The simplest solution is to pack a tent or a hammock with you and sleep outdoors for free, but if the weather out is nasty you might want to sleep indoors. Luckily we also have plenty of experiences sleeping indoors without paying a penny ‒ in a car!
Here is a collection of some of the locations where we parked and slept.
And finally since we did take a tent with us, we decided to put it up on the last day of our trip. We were so unlucky with the weather that it was actually raining most days - and nights, also the last night, leaving us with no real possibility to dry the tent in between. That's why we wanted to give the tent at least one chance, since we could easily dry it once back at home. But it wasn't enough that it was raining all night; it was also the coldest night, +6°C in August!
That might be the reason why we also picked up two hitch-hikers that day. They were soaking wet and frozen from the night before ‒ we definitely had enough empathy for them knowing how they felt. We had picked up another hitch-hiker a couple of days earlier in Jotunheimen National Park: a guy from Ireland who hitch-hiked over entire Europe this summer after finishing his degree and was ending the trip in Norway. On that day we were driving through amazing landscapes and stopped every now and then to take pictures. We also went for a swim to freshen up, but the water wasn't really warm for swimming ‒ it wasn’t very warm on anyof the occasions we went swimming with water temperatures between 5 and 17°C . We shared our candy with the hungry hitch-hiker and drove until it was darkish and time to go to sleep. He set up his tent not far from our car, and told he will stay in that area, fishing for few days before continuing his trip. What was special about him was that he was carrying a longboard with him. There are definitely plenty of hills to ride down, whereas I can imagine walking up isn't that much fun with a heavy backpack. We saved him by picking him up on the way uphill. The two wet hitch-hikers where from Netherlands, airing their brains after finishing their study semester. We also shared our hot-chocolate and drove them all the way to Oslo, where they could get a ride home more easily than whereever we picked them up from on Hardangervidda plateau.
As if it wasn't enough that it was raining all the time, it was also very windy. On many nights the car was shaking as if a big bear would have wanted to come join us for a cozier good-night-sleep. The car was really shaking as if someone would have been rocking it all night. On one night there was a big storm. It was actually a night when we were planning on sleeping outside under the stars when we found a beautiful spot on a coastline. It would have been perfect to wake up there and see all the purple colors of heather in contrast with the blue sea. But of course it had to start raining exactly when we decided to sleep there and pick up our sleeping gear. So we had to abort the idea and return to the car feeling blue. The next morning when we started driving we saw the consequences of the previous night’s storm: there were broken branches everywhere, also on roads.
 |
| We had a plan to sleep here under the stars |
 |
| Broken branches after a storm |
Another memorable event took place on two evenings. I guess it wasn't windy enough in those evenings, since we experienced attacks of very small black flies (polttiaiset (FIN), midge (ENG), knott (NOR)) from family Ceratopogonidae. They were everywhere! And it really hurts and itches when they bite. So this one night we decided to chase them away by first driving the car with open windows to get rid of the ones that entered the car already. Then when we got back to the place where we wanted to sleep, we parked the car, closed all the windows (usually we left them a bit open), and sat in the trunk/back seat/temporary bed department for half an hour to kill the rest of the black flies which were still alive inside and that we could find, since you can barely see them. It was an exhausting, and really itchy night!
No comments:
Post a Comment