National Tourist Route: FV13 to Likholefossen

Zagan the motorhome has left the campsite! I repeat, Zagan the motorhome has left the campsite! He’s back out roaming the wilds, having finally dragged himself from the Tolkeinesque landscapes at Briksdal, and is occupying a corner of the Likholefossen waterfall car park on FV13 (N61.32817, E6.27160). Escaping that campsite was no mean feat, it was such an extra-ordinary place, but the dwindling wine supply in here, coupled with the fact we have a ferry booked in a few short weeks (anything less than 2 months is a countdown for us) helped elbow us outta there.

Our parking place for this evening at Likholefossen on the FV13

Quitting the campsite, Zagan rolled north for 20km of sunlit tarmac in order to pick up the main road again at Olden, where we could head south. His driver, as relaxed as a boneless chicken, shrugged off a small horde of tourist coaches as they attempted to raise stress levels above zero, squeezing into passing places and watching the back ends of each coach inch past Zagan’s ample behind.

Bring it on Tourist Coaches, Bring it on! WHAHAHAHHAHAHHA!

Heading north from Briksdal

Reaching Olden, having also passed the unlikely sight of one of those Petit Trains you normally see at the seaside, the reason for the influx became clear: a cruise ship was in port, and had discharged roughly 80 times the town’s population, who were eager for something to look at.

Cruise ship in port at Olden

The road we took next, from Olden to Innvik, was initially funded by William Henry Singer Jr, son of a US business magnet who opted to follow his dream to be an artist rather than a businessman. His old man wasn’t too chuffed at this turn of events, and insisted his son pay his own way, which he duly did by selling landscapes. Having moved over to Europe, William and his wife found themselves living in Olden, with a summer cabin below Briksdal, which still sits on the campsite a couple of meters from where we’d spent the last few days. When his father passed away, he left his son $4m, maybe $25m in today’s money, which William put to good use helping with local projects. The road built back then can’t cope with today’s traffic, and is in the process of being upgraded, including a new tunnel which was coughing out dust as we passed.

William’s road receiving a new lease of life in 2016

Including the blasting of a new tunnel

Our plan was to head for Førde to get LPG, as our large bottle was showing empty on the gauge. When we found the small refill point, and topped up, only 15 litres went in (the system takes about 32 litres, and we expected to put in at least 22 litres). Hmmm, our LPG system does work very well, but one of the gauges is always playing up, either reading full when the bottle’s almost empty, or empty when it’s half full.

LPG refill stations in Norway don’t seem to follow any standard. Some are manned, some not. Some use the dish adaptor, some bayonet. Some close on Sundays. At one we filled up, then told the cashier how much we’d had – they didn’t work from the pump meter!

Today’s LPG fill up was 6.39NOK a litre, roughly 60p a litre, dirt cheap for the comfort it gives us (and saves us £££ in campsite and hook-up fees for the fridge)

From Førde we back-tracked to the FV13 and headed up here. Norway has a bunch of ‘National Tourist Routes’, which are basically scenic drives promoted by the tourist board, and which we’ve found to be pretty awesome. This one has waterfalls en-route, one of which we’re parked alongside. By recent standards, this one’s nice, but tame. After a brief wander about the bridge over the feistiest bit of the waterfall and surrounding woodland, and a poke around an old hydroelectric plant sat in a collapsing shed, we retreated into Zagan for the evening.

We are here

Likholefossen: no sniggering at the name…

The Norwegians are masters of hydroelectricity: 95% of the electricity here comes from flowing water

Obviously they’re using newer gear than this! Electricity is one thing which is cheap in Norway: about 3p per kWh compared with about 14p per kWh in the UK

Tomorrow’s challenge was set by our mate Chris. When he came this way north, he drove his motorhome over the road shown on the image below as Number 10. It’s a mountain road, open in the summer as an alternative to the Lærdal Tunnel between Lærdal and Aurland, which happens to be the world’s longest road tunnel at 24.5 kilometres (15.23 miles!). Chris, fearless in most things, has a fear of heights, and was in need of fresh underwear after the drive, so I’m mentally steeling myself tonight for one hell of a time tomorrow, wish us luck.

Challenge for tomorrow, the road over the Lærdal Tunnel (Number 14 on the map)

Cheers, Jay

Planning your own motorhome adventure to Norway?
You’ll find loads of tips in our free guide to Touring Norway by motorhome.

New to motorhome life,
planning your own motorhome adventure, or
looking for the perfect gift for the motorhomer in your life?
Check out our OurTour range of books.