Day 12 Sauland to Lysebotn

Day 12 Sauland to Lysebotyn

We had a delicious breakfast at Lovheim Gjestehus, boiled egg, a selection of 3 different types of cold meat, slices of cheese, baby tomatoes and sliced cucumber, plus spreadable cheese.  There was cereal available too, plus a basket of bread which we could toast as required, and a selection of three yummy jams.  The coffee was really good, filtered and served in a flask, but hot and strong, just how we like it.

Once we’d eaten our fill, we schlepped all the luggage to the car, settled the bill and headed off by about 9.30.  We’d decided to go back to the Heddal stave church and have a look inside, and get some more photos with less people around. This cost 80 krona each, about $14 NZD. It was worth it, it was beautiful inside.

Once we were done with the oo’ing and ah’ing, we set off for Lysebotn, about a 4 and a half hour drive.  And what a drive it was.  The fact that it was only 239km and both Dora and google had estimated that length of driving time gives you an indication of the road.  It is only open in summer due to the snow on the peaks, as I discovered when I was first planning this trip.  We wound our way up and down several switch backs, and along very narrow roads, that really are only wide enough for one car.  The scenery varied, from lots of trees to lots of rocks, with tiny villages dotted about the place, often with grass rooves helping them to blend into the land around them.  Easy to imagine a troll appearing by the side of the road.  

The two photos above are representative of the scenery.

Below is where we stopped for a bite of lunch.  Yesterdays left over wilted lettuce & carrot followed by stale roll with peanut butter and jam.

It was a popular picnic spot, with families eating lunch and swimming in the river. 

There were sheep grazing beside the road, and sometimes on the road, and we had to wait patiently for one obstinate old girl to rattle her dags out of our way.  When we stopped for a photo shoot there were a couple of dozen sheep, milling around the parked cards.  One was particularly tame and had a good old lick of my hand.  They were wearing collars and bells, and tinkled gently as they mooched about.  

The open road speed limit was 80, but we rarely went that fast, and often had to pull over and stop to let cars past that were coming towards us.  There were occasional passing bays that provided space to pass, but  mostly it was a case of get as far to the right as you can without dropping your wheel over the edge.  Not a great photo taken thru the car windscreen, but you get the idea.

At one point, we saw a car and caravan reversing to allow another car and caravan to pass, but there was more entertainment to come.

We’d stopped at a rest area close to our destination, and to our amazement saw a pretty big truck heading up the hill from below us.  We watched him wind his way around the bends, and then things got really interesting.  

A car towing a caravan, a big wiiiide caravan, passed us going down hill, and we watched with interest as they met on the narrow road.  The car and caravan was pulled off as far as possible with both right hand wheels on the very edge of the tarseal, with about a 3 foot drop off the side.  He basically sat there and let the truck driver do the hard work of inching past him, heading uphill.  There must have been the width of a coat of paint between them, but they passed without clipping one another.  

As he passed us, we applauded the driver, and he acknowledged our praise with a nod and a smile.  I guess he is well practiced at this.

J is having some fun changing gear with his right hand.  He's grabbed the door handle a couple of times, and re-arranged 3rd gear about 3 times so far, with a nasty graunch each time.  I'm sure there is a trail of cog teeth behind us.  Climbing up one of the switch backs, we were in 2nd gear, and gutless wee monster was struggling, almost stalling and making really hard work of it.  I suggested we really needed to be in 1st, but in the frantic gear change, he muffed it and got 3rd by mistake.  We promptly stalled, which was not ideal.  Good practice for handbrake starts, also done with the right hand on the brake.  Driving on the wrong side of the road is the easy bit, it's all the things you do instinctively that are turned about that are so confusing.  We managed to get going again without rolling over the edge.

We arrived at our B & B for the night, a charming wee place set in the valley with enormous rock cliffs surrounding it on three sides.  

This is the view, our cabin is just in frame on the left

Our bed for the night

From here, we can see the last switch back that winds down to Lysebotn from the Kjerag car park, where we are heading tomorrow for the first of our “standing on rocks” walks.

We schlepped our stuff in from the car, and then drove the few kms to the village of Lysebotn.  Not much there, just a ferry dock, a camp site, and some hostel type accommodation and the equivalent of a dairy.  We bought some frozen bread, frozen cookies and muesli bars for our lunch on the hike tomorrow.  There was a place serving food from 6pm, so we wandered around until then, watched the ferry unload, reload and set off again (we’ll be catching this tomorrow at 6pm) and then went and had tea at the diner, and headed home again.