Sat 22nd April 2023
We filled up with fuel this morning, really cheap here it was less than £1.50 a litre, as we left the town we turned left instead of right and found ourselves on the ferry to Norway😂😂🛳⛷⛷
In truth we nearly didn’t get on the ferry, the road sign took you to the booking office and not the check in area, Michelle managed to get a map from the office and we tried again. Problem was there were three roads side by side with barriers in between we went up and down all three twice trying to find the slip road into the check in area, eventually we found it off the middle road that went under the right hand road.
There was a cursory glance at our passports no stamp, Norway isn’t in the EU so we should have had an exit stamp, they didn’t bother to look at Layla’s passport and we had paid almost £80 at the vets for her to have a worming tablet as was required by Norway, we needn’t have bothered😖When we left the ferry in Kristiansand we just drove straight out of the harbour, again they were supposed to be very strict about checking how much alcohol you were bringing in. I needn’t have hidden our cache so well😂The passengers on the boat were staggering out with huge packs of coca cola rather than beer!!
As you drive across the EU there are no physical barriers just a welcome in the local language, slowly you notice changes, road signs, speed limits, car number plates, architecture, agricultural crops, etc but nothing major. So it was a pleasant surprise when we got off the ferry to immediately notice the difference, our road was through a valley with forests to each side and streams running along side us. We passed many small lakes the majority of which still had ice on them, here and there snow is still lying on the ground. But of course the other difference was we began to climb and climb and climb, we have gone from sea level to 185m in a short distance.
The stopover is at the base of a winter downhill ski run and the forest around us is set up with trails for cross country skiing, it’s newly set up and needs a little TLC it costs 250 Norwegian Kroner per night( about £20) you are supposed to pay via an app that only Norwegian Bank account holders can access, so we haven’t paid.
taraabit 