After a hot night in a cramped cabin, we were rescued by a good traditional Swedish breakfast. Luckily Jowan's comment on the caviar of "Why would anyone eat that?" was taken in good humour by our host!
We set off, with reminders to everyone to go into wildlife spotting mode. Only 20 minutes went by before excited shouts of "MOOSE! MOOSE! MOOSE!". Luckily it was a safe moose, happily mooching about in a field, rather than a swerve the car type of spotting! The next few hours were not so good for moose, although Emily thought she saw another one. However we did spot other traditional Swedish creatures such as alpacas, and a couple of ostriches... Surrounded by amazing scenery and Volvos, with ABBA and Ace of Base on the radio, there was only one place we could be!
A break in the 6 hour trip came on a detour for fuel, with discovering some iron age rock carvings. Carved around 2500 years ago into granite, they have lasted well, but modern air pollution is threatening to degrade them now.
Our host had advised a shopping trip before reaching Norway, as the prices could double. Our first Swedish supermarket was quite exciting, and Google translate was put to good use. We did well to actually come out with a meal or two amongst the Swedish speciality goodies.
Moving on towards the border, we found a nice lunch stop by the road, with picnic tables by a river. After lunch, we walked over the bridge in search of the nearby waterfall. We could see from the small trickle that Sweden has had a dry spell - we found out that there are even water saving measures in some areas, despite it seeming that Sweden is full of lakes.
It was not far from there to the border, and the road to Oslo changed from following the river, to following the sea inlet. The surrounding cars also changed from Volvos to electric. Norway's policy of no import duty or VAT on electric cars has resulted in a third of new cars being the quiet type, and with the majority of power supplied by hydroelectric, they seem to be leading the way.
Reaching the hostel in the suburbs of Oslo provided some navigating challenges. We accidentally took a toll road, and then the road to the hostel was closed due to road works. A stroll after tea and work/school towards a lake led us to building work, and more road works blocking the way, including a new tunnel being dug in the general direction of under our hostel! We ended up walking along the river instead, with both dogs and people swimming in it - understandable when the temperatures here hit 29 degrees today. I'm sure someone told me to bring warm clothes to Scandinavia!
Published on Thursday 7 June 2018
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