Day 7 Snow, Rain … and severe wind
Eating three boiled eggs each for breakfast was a mistake, the aroma that generated in the car later on was rather alarming and the Bond Bug owners reported a green gas behind our car. By 9:30am we had all packed up camp and headed on our way from Oslo to Tronheim which is about 300 miles. The roads started off fairly pleasant and as we reached the mountains they became twisty and narrow with some of the most wonderful scenery you can imagine. The only problem is that as the road is narrow many great photo opportunities pass you by as you cannot stop.
At the start of the day Rory’s Bug needed a push as his battery was flat though later on it was our turn to break down. Whilst driving along we came to rather an uncerimonious stop and the car wouldn’t start. Donning our day glow jackets and putting out the warning triangle, Geoff quickly diagnosed that there was no petrol getting through to the carburettor and tracing things back to the tank, he took off the petrol filler cap. Suddenly there was a whoosh of air and the tank expanded. It seemed that the breather hole in the petrol cap had become blocked and so pressurised the tank cutting off the fuel to the carburettor. Earlier he had noticed a leak on the petrol tank around the sender unit and so dropping the tank fixed the leak. This must have been acting as a breather and now that it was fixed it caused the tank to pressurise. The petrol cap was cleaned and to make double sure it would not happen again a 1/16th hole was drilled in the petrol filler pipe. A turn of the key and the problem was sorted and we were all on our way again.
The further North we get the colder it gets and the snow topped mountains in the distance were soon patches of snow next to us as we climbed to over 3,300 feet. Spotting snow in a parking area we all pulled over for a photo and of course to make a few snowballs before starting off once more.
One of the things worth mentioning is the houses as they are all made from wood with either slate slabs for the roof or correghated sheets, surprisingly some are covered in grass. It’s amazing how many houses have a roof covered in long grass. I pondered whether the newer houses were actually brick houses with a wooden exterior but a couple of burnt down houses seemed to suggest that the house was indeed all wood.
Driving around mountain roads is pretty strenuous as you constantly need to have your wits about you as you weave around sharp corners. By about 7am we went through a local village and decided to stop for dinner. The menu was unpronouncible and Jeff ordered a Lovsteak with chips. Looking at what looked like Road kill, I figured that was probably a good option so me and Geoff had that as well. It turned out to be a large beef burger that someone had sat on to flatten it out. I say beef burger but we couldn’t actually work out what it was made from though it was rather nice.
Four Bond Bugs and a Reliant Robin parked outside the restuarant was causing much interest as people were constantly stopping, looking at them and taking photos. As I have mentioned in previous post, it is like this where ever we go, the vehicles cause such a stir as everyone seems to comment that they have never seen anything like them before. Most Scandinavians are now convinced that Geoff is Mr Bean.
Back on the road we continued to follow the E6 which runs alongside a raging river - despite intructions to the contrary from the AI android. We have sacked C3PO and for a while had Yoda but he was incoherent at times, “Right you must turn and left you must bear, over the roundabout you must go and third turn you must take” … and there wasn’t a third turn - that just confused us more though thankfully we trust the AA map book a lot more now. Driving through the rain, we finally reached camp at around 9pm. It’s quite cold now and I’m not sure if it gets dark anymore. We pitched our tents in the pouring rain … oh the joys of camping!
Elvis.