or fjord, but rather a bad drawing of a couple of bottles of pop and kebab and chips, but still we’ll be heading south tomorrow with more delights for the eyes to come.

Ju x

Bonus pic from the local pet store –

Sometimes you don’t know what a product is in a foreign country – it seems the local pet store makes it easier the further along the shelf you go!

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