Touring Southern Norway

10th June 2004 - The coastal route back

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Today was our last day and we had to meet the 1700 ferry from Kristiansand back to Newcastle. We'd had a coastal route recommended so a route was plotted in to the Streetpilot, that, for the most part would keep us close to the coast, around 160 miles back to Kristiansand.

As we found through riding it, the first section (in purple) is quite boring, but the yellow section is excellent and well worth riding.

Taken near Hauge at the head of Jossingfjorden, just before the road disappears into a tunnel.

At least we found a Cafe open on the route, quite near Kristiansand called 'Kro44', note the grass roof again.

By the time we got to Kristiansand it was blazing hot, we joined the other motorcyclist and swapped stories while we basted in the sun.

At 1715 The Princess of Scandinavia hove into view!

After some messing around getting the bikes on board, they were tied down securely in the bows.

I'll finish the story here as the rest of the journey home passed quite uneventfully. Our cabin for the return trip was above the propellers this time and the creaks and groans were, if anything, worse than on the way out. Still, the company was good, the sea was calm and the whisky tasted just fine, thank you!

P.S. We didn't have breakfast on the ship next morning, Dave and I visited a Little Chef on the way home instead, some things never change :-)

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So, what's Norway like? Well if you've ever been to the English Lake District, its similar, but on a much, much grander scale. almost everywhere we went the scenery was simply stunning. All the roads we rode on were very well surfaced in light grey chippings and compared to the UK very quiet. Another bonus is the Norwegian people themselves, nearly everybody we spoke with had good English and wanted to help, even if it was simply sorting out the petrol pumps - great people.

Does Norway deserve its reputation for being expensive? Petrol is the same price as the UK, as was our accommodation at Stavanger Bed & Breakfast. Eating out was at least double UK prices, as was beer. As we were only buying one meal a day and not drinking that much beer, I didn't find it a problem.

Garmin Mapsource downloads (ver 6.1)

Route and waypoints 230kb

Waypoints 2kb

Resources

My thanks to Stefan Jonsson for his inspirational Norwegian travelogues available here

Bed and Breakfast accommodation was found on the B&B Norway website

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