Heading inland and East

Today's route was spectacular to say the least. After calling at the tourist information centre in Sogndal to stock up on paper maps, we headed to the Nigardsbreen glacier in the Jostedal national park. Unfortunately the snow was too deep and the ice was too thin for us to actually make it right up to the ice flow (we did try really hard) but we were plenty close enough to be amazed. We only saw a tiny part of the Jostedalsbreen glacier but the trek up

After drying out as best we could, we headed over route 55 towards Lom. This road, closed to traffic from 8pm to 8am because its so icy at night, took us up to above 1400m and into vast and breathtaking snow-covered landscapes. The little Evo X did a great job of steering us through the narrow roads surrounded by 3m high snow walls. None of the mountain restaurants were yet open (apparently the season starts on Friday) but we had no trouble getting through

We had a late lunch in Lom and I was amazed to see example after example of Ford cars from the 1970s. A MkII Granada and a MkIII Cortina were both in fantastic condition. And we'd already seen a MkI Cortina as we arrived in Stavanger on Sunday. Quite how these beasts have survived all this time in this salty and snowy land is a mystery. Lom must be a university town as there were lots of students cruising around with our car getting more than a few stares. The second hand value of any red Transit-like van must be huge in Norway as it seems everyone needs to have one.

The journey down to Lillehammer was a bit of a drag with the E6 speed limit constantly dropping down to 70kpmh or 50kmph from its unrestricted speed of only 80kmph anyway. Heavy lorries slowed progress and overtaking was not easily achieved. However, we arrived at around 7pm and found a hotel with no problems.

After a rather pleasant tea in the hotel we headed out to look at the Olympic Park. Russ and Jens wimped out when we realised there was a farmer's field that had to be circumnavigated but it seems I'm made of sterner stuff. The ski jump arena was open and deserted. Climbing to the top of the terraced seating was a mission indeed (I can only assume the air was thin as clearly my own fitness cannot be questioned) but was well worth the effort.

On the way back down we cruelly took some photos of a car we had encountered on the way up. A young girl was puzzling what to do with her Golf that only had one front wheel on the ground after a rather ambitious manoeuvre over a rather large drop. We had tried to help although to no avail and we did laugh when she said she needed to "go and tell the owner, he'll be so mad". :-)

We're planning to leave Norway tomorrow for the wider roads of Sweden and to make some more ground towards the South.