Kiki's Mirror - Part 3

After dinner I stripped the remaining mirror casing off to reveal the metal mounting arm. Fortunately there was enough metal left to attach the new mirror which had a large clamp on it's back. Several trusty zip ties and some duct tape and we're back in business.


Not as good as the original but pretty good until we can afford a complete new mirror unit.
 

Em obviously approves of the new mirror :-)

Atlanterhausvein (Atlantic Road)

The Atlanterhausvein (Atlantic Road) runs from Bud to Kristiansand but we'd been warned of exorbitant tolls to get on and off the island of Kristiansand so we turned round before we got to the end.


The Atlanterhausvein is a series of bridges linking a string of islands. This is the most impressive (and to be honest the only really different) bridge on the route. It's difficult to see but the road curves as it goes over the bridge - quite a feat of engineering!
 

We stopped for the night in a small car park with more amazing reflections in the water.
 

 

Bud

After leaving Molde we drove north to Bud which is at the start of the "Atlantic Highway", another well known tourist route.


Expecting a "sleepy fishing village" we were surprised to find a large WWII Nazi garrison complete with some rather large guns!
 

 

The fishing village complete with wooden fisherman's huts on stilts.

Molde

After the ferry we crossed this funky bridge and then went through a tunnel below the sea before entering the town.
We topped up our gas at the Shell station and took advantage of their "water snake" to top-up our tank. A bit further along the road we spotted some cheap diesel so filled up.
 Whilst filling the tank I noticed a car accessories shop so went to see if they had a mirror. A mere NOK170 (£17) later I came away with what appears to be a caravan accessory - a little Engineering work later methinks!


Over and under the water, the Norwegians beat the Italians for bridges and tunnels!
 

This seemed to be apartments - rather modern looking.
 

 

The view to the south - there are apparently 80 mountain peaks - we lost count!

The Ferry to Molde

We made it safely down Trollstigvien despite the local bus and two coaches coming the other way. Thank goodness we left early, there aren't many passing places on the way down.


Now we're on the ferry towards Molde, such a beautiful morning barely a ripple on the water.
 

The ferries have free Wi-Fi so Em catches up on her news reading.
 

Kiki enjoys a rest whilst the ferry takes the strain!

Trollstigvien (The Trolls Route)

Another 6am start this morning but it was worth it as we had the road to ourselves.


Waking the sheep so we can pass
 

The tourist information centre at the top of Trollstigvien - another funky building!
 

Kiki's challenge this morning - a steep narrow road with 11 hairpin bends - gulp!
 

Em modelling a rather nice dress today - oh and that's the road behind her.
 

One of the observation platforms overlooking Trollstigvien.
 

It's me!

 

Two hairpins down, only nine more to go.
 

It was a good decision to start early, this road would've been a traffic jam later in the day.
 

Nearly at the bottom now - phew!
 

Tonight's Stopping Point

Tomorrow morning we're going down Trollstigvein (the Trolls Path) which is a series of hairpins. We've decided to stop for the night close to the top so that we will hopefully have it to ourselves tomorrow morning before the Lemming coaches arrive.

Oh Deer

Another climb up the mountains and we passed a hut adorned with reindeer antlers. If you look closely you can see Donner, Blitzen..... 

Kettle Holes

We left Geiranger and successfully negotiated the hairpin bends to the top of the fjord. The road then descended to a ferry which we had intended to take tomorrow morning. However, we arrived just as the ferry was loading so we squeezed in at the back.


On the other side of the ferry we came across Gudbrandsjuvet where the fast flowing river has cut holes "called Kettle Holes" in the rocks.

Geiranger Fjord

After Lom we followed the "Golden Route" up into the mountains again and then back down to Geiranger Fjord.


This is supposed to be the prettiest in fjord Norway - we beg to differ; the large cruise ships and gift shops full of Lemmings spoilt it somewhat.
 

We parked at the coach station in Geiranger and walked around the town. We decided to wait until early evening before tacking the hairpin bends up out of the village as the traffic, busses and large coaches should've died down by then. You can just see the road on the right hand side of the fjord in the picture above.

Lom Stave Church

The stave church at Lom was built in 1000AD and is the oldest in Norway

An Early Start

It's only 8:15 and the sun's already quite high - mind you it rises around 4am!
 

Stunning view across a mountain lake as we begin our decent from Sognefjell.

Early Morning

We deliberately got up early this morning to avoid the big coaches full of Lemmings that take up the entire width of the roads.


A random piece of art at 1400m
 

The sheep didn't want to move out of our way!

Kiki's Mirror - Part 2

We've just had dinner outside in glorious hot sunshine and I've made a temporary repair to Kiki's mirror by attaching our rear-view mirror to what remains of the casing. It's very small but better than nothing until we can find something better.


Settling down for the night at 1400m.

Snow!

At the top of Sygnefjell we found snow!


I'm not sure if daps are appropriate snow wear?

Snowball fight with an invisible Polar Bear

Opps!

A Pretty Church

We ran out of water after Em had her 20th cup of tea of the day so needed to find somewhere to fill up. We'd read that a lot of petrol stations have a tap you can use so we pulled into one on the off chance. Em went in to ask and the helpful attendant told her that the "water snake" was round the back. We had a chuckle and filled out tank using said snake!


There a lots of these pretty wooden churches all over Norway

Skjdden

After an overnight stop in a picnic area just down the road from the glacier, this morning we headed back down to Sognefjord. We stopped for lunch at Skjdden which is the innermost end of the fjord.

 

Nigardsbreen Glacier

The funky Glacier Centre at Jostendal. It had free Wi-Fi so after visiting the glacier we returned and parked close enough to use it with our long-range antenna.

Nigardsbreen, an arm of the mighty Jostelbreen glacier - this is the largest glacier in continental Europe!

It's quite a long walk/scramble to get to the base of the glacier.

Nearly there....

We made it at last!

The signs said don't go to close to the glacier - does touching it count?

Beautiful blue

You can hear it dripping and little bits of ice keep falling off

The melt-water coming out of the bottom of the glacier - the glacier moves down 2m each day and this ice melts into a raging torrent!

 

You can see some of the lumps of ice washing over the rocks.

Kiki's Mirror - Part 1

We continued northwards heading for the glacier centre at Jostendal, stopping for lunch en-route.


After lunch, as we continued up the fairly narrow road, we were passed by a Belgian MH who was going rather too quickly. I slowed and moved over as far as I could (there was Armco on my side!) but our mirrors hit. Our mirror had been hit several times before (Italy was the first time) and this time it was completely obliterated leaving us blind on the left hand and most important side. 

The Boyabreen Glacier

This morning we woke up beside our roaring river and the air was quite chilly in the shadow of the mountain. I checked Kiki's radiator and was pleased to see that it hadn't gone down again so hopefully the Radweld had done its job!


We drove onward on our new route which would take us in an anti-clockwise loop around the Jostedalsbreen glacier area. Passing through a tunnel Emma gave a shout and I thought we had a problem - it turned out she'd spotted another glacier which was even better than our first!  

The Boyabreen glacier is one of the fingers of the Jostedalsbreen glacier. 
 

The scenery in this area is stunning.