Monday 10th September 2018
Neset Camping had served its’ purpose in giving us a week off of travelling, spending, getting the blog back on track, and taking time to relax. It is a very nice site to stay on. Nice position, good, clean facilities and friendly.
The only fly in the ointment has been the weather. The last three nights we have been kept awake by torrential rain and very high winds. We noticed that the level of the Byglandsfjorden had risen by about a foot during our stay.
The wind died down during the day but the rain continued most of the time. It seemed to be triggered by me getting the fishing rod out of the car. I bought a fishing licence to cover the week, (required for freshwater fishing in Norway), for 125NOK but caught only one small trout that I put back.
Cabin fever had set in and we were both ready to move on. The decision was made to move up into Telemark, specifically to Rjukan Hytte og Caravanpark. A camping card site at 190NOK per night.
The very first film I can remember sneaking into underage in Tunbridge Wells as a lad was The Heroes Of Telemark. The film is loosely based on the saboteurs that attacked the heavy water factory in Rjukan. I am keen to visit to the museum to get the real story.
The route chosen was longer than we need have done on the 9, 42, 41, E134 and the 37, and was around 270km. The profile was a little ‘lumpy’ but barely exceeded 400m for a change. On turning onto the 42 I did wonder if we’d made a mistake because there followed a long, winding 3rd gear climb for what seemed to be 30 minutes.
Shortly after the relief of reaching the top of the climb we encountered road work after road work for many kilometres. Progress was slow. The rain was falling steadily and the front of the caravan turned an awful shade of brown with all the spray from the car on the muddy ground.
Things improved once we had turned onto the 41 for a while but quickly deteriorated on passing the Nisser lake. The road surface was appalling. I feared for my fillings let alone the caravan and contents. Progress slowed to a crawl with frequent pulling over to let traffic past. I doubt we averaged 30km/hr for half an hour.
By far the highlight of the Kviteseidvegen, 41, road was this superb hairpinned route down into Kviteseid.
As the route continued we came to the conclusion that the rain we had been receiving at Neset must have been covering the whole of Southern Norway. Every lake, river, or stream we passed was swollen near to the point of flood.
No travelling day seems to be able to pass without us stopping to marvel at rushing, wild, water. Todays stop was taken on the E134 on passing the bridge over the Heddola river.
On reaching the 37 road the progress increased immensely. We were able to tow along smooth sweeping roads cut between huge rock faces and the Tinnsjå lake. For the first time today we could ‘speed’ along at 80kph, 50mph, the legal limit on most roads in Norway.
We arrived after a 6hr or so drive and setup on the very quiet camp field before breaking out the last of the beer. Supplies will be sought tomorrow 🙂
Towing Kilometres – Today: 270 Cumulative: 23,556