A Norwegian Coast Summer Roadtrip
West Coast: 27/05-01/05

Since a few weeks it feels a little bit like summer here in Kristiansand. Time to wear shorts and play beach volley. One week off while the other half of the class was on the Fjord to Sea Trip seemed like the perfect time to start a little roadtrip along the west coast.
Ronja – my little T4 van – was packed with food and good mood.
We did not plan anything except that we want to have some chill days at the beach, a little bit of hiking and visiting Preikestolen on Thursday (to have enough time to be back in Kristiansand latest Sunday).

We started driving west and stopped whenever we wanted to have a rest, a coffee or to stretch our legs. On Lista beach we spend some hours in the sun, behind the dune to be covered from the wind. Later that evening we started a bonfire on the beach and cooked a soup in the fire with our fire pot. On the small parking spot we could park Ronja and spend the night with only one more camper next to us.

The next day the sun was out again and we went for a walk around Lista beach through the Havika fuglefredningsområde, next to the cliffs up to a small hill with a beautiful view over more beaches and the farmland in the back country.

After Lunch we drove further to visit Flekkefjord and Helleren i Jøssingfjord.

The second night we spent next to Ogna on a parking spot next to grazing sheep. From there it was only an 1.5h drive to Preikestolen the next day.
We started our hike around midday and it took us less than 1.5h to reach the spectacular cliff above Lysefjord. The hike was really easy because the whole path was prepared and in a good condition. Surprisingly for me was that there were still some snow fields on the north side of the mountain.

Because it was cloudy in the back country we wanted to drive back to the coast into the sun. We spent the night next to Orrevatnet at the beach where we had an amazing sunset – the first one since ages where the sun settled above the ocean!

Friday we started to drive back east. On the way I realised how different everything along the route looks like when coming from the other direction. The destination for the day was Brufjellhålene.
we only arrived there in the afternoon but since it was still light we decided to go for the hike. First we went up to the little top Brufjellet 190m MSL and then all the way down to Brufjellhålene. The path down was really steep and exposed but metal steps and wires helped – a little via ferrata without security – I loved it! But not recommended when wet. Down there amazing by the sea shaved holes and rocks wated for us.

A late night soup from the fire and a little drive back to Lista beach to spent the last night in the van. This time the so empty parking slot from early the week was crowed with campers and vans (and we realised it is weekend). Nice that there are so many Norwegians who spent their weekends somewhere outside!

Thoughts, realisations and dynamics…

Here in Norway it was the first trip for me I only spent with ONE other person and not within a group of more. And as the two of us already spent a lot of time together, it was nothing new or special because we knew how the other person “works”. And it was also the first time we did not plan much beforehand and had no expectations at the same time.  We just wanted to get out of Kristiansand and enjoy the sun. When we started we just took all the food we could find in our fridges and cupboards. The van is always ready to start and already equipped with a camping cooker, kitchen tools and a water tank/canister. The days were planned by the mood, the road and everything we found on the way like for example discovering the area Jøssingfjord and Brufjellhålene (both we just found on the way). For us it worked out great! Without planning anything you can just stop wherever you think it is beautiful.

Because we are both really bad in decision making and most of the time don’t really care about “rather option one or two” we put a rule up: Each time we had to decide something, it was the turn of one of us to make the final decision and we swapped after each decision. Unless one of us really had an option about it.

During the trip I realised how far off in the year we already are – and how far north. Every evening I was surprised when I looked at the clock and it was already 10pm but still light as it was only early evening. The long summer nights were great for our trip because we never set an alarm, so we always had really calm morning before we started to go somewhere else but still could do a lot of hikes because there was still enough light in the evening.

A nice road trip with sun, beaches, bonfires and hiking! I highly recommend the Norwegian west coast to be visited!