Day thirty-six, and this was the view that we woke up to on Andy’s birthday. As you can see a lovely beach, just a bit grey and drizzly unfortunately. First thing we walked in to Kristiansand to see if we could change our ferry ticket from tomorrow to today for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it rained most of the night and the forecast wasn’t great for today. Secondly, we were looking at the distance we needed to cover and after all the roadworks we had coming we decided if we could have an extra day it would take the pressure off a bit. At the terminal we changed the ticket to the ferry leaving at 16:30 that afternoon so we had the rest of the day to explore.
We had a nice walk round the old town and then along the new developments of luxury flats overlooking the town beach. It is the fifth largest city in Norway and a favourite holiday destination for the Norwegians. I imagine it gets very busy in summer.
After lunch we walked round the island of Odderoya where we had stayed last night. On the map below our parking spot was by the grey building which is behind the two small yellow buildings.
On the group birthday photo amongst some of the remains from the military occupation you can see Andy sporting his full (grey) beard. He hasn’t trimmed it since we left home. I am hoping it will not be a permanent fixture!!
It was then back to the van, pack up and drive to the ferry terminal. It did feel sad leaving Norway we have loved it all, from the beaches in the south, the amazing dramatic fjords of the west, to the rugged emptiness of the north. If we could we would have driven past the ferry and started our loop all over again. We did so much, we really couldn’t have packed anymore in, but there is so much more in such a vast county that we would still love to see. Oh well, we will just have to do another visit sometime in the future.
The ferry crossing was very rough. It is never a good sign when they start handing out the sick bags. There was quite a bit of crashing from the restaurant as the plates started falling. We did slightly panic on how Finn was going to be when we got back, especially as we were on the lowest lorry deck. We didn’t need to worry he was fine, we should have guessed with his cast iron constitution.
We had hoped to get some fish and chips in Hirtshals before going back to the motorhome stopover at Doggerbanke but the town was ‘closed’. The only place we could see open was a Netto supermarket, so a quick shop for dinner at ridiculously cheap prices, which included a bottle of wine for £3. Not a very exciting birthday dinner but I am sure we can make up for it another night.
I think we may have a rough night as the wind is whistling round the camper.
As we changed our plans Andy did end up driving on his birthday, but not far. We made history today, we walked further than we drove!
Overnight – Hirtshals N 57.589970 E 9.965130
Miles walked – 8.4
Miles driven – 7
Weather – dull and cloudy with some drizzle
