More From Norway – Heading South

Norway – What Do We Think So Far?

Well we have been here nearly a month so we thought we would give you a bit of an overview of our time here so far.

Most of you have probably heard that Norway is very expensive – we can tell you that it is pretty frightening if you want to go to the pub or go out for a nice meal, just expensive for general supermarket shopping and amazingly cheap for mooring the boat – all in all quite a contrast in prices.

Beer (lager or cider only) in supermarkets is about £7 per litre or £3.50 for a standard can, even if you buy it by the case.  Anything stronger than lager, such as wine and spirits, can only be bought in government off-licences and we have not ventured into one yet (we have only seen one).  We have been told that an average wine is about £12-15 per bottle, so generally about 3 times what we would pay in the UK.

Restaurant prices are eye-wateringly expensive – a main course will be around £40.00, an average wine about £40 per bottle, 1/2 pint glass of lager about £7 and we did see one place with bottles of real ale such as Spitfire, Hobgoblin, Pedigree etc at around £20 per bottle!!!!  These prices do not seem to guarantee 5 star quality and service, this is your average High Street Chain.

Supermarket prices are not quite as daft with basics such as potatoes, bread and eggs costing about the same as corner shop prices in the UK or 1.5 times brand prices in supermarkets.  There is nothing like Aldi or Lidl here, the discount supermarkets all seem to be the same prices as any other shops.  Most supermarkets have a very good range available so getting hold of anything you might want is quite easy.  All supermarkets seem to sell ready cooked frozen prawns in shell by the kilo, you just shovel what you want into a bag from the big box in the freezer, these seem to be a bargain at £1.50 per kilo but we have not tried any yet.

It is a good job we stocked the boat with food and drink before we left Scotland as we have not really needed to buy anything other than basic provisions so far.

Mooring fees for the boat are in complete contrast to everything else, varying from free to £15 per night in the city centre of Stavanger, mostly it is £8-10 per night including electric.  Lots of places have honesty boxes where you put your money in an envelope and then into a post box (we seem to have a lot of trouble finding these boxes).  We are currently in a lovely little harbour called Rekefjord that has a nice wooden quayside with picnic tables, electric points, water and brand new toilet/shower block – here there is no charge at all for visiting boats, yes that is correct, all for free.  Can you imagine that happening in the UK?  For you non-boaties UK prices for overnight mooring for Nimrod are about £20 in smaller more remote harbours around the Irish Sea and West Scotland Areas, bigger marinas would be around £30-40, Dun Lauogharie near Dublin around £80 per night!!!  The South Coast of the UK would all be in the £40-80 range for us, so you can see how cheap Norway is.  Apparently as we go further South the charges get a bit higher with £20 per night being about average.

Rekefjord Harbour	Remote Anchorage – Anchored with Bridle on Bows, Stern Lines Ashore

Obviously with such a spectacular coastline as Norway there are also innumerable places where we can anchor for free in almost total peace and shelter, so we will be using the anchor a bit more as we go South.  Very common over here is using a stern anchor and then running lines from the bows to the shore, lots of places even have rings screwed into the rocks for these lines.  We tend to use our main anchor and then have lines from the Stern.  A large percentage of Norwegian boats have a proper stern anchor set-up complete with roller arm, windlass and chain locker so this method of mooring is then easy-peasy.

Finally the scenery is every bit as stunning and jaw dropping as the travel brochures and programmes would have you believe.  The areas we have explore so far are all very green if there is any soil for the vegetation to grow in or it is steep and rocky cliffs to the sides of the fjords, lots of the country is forested with pine trees or scrub.  The Norwegians seem to put sheep or goats on practically any island and you can hear the bells around their necks whenever you are anchored.

Waterfalls and Misty Mountains, Sauda	Tanager Harbour – A Peaceful Morning

We have said before that the photos cannot really show the scale of the scenery, everything seems to be huge when you are sailing up the Fjords, especially when the Fjord is quite narrow with waterfalls seeming to fall out of the sky alongside the boat and roads appear to hang on the side of the cliffs like ribbons.

Sailing in the Fjords tends to be all or nothing, the wind either blows up or down the fjord normally from the direction you want to go!!! It is also quite gusty with the valleys and islands tending to funnel and accelerate the wind so it is quite entertaining at times.  We seem to go everywhere using one or other of our headsails because they are very easy to pull out or roll away depending on what the wind is doing, I don’t think we have even raised the mainsail since we got to Norway.  Depending on the wind speed we can sail at anything between 4 and 9 knots with just one of our headsails and this is fine when we are generally not going very far between stops.

The weather here has been a bit mixed so far – and yes we know you have been having a heat wave at home – some beautiful sunny days and others grey and wet.  When the sun does shine the scenery looks even more amazing with the air being crystal clear and the light seemingly brighter than we are used to.  On grey days it looks more like Scotland in the winter.  The other good thing is that we get about 20hrs of daylight at the moment so the sun does not set until well after 10pm so it is easy to make the best of the sunshine when we get it.

We have decided to start heading South down the coast away from the recognised Fjord areas towards the busier South Coast of Norway, here there are still lots of offshore islands protecting the coast and plenty of little harbours to explore.  Also the weather is a bit warmer and a bit more settled in the Skaggerak region between Norway, Sweden and Denmark so sunshine should be in greater supply than it has been so far!!! 

We are now heading down the exposed North Sea Coast between Tananger in the North and Lindesnes Point in the South, this section has very few safe harbours so we are keeping a close eye on the weather to make sure we get good conditions.  We are just over half-way down now, waiting in Rekefjord for better winds, the forecast says NW 10-12 knots for tomorrow so that should be good for making more progress.  A smaller monohull left this morning to go south with the forecast saying SE 14 incr 20knts, he was back about 40 mins later having got as far as the fjord entrance and deciding it was not a good idea – especially as he had his son on board who hates sailing in anything rougher than a bathtub.  Once we get past Lindesnes there are many more offshore islands to give us shelter and the coast starts to head more NE towards Oslo meaning we can sail happily in the normal SW winds.

Not sure where we are heading for yet, we may cross to Denmark (supplies, especially drinks, are much cheaper) or we could go to Sweden and down towards the Baltic area.  Not good making too many plans on a boat because the weather always decides to do something different.

Hi all Sue here

Well Captain Chris seems to have covered everything in his version so I will just add some drivel!!

Sorry to have to report ladies but those yellow buckets are still in use, not many laundry facilities available in the quieter places we have been staying in. Chris has managed to repair the one I split bless him so I have three in use now!!

Alcohol supplies are starting to run low and the cheap wine we brought with us to trade for fish with local fishermen doesn’t taste too bad with soda. To hell with the fish I’ve got lots of chicken in the freezer and my needs are greater!! Having said that Chris has caught lots of mackerel but I would prefer cod, he is still working on it and in the meantime the freezer is slowly filling up with mackerel!! I think we might have to lose a few overboard when he’s not looking. He did catch a big salmon the other day but I think casting your line into a fish farm might be cheating a bit!! I can always turn a blind eye though!!

I’m looking forward to getting further south to hopefully warmer climates as the weather has definitely been mixed here so far. We might even be able to afford to go to the pub!!

Finally, for anyone who might be reading this who hasn't got our email address, we have added a Contact Details page (click on link on left).  Feel free to pass on any comments or ask questions etc.

Visitors on Board !!!

As we said in our last post Sue’s sister Caroline and hubby Rich came to see us for a week.  It was great to have some company and we had a really busy week, did a lot of miles and a lot of walking, Rich did about 3 times as much as anybody else because he is trekking up Mt Kilimanjaro later this month so he was getting some serious training done

The weather was a bit mixed but fortunately the worst of the weather happened on the days we had to sail quite a distance, the days when we wanted to go exploring or chilling out were generally very nice.

We started in Hjellstad marina, just south of Bergen, and we set off almost as soon as Caroline and Rich got on board.  We motored through calm seas in patchy sunshine to a little village called Uskedalen, the scenery on the way was beautiful with hardly any other boats on the water.  Uskedalen is in the huge Hardangerfjord that is over 80 miles long from the open sea, we were only about 25 miles up the fjord in a smaller sub-fjord, it was almost impossible to imagine the main fjord going on for another 60 miles!!!

Uskedalen, Hardangerfjord	A Calm Evening in the Fjords

Next day was an early start but only about 20 miles to get to Sundaal, a bit further up the Fjord in another sub-branch – this place was recommended to us by Paddy & Jill off Blackjack so we expecting great things.  It was another flat calm day so more motoring, but the fjords looked wonderful in the crystal clear light – the photos really do not do it justice.  We walked from the boat up into the mountains to a lake with a glacier heading down into it, the glacier used to come all the way down into the lake but now it melts before it gets anywhere near, it was well worth the walk though.  We met a very interesting local man at the lake who told us about a man who lived in a cave by the lake to avoid working – sounds a bit extreme.  Rich decided he needed to walk a bit further as part of his training so the rest of us headed back to the boat, Rich returned about 4hrs later having hiked all the way up to the snowline and back.

Sundaal Lake with Glacier Behind	Richard Finds Snow in the Mountains

The next couple of days were a bit grey and miserable but we needed to make some progress South towards Stavanger.  Thurs 24th was a long day from Sundaal to Haugesund covering about 55miles in 8 hours, down the Hardangerfjord and out into the North Sea before getting back into the shelter of the offshore islands at Haugesund.  Although it was grey and miserable there was not much wind so the seas were pretty calm, when we got to the end of the Fjord it was really misty and drizzly with visibility down to about a mile.  I thought the best option was to take the route close inshore down to Haugesund to avoid the bigger shipping in the grotty visibility, unfortunately they all seemed to want to use the same route so we had five different large ships passing less than half a mile from us, the AIS system we have on board is brilliant in these conditions.  The AIS picks up data transmissions from most big ships and our on-board navigation system calculates how close they are going to get and how long till they get there so it is much easier to make sure we all avoid each other.  Unfortunately a lot of boats do not have AIS such as most pleasure boats, smaller fishing boats and some others, so we still have to keep a sharp lookout for all these boats as well.

Next day we had about 30 miles to cover to get to Jorpeland, but first we had to go under the bridge in Haugesund, we are 20m high and the bridge was 22m and it always looks like we are never going to make it when you look up from the deck but we got through OK.  We did manage a couple of hours sailing on this bit instead of the usual chug chug from one engine or the other.  Jorpeland is a small town with a nice harbour and a large shopping centre to stock up with supplies.

Saturday we were heading up one of Norway’s most well know attractions, Pulpit Rock or Priekestolen (look it up on the Internet) so we were hoping for nice weather but it was grey and cloudy with the forecast saying it should clear up later.  We caught the 0900 bus and set off with backpacks for the hike up to Pulpit Rock at 605m above Sea Level, the start at the car park is 300m above SL so it is a long way up.  The guide books tell you it is a 2hr hike with some steep climbs and some more level sections – they are a bit economical with the truth!!!  It is a hard hike with some very steep scrambles over very rocky ground up stream beds and around cliff edges, definitely needing boots yet a few people we saw were wearing little more than ballet shoes!!!  The grey skies and low cloud were a bit of a blessing because it kept the temperature down and it also meant you couldn’t really see how high and steep the path in front was – it would have been very hard work on a hot summers day.

Intrepid Adventurers on the Edge of Pulpit Rock	The View over Lysefjord from Near the Top

The low cloud meant we did not have the best of views from the top but it was still worth the strenuous walk to get there, the cloud started clearing as we headed down and the views were amazing over the fjord and surrounding mountains.  Going down was almost as hard as the climb up, the steep rocky sections were slippery and dangerous if you didn’t take your time.  Even worse was the people coming the other way because it is a very narrow track so passing on some sections is not easy, especially when some people are not going to stop for anyone or anything.  It was not too busy while we were there, it really would be chaos in the peak summer season with hundreds of people on the track.

We all made it safe and sound apart from some sharp words from the girls because we headed off to the top without waiting for them, we didn’t make the same mistake on the way down!!  We got back on the bus and headed back to the boat just as the skies cleared properly and the sun came out – typical.

We set off as soon as we got back on board heading up the Lysefjord to Lysebotn right at the top end of the fjord.  Lysefjord is about 20 miles long and very narrow with sheer cliffs reaching up to 1000m high in some places.  We passed underneath Pulpit Rock on our way up the fjord and it is an awful long way up when you are sailing under it.  Towards the top of the fjord are the Kjerag cliffs at over 1000m high with a rock called Kjeragbolten wedged in a gap between two cliffs right at the top, we could just about see it from the bottom.  As we headed past the cliffs we saw some parachutists and realised that a group of base jumpers were actually jumping off the top of the cliffs – it was enough to make you feel faint just watching them.

We got to Lysebotn and found out that it was a 4 day festival for base jumpers from all over the world, we spoke to an American and a Kiwi, they had organised a helicopter to ferry them up to the top instead of having to hike there.  The next day Richard did hike (more training) all the way up to where they were jumping from and he said it was quite amazing up there, especially the people wanting to stand on top of the wedged rock Kjeragbolten (Google it!), it took him about 7hrs round trip but the rest of us decided we needed to stay and look after the boat, after all we are not climbing Kilimanjaro.

Pulpit Rock From Below	Looking up Lysefjord to Lysebotn

All too soon, it seemed, we needed to head to Stavanger for Caroline and Richard to catch their flights home.  We headed back down the Lysefjord and it was just as impressive as going up, the sun shone again so the light was perfect.  Managed a bit more sailing towards Stavanger, but the last hour the wind really picked up to well over 20knts gusting towards 30knts as Stavanger Harbour came into sight.  It is a very busy harbour, we had over 70 ships showing on our AIS tracker, with ferries, cargo boats, oil rig support and huge cruise liners all using the harbour.  We looked into the first Guest Harbour area and decided it was not really made for catamarans so we headed round to the Guest area in the main Harbour area (Vagen) and tied up behind Grand Mistral, a 800ft cruise liner.  We were right in the middle of the main bar and restaurant area and there was also an international beach volleyball tournament taking place alongside the harbour, Rich and I did check out the skills of a couple of the ladies teams.

Rich and Caroline Just Leaving	Captain Chris and Admiral Sue, Stavanger

Our last night together was a trip to a local Thai Restaurant courtesy of Rich and Caroline followed by a few drinks on the back of the boat people watching Stavanger at night.  Lots of people about even for a Monday night.  Up early next day for Rich and Caroline to catch the 0630 bus to the airport, the week had gone so quickly it seemed like they had only just arrived. 

After the hectic week with Rich and Caroline we have now slowed down and are just pottering around in the Islands and Fjords to the North East of Stavanger, collectively known as Ryfylke.  We are going to spend a few days here because the weather forecast at the moment is predicting mainly Southerly quadrant winds and we want to head South – what a surprise.  Anyway there is plenty to see and do in this area so we are not too worried.  It seems that the south of Norway is the main holiday area for the Norwegians and prices go up even higher than normal – yikes, it is bad enough at “normal” prices, so we might just visit a few places down the coast before heading across to Sweden.

Hi all Sue here

As Chris has said our week with my sister and hubby passed all too quick, it was lovely having them on board and we all had a great time. Much eating and drinking was done as you can imagine!!

Our hike up pulpit rock was very challenging more so as the men had gone on ahead complete with rucksacks containing all the food and drink!! I don’t know what we must have looked like to other well equipped hikers, Caroline with her little handbag containing her camera and me with a small bottle of water!! As the hike got steeper and more difficult there was much muttering done about caring husbands!! The worst thing was we kept imagining them sitting on the top eating all our lovingly prepared ham rolls!! Fortunately for them they did wait for us to get there before starting on the food, although Chris did admit later they had given it some thought as they were starving when they got to the top. The descent down was just as hard and in a few places it was easier to slide down the bigger bolders on your bum. When you have short legs you have to resort to other means at times!! I must admit it was well worth the climb but don’t feel the need to do it again!!

Lyseffiord was amazing and we sailed past Pulpit rock, I couldn’t believe how high it was and to think I had sat up there with my legs dangling over the edge, foolish woman!! Then further down the ffiordd we saw the base jumpers, they have got to be quite mad. We got talking to a few of them later, Americans, who told us base jumping is banned in America and so they have to come to Norway to do it.

Stavanger was very busy and buzzing with life, it made a change from the peace and quiet of the ffiords. It’s just a shame it is so expensive here, £6 for half a lager which isn’t even decent lager and if you go for a meal in a restaurant a main meal is around £25 and a bottle of wine £30. I must admit that is one thing I miss here not being able to just go to the pub and socialise. Look out everyone, when I get back it will be party time!!

So far we seem to be the only English boat here and definitely the only catamaran. There’s a lot of Polish sailing boats here but the Norwegians seem to favour power boats. We have been told as we head to Sweden and Denmark we will come across more English boats. We can only pick up Norwegian radio and I’m finding myself singing along to some of their adverts, very worrying especially as I have no idea what they are about!! One is to the tune of “old macdonald had a farm”.

We are on our way to Sauda now which is meant to be quite a busy place and has a couple of large waterfalls which Chris wants to walk up, can’t wait!! At least he might walk with me this time, perhaps I should carry the food.