Driving for 3 days

We've just completed 3 days and 500km of experience in the most amazing Norwegian countryside near Stavanger, in the south-west of Norway.

The first day was lightly raining, cold and windy, so we thought we'd head for as far east as we were going to go, to both see the countryside on the way from the warmth of the car, and in the hope that the weather might improve in that area.

We found a large "walking park", more like a huge botanical garden, and spent some time walking in the past some small lakes and the most brilliant display of various coloured rhotodendrons I've ever seen. My feet got quite wet (joggers are not serious walking shoes), but the rain was not constant, and although cold, we had a great time there. There were a number of very cheeky birds, about the size of sparrows, that would come right up to us I guess in the hope of food. This allowed us to study their lovely colours which included brown, blue, green, black and white. We had lunch of sandwiches in a small hut. Very romantic.

Next we went to a ceramics factory, called Figgjo, which had some quite innovative designs for jugs, bowls, serving plates and more. They also had "every day" dinner sets, and people were buying heaps. The feel of the glaze (mainly white) was so smooth. We wanted to buy some, but it was more expensive to ship than the cost of the items, so we just bought a small souvenier, which we hope we can get back in one piece.

Driving in Norway is delightful, mainly, as drivers are most thoughtful and will let you in even if they clearly have right of way. The hard bit is that most of the roads we go on (and it seems most of the roads) are very narrow and you have to move to the edge or more when a car comes the other way. There are small car-length sized widened areas in case a camervan, bus or truck comes the other way. Trouble is that most drivers do not slow down - particularly Mercedes drivers it seemed! Lucky our small Ford Fiesta was not very wide! I only ran off the road a little bit once, and mainly drove at about 50 to 70kph.

We stayed the night in a touristy place with a 4 poster bed, but as the "Summer season" only starts on 1st June, we were the only ones there, and felt like kings when we were individually served breakfast which always seems to be included in the very expensive hotels bills! Just as well.

Next day we drove to a place called Kjerag which is 800m above the Lysefjord. The weather was better and we were hoping to do a 6 hour walk to Kjerag rock - a large boulder wedged between two walls, 1000m above the fjord. The man in the cafe there advised against it, as the track was wet (still raining a little) and there was snow still there and likely to be fog. I know the track is a little scary even in good weather, so we didn't go. We did drive down the 27 hairpin turns to the town of Lysebotn at the bottom and watched a car ferry come in and load up. The nearby waterfall was quite spectacular, and it is so easy to take these waterfalls for granted as there are so many of them!

We then drove about 5km back to where we spent the night at Byrkjedal, and saw some huge boulders that were part of the moraine of a glacier and climber around them for a while. Then we drove another 20km or so to Manafossen falls. These were spectacular, a 92m free fall waterfall with a very large volume of water. The track up was very steep having ladders in some spots and chains in others to hang on to as we heaved our way up. It was worth it too. We decided to go on to Man Farm, which was established in the Middle Ages and now served as a form of cheap accommodation for walkers. It was beside a river which we followed a couple of km further before the track became too wet to walk in our joggers! There were the sounds of birds, of flowing river and of the bells of sheep and goats. The sun was out and all was peace in the world! It was very pleasant.

We had trouble fining accommodation after our 3 hour walk but finally did by 9pm or so, and managed to get the last room in the only hotel we could find, so it must have been meant to be.

On our last day with the car, we woke to glorious sunshine! This was the day we were going to walk to Priekestolen, a sheer sided 600m drop to the Lysefjord on 3 of its sides. We had to drive about 40km and go on a car ferry to get there, but we were excited as we finally set off on the 4 hour return 3.8km walk that rose 350m. It was on tracks that ranged from wooden walkways to prelaid stones, and large smooth rock surfaces but mainly was on stones that you just found your way through, though the overall track was well marked. There were many people walking, but I enjoyed overtaking most of them, especially on the way up! We passed bonsai pine trees, small lakes, righly moss covered floors of small woods till we first caught our glimpse of the Lysefjord. It was magic. The fjord stretched for over 20km and you could clearly see its end and the patches of snow on the many rounded fjord "tops" beyond.

Finally we walked along a narrow ridge (no fence) to the flat top of Priekestolen itself. There were crowds of people there, some barbequing sausages others drinking champagne. We crawled to the edge to look right down the 600m to the water, but mainly just marvelled at the view down the fjord in both directions.

The crowds sent us off after a while and we went off on on nearby track to a place with just as good a view, but NO people. With our back against a warm rockface, out of the wind and the sun streaming down on us, we had our sandwiches, water and chocolate. It is the best sight I have ever seen on any walk.

We got back down after more than 4 hours and drove to the south-west coast of Norway and were surprised to see so much flat green farmland that went right to the seaside. No seaside resorts, but I guess the North Sea is not so inviting to swimmers, even though there was a surf up!

We got back to Stavanger by 8pm and had a wonderful beer in the sun before dinner.

It's been a very long and wonderful day. I updated my diary and this blog and now it is 12:30am and I'm finally off to bed. Free internet access at the hotel is too good to pass up.

Tomorrow we get the hydrofoil back to Bergen and start our 5 day cruise up the west coast of Norway to Tromso.