Recent Camping Trip To Southern Norway

Norway Camping Trip - June 10-13 2008

We left on a Tuesday morning. Two people, two happy dogs and a car stuffed with camping gear. We headed up the west coast of Sweden, past Gothenburg, and across the Norwegian border. We stopped a few times, to let the dogs out and to eat some picnic food.

By late afternoon we started looking for a campground. It turned out to be quite difficult, because the campground managers were generally not on site. Finally, however, we managed to find a small campground where we could set up our tent. It was cold and very, very windy (I actually wished I had packed gloves…). We quickly ate some food and then went to bed. The wind died down overnight, and we slept pretty comfortably.

In the morning we planned to make coffee, eggs and toast, but discovered that the camping stove burner was leaking. I learned the hard way to test out all equipment before the trip… Instead we packed all our gear and went and got ourselves a gas station breakfast, consisting of coffee and donuts.

We decided to drive across the mountains on road 51, ending up in Fagernes (in the Valdres area of Norway). There seemed, among other things, to be plenty of campgrounds in the area. Road 51 offered beautiful views of a snowy and icy landscape (in June!!). Close to Fagernes, the landscape changed again into rolling hills and lots of trees. We shopped for a barbecue dinner, before finding a beautiful and picturesque little campground set by the lake. The owner directed us to a secluded tent site, overlooking the lake and a waterfall in the distance. For this we paid 130 NOK (Norwegian Krone) a night. This is about $25 – thank the weak dollar for that! The weather had turned much more pleasant and we slept very well that night.

The next day, after deciding to stay another night at the campground, we mapped out a route on the map and headed out for another day of sightseeing. We drove west, toward the coast. This day offered many more breathtaking views of snow-capped mountains, deep fjords and sparkling wild waterfalls. We also ended up driving on serpentine roads on the mountainsides, as well as creepy dark tunnels through the tallest mountains. One of the tunnels was 15 miles long!! It is a slightly claustrophobic feeling to think about the amount of rock above your head…

Back at the campground we used the campground kitchen facilities and heated some canned meatballs, gravy and potatoes for dinner. It rained a little bit in the evening, but then stopped again. Unfortunately, the rain started up again early in the morning and we then decided to pack up and go home. We had hoped for one more night in Norway, but the thought of packing and then setting up a wet tent did not appeal to us.

Norway was more exciting and beautiful than we could have imagined, and we are already planning our next trip back! Maybe a drive along the southern coast? Or maybe a visit to the northernmost parts? The possibilities are almost endless…

I will be posting photos and pictures on http://ComfortCamping.com in short order.

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