Traveling Northern Europe 4x4 Ep07: Rooftop Tent Camping Norway - Part 3

Description

Our six month journey through Europe up to Northern Scandinavian wilderness continues. This is part 3 of our travels through Norway. As we write this we are currently in the North of Sweden. In this episode we begin heading North West up along the West coast of Norway through the Fjords and into some truly stunning locations were we wild camp in out roof top tent. All is going well on the trip so far and we have avoided some of the tragic forest fires here in Sweden. One major change to our lives that has come from this trip is that we have started living in Sweden permanently in vasterbotten. It a beautiful and remote place surrounded by wilderness that we will over winter and then make a final decision on whether to live here for good next June. All will be revealed in the following episodes.

Thanks for watching and see you soon. Mike & Meg.

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Video Transcription

at the start of our last episode we camped at the base of a mountain road and decided to explore it a little further we did however run into some obstacles along the way but banded together and managed to clear the road to see where it would take us sadly though there was one obstacle that we just couldn't get past so we had to turn back and ended up camping at the top of a beautiful mountain at a campsite where the only kindly gave us refuge from the biting midges in one of her cabins we stayed at the cabin for a total of two nights we got showered and refreshed ourselves and the following day we tackled Gauss to topple one of Norway's tallest mountains with an incredible view of almost all of the south of Norway we were very lucky with clear weather and it really was a spectacular sight after our hike we drove through the night and ended up camping at the side of a road with the Hardanger Vida National Park in the background and that's where this episode begins needless to say we were both a little tired our hike followed by late night driving had been topped off by being awoken early by some very strong winds that rattled the tent and the vehicle so we decided it was best to get up as we weren't sleeping any longer getting packed up was a smooth operation now even when you're half asleep we've done it hundreds of times but it's nice to settle down for a few days and not have to do it day in day out and that's really what we were looking for next meg was feeling the worst of it despite it being a glorious day she was very tired we drove for a few hours decided to make some progress before looking for somewhere to camp and the further into the day we went the roads quickly became gravel roads and the gravel roads became dirt tracks and then we knew we were somewhere close to finding a good camp location

we lucked in on a great location we had a river right next to the track that led up to a lake so water wasn't a problem we were also shielded from the wind which meant we could get a sound night's sleep and best of all it was quiet we were unlikely to be disturbed by anybody else but we still had one more hurdle to overcome before we could call this home the biting midges were so small they could pass straight through the netting on the rooftop tent and in the morning you'd wake up and the tent would be full of hundreds of them all over your face biting your arms it was unbearable and Megan was already traumatized from the last episode so I clambered on top of the vehicle stood on the roof racket whilst Megan was inside the time she passed me the needle and we stitched on an extra layer of netting using one of our head nets as a sacrificial piece of material in a desperate attempt to try and stop the majority getting through this is it the new barrier extreme mash this Mike's technique for getting rid of the biting midges always loved these kind of environments all the lichens mosses wildflowers you have something up there that looks like wild garlic it's actually lily of the valley quite poisonous you wouldn't want a mistake that but the smell is obvious it smells nothing like garlic there's the beaver obv in the water there can see him I was glad I got to see the beaver given the signs were all around us I could get lost in areas like this not lost as in can't find my way but lost in the details the subtleties and the signs of things around you the insects the plants the tracks just things that tell you a story it's like the whole area is a mystery waiting to be solved and the slower you walk the more you see it may seem strange to some people but these are the places that truly fascinate me and where I like exploring and looking at the plants and signs of nature I like the views I like the mountains and the epicness of all these things but I feel most at home in places like this where I can walk around and just look at small details and just get a clue of what happens here that's what I like the most I think I always feel excited Megan says I look like a like a cat looking at a window you know watching watching the birds darting around I mean obviously the water level changes drastically at certain times of year that's pretty evident and the beaver have been very busy and it was amazing to see one it was fantastic hoping to get a better shot of it maybe some more Oh morning it's times like this where you wish you had all the bells and whistles all the camera gear and they're afraid I don't have that that um I guess I have my eyes and maybe one day I'll have a good camera gear and I can share it with everyone else out there better for the time being this will have to do I spent the evening doing some fishing and Megan joined me for a while but we were both getting swarmed by the midges so we decided to retire back to the roof of town and call it a day in the morning we both felt pretty refreshed so we made a flask of tea had some breakfast got packed up and decided to make some progress on our travels we checked the map and then continued heading Northwest

one thing you need to get used to annoy is the winding roads you either go up or you go down or around or through in a tunnel but never in a straight line I always take it really easy in the Jeep and keep it in tight when I'm taking corners you never know what comes around the other end but if the driving gets too much there's always opportunities to take breaks there are plenty of information points and pullings with maps free leaflets they tell you all about tourist attractions places you can go facilities in the towns you're entering just helps you get a bit of a bearing on what's available to you and where you can go we ended up visiting Tallinn and camping there at their campsite we had a lot of dirty clothes and it just gave us the opportunity to get them cleaned and dry them out using the good weather I also visited a local hardware store and bought some brackets and made a new hi-lift jack mains at the back of the vehicle that allowed us to use more of the rack so he wouldn't have to fumble past it it also meant we wouldn't scratch our hands up every time we unzipped the Hannibal sack to get our bedding out there was a large gas shop in town and we had a situation camping gas is completely unavailable from Denmark upwards so he bought a refillable propane bottle that we could swap or fill up at LPG stations giving us a little bit more versatility Dallin was a beautiful place situated in the mountains but we only stayed for one night just to get our clothes in order there's campsites cost money and we were in a country where we didn't need to stay in them so he set off early in the morning and continued making some progress on our travels [Music]

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after a quick lunch break in a beautiful setting and listening to Megan's 1 pound fish song which almost definitely means she's in a good mood we carried on driving north towards odder where we were hoping to spend a few days exploring the area there really is no shortage of places to stay in this country you find yourself driving for five minutes and then stopping just to look at some incredible views this means you can take your time travel slowly see the sights and if you're into photography then it really is a fantastic place to visit with all the stopping we haven't made a lot of progress and it was time to find somewhere to sleep for the night in the distance a beach was calling out to us unfortunately a track led straight down to it where we pitched up for the night before tackling kjerag in the morning so we've got a question to pose to the subscribers mag reckons that putting those two jaw bones on the front of the grille looks really good and that we should put them there for the rest of the trip I think it looks utterly terrible it looks amazing why did you think it looks amazing it just looks so boisterous doesn't it and you know people but put antlers and stuff on their cabin this is North America we're traveling the world earnest so you know this is our favorite run this is our home and this is our awesome sheep jaw trophy I think it's a definite yes this milk one thing you need to remember if you're camping for long periods of time is you always have to wear out your gear even with a rooftop tent and after getting things squared away we continued along the mountain road to kjerag driving the mountain road was like driving another world it was barren but incredibly beautiful and we made our best effort not to stop so he could spend the majority of the day hiking and after a couple of hours driving we'd arrived at the base of the hike

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the base camp of kjerag overlooks lisa botton and like a lot of popular hikes in Norway you have parking facilities maps and information about the hike ahead the hike totals about twelve kilometers and is rated strenuous the toughest part by far is the very beginning it's incredibly steep but it really does warm you into it and on the bright side everything after this feels pretty moderate and in the first Valley you cross through if you look very carefully you'll find some cloud berry along with a few other things if you have the same interests as me just before the second Valley you'll find an emergency cabin you can access this but only in case of an emergency it's not a particularly challenging hike and on a good day the scenery must be spectacular we had a lot of cloud cover but we still found the views incredibly impressive and at the highest point there about eleven hundred meters above sea level towards the end of the hike you approached the main attraction and what a lot of people come to see and the build-up to it is pretty impressive we undertook the hike in June so there was still some snow left the snow had been compacted from lots of hikers that formed walkways between the rocks with water running down either side it was a great way to finally meet what we'd heard so much about the kjerag boulder the five cubic meter boulder wedged between two rock faces on the very edge of the mountain with an almost 1000 meter drop straight to the bottom there's also an incredible waterfall here called the kjerag Fossen it's one of the tallest waterfalls in the world but we did manage to get a good photo of ourselves with the boulder thanks to another hiker and I decided it was time to fight my phobia of heights and did what many have done before me and stood on the boulder but just for a second before getting straight off again and after some acts of bravery / stupidity we went back up the icy walkways and made our way back to the Jeep after a day's hiking it's always great to take a break it feels like you've earned it

and we found a fantastic spot slightly elevated above a river where we ate our dinner and spent the rest of the evening just enjoying the nature around us the following morning we decided not to take the ferry from Lisa botton up to order it was just too expensive so we decided to backtrack around the fields and take another ferry that was a fraction of the cost we were making good progress and tried to cover a lot of distance to make it to order in a day but there's just so much to see in this country and you end up stopping all of the time there are waterfalls everywhere the landscape is absolutely spectacular and a matter where you go you always seem to find somewhere that you want to spend 10 or 15 minutes just to soak in your surroundings much like this view just here there were shops like this all over Norway they were like beacons drawing me in meg was actually going crazy at this point I think I'd put her through enough so he carried on to order [Music]

after a bit more sightseeing we finally made it to order odd is a popular place situated between the Hardanger Vida and followed a phoner national parks this made it very difficult to find places to wild camp in a vehicle but with a bit of map reading and the use of a 4x4 it wasn't long before we found somewhere we could access where no other camper van could and made our way up the trail into the mountains

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sadly the trial ended abruptly with a giant boulder in our path it was time to turn around and find somewhere a bit further down that we could call home for a couple of days gonna have to come forward again yeah stop

now

halfway back down the trail we found a clearing and it was perfect just up from it some benches where we could have our dinner and get a clear view of the glacier in front of us we also had running water that we could use as a shower and for drinking water and it was just a short walk from town so we really could see ourselves spending a few days here before continuing our journey so we've got four pillows three woolen blankets and a sheet we've got a head torch up here you get two pouches you get one here you've got earplugs in this one and anything else we want you also have this patch very very key ball the bag dry bags for the world blankets and the pillow and then at the end here we have space for our shoes and any clothing let me take off and then we also have a gorgeous view as the evening set in we had our dinner and admired the view we'd put a lot of miles behind us today and it was great to finally be settled somewhere the following morning we had a few things we needed to tick off the list so we had breakfast lock the vehicle and went back down the track into water it wasn't a particularly big town but there were a few things we are after one thing was a DC charger for the laptop which gave us full independence as we no longer relied on campsites to charge the laptop to make these videos another thing was some wood I made some modifications to the aloo boxes in the back so they opened out sideways it gave us much easier access to food Meghan washing her hair was also another thing on the list that needed to be ticked off and we actually got a lot done that day the DC charger in the wood and the alloy boxes were some really big changes for us and it was another day done in order and a very peaceful evening the next morning we weighed up our options a lot of people come to order because of trolltunga another very popular hike the hikes around 27 kilometers and the main attraction at the end is a 700 meter long ledge that sticks out the side of the mountain and we wanted to do it for quite some time but the parking is incredibly expensive and the shuttle if you don't have transport of your own is even more expensive there and back that coupled with an ankle injury I sustained whilst jumping off the G it was exacerbated by the last hike we ruled it out as something for the future we were both a little gutted and our pride was dented but it was the right thing to do 27 kilometers on a bad ankle is a one-way trip so we continued making tracks and started making our way to Voss

it didn't take too long to get to Voss but when we arrived I suspected one of the tunnels we've driven through they're taking us through a wormhole to Thorpe Park the place was absolutely heaving and the campsite was definitely a no-go it turns out we'd arrived at the week beginning in extreme sports festival that took place every year in Voss they were slightly bewildered at where to camp so he parked up in town and visited an outdoor store that we'd visited back in 2014 when we backpacked through Norway and visited Voss previously it was fairly evident from the price tags that we'd arrived at the place where wallets come to die the store was very expensive and we didn't actually need anything anyway it was just nice to look around but more importantly it was time to leave the centre and find somewhere to camp and after driving around for a couple of hours we spoke to a local farmer who granted us access through his property to his private beach where he allowed us to stay for one night and we really had locked in we leveled the vehicle out with some rocks and got camp set up and now it was time for some downtime Megan cooked up the really nice stir-fry we got the table set had our dinner and enjoyed the view and we were both feeling pretty smug about the place we'd found given how busy Voss was at this time of year respecting the landowners wishes we stayed for just one night and made sure we left early we've got everything packed up and put the rocks back we'd used to level the vehicle and it was time to leave and this is also where this episode ends and we hope you'll join me in Megan in our next episode

where we continue our travels through Norway and cross over the border into Sweden from the both of us thank you for watching and we'll see you in the next episode take care