Norwegian Road Trip

After holidaying with Lies this summer, J and I spent a week in Cedric on the road in Norway. We went in search of both surf and summer snowboarding. Our first stop was a penninsula out in the North Sea called Stadlandet, in a little camping ground right on the beach in tiny Hoddevik. Stunning.

When we arrived the weather was not really promising a wonderful summer camping holiday. It was rather cool and rather wet. This made our first descent into Hoddevik like a descent into some kind of strange mist drenched mystery.

As the clouds lifted a little, the view from the beach and the campground was just spectacular though. A white sand beach about a km long, nestled between two enormous green mountains. A handful of committed surfers and adventurers camped along the edge. Lots of time and space to roam with the dogs free range.

Then the sun came out. The surf picked up. And both J and I spent a couple of days playing in the water. J was out surfing what he calls 'perfect glassy right-handers' at 11pm as the sun was just starting to set in the northern summer sky. Can I say it again? Stunning.





On a hot Sunday with wonderful waves, the beach and the campground filled with people and we got to experience Norwegian beach culture. Not quite like Australian, but not that different either. The big thing here though is grilling sausages on the beach on what they call 'one-time grills'. You can buy them almost anywhere and they are basically a small aluminimum tray with a bunch of heat beads and a wire grilled top. Lots of rubbish generated to eat minced pigs ears if you ask me :) The locals are getting a little bummed that they are starting to have to share their waves now surfing is growing in popularity, but they are also benefiting from the business. There is one shop in Hoddevik that rents rooms, showers, boards, wetsuits and of course offers lessons. I am really not sure what people would do to survive in this isolated little outpost if surfing was not on offer. But then they have done something for years since before I was born I am sure!
Funnily enough for us, we happened to camp beside a guy named Seamus - Seamus from Wollongong if you can believe that! And his wonderful Norwegian woman Maren. Seamus is the newly established Norwegian distributor for Aussie company Ocean and Earth. They were great companions to have while camping and of course, they ended up knowing people we know. It may be a cliche but it really is a small world. We have since caught up with them again at a suring competition in the Lofoten islands, but that is another post. To end this post, I just want to say that J and I had a delightful time at Hoddevik and we only left because the waves went flat and we had a mission to find some snowboarding as well. Leaving Hoddevik the weather was a little different, and the summer road trip holiday really felt like it was kicking in and looking up.
xxx.

Rosendal

When Liesl and I returned from our most splendid european adventure, we were blessed with the presence of my Dad for a few days. It was truly wonderful to have both my father and my sister visiting me in Bergen - it really made it feel like home. Strangely it didn't feel strange at all. Just as if they always popped in for a weekend here and there! Of course now it doesn't feel like that anymore and I sorely wish I could see all my family more often. Especially my brother, his lovely wife and their three gorgeous girls. And super especially Matilda, my new little god daughter, who because of my overseas absence I could not even be at the christening of. Anyway, such is my life at the moment and it is a life I chose so I am not allowed to complain too much, I just wanted to let everyone know that I miss them very much!

While Liesl and Dad were in Bergen, we took one day and did a boat trip out to the village of Rosendal. Here are some pics from that event...

My loved ones along the way...
Do you get the impression that is was cold? It was! It was a fjord trip in Norway afterall...

My loved ones and me and some kind of alright scenery..
Approaching Rosendal
Approaching the harbour
In Rosendal on the way to visit the Barony (sounds far more impressive than it actually is but this waterfall is far more impressive than it seems in this photo)
The Barony...not really but not far off!
In the rose garden of the Barony, very pretty, Lies and the garden!



xxx.

Croatian Coastline

Here are some of the fabulous places we visited during our week sailing the Croatian coastline...

On the very first day, within a couple of hours of being on the boat, we disembarked to take a bus ride up through the mountains to go white water rafting on the Cetina river. Unfortunately I did not take my camera on this trip - threat of getting drenched etc - but here are a couple of pics that one of the crew took for us.
The river may look calm...
But it got a little more intense...
The trip was really a lot of fun but the most amazing thing was seeing this beautiful river. I have never seen sooooo many dragonflies and of so many amazing and diverse colours. It was truly spectacular! Seeing a swimming snake and swimming ourselves was also a huge buzz. A really really beautiful river and rafting was a really really fun thing to do. What was not so fun was the bus ride - feeling a little scared for our lives on that rattling rust bucket called a bus - the door didn't close, the roof had holes in it and the brakes squealed like a pig. All part of the experience though I suppose!

The next day we stopped off at Mljet national park. Liesl and I went for a little walk and these are some of the sights we came across.
Incredibly blue blue lake water...
Amazing butterflies...
And a lovely little old monastery

The following day, we stopped in Dubrovnik - a truly spectacularly beautiful city...a beautiful city that nearly killed us with its heat! While walking that famous wall around the city, Liesl and I were amazed that at almost 7pm at night, above the city, and surrounded by the ocean there was still not a whiff of breeze! No sea breeze felt like a crime after such a long hot day! The view was far from criminal though!
The only breeze came from the wings of the hundreds of swallows spinning through the air!

The next stop on the journey was Korcula. What I remember from Korcula was a truly wonderful cocktail hour(s!) watching this view...
And waiting an unbelievable long time to get the cheque at the restaurant, such a long time that I took to drawing attention to our needs by the most obvious way possible...
Or maybe Liesl did it in the most obvious way possible...
From Korcula, we travelled to the island of Hvar, where Liesl and I partied until dawn and learnt more about Croatian history and culture with some of the locals :)
This is where the cocktails started!
From Hvar we moved on to my favourite island of the entire trip - Brac. This place was totally beautiful, with a really laid back vibe, but it also had lots happening in terms of windsurfing, diving, rollerblading etc. Definitely somewhere I would happily go back to and spend some real time...hopefully one day!

This is where we had cocktails on Brac...are you getting the sense we drank a lot of cocktails? We did, and it was great!
From Brac we sailed on back to Split, and the trip was over :( The last night in Split we all kind of got takeaways and hung out on the white stone pavements of the wharf before going further into the city for, you guessed it more cocktails.

I lost Liesl for a few hours that night as she got her own personal guided tour of the city by Scooter, but overall I must say this was a great end to an awesome journey.
xxx