So, it’s been a while since I last wrote about the trip. Not that nothing has been happening or we started arguing or so – but somehow I just haven’t had the motivation and time for more than uploading photos … and actually in Stavanger I lost about half an hour of work because my computer crashed right before submitting the post. But now I’ll try to make up for it and bring you up to date | See the pictures
From Oslo we took E18 along the coast down to Kristiansand. Close to Kragerø, a town called the “St. Tropez of Norway”, we found a nice spot to stay over night at a little beach. The next morning we got up really early, about 8ish (I think so far it has been the earliest wake-up) and went on to Kristiansand. With 80000 habitants it’s actually the fifth biggest city of Norway! In earlier times as well as today the city plays a very important role for Norways shipping traffic. After a short stop it was already time to find the next spot to camp which we found in Røsstad. A nice little bay with little colorful houses along the coast. Not even the cleaning of the local cloaca right next to our bus and the temporary, well, smell could harm the beauty of this place (oh my god, I should stop drinking immediately!).
Anyway, after some trouble finding the right road to get back to the E18 (we must have passed some of the smallest roads in Norway!) we stopped in Mandal with its white sand beaches and a very nice camp site (not that we needed one but there were showers – pretty cold but showers) in a forest next to the beach. Swimming and sunbathing messed up our itinerary a bit as we’d discover later. But we HAD to to take advantage of the warm weather. Who knows how long it would stay like that …
Instead of following the E18 we left the Europastrasse in Flekkefjord to take the small and windy R44. The first half leads through along the rough fjord and then over mountains whereas the second half looks almost Scottish or Irish – at least that’s what I guess it must look like over there. Roundly washed stones and pebbles, green hills and pretty flat – another side of Norway which we didn’t expect to exist.
Due to our excessive laziness in Mandal we arrived pretty late in Stavanger and didn’t really have time to explore this nice little town. Definitely a place to come back to with more time (and more money – a general thing here in Norway). An Irish guy runs an internet cafe with good tea and coffee and a fast internet connection.
Since we wanted to visit the landmark of Stavanger, the famous rock plateau of the Preikestolen at the Lysefjord we camped close to a ferry we had to take in the morning.