Glaciers, trolls and ferries

This is the route we cover in this post.

We left Bodø after a restful night’s sleep and headed toward the Helgelandskysten, the longest of Norway’s Tourist Routes. The route followed the coast and required us to take six or seven ferries. We’ve lost count. And, after four weeks above the Arctic Circle, our first ferry ride crossed below it. It felt like another milestone, kind of a sad one.

This is the marker on shore indicating that we have crossed the Arctic Circle, this time heading south. Life above the circle was amazing and I really enjoyed all the places we visited.

Typically, the first stop out of Bodø before reaching the tourist route is the Saltstraumen, the world’s largest tidal maelstrom. Every six hours as the tide comes and goes, water squeezes through a narrow channel between two fjords and can reach a speed of up to 20 knots. This creates the “maelstrom” of rushing, swirling water. The Saltstraumen is also known for its good fishing which is made even better during tidal flow when the fish literally jump into the nets.

We wouldn’t know, because of course we arrived between tides and in the pouring rain. Talk about bad timing. We could have hung around a few hours but honestly, meh. We were eager to hit the road. Now that we were back on the mainland we were ready to push south. Steven and I had talked for years about fishing while we were in Norway. Neither one of us has any experience, but we figured a few YouTube videos would be enough to get us started. But when we reached Finland and a sporting goods store where we could have purchased the necessary gear, we both said, “What were we thinking?” and moved on. At a few stops along our Norway journey we laughed at the prospect of us fishing, and no place more than at the Saltstraumen. One of us would have surely fallen in, never to be seen again had we gone near the shore.

Even with bad timing we could see a bit of a swirl out in the water. But we moved on, still enthralled with the beautiful landscapes around us as we traveled south.

So instead of watching the amazing maelstrom we drove on toward Svartisen, Norway’s second largest glacier. We stopped at a grocery store along the way so we could have a picnic at the information center right in front of the glacier. When we got there, it seemed to be a perfect place to overnight, so we did. The view from Bijou was stunning, with a gorgeous teal-colored fjord in front and a beautiful glacier in the distance.

There is just something about a brooding landscape with a reflection that Steven can’t resist.
Bijou had the best seat in nature’s house on this evening with the beautiful Svartisen glacier hovering over her.
Isn’t there something mesmerizing about the color of a glacier?
We enjoyed our picnic along the fjord and glacier.
Norway’s landscapes are sweeping and dramatic. It is impossible to rest your eyes along this journey, because even in cloudy weather it is just stunning.
The morning after our glacier sleep, we were fogged in. About the only thing we could see along the fjord was this Norwegian flag, its bright red a beacon to the photographer.
On our way to our first ferry of the day, hoping the fog would lift before we got out on the water. Often, some of the most gorgeous views are from the ferry!
And when the fog dissipated, the sun came out and this is what we saw.
Ferry number one of the day! This is one of those where the road ends, so the ferries are frequent, usually there are two so that the traffic is kept flowing.
Ferry number two! You can tell we are heading south because it was warm enough for ice cream!
One more stop for one more vista after the ferry ride. I usually keep Bijou running while Steven jumps out to take the photo, so I often grab my phone and take his photo!
This gem of a camping spot was just a free space along the highway. There were seven spaces and when those were filled folks just pulled into the center area. There were no services, but we didn’t need any. Each site had a picnic table and not long after we got settled in our spot a guy pulled in just to the side of our space, pulled out a grill and walked over to our table and grilled himself a hotdog for lunch. When he was done he packed it all up and left!

After a couple of cloudy mornings the sun came out and we continued to have great weather along the drive and the ferry rides. With each passing day it was becoming more obvious that we were heading south. The temperatures were warming up and we began to experience true darkness after sunset. And while we continued to be wowed by Norway’s stunning beauty, Norway had begun to wear us out. Steven was in and out of Bijou so often he said a driving day was as good as a gym workout. After a few days like this, he said, “I don’t want to be a photographer anymore.” He was only kidding, of course, but the underlying sentiment was real.

Post card from the road! This is a typical scene from our drive along this route.
On the longer ferry rides we would get out of Bijou and head to the upper decks, but on the shorter ones, we mostly stayed in Bijou.
In line for another ferry. Sometimes we just drive right on, other times we have to wait a bit. Once we looked up the schedule and determined we had an hour and a half to wait, so I laid down on the sofa and snoozed a bit while Steven was reading. Something caught my attention and I sprang up from the sofa and saw that everyone had boarded a ferry and they were waving at us to come on! OMG, I had no idea the ferry was even in port, much less that they were waiting on us! From then on, we didn’t let ourselves get distracted in the ferry lines.
Waiting for a ferry can lead to some good photo opps!
Off we go! I was enthralled with that red island on the right, it was so different from the surrounding landscapes. There’s a geologic story there, I’m sure.

We mostly wild camped along this route until we reached the area of Brønnøysund. We found a small and lovely campground about 10 kilometers out of town and planned to sit for a few days to catch up on chores and rest. Alas, the campground was closing the next day, so we only stayed one night. While we were there I received a message from a blog reader and fellow traveler, Janice. Together with her husband Gary and daughter Amelia, they were also traveling in Norway in a camping car and just happened to be a few kilometers away from us. What are the odds? So we arranged to meet up with them the following morning in Brønnøysund. I am so glad Janice contacted us when she did, because one day later we would have been too far apart to meet.

More scenes from the road, this time on the way to the little campground.
We topped a hill and saw this, Steven grabbed his camera and shot it right out the front window.
By the time we got parked up, the sun was out again.

Of course when you meet up like this there is so much to talk about and so little time. So we enjoyed our coffee and Amelia shared her delicious frozen yogurt treats with us. Best of all, since we were each heading in the direction from where the other had just come, we were able to share our wonderful wilding spots. We took off for a lovely fjord overnight while they parked up at the same glacier we had just left. Amelia, being quite resourceful, went on a berry hunt and found success! Well done, Amelia! You can read about their travels at Blue Fern Adventures and under the same name on Instagram.

We managed a windy selfie in Brønnøysund with the gang from Blue Fern Adventures! So glad we were able to fika together!
Our next stop was a gorgeous little hideaway that Gary told us about. A young German couple showed up a bit after we got settled and both he and Steven got out their drones to fly. See Bijou in the bottom third of the photo, slightly left of center?
This was another wilding spot we enjoyed in Norway. Without Gary’s recommendation, I’m not so sure we would have picked this one because the access road seemed iffy. But since we had first hand info, we just drove right in and it was glorious!
Finally the sun came out for a bit. What a view, right?

The following morning we made our way to the end of the tourist route and headed for Trondheim. We hadn’t really anticipated staying there, but we figured we might check it out for a day or so. There weren’t many places to stay, but we did read in Mike and Carol’s blog that they had overnighted at IKEA, even though it was posted that it wasn’t allowed. Sure enough when we got there, the motorhome parking lot was packed. We parked up and went inside to eat and shop.

You will never guess what that is on my plate. It’s a PIG WING! You know, when pigs fly and all that…And yes, it was yummy!
I think I should win a prize or something, because I walked through that entire store and didn’t buy a damn thing. “Bobil” is motorhome and parkering is, well, parking. And as you can see, it says “Overnatting ikke tillatt”. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. We probably would have stayed anyway, but Steven found a great place on the water, so we moved.
Steven found this super cool place down in an industrial area right on the water. There were a few other rigs there, so we felt perfectly safe. Plus it was a very popular trail for running, so there was always some activity going on.
The next morning we rode out bikes into town to check out what Trondheim had to offer. It was a lovely place and the cathedral was gorgeous. These are the typical wooden buildings on the water. These had actually been refurbished and converted into apartments, or condos.
Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.
These statues were on the front of the cathedral. Looks like someone is getting a head start on the holiday decorations.
As we’ve mentioned, Norway is totally set up for motorhoming. Along the roads you will see signs like the one on the left that indicate a dump station. Mostly they can be found at fuel stations, which is super convenient. This one was behind and across the road from a station, right off the highway.

As we neared the end of the Helgelandskysten Tourist Route, we began to look at the upcoming weather. We had a drive ahead of us that, if I’m honest, I had been dreading; the Trollstigen, also known as the Troll’s Ladder. I desperately wanted to drive this beast, and the descent, in good weather. We had a few days of rain in the forecast so we decided to spend them in Åndalsnes, the largest town before the Trollstigen. There is a huge camping and motorhome store in town, so we inquired about a brake check. They recommended a place across the street where we managed to get an appointment the following day.

There was absolutely nothing we needed at the camping store, but apparently we had some money burning a hole in our pockets because we thought we could use two more wine glasses and a fly swatter. The wine glasses are still in the box, but the swatter has come in handy a time or two.

While we were in France in April we had our brakes checked along with getting some other work done at the Fiat garage. We were assured all was well, but Bijou has been squealing a bit so I wanted to make absolutely sure that once we got to the top of that monster route we were going to also be able to get back down. And by get back down I mean in one piece and not on fire and careening out of control. Fifty bucks later we got the thumbs up on Bijou’s brakes and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

During this time, we had been wilding at a beautiful spot just at the edge of a fjord, but with the gloomy weather and us stuck inside, we were using more power than our solar could generate and we were both feeling a little down. Since I was feeling super happy about the brakes and more confident about our drive on the Trollstigen, I suggested to Steven that we move to a campground and he agreed. It’s amazing what a little electricity and showers can do for one’s mood. As a bonus, we landed in a gorgeous place.

We spent two days here before moving on to the Trollveggen campground because we wanted electricity. There is still a bit of a 50 amp princess in me, although you’d not find, or need, 50 amps in a European campground.
Bijou is parked up under the mighty Trollveggen, or Troll Wall. The Troll Wall is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, about 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) from its base to the summit of its highest point.
Nothing like a little sky drama to make everything come alive! Bijou looks pretty good surrounded by cliffs!
Steven sent Buzzy Buzzandra up to get a photo of the Troll Wall and our campground. Apparently drones are not allowed in the campground, which we did not know, and before long they came and told him so. Oh well, he already got the shot.

After four days of waiting out the weather, we finally had our sunny day. We packed up and headed to the Trollstigen with its ten percent grades and 11 hairpin turns. As soon as we rounded the bend in the road, we realized that while we had sunny weather on our side of the mountain, the valley was completely fogged in. We ended up making the trip with limited vision out our front window. But really, what makes this such a bear to drive is not the grade or the turns per se, it’s the traffic that you meet on the road. Specifically, big giant tour buses! We haven’t seen tour buses in forever, so we didn’t have to worry about that. There was one spot where a big motorhome was coming down and I had to stop my forward momentum and back down, but I did manage to get us going forward again. Thankfully. Before we knew it, we came out of the clouds into gorgeous sunny weather at the top of the Trolls Ladder.

We had no fog on our side, but around the corner was a different story.

Looking back down the valley we couldn’t see anything of the road we had just driven, so we decided to wait it out and see if the clouds lifted. It took nearly two hours, but they finally did. And wowza! It was worth the wait!

The Visitor’s Center was completely fog-free. But before long, it came rolling in and covered everything in a quiet, cloudy shroud.
Somewhere below the clouds is the Trollstigen, the road we drove to the top.
There were overlooks situated around the center, so we bided our time waiting for the fog to lift.
As the fog moved in, we went inside to enjoy a snack while we waited it out.
We saw lots of waterfalls on our way up, but there was no place to stop. Once we got to the top and out on the overlooks, we could see them easily.
C’mon, fog! We haven’t got all day! (Yes we do.)
We’ve been warned. Although, we did not go back down the Trollstigen, we carried on to Geiranger, which has an equally impressive descent.
It’s starting to lift! YAY!
And there it is, the Troll’s Ladder!
Now just imagine if one of those rigs was a tour bus, then you can imagine the difficulty of getting around those bends on a 10 percent grade.

After a couple of hours we finally decided to leave. We could have spent the night there in the parking lot, which would have been fine once the visitors stopped arriving, but it was mayhem during the day. We moved on to what was truly the scariest part of the drive, the descent into Geiranger. It’s a steep downhill on a skinny road and another 11 switchbacks, but we made just fine with a few stops along the way. After driving it I came to believe the most dangerous part of the drive is the distraction from all the stunning scenery. It is absolutely breathtaking.

That’s the little village of Geiranger situated at the end of the Geirangerfjord. This is taken from the road above just before we started our descent. My gosh it was gorgeous!
Geirangerfjord.

Geiranger is a very popular tourist stop, mainly because the Geirangerfjord is one of the crown jewels of Norway. The deep blue water, surrounded by steep mountains, lush and verdant fields and the gorgeous Seven Sisters waterfalls, the scenic fjord is a UNESCO Heritage Site. The waters in the fjord are so deep that cruise ships can anchor right at the edge of the little village where they unload thousands of passengers. Lucky for us, there were no cruise ships during our stay.

This is a poster of the Geiranger Skywalk, which is waaaaay up in the mountains behind the village. See that squiggly road on the mountain opposite? That was our descent. We did not visit the Skywalk.
The church in the village of Geiranger.

Geiranger is a place I first heard about a few years back when the movie “The Wave” came out. It is a Norwegian film about, well, a wave. Said wave is generated by a huge landslide off one of the mountains that lands in the narrow fjord and creates a massive tsunami that hurls toward the village. Now, I love a good disaster movie as much as the next person, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch this one because I knew I would be there someday. I didn’t want to be haunted by the possibility, regardless of the probability. Such a scenario has happened for real in Norway, so it isn’t like it’s a made up situation. Now that we’ve been there and gone, I can watch the film.

My gosh, this freaks me out just looking at it! Our campsite was right on the water, so we would have been the first to get wiped out. I guess in such a situation, that’s probably a good thing.

The town itself isn’t much, but we stayed for just one night anyway right at the end of the fjord where the wave would hit first. I tried not to think about it. The next day, we had the option of driving out of Geiranger which entailed more climbs and descents, or we could take the ferry ride through the fjord to our next destination. We chose the latter and it was spectacular. I am running out of adjectives to describe Norway, so we’ll just have to load you up with more photos.

Our campsite from the ferry. Prime wave target.
There were so many waterfalls, we were racing from one side of the ship to the other to get the photo. Then I found lemon muffins in the cafe and that was the end of the photography session.
You can tell the scale of these waterfalls by looking at the size of the boats below them.

So there you have it, another Norwegian Tourist Route. Pretty spectacular, right? For sure we had reached a point where we needed to rest, so we headed to one of the most beloved campsites in all of Norway, maybe even Europe.

And finally, here’s a couple of drawings from Steven!

Steven here: Despite all our busy traveling, I managed to make time to create two more portrait drawings. The first one depicts recently deceased artist Chuck Close from a self portrait he did back in 1968. He actually drew this photo and then I drew it again so it’s a photo that became a drawing that became a drawing 🙂 Anyway, I really love the attitude and energy of the man.

Portrait of Chuck Close.

This second drawing is not of a personality this time but what attracted me to the woman was her face and all the stories it told. Despite her hands implying that of a hard life, she gently braids her hair. I really liked that contrast of ideas. If you would like to keep up with my artwork, you can follow my Visual Art page on Facebook here.

Woman Braiding.


NEXT UP: Chillin’ out by the glacier and an adventurous hike!


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25 Comments

  1. Colibabas

    You’d think that guy would cook you up some hotdogs after inviting himself to your site…WOW! Your photos of the incredible views are stunning!
    That is one crazy road. The worst we’ve experienced was a 17% grade into Perce, Quebec.
    Safe travelsZ,

    1. 2chouters

      I admit I was a little surprised at his boldness, but he looked like he could take us both out if we bothered him, so we just stayed inside and left him to his BBQ. Yeah, the Troll’s Ladder turned out to be pretty fun, the downhill was more scary. That’s just because it was hard to concentrate. I’m so glad we did it, but I’m glad it’s over. 🙂

  2. Vernon Hauser

    What a incredible place Norway is and you take such great pictures . You did it again , when you were telling about the
    call of the lemon muffins I had to laugh . You see I have two lemon muffins each morning for breakfast ( they are minnie’s )
    Safe travels , Vern in Boise

    1. 2chouters

      Vern, there was nothing mini about those delicious lemon muffins we got on the ferry. They were so moist and full of lemon custard, which is the one thing that will stop Steven in his tracks. He loves custard. 🙂 Thanks for your kind words, and as always, so good to hear from you!

    1. 2chouters

      Thanks, it was difficult to do all that nifty driving with such gorgeous surroundings. I really had to concentrate. Steven thinks I’m crazy for not watching the movie, but you get me. 🙂

    1. 2chouters

      I can’t believe it’s been 2.5 years! I’ll bet you miss being on the road, I certainly would. But then I don’t have a home or community to go back to, so maybe that’s a whole different thing. I hope you are both doing well! Good to hear from you!

  3. I thought the 7-10% drop with 10 switchbacks was dramatic coming south into Vernal, UT, but the ladder definitely wins all the boxes! I continue to be blown away by all the amazing beauty that just doesn’t seem like it can be real. I bet these fab photos are only a smidge of what you two collected on this route. I’m laughing at Steven’s athletic endeavors to capture the best shots to share with us! The cathedral and wooden buildings along the water in Trondheim are so special, tucked in among all the mountains and walls and water and falls and fog and ferry rides!! While I’d love to see Norway, I’m also really wanting lemon muffins now 🙂

    1. 2chouters

      Listen, those lemon muffins were the best ever, pumped full of lemony moussey goodness. Of course, the scenery out the windows was pretty spectacular, too. Does pretty scenery make food taste better? I say yes! 🙂 So sorry about “the incident” at your house, it was just too weird how it happened. Hope the re-remodel goes well!

    1. 2chouters

      Thank you so much, Barbara! It makes us happy that you are following along on our travels. We will see you and Oskar on Tuesday and we are very much looking forward to our visit!

      1. I’m sure we will eventually after house, wedding, PhD ceremony. Norway has now beat out Iceland and New Zealand. Keep on sharing those fabulous photos! I even loved Steven’s wild hair and those happy colorful houses on the water.

  4. I swear, with every post you add, I get more envious (sin or not). Norway wins the “best breathtaking scenery” prize! We’re leaving for Portugal/Spain/Morocco in a couple of weeks, hope we get at least a taste of scenic beauty (on a tour).

    1. 2chouters

      Thank you so much for taking time to comment! We might have looked you up if we had known about you earlier, there is always something needing done on a camping car, right? We are now in Italy, so far away. But if we find ourselves in your area, we’ll give you a shout!

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