Big blog catch up.

We woke to a gorgeous and hot morning. Totally surrounded by tree's there was no breeze at our nights camping spot so the temperature in the van soon rose to a point where you are forced out of bed which is no bad thing. We had breakfast and soon our neighbours were starting to emerge from their vans also. A German family who had been climbing and hiking their way around Norway got up, the dad and eldest son were in one of those cool we tents that fit on the roof rack of a car or van with a ladder to get up. The mum and youngest son were in the van. The others were from near Zurich in Switzerland and were also very friendly, one of the couple's have a little daughter who was 11 months old and was happily walking about in the sand with only a little bit of help from her Mum or Dad. It really takes us back a few years, you forget those early days once your children have moved on a bit. Email addresses were swapped and we can keep in touch and have an invite to visit next time we go to Switzerland, and of course that invitation works both ways.

Anyway, by 11am it was time to be moving on so we said goodbye and headed south on the 40 road for a bit before taking a wee branch road that cut very steeply up and over a beautiful pass at about 1175 meters ASL and then weaved it way down to the stunning Tinnsjo (Lake Tinn). We stopped for lunch and it was absolutely scorching, we recon probably 28'c or there about and we were in no rush to leave but had to as we wanted to at least get as far as Rjuken, I wanted to visit Rjuken as it is a very well known winter climbing area and also as just up the road a little is the infamous Vemorsk Power station, in its day the largest power station in the world and also the scene of some heroic action during WWII. The town. of Rjukan deserved more time than we could afford, the road to get here was slow and after a quick stop for some supplies we carried on up to Vemorsk, the power station stopped being operational in 1971 and has now been turned into the Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum. The power station, now also a UNESCO World Heritage site, has lots of information about how the plant came to be, why it is located where it is, how the Workers formed groups, almost into trade union type groups to stand against management and working regimes, improve working conditions, shorten working days but also build communities and housing where living conditions would also improve. Of course it was also scene of a number of sabotage raids during the war because the Allies feared Germany was on the verge of building an atomic bomb and the heavy water required to build the bomb was being produced at Vemorsk.

Heavy water (D2o or 2H2o) has different nuclear, physical and chemical properties to normal water, I am no physicist so if you want to know more than that, well you'll need to find it yourself. Some of the gliders used to try and get troops into the area were flown over from Wick in Scotland however they crashed into the mountains and at that stage the raids were unsuccessful. It's an impressive building and the great generating hall is vast with many of the old generators still in position. The boys were impressed with the fire fighting equipment and old fire engine in particular. Unfortunately time was short and it was nearly 6pm before we left, so back in the van it was time to find somewhere to stop for the night, the next section of road had a couple of places but the first was full and the 2nd too close to the quite busy road so we pressed on a bit and found a lovely big campsite at Amot near Vinje. We got a nice space with loads of room around us and the boys had a trampoline and swings to play on while Joyce made tea for us all. It was a late night but it was so warm we were outside till late, Callum got stung on the leg by what we think was a wasp but after a little TLC he was ok and both boys slept well.

One thing I have not touched upon for a while is the number of houses in Norway with grass roof's, it is a very popular way of roofing your house or hytte or garage or shed. Some of the high pass areas have hundreds of houses nestling in the tree's but you really have to stop and look to see just how many there are, they blend in so well with the natural surroundings. Its very surprising given that Scotland is so similar in many ways to Norway that we don't have many back home, maybe our climate is wetter or maybe its just too much like hard work to put a grass roof on.

                                                 ...........Thursday-July 25...........

5 years ago today things could not have been more different for Joyce and Myself, at 4am we had driven over the hills behind Linlithgow on a morning we will both never forget, it was getting light and the fields were all covered in the most beautiful low mist, I had my camera but could not stop to take a picture or I might not have been here to write this blog.......10 hours later our first son Callum was born. Some images need to just be kept in the head rather than recorded by a camera.

Today was different, a totally chilled out morning, Callum celebrating his 5th birthday in Norway and all the time in the world to record it so he can maybe one day, look back and read the blog and remember this day. It is pretty much the crux of this whole trip. Personally I had really wanted to spend an extended period of time with the boys and Joyce before they started school, for the next 12 years at least school will dictate when we take our holidays and how long they will be so this is probably a once in a lifetime trip for us all as a family, and by then the boys will most likely not want to go on holiday with us, we will be old and wrinkly and spending time with us may well be the last thing they want to do. I wanted a longer break but it was the longest I could take and keep my job.......sadly. Ironically, Callum's Birthday also signified the last full day we would spend in Norway.

Callum was excited about his Birthday, we hadn't got him too much but we had a wee celebration for him and he opened his cards and some presents and of course we phoned home to grandparents who were keen to hear his voice and wish him Happy Birthday. Afterwards we lingered and lazed in the really hot sun, today was even hotter than yesterday and almost unpleasantly so. We had a good kick about with the football and a play with the frisbee which both boys are now becoming good at. It was too hot to chase down if the aim was not so good however.

At 2pm we were ready to get on the road and we left the campsite and headed south on the 38 road, this again is a cracking drive through lovely places, Dalen looks worthy of a day or two. However it is a very slow road and it took us longer than expected to get get to the (slightly) bigger 41 road (aka The telemark Road). We followed this south for miles in the baking hot sunshine and eventually decided it was time for a stop on the shore of Nisser lake. We had an ice cream but that failed to cool us down sufficiently so us boys got on swim shorts and went for a swim in the warm (ish) water. To be fair after a few minutes of being in it was lovely and did the trick, the next few miles to our campsite for the night were definitely much more pleasant after a cooling dip.

We eventually found a nice campsite at a place called Sigridnes just south of Amli. This was a huge site again but not too busy, plenty of room for the boys to scoot about on their bicycles before and after dinner. The campsite man came round at 8pm and collected his money and offered us free use of canoes and life jackets if we wanted tomorrow, a very nice gesture. We had a cracking sunset and after a few drinks and what I suspect is another scrabble defeat for me we hit the sack. Fortunately after sundown it does cool down a bit and make sleeping possible.

                                 ........Amli to Kristiansand to Hirtsals to Albaek.......

We figured there was no major rush, so after a relaxed breakfast and some cycling for the boys we all went for a play down by the big slow running river. We didn't bother with the canoe's that would all have taken too long, but again today was scorching so after a wee while the swim shorts were on again and we added a river to our swimming location tally. This was colder than the lake yesterday, but definitely not as cold as above the arctic circle on Senja.......Brrrrr!! Unfortunately the boys cannot swim, that is a major problem and something we need to address, we had great hopes when Callum was small and from an early age he attended swimming lessons but this stopped when the classes in our local pool stopped, and the swimming all halted, we will address this when we get home. But they messed about in the shallows with me or Joyce never far away and we had some more cooling fun. At 11am we got dried off, and packed the van and got on the road, today we were heading down to Kristiansand for our ferry back to Denmark, we needed to be checked in by 15:30. The telemark road is not a fast road, the campsite man had reckoned an hour and a half saying it was narrow at times, however we recon 2 1/2 hours to be closer to the mark....that said Norwegian drivers do not hang around!! If I need to say one negative thing about Norwegians, its about their drivers...they are terrible at acknowledging or thanking you when you bother to slow down or pull over to let them past. I am in no hurry to fly around this beautiful country, and always do my best to slow down, indicate and pull over to let them past as soon as I can, but very few have given any form of thanks for my efforts, lol. This is not a serious complaint, just an observation.

We were finally close to Kristiansand and stopped for lunch after which we went to find an LPG station, we were again onto our second gas bottle and keeping them topped up is important. We found the place in an industrial estate and soon after we had the attendant filling up for us. 12.5 litres and a cost of #NOTMANYNOK and we were all set. We headed along and joined the queue with an hour to spare, and that was a very hot hour, stuck in a queue, in 28'c heat. All doors and windows were open and any shade a welcome find when surrounded by loads of big white boxes on wheels.

Soon however we were boarding the Colourline ferry and cast off the jetty and we waved goodbye to Norway, the boys quite oblivious to the significance of the moment. The sun was blazing down and it was very hot. Jet ski's and powerboats messed around in the wake of our big ferry, I don't think that would be allowed in the UK (nanny state). The sail to Hirtsals went smoothly and we had dinner on board, this we had planned and to be fair the food was actually pretty decent and not too expensive. The boys had a great time in the play area and let off steam. At 7:45 we were disembarking at Hirtsals and then soon driving north east as I wanted to check out Skaggen, the most northerly point in Denmark and home to some stunning beaches. we found a bobil parking area in a marina at a little place called Albaek, and settled in for the night. Our hook up cable was too short but the friendly couple in front of us from Cologne in Germany allowed us to connect to their extension cable so we are all good. More friendly people willing to help out, that will be one of the memories we will take from this trip.

Myself and the boys went for a wander around the marina and met a young couple from Austria messing about with their drone, they took a couple of droney's of Callum and Logan as we chatted. A droney is the drone equivalent of a selfie apparently. We then chatted to a local couple who were down by the water enjoying a glass of Champagne, they were celebrating  finally getting their wee vessel in the water and taking it for its maiden voyage after 2 years of hard work by the husband building their boat. The lady had Callum and Logan down on deck checking things out and playing with the deck lighting which could change colour, all good fun and a great end to the day.