So to see how far we have gone on fuel consumption and costs now, I’ve made a little summary post which I will be updating with numbers from time to time.
That is a big drop from my original estimates making this adventure all the more pleasurable.
The morning started with some cold wind on the car as was to be expected. It did make the effort if getting out of the warm sleeping cocoon a lot harder. Courage and spirits gathered we ventured out of the car again into the colder outside but quickly took off to take some shelter in the valley.
The descent was hard on the brakes again and yes they heated up and once more. but i was kucky to find a fresh water supply again for the cooling and it did help me get across to a nice drone spot once more where I took it out for another spin. some more footage will be in store.
In comparison the Geiranger skywalk was a waste of money comparing it with the viewpoint on Ørmesviggen. Its a much better view of the Fjord in both direction so my advice is to skip the sky-view if you want to safe on money.
Maiking the way to Trollstiggen we had some short stop underway and when we arrived it was raining up top. Standing out in the rain to see a view was not really my pleasure that moment so I struggled downward with the many other cars and campers. It was a tight fit and clearly not everyone is used to climbing and descending traffic in a small corridor. I saw some pale faces looking at Hermes’ steel bumpers. There was a thunderous fall right across the road which was probably the reason for the congestion. But we managed to get through and I decided to skip a day part of the adventure because I had seen plenty of Fjords already. So on to the coastline but first a stop at the troll shop.
Coming closer to the sea, the pressuring warm atmosphere of summer n the fjords gave way to the smell of the sea and more cool breezes. Looking back at the part through the fjords, I was frequently thinking of the alps and Scotland. The mix added with the local folklore does make exploring the Fjord an adventure by itself.
If i had more time I most likely would have visited more of the sights and splendor that was still hidden to me. Some wonders need to stay undiscovered apparently to keep the imagination flowing. I am happy to have seen so much already and it will be a sweet memory and anticipation for the way back later when i cross them once more.
For tonight a camping in the coastal village called Bud is the landing spot. The front if Hermes is parked against wind for now and we allready had our first showers of rain and a good wifi connection so even Netflix pays part of the evening.
A last walk with the boys soon and back into the cocoon for the night heading to the Atlantic road tomorrow if weather permits.
Todays start was a little rocky having issues again with the brakes and feeling grumpy about it. I decided to give myself a look in the mirror and had three options.
1) keep going as it is doing in hopes things would melt away and resolve itself and experiencing more and more tension about the issues on climbing up and additional fuel costs becuase the braking issue would still exist.
2) look for a workaround or try to work the issue hands on sacrificing a possible half day of tooling but in the end getting a more happy experience during the adventure.
3) yeah let’s not even go there. It would feel like a failure to myself if I were to turnaround.
So the choice was made after some sensible analysis with the repair manual and a delicious cappucino. So i took the main break cilinder at hand an started tweaking the adjustments some more. After an hour of tinkering and some stops underway it would seem I now have the issue under control. Felt better driving now, no weird tremors on the steering wheel from the brakes and the engine got more juice to the road. So climbing up is better and breaking felt more reliable. Issue handle for now it seems.
Crossing up to the fjords and driving around them, I again was rewarded with some excellent sunny weather and not too hot. gorgeous views again convinced me to grab the drone again and shoot some “passenger” shots with the rocket. All will be shown on YouTube as soon as I have enough wifi capacity.
Crossing the Fjords going up and down does bring on the temptation to stop every 15 minutes for more sucking up the countryside beauty. It’s worth sacrificing some travel time so I’m excusing myself by “giving the dogs more breaks out the car” and enjoying the views. But i also need to sacrifice a lof of the views if I want to experience the rest of my planned visits.
The Geiranger sky-view walkway may be expensive (€25) but to me it was worth the entry. awesome view of the fjord and the valley, another one off the bucketlist and I was treated with sun and low winds so was able to capture some footage with the drone. Of course that will also be show later when I have upload speeds.
On the way out it was already heading to the 17:30 mark so i decided to park Hermes along the road amidst melting snow and tundra like pasture. I’m close to a road so dont think I’ll be easily lost here. I’ve topped up the water tank with ice water and am cooking with the same water. I’ve tasted it by hand and its delicious only a few meters away from the melting ice.
Downloading all cards onto the laptop and backup drive takes time I’m thinking of letting replication run in the night when sleeping. There’s literally Gigabits of data coming in and enough to edit for later publishing. As soon as there’s something from the drone and the pocket to look at I’ll send a notification to this page.
Last night I got lucky, a policewoman stopped with her car next to mine telling me I was in a pedestrians area. Acting all surprised she gave me leniency and asked what time in the morning I was going to leave. When I told her it was my plan at seven she told me she didn’t say it was ok and left. I was temped to offer a drink in gratitude but decided otherwise. Later that night I was suprised by some noisy Belgian campers who had decided the same spot for their overnight. I did sleep wel and was up at 6. So i rewarded the Belgians consideration for other people around with starting the Landrover early and making plenty of revs driving off to a day with good weather and a steep climb to the Fjords peeks.
Happy to reach the outlook point of Stegastein early in the morning with an easy slow climb and not meeting any traffic coming down only some sheep looking at that strange coffee machine on wheels bothering them to step aside.
Gorgeous views on that outlook made me take out the drone and spend an hour filming al kinds of shots. They can be seen later on the youtube channel. People came up to me to ask me for a copy of the footage, so I pointed them to the Youtube channel and explained it would be a week before it was all download worthy. Should I change jobs and start a drone footage company? Ah no… I already have one.
Up on that plain the views were even better with ice, streams and tundra like grounds. I was stopping every 100 meters or so to catch yet another view of one of the sources of the waterfalls. Again the drone was out of the bag and it got some awesome footage which I’ll publish later after a few edits.
Following the stream of ever growing water into rapids all the way down to the fjord base was welcomed by some more sun as was predicted.
The team of musketiers has been doing well, the dogs are well settled in the new day routine of waking early, grabbing food after a walk and then snoring and farting in the back while the man drives them around in the bumper car. They are lovely to see together. The little guy often now cuddles up to the big boy for some heat especially at night.
Ouch the trouble on the brakes came back again, I had to stop and see what was causing the issue. Taken the front brakes of and adjusting the brakes around didn’t seem to help it and i lost some two hours on this. The weird thing is that it was not an issue coming into Norway at all and only started to come up when I needed to climb kore and brake more frequently even when I’m engine braking. There’s a little sequence of breaking which seemed to help so ill give it another try tomorrow. For now we are parking in a secludes mount area facing a glacier.
Missed the target of the day but there is slack in the planning so it will still be ok. i was told reactions cant be sent. I will look into it.
Last night’s sleep was interrupted because of some unexpected cold. Fortunately a pair of warm socks and another warm blanket did the trick and almost overslept the bakers opening time for fresh warm rolls. Soon after preparing breakfast and tossing out the garbage we were on our way again heading to Odda with todays destination Aurland.
Driving the road numbered 13 has been magical in itself this road is a long cross over the land like a scar in the landscape but the views and experiences on this route are very divers and has something for everyone to gaze at from the natural waterfalls to the well constructed tunneling systems. An occasional ferry passage sets one down to earth looking at the majestic size of the fjords. Someone said large? I call them huge!
So a nice day in all and had an early stop at around 17:00 for now its finishing this report, cleaning up and chilling with a nice read. Tomorrow will likely be a drone day with good forecast ahead and a perfect location to shoot some delicious video.
It was a nice relaxing overnight on this “beach” camping (only 30 meters away) and we had a delicious early morning walk along the rocky coastal beach with plenty of birds around harvesting on sea creatures and algea.
A long drive ahead today to Odda through mountain passes and villages over some interesting roads. It is interesting to see how many busstops have been placed and I have not seen a single bus along the route. Has to be a coincidence that I keep missing the bus…
I’ve done a nice route again taking the old landrover to some hard work getting up the mountains and fjords. I had a few buckets of water to flush over the brakes as these old thing keep nagging about the work they need to do. Once cooled down they acted fine again. When home i’ll have to replace the brake cilinders to make sure they don’t get stuck anymore. During these stops I manage to capture some shots (see below) enjoy the experience.
Tonight the overnight is in Rømdal which is known also as a ski restort. You can see the snow on top of the fjords still present.
I had enough steering and pushing for the day and didn’t make my target by an hour. I will try to make up for it tomorrow. For now its noodles and some fruit then some editing of some drone footage and a nice rest in my hammock which sleep deliciously.
Started at 06:00 today by being woken by a large windturbine starting up again some 50 meters away. So I didn’t need to set my alarm clock after all. Thankfully the area had public toilets and was very clean. A nice walk with the boys on the beach to give them some play opportunity. Seawinds and the smell of sand always helps in the morning to wake the brain. Lots of marsh birds around to a nice morning cheer from them when they panic seeing the dogs pass by and try to alert their little neighbors.
After some breakfast I got ready for the check-in and was lined up long enough to even make some coffee when waiting in line. The dogs were sleeping and having some chill time. Which is now good cause they will have to stay in the car for two hours when we cross over. I’ve planned to have some music playing during the trip and the car will be well vented. So they should be okay after the last walk we just did.
Boarding the ferry went smooth. Took a waiting period where I made some coffee and had the boys out for the last walk before boarding. 12:15 is the estimated arrival time so the trip only takes 2 hours and 15 minutes on the fast Fjordline. The trip was ordered with Lounge including a meal so it was time to scare away the queue at the buffet. The food was enjoyable enough and the luxury of a sleeping chair to take a nap on the way is was welcome.
Clearing customs was smooth and coming in was good enough with the dogs cleared. No check otherwise by customs so all good to go and away we were.
I had a bit of struggles at the start. Driving in an unfamiliar country for the first time present a challenge on reading the road signs and how people drive. Then i was somewhat surprised by the angle upwards some of the public main roads. Trucks in the rearview mirrors pushing, help with the excitement. Then on top off that one of the brakes decided to add weer with a little drag causing the engine to do some extra work. After a half hour and two buckets of water over the wheel, convinced the brake to give up it’s objections and it decided to play along.
First road was the E36 to get out of dodge (Kristiansund) and away from the busy traffic. Then after an hour or so i got to experience the wonderful RV44 southern coastal road. One word was invented for this road: miraculous. Lakes, rock formations, dams, estuaries, waterfalls an coastal villages. It was a wonder to ride and i can truly highly recommend the route. If this is a first introduction of Norway, then I wonder what else is jn store for this adventure.
After a very relaxing sleep on that remote hide out we were woken by rabbits wind and birds. peacefull waking and a relaxed walk around the area to have the boys do their thing. A little breakfast and soon we were on our way again.
I am impressed with the top west coast of Denmark. A passage way behind the coastline leads us along a very nice marsh area with a large inner lake which stretches some 30 kilometers in total. Excellent views with lovely fluffy clouds guide us through the area to a ferry crossing between Thyborøn and Agger. Its not the cheapest with €15 but its worth the continued trip through the area which now adds small hill areas and otter refuges where you can have a break. And so I made coffee and had some chill time with the boys.
Another couple of miles of lovely country side and a little tiredness is just in time for us to stop a moment at Hansholm the most north western tip of Denmark. Nice 35kph winds show a cool ocean and a lookout point reminds of historic war pasts with an old gun guarding the harbor.
Finally around 15:00 we have reached the destination of the day, Hirthals. It is our departure point for tomorrow’s crossing to Norway. I found a very nice overnight spot at the beach and will be rising early tomorrow for check-in at the ferry. So for now its relaxing with some reading and a little nap after food. The wind is pushing well enough to keep any traffic noises our from the busy harbor. So it will be a goodnights rest in preparation of tomorrow’s new events.
Things that keep me busy so far… getting my spare tire fixed again now in a little town called Gluckstadt. Crossing the Elbe on the ferry isn’t cheap, a total of €12 for a 15 minute crossing surely pays for itself. The view was nice though with sun shimmering over the water as we crossed over.
I was a little concerned about the service battery. It wasn’t getting any charge and so I couldn’t turn the cooler on. I peeked under the hood when we crossed the Elbe and found a loose wire. It was quickly fixed by replacing the connector and reattaching the wire. Started the engine and waited 20 seconds. Yes…full charge again. Turned up the cooler and ready am feeling it getting colder.
The boys got their last vet check and the last groceries were stuffed in the coolbox. A last round to check the house and switching off the unneeded electrics. At around 13:30 the trip has started with a glorious warm weather ahead the coming days. For now its slowboating towards Groningen to catch some diesel and make progress to Bremen Germany. Mascot Scotti stuffed with cuddles from my little girl leads the way. So far so good with very light traffic.
As we moved on some 50 kilometers further, the first bump hit us. We got a flat tire on the right rear. Thankfully it’s a rear tire and I stopped immediately so no damages done other then the tire. Breaking out the wrench, removing the spare tire. Lifting the car and putting things back in place in all only took 30 minutes. The cause was a shift in the pas if the inner tube to the outer tube causing tension on the inflation valve. It was allready an issue coming up so it was not a big surprise. Tomorrow morning im gonna have the replacement inner tube I brought installed to have a ready spare again and check the pressure of the replaced spare now on the wheel.
A nice surprise was the actual fuel consumption on the engine. I was under the impression that it would be using 1 liter of Diesel for 5,5 kilometers. I noticed my count on the speedometer wasn’t actually noting the right numbers and i was doing kore kilometers to the liter. It surprised me with an average of 1 liter to 9 kilometers which is a major benefit looking at the long fuel estimates. It will safe me 1/3 of the estimate fuel price which is a near €1000 on the budget. Very happy with that.
The overnight for the day is in a little coastal town called Nordenham just before Bremenhaven Germany. We arrived at a little harbor point where another car was gonna spend the night. Its not the coolest spot yet but after some food, some coffee and a little walk we crawled into the car and slept by eleven.