Part 4: Oslo - Oslo (Covid edition) | The Great Overland Adventure

1

Country

7980

Sheep

526

Mountains and waterfalls

3500

Kilometers

Trip overview

The plan was to go back to Islamabad and continue on the Karakoram Highway, into China, then onwards to the “Stan” countries, but then a pandemic came along and put a firm stop to this plan.

The only sensible thing to do was to travel in our home country, Norway. We still like a challenge though, and decided to rent a campervan and see for ourselves just how narrow the roads in Western Norway are. It was also a nice opportunity to finally spend some time in a country regarded as one of the worlds top destinations.

We decided to focus on Southern Norway for this trip, booked a campervan, did some sketches on a map, and off we went!

From Oslo, our first stop was Rjukan and a strenuous walk to the top of the national icon Gaustadtoppen which is 1883masl and known as the most beautiful mountain in Norway. With sore muscles we visited friends and family in Setesdalen and Kristiansand, before we headed to Lindesnes fyr, the oldest lighthouse and southernmost point of Norway.

We continued west and passed Lista and white but windy beaches before we drove inland and over the mountains to see one of the most spectacular fjords of Norway, Lysefjorden, and the amazing Kjeragbolten. This is a rock jammed in between 2 mountains with a vertical drop of approx 1000masl below it, and if you are crazy enough, you can jump out on it and take that perfect insta-picture. We skipped it this time…. 😉

After camping with sheep all around us and watching thousands of them squeeze themself past our campervan on small narrow roads while being herded home after a long summer in the mountains, we passed the largest nationalpark in the nordics, Hardangervidda, and continued along the amazing 183km Hardangerfjorden (3rd longest fjord in the world) as we glanced up on waterfalls (and then we mean W.A.T.E.R.F.A.L.L.S, not a drizzle down the mountain!).

From here and the next 6-700km we pass not only one crown jewel of the Norwegian nature but MANY: Flåm, Gudvangen, Lærdalsøyri and Aurlandsfjellet where we stopped at Stegasteinen.

We crossed over Sognefjorden, the worlds second longest fjord (204km) and dipped our toes in the North Sea at Stadt which is as far west as you can come on mainland Norway before we continued to Geirangerfjorden (the most famous fjord in Norway) and passed over Strynefjellet.

After holding our breath down the zigzagging Trollstigen, praying that the breaks would hold, we ended up in Åndalsnes and once again we found ourself climbing on top of mountains to get incredible views, this time Litlefjellet on which the famous Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss Sr once said «Never has mankind received so much for so little» as it is considered as an easy climb for a spectacular view. Not sure if we totally agree with him that it was ”so little”, as our heartrate was much higher than normal when we entered the top…

The last part of the trip was spent in Ålesund and on a couple of ferries before we headed towards Atlanterhavsveien, where we almost had to anchor up our campervan due to strong winds and rain.

Luckily we didn’t take off, so we then headed inland instead and visited more family and stayed on a beautiful sæter (hut) in Orkeldalen near Oppdal where we once again teamed up with loads of sheep, but this time to catch the vagabonds who didn’t want to go home for the winter.

To reach Oslo in time to deliver our home-on-wheels for the last 2,5 week, we passed quickly over Dovrefjell, unfortunately without seeing any Musk Oxen. Then a quick visit in Røros, one of the oldest towns of wooden buildings in Europe which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. When we rolled across the finish line, our milage/meter was 200 meters away from exactly 3500km in total!

Map

Planning

The trip planning was a no-brainer when it came to visas/permits/flight or train tickets, so this time our challenge was to find the correct campervan for someone who had never driven, and barely been in one before, and how we should manage all the smart devices a campervan needs in order to be a house-on-wheels.

We ended up renting the campervan privately through a helpful and super friendly couple outside of Oslo, which was very convenient as we needed their support during the trip as the battery used for electricity inside gave us a small headache, both literally and physically. Important note for other campervan-newbies: Do not think that it is a 50/50 chance unusual problems will disappear by itself. It is better to call a friend (meaning owners) AND ask the audience (meaning fellow campers near by) if there is a sneaky, strange, uncomfortable and unknown smell (think rotten eggs) inside the campervan… especially if it seems to come from the area where the battery is kept!

When it comes to packing, one would believe that this would be easy peasy as a campervan have lots of space compared to the backpack we normally throw on our back. But no… it can be a small pickle, especially when preparing for Norwegian weather which means that you need light clothes, warm clothes, clothes that can handle rain, clothes that can deal with wind, clothes that will dry fast and clothes that will keep your head, neck and hands warm at any time. At the same time as you want warm clothes, they cannot be toooooo warm because you don’t want to sweat a lot miles away from a washing machine and a shower. Luckily a campervan has plenty of small compartments to stash all of these accessories, so when you finally remember where you put it all, things are smooth!

Another brilliant thing with a campervan is that you always have a fridge with food close by so you can (most of the time) keep your blood sugar under control (which is VERY important!), plus you can create your own culinary-ish meals when you are on the road. Here are some useful tips and other important notes:

Even though your fridge is within 2 meters distance, you must ALWAYS have a snack bar within 30cm reach to avoid those sudden blood sugar drops as it is never a good idea to have bad temper when you drive a huge campervan!
If your leftovers from the night before don’t fit into the fridge, you can place the pot under the campervan to keep the food cold during the night. But remember that you did so before you leave your camping area!
Remember to stack up with box wine for those nice afternoons/evenings when the camper is parked and you can sip a glass of wine when you prepare your dinner, eat and enjoy the amazing view outside your doorstep!