{"id":798,"date":"2015-08-04T19:54:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T19:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=798"},"modified":"2015-08-04T19:54:22","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T19:54:22","slug":"lillesand-borhaug-sandnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=798","title":{"rendered":"LILLESAND, BORHAUG, SANDNES"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday 31 July<\/p>\n

The next morning we get up and go for a walk into Lillisand.\u00a0 What a lovely little village.\u00a0 In Southern Norway particularly, they all have white wooden houses with a couple of different colours of rooves.\u00a0 See pictures of some of the buildings.\u00a0 They look so fresh and vibrant and when you add the colourful flowers it just looks amazing.\u00a0 There weren\u2019t many people around and so it was lovely just to walk around the buildings and check it all out.<\/p>\n

After breakfast we showered and I had the same problem again only this time thankfully I hadn\u2019t started the shower, but it is a pain to have to get dressed again, go up to the office to explain the shower coin got chewed up and then go back again hoping that it doesn\u2019t happen a second time.\u00a0 We took off and drove through Kristiansand and stopped in a little seaside village called Mandal which is really pretty, as I guess most are on the seafront with a marina and white wooden buildings.\u00a0 We found a little bakery and had a coffee and bread like danishes which were really lovely.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t had many that are so nice you just want to have another one.\u00a0 It was lovely sitting in the sun after quite a few days of rain.\u00a0 The little village was so busy with people.\u00a0 The school holidays finish in Scandinavia in two weeks so hopefully it will all quieten down then.\u00a0 We found a shop that sold electrical stuff and thankfully we found the type of electrical cable we need here in some of the camping grounds so we should be set now with that.<\/p>\n

We drove on thinking we would stop earlier today than the last couple so we drove down a road from Rom and thought we may find a nice freedom camping spot around Lyngdal.\u00a0 But it\u2019s funny that you can\u2019t find them when you want one and you always see spectacular ones when you aren’t looking.\u00a0 We ended up driving right to the end of the peninsula but didn\u2019t find a camping spot.\u00a0 We did stop at Farsund and there was a hard stand at the marina there which we checked out as it wasn\u2019t much to stay, but all the spots were taken and we couldn\u2019t really find an appropriate spot to park so we moved on.\u00a0 This looked like a great place to have a look around, but it wasn\u2019t to be.\u00a0 We passed a little place called Vik \u2013 which seemed appropriate to stop at, but these places are just off the main road and the access roads to them are more often than not very narrow and difficult to traverse so we are cautious not to drive down them.\u00a0 Scot did have a run down this one to check out the road but it wasn\u2019t the right place to stop.\u00a0 So we continued on to the end which was a lighthouse on a very rugged part of the coat.\u00a0 It was so like Irelands west coast \u2013 very rocky rugged and wind blown.\u00a0 We had a look around there and back tracked to the nearest settlement which had a small hardstand marina where there was a couple of campers there already, so as it was late we stopped there for the night.\u00a0 They are cheaper than camp grounds and they still have a toilet and shower to use which is fine, plus free wifi \u2013 even better if it\u2019s free.<\/p>\n

We were bedding down for the night when Scot went out and turned off the gas.\u00a0 There were some young kids hanging around on their motorbikes so he yelled at them to f*ck off.\u00a0 I was worried all night that they might come back and trash the van or at the least graffiti it, but thankfully they weren\u2019t bad kids so we went unscathed.<\/p>\n

The next morning we headed back to the main highway and back around to the west.\u00a0 We drove to Flekkefjord where we had been going to drive the day before but didn\u2019t so we stopped here for our standard morning coffee.\u00a0 A nice town but busy and parking was difficult so we didn\u2019t stay long.\u00a0 At this point we decided to go of the main highway as on the map the road looked like it was ok.\u00a0 This may be the last time we go off the main highway in Norway.<\/p>\n

The road went from Flekkefjord through Sogndal, Hauge and up to Egersund.\u00a0 It started out ok, it wasn\u2019t bad, it was a little close passing cars, but it was manageable.\u00a0 We went over the first very high climb which was windy U turn bends climbing up and then back down.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t worried as I had driven this type of road in the\u00a0 van we hired in NZ \u2013 which is why we did that \u2013 to make sure it wasn\u2019t a problem.\u00a0 But on the descent the brakes overheated as it was a major decent and they smelt really bad so we stopped at the bottom of the hill and had lunch while we waited for the brakes to cool down.\u00a0 We took off again and then hit the worst climb of all. Had we known what it was going to be like we \u2013 or maybe just I \u2013 wouldn\u2019t have driven it even though the road surface was good, it was a bit hairy.\u00a0 We climbed up the very windy road that climbed up virtually a rock face, the photos don\u2019t show exactly how scary the road was.\u00a0 In parts we couldn\u2019t have passed a car if one came towards us and there were a few cars on the road thus far.\u00a0 We passed the odd camper and we both had to stop and pass slowly to be sure we could make it.\u00a0 And I was getting the odd car flying towards me around a corner which was meant for only one vehicle and I had to stop suddenly so they could pass \u2013 a bit silly of them really.\u00a0 Anyway we got to the major climb and then we got to the highest part of the mountain and it went into one lane with a tunnel through the rock with a sheer fall down the side.\u00a0 As I approached it I saw a car coming out of the tunnel and it just kept coming.\u00a0 In my understanding of the courtesy road rules on a road like this the car coming down waits for those coming up to pass as it is easier to stop going downhill than going up. \u00a0Anyway she didn\u2019t stop.\u00a0 When she got to us we couldn\u2019t pass and she was looking at us like \u201c What are YOU doing you stupid people\u201d.\u00a0 She was young and obviously inexperienced so she just stopped her car and sat there looking at us.\u00a0 So I backed back and although thankfully I didn\u2019t have the sheer drop on my side I did have a deep gutter that had I gone into we would not have been going anywhere.\u00a0 I eventually manoeuvred the van so we could pass with an inch to spare.\u00a0 My heart was thumping and I wasn\u2019t impressed.<\/p>\n

We continued up through the tunnel where we came to a NZ memorial of all things.\u00a0 There was a NZ flag flying and a plaque explaining about the 4 NZers \u00a0that were killed in WWII trying to get a German boat that was parked up in the Norwegian fjords illegally as Norway was supposed to be neutral and the Germans used them.\u00a0 But two of the planes crashed and all were killed on board, so the Norwegians have erected this memorial to the men on board.\u00a0 Although the road was a difficult one, the views were really spectacular (for the passenger anyway) and the photos can never do this stunning vista justice.\u00a0 Knowing the road I wouldn\u2019t drive it again, but having done it I am glad we did with what we saw.\u00a0 It reminded me of one particular road we drove on in Ireland \u2013 a pass on the west coast.\u00a0 It was horribly steep and in our little car I was shitting myself we would meet another car as we were going up as there was no way even two small cars could pass. \u00a0In fact on that road you couldn\u2019t have passed a motorbike. \u00a0This wasn\u2019t that bad but it brought back that memory.<\/p>\n

We continued on and I was very aware of trying to not let the brakes overheat again which is hard as the gears just weren\u2019t keeping the van under speed at all, but we were fine.\u00a0 This was the last of the hairy roads and we went back to the highway as we weren\u2019t keen on doing the second half of the road that tracked the coast.\u00a0 It is difficult to know what a road is going to be like until you actually start to drive on them and in most cases you can start to drive but if you change your mind there is never anywhere to turn around so you are committed.<\/p>\n

We stopped for the night in a campground in Sandnes as it was getting a little late to get the ferry above Stavenger.\u00a0 Nothing to report about this place, just an ordinary ground obviously favoured by the Germans as there were many of them there which we hadn\u2019t struck since we left the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n