18 September 2002 - Will they make it.... Part 2
Tuesday. Only 650 miles to Bergen, so that's alright then.

Skipping breakfast, we left Mosjoen as soon as possible - it was still morning even! A quick look over the maps and we decided to ignore the suggested route that would take us down the coast, in favour of the straighter route through the mountains. The 8 or 9 ferries we would need to follow the coast road would hold up our progress far too much. And on the map, our route was straighter. Really, it was. On the map anyway. And it looked like quite a good road.

On the map.

After a brief discussion as to just how likely it was that the Norwegians would extradite us over a speeding ticket (40mph limit on a long straight dual carriageway. Silly place for a camera.) we continued heading south on the road to Hell.

Hell wasn't that interesting. We couldn't even find a sign that said 'Welcome to Hell' for the obligatory, if not predictable, photo opportunity. So we continued driving.

At 4:30pm, we were still about 470 miles from Bergen - the last 180 miles had taken almost 6 hours. Things were beginning to look a little tricky, albeit in a slightly predictable way. And then we found it. Finally, the 'IR moment' was upon us! Sun streaking through the clouds, over a glacier littered valley 3000 ft up in the mountains. Screeching to a halt in a lay-by (near some scree), Al rattled through the film whilst Dan fought off a load of particularly nasty Norwegian bugs. There's every possibility that the pictures may even come out, although given the fantastic display of ineptitude demonstrated in the last ten days emails, you would be forgiven for assuming the worst. We certainly have.

Through the villages in central Norway, we noticed a large increase in the number of things with grass on the roof. Things that wouldn't normally need a roof, had grass on the roof. Notice boards, road signs, petrol stations - all with little lawns up top. Previously we had assumed it was as insulation, but it was beginning to look suspiciously like anti 'Big Brother' paranoia - the whole place must be invisible from the air!

As the sun began to set (stunningly, as per usual - fjords, mountains, reflections etc. Almost boring now...) we realised the journey was becoming somewhat epic. Maybe people will retrace our steps in years to come, as they have done with all the other famous and daring adventurers. Maybe not.

Shooting down a road, towards what was going to be the hardest and final stage of the journey, Dan managed to pick up our second police escort of the trip. Hiding craftily behind a tree, our Norwegian Politi friend pulled out as soon as we shot through the valley. Admittedly we were probably the fastest vehicle through there in the last few years... Dropping back down to the required 20mph (arrgh!) we let our new friend overtake us and lead through the valley into the town. Schoolboy error - as we approached a roundabout, Dan indicated right before changing at the last minute and heading left. From in front, our friendly boys in blue swallowed the bait and pootled off in the wrong direction, as the dynamic duo chuckled quietly and set off on the next mountain road. Dan accused Al of being just a little too devious, but hey - it worked!

Over the next 10 miles, we rose from sea-level to over 5000 feet, up the most ridiculously hair-pinned road we had yet seen. Straight up the side of a mountain, we moved forward by less than 2 miles, even though we had covered about 10 miles of road! Once on top the 'road' was simply marked out by sticks as we made our way straight across a glacier and along the snow covered ridge above Storevatne. As entertaining as the road was to drive, we covered very little distance over the next hour and a half, as the roads wrapped around the sides of the mountains in a series of hair-pins. Well aware of how much fun Dan was having, Al insisted on taking over for the route down to the fjord crossing we had ahead of us. The smell of the brakes and the clouds of smoke billowing from the front of the car as we changed driver provided some amusement and a little warning (dan, for a moment, thought it was all over as he reached for the fire extinguisher...) - these roads were quite punishing for any car, let alone one driven by us! Taking it easy on the way down, we shot through another few miles of tunnel to the fjord crossing, well aware that we had reached it several hours behind schedule and unsure as to whether the ferry would even be running at 11pm.

Fortunately it was. Much later, and we would have had to camp there for the night (which obviously wasn't an option) as the other road round the coast started at a junction almost 80 miles behind us. A 40 minute break on the deck of the ferry and we reached the other side at about midnight. 14 hours solid, and still almost 200 miles left. Who's stupid idea was this anyway?

The rest of the journey to Bergen consisted of more very long tunnels with mind altering blue caverns (video to prove this rather strange phenomenon will be posted on the site soon) every few kilometers (21km being the best one so far), a lot of twisty fjord-following roads and a lot of rather slow progress. Fortunately, we did find the only other driver in Norway who could drive at above 40 mph (and who knew the roads) so progress was aided a little bit by following the most demonically driven 'Rascal' van in the northern hemisphere.

We reached Bergen at about 3am and checked straight into the most expensive hotel in the town. Admittedly, this time it was the only one we could find that seemed to be open. Around 17 hours of driving, we were knackered. We were, however, only a mile from where our ferry sailed from in about 5 hours time - and were as surprised as you that we'd made it. All we had to do now was wake up in time to get on the damn thing...

More soon....

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