Friday 31st August 2018

I had spent most of Thursday morning replacing the caravan brakes and the friction pads in the hitch stabiliser. The caravan was serviceable again 🙂 We were ready to roll.

In the afternoon we had driven out sightseeing and to spend some, unsuccessful, time fishing for tea in the Sorfjorden. The road was bordered by the fjord on one side and countless kilometres of fruit trees on the other. Every now and again there were fruit stalls with honesty boxes.

We awoke today to clear blue skies and sat outside with coffee watching the ferry leave one more time before heading on our way again. Although our stop at Bråvoll Camping had been somewhat forced upon us, it is a very pleasant place to stay. The price is about 100NOK less than most of the places we have stayed in Norway but the facilities are just as good. The staff are very helpful too.

The plan was to resume our journey down to Preikestolen Camping. It was about 230km away so we had no expectations of reaching it in one day particularly as it was to be another, what they would call on the Tour De France, ‘lumpy’ stage.

The first part of the journey saw us pass where we had ‘fished’ yesterday and then follow the full length of the Sorfjorden.

It was good to feel the caravan doing its’ bit trying to stop instead of ramming us, and also the creaking we had heard from the hitch at low speed had gone too. Happy Days 🙂

Reaching the end of the fjord at Odda, we then followed the short river Opo on the 13 road up past Sandvinvatnet lake. A couple of kilometres later we came to Låtefossen. This is two waterfalls that join together just short of the 13 road before flowing under it. At times in Spring the spray can be so bad that the police have to operate a one way at a time system to avoid collisions.

Realising that our white water addiction is getting serious, we tried to drive on. However there was a spot for us to pull over for photos and the urge to stop overwhelmed us 🙂

The next 25km consisted of a relentless climb up to an altitude of over 1200 metres. At the top of the climb we entered a tunnel and emerged on the other side in glorious sunshine. We stopped for lunch in a large layby overlooking Røldal Ski Centre. This is a large, barren area at this time of year, with idle ski lifts waiting for the snow to return.

After the break we had a steep winding hair pinned descent on a splendid road. The road at one point entered a tunnel and proceeded to turn a full 280° under the road above!

We soon rolled into Røldal, where we planned to stop to visit the stave church dating from the early 1200s. Spotting diesel on sale at a, for Norway, bargain price we filled the tank before parking up at the church. The fuel price in Norway varies from day to day, even hour to hour and you can save much by choosing the right fuel station at the right time.

The church is well preserved and still regularly used, although closed on our visit.

Leaving the church our intention was to rejoin the 13 road south past Røldalsvatnet. On turning into the road we were faced with a sign saying the road was closed from Monday to Friday bringing us to a halt. Reference to Google Maps revealed we would have choice of two very long, and because of ferries, expensive, detours. Doh!

A saviour appeared in the form of the local postman.

He came over and, in perfect English, said to take no notice of the sign as the road workers didn’t work Friday afternoon. Phew! 🙂

We continued down past the lake and the road was really quite narrow most of the time and so progress was quite slow.

Eventually the road began to have a consistent line down the middle and progress increased.

We stopped to look at yet another fast flowing river (just to soothe the nerves)

Soon after I stopped near Sand to assess an overnight stop that I seen on Park4Night. Although it was plenty large enough for us to use, and had a fantastic view down the fjord, it looked to me that it may well be private property so we moved on.

The 13 road disappeared into the fjord at Knutsvik so we joined the queue for the ferry to Hjelmeland. We hadn’t long to wait and as the crossing is only 10 minutes we stayed in the car.

The remainder of the journey passed without problems except the point the Ford satnav commanded a left turn onto the Fv520. On turning in it became apparent that that use of cars and motorcycles was prohibited a couple of km’s on so an awkward few minutes was spent reversing the van into a farmers field before returning to the 13.

We passed through the so-called Preikestolen Village, a large modern town that I hadn’t seen in 2016 when I was here,  before climbing the hill to the Preikestolen Camping, where I had stayed in 2016.

Towing Kilometres – Today: 233 Cumulative: 23,076

After setting up we went to the café on camp for a couple of Schnitzels and two beers. A bargain at over £50!!! 🙂