Just in Case

Just in case anybody is checking the blog the update is this:

We didn't have internet of any kind whilst travelling back through Germany and Holland so couldn't put any posts on (not that there was anything worthy). We arrived back at Carlisle at 11am today (Thursday), called in on Rachel's dad, Amy and Sarah :-). Just over 6,500 miles, would we go back? Possibly, but NOT next year! Hope you enjoyed following us, oh we set off again on Monday, but only 5 campsites to do in southwest Scotland but don't worry, you won't need to follow us on that trip.

Thanks again, Rachel, Brian, Rapi (motorhome) & Sven (the moose)

First Leg of Our Journey Home

We caught the ferry from Norway yesterday afternoon and arrived in Denmark at 8pm, stayed the night in the aire and headed south this morning via Lidl where we bought one bottle of wine with the last Danish krone we had. We've had 3 weeks without touching a drop so will have to be careful this evening! We travelled 240 miles to the first campsite in Germany (near Carlisle's twin town of Flensburg) and used our last camping cheque for a free night there. Just 400 miles to do in the next 2 days to reach the Amsterdam-Newcastle ferry.

The blue line shows today's route.

Lindesnes Fyr

Three photos from the most southerly point in Norway, featuring Norway's oldest lighthouse (1656), me (1956) and some other well preserved structures.

Altmark Incident

No, it didn't mean anything to me either until we stumbled across a memorial at Jossingfjord today. Briefly, the Altmark was a German supply ship which had 299 British prisoners on board and had been trying to get back to Germany in 1940 by travelling through neutral (at the time) Norwegian waters. The Royal Navy rescued all prisoners and shot 5 escaping Germans. The Norwegian military did not intervene which Hitler decided was a lack of their ability to defend their neutrality and possibly used that as a reason to invade Denmark and Norway. There's a lot more to it than that which you can find out by Googling 'Altmark incident'.

Photo: Today's view down to Jossingfjord (where the attack took place)

Not Many More Hairpins Left

Our Garmin satnav has 3 programmable route options which are:

1. Fastest

2. Shortest

3. Most awkward, narrow and steepest

The first 2 options do not appear to be working so the 19 mile trip along the minor road to Norway's most southerly point became a little tiresome. Thanks to a combination of Rachel's keen eye and shouts of 'CAR'! 'VAN'! or whatever other vehicle wouldn't  squeeze past us, and Brian's magnificent driving prowess, we finally made it. The photo shows the the blue dot (where we are) and the red dropped pin (over 1,000 miles to the north, where we've been).

Today in Photos

Just to give you an idea of what it is like but you won't find either of us in this photo.

This is what a 604 metre drop looks like

The idiot with the yellow hat is.....yes, you guessed correctly!

Preikestolen

Photos to follow after this short clip