Norwegian generosity.

It was yet another stunning morning when we woke up in the aire just north of Stjordal, however it had not been such a stunning night. The aire is really a rest place, not a sleeping place but there is nothing to say no sleeping. It is also not exclusively for campervaners and caravaners but by bed time the whole aire was filled with vans and a caravan. There was pretty much no other space for a car to pull in if it wanted. In fact a couple of German vans that pulled in earlier had went to the effort of moving some barriered off section tape and bollards to make room for themselves. Anyway, after the blog was written I went to bed and got off to sleep no bother, however at some unknown hour in in the middle of the night some strange booming and roaring noises started to be heard, and they woke me up, and that takes a bit. Joyce who is a light sleeper heard it all too. We were pretty close to the E6 motorway and someone had come up the slip road and along the wee road into the aire, they had the loudest sound system I have ever heard and proceeded to drive, at a very slow speed right through the middle of all the vans with this mega bass music booming from their vehicle, and also some serious engine revving to accompany it. I am pretty sure it woke everyone in the place (it didn't wake Callum and Logan) and we did wonder exactly what was going on for a bit. By the time I managed to open the window and get a peek the car or van or whatever it was had passed our van so I never saw it. This sort of spooked Joyce but after they left I was pretty confident they were not going to come back, after all one off our vans might just have 4 big lads in it, and the car would have easily been boxed in if a van moved in front of it. So, fortunately that was the end of it although I am sure we heard music later but no where near as close. Maybe they thought better of trying it again. I don't know if it was just some Saturday night neds out for a bit of a laugh, or someone who has a gripe against motorhomes and camper van'ers, some do. You often get a peep or 3 in the middle of the night for fun or a gripe here, and in Scotland. We spoke to our neighbours from Holland in the morning and they said out of 4 weeks on the road that was the worst they had had, and for us it was by far also.

Anyway, after that little saga we got up and on the go quite sharp, the sun was splitting the trees again and by the time we moved the van was roasting. I wanted to get some miles up the road today, we are finally onto page 2 of the Norway overview map so I feel we making progress. My sort of semi plan had been to get us up to somewhere around Holm and the start of the Helgelandskysten national scenic route. This however meant missing out a wee island called Vikna which look like it might be quite interesting. But we elected just to bash on up, we were making good progress so I elected to take a wee detour off the E6 and follow the southern shore of lake Snasavatnet, This is the southern extremity of the indigenous Sami people and also there are ancient rock engravings at a place called Bolareinen that might be worth a visit. We had made good time and its a shame just to drive so we headed there. The E6 up all this section had been just like following the A9 up through the highlands of Scotland, its also a reasonably quick road. We reached Bola and parked up in woodland that totally resembled the Cairngorms around Braemar or the like. And did the short walk to the engravings which although thought to be some of the most important and ancient (6000 year old) animal engravings in all of Norway left is a little underwhelming, not entirely sure what we expected but you had to look hard, and other than the deer also had to really use your imagination to make them out. Anyway, it was a nice area and a nice walk. Myself and the boys extended the route a wee bit while Joyce went back to the van to make the lunch. Our timing was perfect and lunch was ready when we got back. We lazed about in the sun a bit, had an ice cream and blether to a nice Norwegian man who had noticed our British plates and asked where we were going, and also marvelled at a couple of Swiss travellers in a converted Citreon 2CV who were clearly touring Norway and maybe beyond in the ancient little car. It took them a good 4 attempts to get it going but finally they were off, I really wish I had got a photo if it, it was cool. It amazing who you meet on a long trip like this.

We soon got back on the road also and back on the E6 through Grong, I wanted to stop near here also as Europes longest salmon ladder and a big foss is nearby but we chose to carry on and miss it out. We changed onto the 775 road for a bit and then onto the 17 road, which we will follow up the coast. Soon after lake Oyevatnet we passed another milestone, the 3000th one this trip. 31 days so far a 3000 miles, that is not planned, just how its worked out. It was bothering me that we were skipping an interesting wee island so we cut off the 17 road and headed west to Vikna. We had made good time, the drive had been superb and I am happy we can backtrack tomorrow and not have lost too much ground. The drive along the Indre Folda fjord was never particularly dramatic but just stunning the whole way, the sun was shining off the water and the tree clad hills looked great, very much like Scotland at times. I pulled in to let a couple of HGV pass me as I don't like them on my tail and when I looked in the water I saw a huge rock totally covered in mussels, I love mussels but this was going to involve a swim to get them but a rummage about under the seaweed provided Logan and myself with our free tea for the night. I was really disappointed however as although there are signs warning of Elk the whole way we are yet to see one. We continued west and onto Vikna and found the campsite we had chosen.

Its a nice place right on the coast, not in Rorvik as that one got poor reviews. We hooked up the van and the boys got out to play on the swings after a long day in their seats. I steamed the mussels and Joyce made the rest of the tea. After we sat out in the still warm sunshine.

The boys played some more and then as it was nearing bedtime I took them down to the shore to throw some stones which they love. 2 little boats came motoring in while we were there so we headed over to see what they had caught. We chatted, but they hadn't been fishing. It was in fact a youngish couple with 3 children from this very island who have just bought themselves a wee Hytte (hut) on another island and had been out for the weekend painting and renovating it. This was them back in for their working weeks. The guy Rune works on a salmon farm on some remote island in the Norwegian Sea and was heading back out there tomorrow for his 2 week stint stuck on a 40m x 25m raft that he calls home while working. We chatted about a fair bit and he explained the Vikna has more head of Elk per square km than anywhere else in Norway and a drive in the morning or evening is the best time, however they are shy just now as many have young. He asked if I had tasted Elk (I haven't) and he asked his wife but they have none in the freezer. He then asked if we like Salmon, which we do, and said he would come back in half an hour with some salmon for us......so we are now the proud owners of a big pack of smoked salmon (his brother has a smokery), some fishcakes made by his mum, and also 4 huge salmon fillets!! Now, that is generosity if ever I saw it, never met the guy before and that's what he did, and point blank refused to take anything for it. Again, he said he would have taken us fishing had he not been going his work tomorrow. What lovely people if you just make that wee effort to chat. 

I was not quite finished, after the boys went down I got my fishing rod out and headed down to try and catch a couple of whatever had been jumping by the shore, 4 casts later and 2 mackerel were landed so tomorrows breakfast is sorted. Happy days!!