The Stryn river.

The drive from the Stryn Kiwi Mini Pris to the cabins at the Geirangerfjorden Feriesenter is only 77 kilometres. Far shorter than other drives I've done so far on this trip. But not many have been this memorable.

We finished loading up with food; Salad, bread, sausages, tuna, yoghurt, corn chips and salsa. We left town, passing the cafe we'd had our first real coffee at, and following the meandering Stryneelva river which is not much of a sight from the ground, but in the air the curves look pretty cool. (I saw a picture of it in the window of a house on Bruagrenda (Bridge Alley) on the walk to go get that coffee.) I tried to take a similar photo myself earlier in the morning, but couldn't find a track up the hill. I did take this one from as high as I got.

We kept driving through the valley towards some not so distant mountains. A little bridge moves the Rv15 from the north to the south of the river, right as the waters open up into the long and wide Oppstrynsvatnet, whose dark surface reflect dark skies and ripples in the wind. Clouds hang just above the tops of the snowy mountains.

There are lots of good rest areas on the side of the road to stop at and admire this, but all the ones with benches were taken. We stopped briefly at a glacier museum with a small garden out the back, but they wanted to charge us to eat there and we didn't want to look at the garden when the mountains were so spectacular and visible from everywhere on the road, so we kept driving.

The distant mountains became so close that we were suddenly driving on switchbacks and the urge to pull over for more photos hit me. Around the next bend was a rocky outlook over a dark valley with just a few streaks of light piercing the clouds. And of course it had a picnic table, which was empty and waiting for us.

Hjelledalen utsiktspunkt

After food, the road continued to climb with another switchback, followed by a long tunnel. It was obvious we were on an incline, but I did not expect to emerge into rocky snow land, submerged in the clouds, with smattering of houses because of course people live there.

It was at this point I started having concerns about the amount of charge in the car's battery. I had not topped up in Stryn because I was paying for a charger that night and the rate was the same no matter how drained the battery was. When I had started driving we'd had range of over 200km, so this wasn't totally motivated by thriftiness. But I hadn't expected the steepness.

We entered a second tunnel, with more incline, and came out even higher - right among the snowy peaks. It was a winter wonderland. Absolutely pure white and amazingly beautiful and unfortunately not a very good place to run out of car battery. It was hard to enjoy the scenery because the battery kept dropping lower and lower and the friendly message to "plug into a charger soon" distracted me from the frozen lakes and icy mountains.

Somehow, despite feeling like we were on the peak of the alps, the road kept rising and the battery kept dropping. We turned off all the systems and just drove and hoped.

Finally, at last, there was a sign warning of a decent length decline and the little blue charge line on the dash switched to the good side. As we descended, the battery went up, and up again, and finally after a long way down without stopping for any photos I felt comfortable enough to stop for a look-see. There was a little, flat spot with some huts beneath a mountain. What made this sight so particularly surreal other than its picturesque beauty was that it was evident that we were still quite high up a mountain.

There was also a bus stop there.

After that, the decent resumed along with the recharging and we left behind mountain fantasy land and hit more switchbacks and the descent into Geiranger. A cruise ship was in port at the time, and the winding roads were packed with tourists in big groups which gave me an excuse to drive quite slowly and enjoy the way the town had been built up the mountainside.

We finally reached the cabins, by that point with over 10% of the battery now available again. We checked in to another place to sleep with an amazing view of nature. After some downtime, and staring at the fjord, I cooked some sausages and we had enough energy in both our bodies and the car to do the waterfall hike.

View from the shores by the cabin. Hard to convey in a static image how enormous the landscape is.

Goats on the way to the waterfall. Later saw a dog that reminded me of Nash devouring goat poops.

Finally, after that, the cabin staff helped me get the charger working and I put myself to bed for the same purpose - to have enough energy for another day of getting up and down this spectacular landscape.

It finally rained in Norway. We put on our winter jackets. I worked out how to use the Bosch coffee pod machine and filled my Circle K cup. We drove along the fjord to Loen and then into the valley towards Lovatnet.

I think the original plan back in Adelaide had been to do hiking on the Lodalen path, but I made the mistake of trusting the first result All Trails had for Lovatnet which met our distance/elevation/challenge criteria. So we ended up parking at the north-west end of the lake and walking along a fire/logging track for a great distance. Near the start we walking through a little Norwegian village very much asleep in the mist up a hill. We continued following the trail which was for the most part lined on both sides by trees and with only glimpses of the lake. But there were good glimpses, including a very convenient bench on which to sit and eat cereal and yogurt, with very good timing because after that the rain fell harder.

We followed the trail to where All Trails said that it ended - which wasn't true. We might have been able to follow it all the way to Lodalen, but that was very far away. There was one water crossing that was a bit of adventure to hop over.

After the walk back, we drove to Olden for more jacket shopping, along with beanies and moose-themed neck warmers. Then went back to Stryn for lunch, more ice-cream cake (wearing new jackets), and during a relaxing afternoon I drank the first of my regional beers.

Later on we made some dinner, then went out for an evening stroll up the hill that the apartment was on. Some walking trails went further up into the forest there, but we just stretched the legs while it wasn't raining. It was a good day for relaxing.

The most enduring impression I have of the Briksdal glacier is that of total immersion, like I was inside a snow globe of natural beauty, right in the centre. In this analogy, the dome was inverted and instead of snow it was sun that spilled around the tops of the mountains and highlighted the rocks and fronds and the splash of water.

There was of course still snow, up on the top of the rock as the glacier hung onto the grey rock that we had been walking towards since our meal of sausages, corn, vegetable sticks and hummus at the carpark.

From there we travelled a gravel path that followed a river of the clearest, bluest water. It wound past waterfalls, mossy stone, pottholes, and other geological nooks. We saw the signs - figuratively and literally - of the glacier's historical spread. The retreated ice was now high up the mountains, and trickling via another waterfall into a lake where the trail ended. The late spring sunlight made it all glow.

It was another beautiful place to see and take in after a simple dinner and a fjord-side drive.

The morning was a chilly one. Vanessa walked to Skei (Icelandic man taught me to pronounce it - shkeh. I picked her up from the Circle K. We returned to the lake for breakfast and another visit to the church.

Then we drove back to Skei to buy picnic supplies and drove under the blue sky following the Stardalselva waters that led us through the green valley towards a little lake with a nice view of the mountain Eggenipa. Technically it was too early for lunch, but we still ate after I finished my coffee

Then we drove on over some more mountains with a brief stop to climb up some rocks to look over the valley. Before we descended we reached the Skjørbakkane Utsiktspunkt. Another impressive vantage point at which to eat food, probe for any kind of short trail to stretch the legs, take some photos, and then drive onwards.

The rest of the way to Stryn was also nice. We drove through Olden and Loen and stopped briefly to check out the jacket sales. One advantage of visiting Scandinavia at the end of spring is the large discounts on the heavy duty winter-wear. Good timing for me who will have to return to Adelaide for actual winter in only a couple more weeks. The arctic circle may also be chilly...

We found Stryn, did a food shop at the local Coop which included two half litre craft beers named after Loen and Olden, and another ice-cream log cake. Then we checked into the Air BNB which was a beautiful, old apartment with two bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a balcony overlooking the fjord. Yes we did have to carry a suitcase up a few flights of stairs, but it was worth it.

We drove back, passed some cows chilling in splendour, then did some damage to the ice-cream log cake.

Sunrise in Kinsarvik is about 4:45am, and the sun sinks into the North Sea west of Bergen close to 10:30pm. With barely a cloud in the sky, that is a long day to be drinking, however that is what all the folks in their traditional finery seemed to be doing. The streets around Vågen were packed with happy, chattering people and a plethora of Norwegian flags. Further along down the alleys groups gathered around tables and makeshift grills, soaking up relentless evening sun and sometimes singing. Occasionally the ambience was interrupted by the faint whine of an electric engine as tyres traverse cobblestone streets.

The morning started with taking in the sunrise over the fjord, the very unexpected boom of some 7am fireworks, and a large breakfast including my first taste of brown cheese (pretty good with eggs) and of wreath cake. There were many flags.

I grabbed a bit of this almond cake on my way back for extra pancakes.

Loaded up on food, we drove along the water towards Odda where the light sparkled once more on waters, snow-capped mountains, old churches, and apple orchards. And flags.

It's the simple things in life that make me happy, and I've written previously about how the first coffee of the day brings a euphoric focus to my moment in the present, doing this while hugging the winding lanes of the tourist road under a blue sky was peak coffee experience.

After some tunnels we reached Bondhusdalen - translated: Farmhouse Valley. We hiked into the valley along a path that took us past a vibrant blue lake and then up a forest slope to a very dry plateau that showed signs of being very wet at other times of the year. Into the valley, I didn't see any signs of a farmhouse other than a stacked rock wall which was probably a thousand years old. The rest of the landscape was dated by millennia. Ancient forest and towering, rocky mountain faces and the dust of ancient boulders beneath our boots. Along with hikers sporting Norwegian flags. And dogs (also sporting flags).

After the hike we drove to Bergen, including the first two ferries of the road trip, and many more winding roads. Nearly every shop was closed, but we did crash a community get together in a small town shopping mall where I devoured a kebab before we continued on.

After so much travel, nature, and wide open spaces, the transition to a Bergen downtown clearly many hours into the party was jarring, but once adapted and we'd explored beyond the nucleus of the revelry into was easier to soak up the atmosphere from a respectable distance. In an Australian equivalent, Constitution Day would be a combo of Australia Day (over exuberant national pride) and Melbourne Cup day (getting drunk in fancy clothes). Except Australia lacks the equivalent of the first days of sunshine after months of darkness and snow that precedes it.

Bergen is a very pretty town, and I envy the sense of community it exhibited on this day, among the colourful wooden houses and charming lanes. We went to bed as the sun was setting, and I was startled again by booming fireworks around 11pm as I drifted off to sleep.

Rock, water, logs.

There has not been a museum or art gallery in sight on this trip so far. Human history and culture has a place, but after 2023's tour of Roman stones and baby Jesuses, I made a conscious decision to make Norway 2025 a holiday dedicated to nature. This morning I sat on a boulder, eating fruit and nut muesli with yoghurt, watching the sunlight filter over the mountains to light up the fjords. On the drive back to Aurland I briefly shared the road with a tribe of goats.

We then drove from Aurland to Kinsarvik, stopping to eat chicken sandwiches at your average Norweigan rest stop featuring a raging blue river, mountains, waterfalls and trees. Vanessa clambered down to put her feet in the water which I was not brave or motivated enough to do.

The rest of the drive featured many tunnels - one with a roundabout in it - and a cool bridge. We also stopped at Circle K for coffee and a bolle.

Kinsarvik is a small town on a big fjord. We ate an early dinner of more chicken and salad from the local Spar, then drove up the hill to follow a trail along a gushing river.

At the base of a massive waterfall was a power-plant. We followed the pipe up to the top, taking in a second waterfall and even more trees, rocks, and water.

After returning back to the car and hotel, some 20,000 steps stepped and many of them over unstable rocks, we needed more fuel and so we devoured an ice-cream log cake.

Based on the current forecasts, it will have rained less than 20mm between the January day I bought tickets to Norway and the day my plane takes off this month.

This means that after a regular summer, and an autumn summer, I'll be experiencing a European summer. Albeit one likely to feature more rain. And more sun.

I conquered my first peak of May this morning, hopefully more to come.

Was pretty warm on the way up and down. Drove around this evening with every window down.

We have hung all the photos on the walls in the new house. There was some rationale for which canvas went where, but not that much thought went into it.

At the top of the staircase now hangs a panorama from Tom, Dick and Harry in Oregon. I took it on a nice day in 2019. Six kilometers of hiking through forest, a long neck of PNW IPA in my stomach. No pain anywhere (I'm sure...)

More recently I've been concentrating on activating my glutes more when I take steps to try and help the ankle pain. The most common place to do this has been on the staircase at home.

Now when I walk up the stairs to the view of treetops and sky and distant peaks it feels like I've walked up a mountain.

Another year of enriching family traditions.