Saturday, 26 July, 1997

Before we left Geilo this morning, it was time for some breakfast. This was bought at a gas station as usual, but for once it did not only consist of Cola and chocolate, but of yogurt and müssli. Strengthened by this we at 9:15 headed south east to take what we thought would be the nearest way home. At the roundabout in Geilo we consequently changed from road 7 to road 40 and begun today's stage.

At first we had much going downwards to deal with since we were about to move away from the hightable Hardangervidda. And this meant very fun driving with lots of turns and hilly terrain for many many kilometers. And since the weather had really made a turn to the better things got very pleasant indeed.

The mountainous and barren landscape changed to a more and more green and vegetated one the closer to sea level we got. And the temperature increased with it. Now we had no more planned things we wanted to see, so we chose to take the closest way home. This meant that we should travel about 210 km on road 40, all the way down to a place called Hvittingfoss. Here we turned left to try and find us the way to Horten, another 35 km away.

During this last stage towards Horten we drove into the worst thunderstorm we had ever experienced! It rained like crazy! We could only go with a crawling speed because you could hardly see a thing. Luckily a service station appeared almost immediately and here a lot of people stopped to escape the storm and the thunder.

After half an hour the the worst of the storm had past by and so we continued. Almost immediately we came out in brilliant sunshine again, and soon we were in Horten and went straight to the ferry terminal. We paid for the ticket (cheap, only 31 NOK per person) and did as we by know had learned. That is to untroubled drive straight pass the very long queue of cars and place ourselves first in line! :) The ferry we waited for now was not one of those small ones we had been on before. Now we should cross the Oslo fjord so this was a big ferry with the car deck below, and other compartments above, like a big and during the cross over much visited restaurant. When the ferry arrived we used the advantage with getting on first and so we were quickly got up to the restaurant without getting stuck in those huge queues which would soon form when all the people came flocking.

At 2:00 pm the ferry left and 45 minutes later we were in Moss and quickly on our way again, due to our favorable starting point (first in - first out :). The sad part was that now we were once again back on the same roads as we were 5 days ago, so now we could feel this journey come to an end. We only had 50 km until we were back in Sweden again, and the rest would only be like a boring section of transportation. At least compared to the roads we had gotten used to during the last few days. At 6:40 pm we were back where we started 5 days earlier, but now with another 1,991 km on our odometers.

If I look back at the six days this journey lasted and all the things we got to see and experience this time, then I don't think this was the last time I ever had a motorcycle vacation in my neighbor country Norway. It is a country made for motorcycle driving! But in spite of all the nice motorcycle experiences, the most memorable part will be the stay at Jotunheimen and Spiterstulen, with the climb to Galdhøpiggen as the highest point, in double senses!!