Skudenshavn, Norway. Saturday 14th August (posting number 2)

Tuesday night it rained hard overnight, and we spent the morning on a really bad internet connection that kept dropping out looking at flight options for getting home.  Finally packed up and left by mid-day, so only an hour or so ahead of the time we stopped the day before!!  In this photo you can see the main road in the distance, going straight u the side of the hill.  This was the very bottom of the last hill we came down the night before.

A typical view for us - the cycle track leaving the paved road to off down an undulating with steep sections of gravel.

Must be one of the smallest churches????

View from the top of the first major hill of the day - 260m high. (from sea level).  Think the grey structure you can see must be a dam wall?  Before we plummeted back down to sea level once again - of course.......

Working our way down from the top of hill number 2, the high point of Norway if not the trip - 275m.  You can see the sea glistening in the distance.

Back down at sea level, Jossingfjord.  The site of The Altmart incident in the early days of WW2.  Almost 2 months before German troops occupied the country this fjord was the scene of the first battle of the second world war on Norwegian territory.  Late in the evening of 18th Feb (I think 1940), the German tanker, the Altmart was boarded by a party of Marines from the Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Cossack in Jossingfjord.  On board the tanker were 299 captured British seamen, who were all freed in the dramatic rescue.  Seven Germans were killed in the action.  The Altmark had sailed as an auxillary with the German Pocket Battleship 'Admiral Graf Spree' in the South Atlantic.  Throughout the autumn of 1939 the 'Admiral Graf Spree' had posed a constant threat to the British Merchant Marine.  Surviving seamen from the sunken British traders were now on board the Altman, in transit to prison camps in Germany.  The Altmart entered the security of (the neutral) Norwegian territorial waters north of Trondheim Fjord, giving every appearance of being a normal merchant ship.  Despite British protests the prisoners were not discovered by the Norwegian authorities, who allowed the vessel to sail with a pilot and escort southwards down the coast.  Two days later the Altmark was intercepted by Royal Naval vessels near Egersund.  The British sought to capture the German tanker, which took shelter in Jossingfjord.  The attack that took place was in clear violation of Norwegian Sovereignty but the Germans had deceived the Norwegian authorities by denying that the ship was carrying any prisoners, and also failing to make telegraphic contact with the Bergen war harbour on passing as required.  The attack on the Altmark took place on the personal orders of the Minister of the Navy, Winston Churchill.  The incident received big headlines in the Norwegian and international press, but it was later determined that the Norwegian authorities had conducted themselves by and large correctly (Norwegian view at least???) over the two days that the ship had been in their waters prior to the attack.   The lack of Norwegian resistance to the Royal Naval action was strongly criticised by Germany, and historians believe the event sharpened Germany's interest in the Scandinavian countries.  After this incident Germany could argue that Norway was incapable of defending her neutrality.  

The accolade 'Jossing' has remained the fundamental term of praise for any Norwegian that has demonstrated determination to resist the occupational force.  But it was first used as a derogatory term by the Norwegian National Socialist Party in relation to Norway's passivity during the Jossingfjord rescue attempt.

Along the side of the Jossingfjord, through blasted out tunnels

Two small wooden huts from long ago sheltering under the rock overhang - now a tourist attraction.

As you come round the corner at the head of the fjord you see where the road goes - up, up and up very quickly.  See the tunnel half way up the rock face ...

... but what a view when we got up there.  Managed to cycle virtually all the way up - but in the tunnel pitch black and steep uphill - neither of us could keep our balance without being able to see anything around us, so had to push the bikes up through the last half of the tunnel.  'Only' a 200m hill but in a very short distance.

Some bright spark had written lines in yellow up the hills today - at 300m to go, 200 m to go, 100m and 'topp' written once you had got to the top!!  Perhaps to help the racers to know when to put a spurt on?  

A late finish to the day, but very satisfying - managed to virtually cycle the whole of the three big hills.  The view looking back up into the mountains from the valley bottom, with the hills still in the sunshine.  Made even later because we had to do an extra couple of miles to find a shop open to get food for the evening - had not wanted to carry the extra weight with us up the hills!!!!

A delightful and very welcome campsite in a tranquil and green valley - there were three lots of us cycle campers packing up the next morning.

A fairly typical house style in this area ...

I liked the owls on a branch decorating the house.

A 'hippy' type community on the coast - could have whiled away the day sat there in the sun.

We sat for ages watching the salmon leaping out of the water in this spot - where the river meets the fjord.  Some of the fish were huge and made dramatic splashes - often two or three leaps at a time like a large stone skimming the surface.  Very spectacular - as long as you were looking at the right place at the right time - reminded us of Barry who kept missing the leaping fish when we were having lunch one day in Denmark.  I have been told that the salmon don't go up the rivers until there is enough water in them - makes sense really.

I liked the idea of a ship instead of a tree house in this garden.

... and great to see an electric car plugged in and being charged.

Is this a sheep, or is it a friesian cow or a border collie in disguise???

The power of a honey buttie on a weary cyclist .....

Late in the day, rain threatening, and tough terrain - and Roger's tyre goes down.  Attacked by small black biting flies as soon as we stopped ....

... and the power of a Snickers Bar to help us on our way ....

To give you some idea of the terrain we were cycling through at the time - gravel track, steep undulations etc - but hopefully we were very near the end of the 'hilly' part of the trip???

We didn't quite get to the campsite before the rain came - and rained all night and until 11 am or so the day after - so yet again another late start.

Left by mid-day - and a complete turn around of the weather to beautiful blue skies.

I loved the quality of this light - not really captured it as it was - would have been fabulous in a cathedral.

... not quite as hilly, but still challenging from time to time - this bridge had gaps between the planks - just wide enough for our tyres to fall into - ok for mountain bikes - they could cycle straight over it whereas we had to push.

What a fantastic sunset ...  taken from our campsite overlooking the sea, beach and sand-dunes, with a lovely little fishing harbour next door.

Roger with Randolph, a Norwegian who had a caravan on the site.  He used to be a very active cyclist and came to tell us all about the amazing distances and speeds he used to do in the many annual races eg. from Jossingfjord to Stavanger in just over 4 hours .... on a racing bike, on the main roads not the meandering route we have taken (probably 3 days worth of our cycling....) - he had seen us arriving at the campsite, late in the evening once again after a late start and brought over two chairs and a table for us to use - what bliss.

About two weeks ago we had tried to contact Eric and Randi, two Norwegians we met a year ago in Battle at a meeting of fellow vehicle overlanders, who live in Sandnes - 10 minutes from the campsite we were staying at now.  Found out by another source that they were away in Iceland so had not been surprised to not get a reply from them - but at 11pm we got a text from the - they were just back that evening from Iceland - where were we???  And they are only at home for a couple of days before going off back onto the oil rigs where they both works as nurse medics - 2 weeks on, 4 weeks off.  Arranged to see them at the campsite about lunch time, so had a slow start to the day once again in the beautiful warm sunshine.  Eric and Randi arrived with their grand-daughter.

Finally left after 2pm, and rode as fast as we could to try and get the 16.45 pm ferry - fault is that we have now run out of detailed cycle maps - don't ask me how but I am missing the last 6 or 7 pages of maps for Norway!!!  so have had to get an ordinary map which is not really good enough for what we need - so have to make it up a bit as we go along - trying to miss out some of the lower gravel sections that meander around the coast off the much faster roads. Could see the structure below from a long way away but didn't realise that it was where we were heading for.  A massive crane that is demolishing what looks like an oil rig platform.

On yet another ferry - lost track now but must be about number 31 or so.

The foot passengers are poised to rush ashore as soon as the ferry docks and the ramps are allowed down.

Welcome to Skudenshavn ....

We're planning on having a day off tomorrow and exploring the town and area around, a lovely little campsite, good facilities and internet - that has finally allowed me to upload these photos. 

Next idea re getting home is that we are trying to rent a van from Newcastle airport on a one way hire, to leave it at either Burnley or Manchester airport.  Awaiting some quotes.  Decided to book the flight home a week on Monday as no cheap(er) tickets left for the end of next week, and so no pressure on us to rush tis last bit of the trip.