The Living Daylights

The A-Ha theme continues...

Up bright and early, removing bowls and dishes of water from Jezebel. I think I got most of it. We were one of the first teams on the road, heading for Flam and it's famous railway. As we pulled away from Bratland Camping the drizzle eased off. Hoorah ! Apparently they have something like 220 days of rain a year here. 

There are many, many tunnels in this part of Norway. Lots of them several kilometres long. The final one brought us out close to Flam. There was a huge building like a block of luxury flats. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a cruise liner ! We couldn't see the water from where we were. 

The Flam railway is a branch line that rises from near sea level to 866 metres over a distance of 20km. Some of the steepest railway in the world, including tunnels and switchbacks. Quite possibly some of the most expensive railway too, but the views are amazing. 

There is even a 5 minute stop for photos at a waterfall on the way. 

We were wandering back towards Jezebel when we spotted some local oiks defacing Team Ollys vehicle. We bravely chased them off but not before the scoundrels had done their dreadful deed. 

Fearing that we would get the blame for this, we scarpered. 

The next tunnel, all 24km of it had strangely lit areas at regular intervals. 

With the impending England match, no time to hang around. Well, just enough time to pop out to Borgund to see the stave church. There are only 27 in the world, 25 of them in Norway. Built around 1200 apparently. 

And so, one last ferry. The chicken in wine cooking in the slow cooker bringing on the hunger pangs and kick off barely 90 minutes away, we rolled in to Kjornes Camping. A fjord side location, camping just a few metres from the water. 

Snow on the hills in the distance, warm sunshine and lapping water. Chicken devoured and beers located just in time for the football.

I revealed a little bit of route information before the football which had the teams deep in discussion. Today, being Thursday and Saturday being the longest day, we were now only a few hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle. During the planning, I had tried my best to include the Midnight Sun North of the Circle, but with the distances and so much to see in Norway, it wasn't quite feasible. However, it was still an option. A fairly tough, hard going option, but possible to do. 

During the football John was sat with his laptop, plotting and scheming. He found a route, but alas it was setting off first thing tomorrow to cover some distance and wouldn't allow any time for sightseeing on the way. Straight up to Trondheim for a night, up to the Circle, straight back on Sunday to link up with us again on Monday. 

7 of the teams chose to take on the challenge. Was I tempted ? Well, I could see the appeal. To say you have driven to the Arctic Circle is no mean feat. However, most importantly I was due to collect my wife Jo from an airport on Saturday evening too far south to get to the Circle by midnight. Secondly, there are many things to see and do around our next scheduled destination, Geiranger. Thirdly, the weather forecast is good for where we shall be on Saturday and rain further north. I really hope they get to see Midnight Sun and that the trip is worth doing. Always the way hey, never enough time to do all you want to do.