Aaargh...Disaster Strikes...

Our motorhome left the road, rolled four times and came to rest on the edge of a precipice. This occurred when Iris swatted a fly that had landed on my head with her cricket bat. She blamed me for the disaster of course.

Well OK, it wasn't quite that dramatic but when I wasn't looking a sneaky, overhanging building eaves scraped along the left hand side of the motorhome and damaged the left top side and left top rear fibreglass.

The main problem is that damage to the skin might let water in and cause major probs later.

Luckily we were near a hardware shop in Lom where super-duper outdoor duct tape was on sale, plus waterproof filler. Armed with these, we were even luckier to find a back entrance delivery platform at a shop next door, that allowed me to get at the damage and put a patch on.

Iris sneakily snapped me in mid-repair. Fortunately still pictures, (although they might be worth a thousand words), don't pick up the cursing.

 

After the cursory repairs, we decided that to be better placed for insurance assessment and the likes, that we should head towards Oslo, where we thought there was an agent for the motorhome company, (Swift).

 

We didn't take the direct route but a slight detour through the Jotunheim National Park, that is home to the highest peaks in Norway. It was a good decision, as it led us through some completely different countryside, with wide vistas, (or should that be panoramas Jo), where you could see scores of kilometres, unlike the fjords where it's 5-10 km as a rule.
 

The road out of Lom climbed continually for the first 20 km or so and then all of a sudden we were on a wide plateau with snow and ice round about, plus in the middle distance, the ranges of bulky, granite, snow streaked mountains. Not at all classic peaks like Mount Cook or the Matterhorn but rather squat and threatening.

Trolls dwell hereabouts!

A bit further down the road we chanced upon a formation in the foreground that was very much like Lion Rock (at Piha, Auckland), in appearance except much bigger, (the hut in the distance gives you an idea of the scale).

 

The sleeping lion.

Still higher we climbed, until we were in some fairly extensive and deep snow fields, although the road was completely clear. We stopped by a huge boulder that had been left perched atop another large slab of granite by the glaciers of the last ice age and Iris frolicked in the snow like a new born chamois!

 

The frolicking stopped as the cold set in. The man perched next to the boulder in the background gives you the scale.

 

As I said earlier, it was a landscape completely different from the rest of the country and the wide open area was a bit like the desert road near Waiouru. The sides of the road were marked for quite a way by "snow poles" that let motorists snow where the road is in winter when everything is covered. You can just about make them out on the following pics. Who in their right mind would want to drive through there in winter, god only knows.

 

 

A nice deep snow field that went on for quite a way.

 

 

As did the road through the mountains.

 

 

After this point the road descended for the next 50 km and led us to Fagernes where we decided to stay the night. We found a pleasant little campsite next to a stream, where fishing was free. Unfortunately it was probably free because of the lack of fish, (well that's my excuse anyway).

 

 

When we arrived at this site I asked the woman who was running the site if the wifi was good because we needed to try and sort out our insurance claim. She told us to try it before we decided to stay because it was a bit iffy. We dutifully tried it and got connected fairly easily though and paid our fees for the night, (very cheap too). She then said that if the wifi wasn't good enough, to come over to the house and use their private computer. That's service for you!

 

We managed OK with the regular wifi though, although getting a reply from our insurer proved difficult until we sicced Jess onto them. No messing about after that, the claim form and contact details came through PDQ!

 

 

That's all for this post. It's on to Oslo on the morrow and a couple of days in the capital.