After a lovely evening the night before, we all woke refreshed and ready to leave the main continent and make our way to Norway. Janni and Michael extended their fantastic hospitality and made us all breakfast. Warm rolls with Jam and pancakes, just what you need to set you up for the day.

Sadly it was time for us to say goodbye and try and catch a ferry to Norway. I can’t thank Janni and Michael enough for their generosity and hospitality. We had a fantastic time and can’t wait to see you all again.

Our next stop was meant to be the port at Hirtshals, but we got a little distracted by a lighthouse we had heard about. We decided to stop and take a walk up to it but we hadn’t expected the sand dunes that awaited us, or the wind. The lighthouse was definitely worth the slight detour. Since the sixties when the lighthouse ceased operating, the Danes had tried to protect the lighthouse and its associated buildings from the shifting sands but in 2002 this ceased. All that remains is the tower itself and bricks from the outer buildings strewn across the sand, moved only by nature.

By the time we made it back to the car, complete with mouthfuls of sand, we had missed the next ferry to Norway. This didn’t matter that much as it gave us the opportunity to find the port and book our tickets and do some last minute supply shopping. We had a few hours to wait so we wandered around the town. It was a small town but it had a variety of shops for us to peruse around and some bizarre sculptures.

We managed to find a sports shop which stocked full length compression socks, which were hastily purchased for John. His leg had still not reduced in size so we were hoping these may help. John’s leg was the main reason we changed our route slightly. We were originally going to use the ferry from Federikshaven to Oslo, but this would have meant a long drive from Oslo to Stavanger, our planned route. Now we were catching the ferry from Hirtshals to Kristiansand, a 3hrs 15mins crossing which would save John from driving several hours. Our friend Matt was now in Norway and on his way past Oslo and had decided to meet us in Kristiansand.

We had soon finished our supply shopping so headed down to the port to wait for our ferry. The ferry wasn’t due to leave until later that evening so we waited in the sun whilst the wind started to pick up. The previous evening Michael had warned us that a storm was due. Neither Clare or John were particularly pleased about this but there wasn’t much they could do, we all just needed to brace ourselves for a choppy crossing. 

Later that evening we were allowed to board the ferry. There didn’t appear to be that many vehicles on our crossing, but most were either motorhomes or a car/motorbike towing a caravan. Seems Norway is a popular destination for tourers. When we booked the tickets for the ferry we were asked if we wanted to reserve seating. We declined the option as we’ve never had a problem getting a seat on a ferry before, however, in Scandinavia there aren’t that many seats on a ferry. After several trips around the swaying boat we eventually found somewhere to sit together, in amongst the teenagers returning back to Norway.

On board, there were magazines for duty free. During our previous travels, the duty free magazines were always full of offers to buy alcohol, perfume, tobacco or gifts. Heading to Norway, the magazine pages were full of offers for Coca Cola, Red Bull, meat, cheese, sweets and clothes. What had we let ourselves in for. The teenagers we were sat between were buying crates of Coca Cola. It was slightly shocking.

The boat was moving around quite a lot in the wind. John and Clare didn’t move much from their seats but did join me for a quick wander around. I do have to admit that the bottles in the duty free clanked a bit more than they do on the Dover to Calais crossing. I think they were both relieved to hear all the passengers being called to their cars, their  torment was now over. The ferry crew disembarked everyone fairly quickly and we were soon on Norwegian soil heading out of the port to the campsite. It was past midnight and we had no idea if we would get into the campsite or not. 

The main road out of the town was closed for maintenance so our half hour journey suddenly became nearly 2 hours due to all the waterways we needed to cross or go around. We did eventually make it and luckily for us, there was somebody on duty who was able to check us in and tell us where we could pitch our tent. 

Finally we could get to sleep, it had turned into a long day.