Trip report : Norway in the truck camper
Well, we had done a lot of stuff in our own country in our truck camper the past couple of years, and a lot of foreign travel in rented campers, so time to get our little camper on a ferry and oversea...
Forum Discussion
Monday - The journey home
Yesterday was 800 km of driving, and I don't tend to drive more than 56 MPH, so it took a while. At that speed my truck is fairly efficient and the engine is under little load. To me it is important not only to save diesel, but to reduce the stress on the engine. It is a small 4-cylinder turbo diesel and although very capable for its size, is undoubtedly being put under much more stress to achieve its power output than a a 6.8 V8 for example.
Today we could go a bit slower and explore Holland.
Amsterdam is not actually on the coast. Instead it is on a huge inland sea. That sea is separated from the North Sea by this:
This runs for miles and miles through the sea. In the middle there is a tower and a restaurant, which was surprisingly busy - or maybe not surprising given the awful weather. Because we were back in Holland now, and had rejoined the bad weather we left at the German border over 2 weeks previously.
There was even a campground squeezed onto an artificial island in the middle - it didn't look a very inviting place though.
At the end of the dyke we stopped for a sandwich. I noticed a place where they provide safety training on the use of lifeboats:
Rather than take the highway straight to The Hague, we turn off and head along the coast instead. Of course, there were plenty of windmills:
Of course, Holland has many canals, and many of those are large. Our route crossed them, and in one case required a ferry. We stopped first in the pouring rain, at a care next to the ferry dock, and warmed ourselves with French fries and tea.
This was a much smaller ferry than the ones we had used in Norway:
We drove through pretty villages in the rain. It was definitely worth getting off the highway and exploring the back roads of Holland.
We arrived at The Hague and had a look at the beach - still not great beach weather though, despite being the summer:
While waiting by the coast we notice our ferry coming in - time I guess to get to the Hook of Holland ferry port.
We watched as they loaded the trucks before us, but we didn't have to wait very long before they signalled us to drive onboard.
We were separated from the cars and held back. They loaded from the stern and us taller vehicles had to wait and ended up pretty close to the back of the ship.
As before they had given us our room keys on check-in and we took the stairs up from deck 3 where we had parked to deck 11 where our cabin was. I was initially confused because our cabin number didn't seem to fit into the room numbering scheme or be identifiable on the diagram on the wall. But a sign indicated we needed to head forwards. We headed down the ship, checking the diagrams and signs again at each stairwell we came to. Eventually we got to the bows and found our cabin on the gangway running across the ship. That meant we had this view from our porthole - even bigger than the last one:
Looking up we could see the bridge above us - kids would have loved this room, could sit there pretending to steer the ship.
We still had some time until departure and could see they were still loading late arriving trucks. So we went downstairs to the restaurant for a meal. It was all pretty simple food, so I was happy.
We returned to the cabin and watched the ship depart.
I awoke at around 4 AM and was shocked to see we were almost at Harwich. We had a shower and dressed as the ferry manoeuvred into port. We were surprised there hadn't been an alarm call.
Just as we were wondering, the cheerful music came out of the PA system and an announcement invited us to breakfast. It also pointed out that we wouldn't be unloading for another 90 minutes. We went upstairs and got an expensive coffee. It became clear that they unloaded the trucks first, and must have given the truck drivers an earlier alarm call. I imagine the truck drivers would be relieved to get onto the roads before rush hour. We weren't quite so lucky, so the trip home was a slow one in heavy traffic.
The trip had gone very well. We had been extremely lucky with the weather, had no real problems and the scenery had been stunning.
I can strongly recommend Norway to others; it is a great country to visit.
Thanks for sticking with the journey - I hope you all enjoyed the trip.
All the best,
Steve and Sally.
Yesterday was 800 km of driving, and I don't tend to drive more than 56 MPH, so it took a while. At that speed my truck is fairly efficient and the engine is under little load. To me it is important not only to save diesel, but to reduce the stress on the engine. It is a small 4-cylinder turbo diesel and although very capable for its size, is undoubtedly being put under much more stress to achieve its power output than a a 6.8 V8 for example.
Today we could go a bit slower and explore Holland.
Amsterdam is not actually on the coast. Instead it is on a huge inland sea. That sea is separated from the North Sea by this:
This runs for miles and miles through the sea. In the middle there is a tower and a restaurant, which was surprisingly busy - or maybe not surprising given the awful weather. Because we were back in Holland now, and had rejoined the bad weather we left at the German border over 2 weeks previously.
There was even a campground squeezed onto an artificial island in the middle - it didn't look a very inviting place though.
At the end of the dyke we stopped for a sandwich. I noticed a place where they provide safety training on the use of lifeboats:
Rather than take the highway straight to The Hague, we turn off and head along the coast instead. Of course, there were plenty of windmills:
Of course, Holland has many canals, and many of those are large. Our route crossed them, and in one case required a ferry. We stopped first in the pouring rain, at a care next to the ferry dock, and warmed ourselves with French fries and tea.
This was a much smaller ferry than the ones we had used in Norway:
We drove through pretty villages in the rain. It was definitely worth getting off the highway and exploring the back roads of Holland.
We arrived at The Hague and had a look at the beach - still not great beach weather though, despite being the summer:
While waiting by the coast we notice our ferry coming in - time I guess to get to the Hook of Holland ferry port.
We watched as they loaded the trucks before us, but we didn't have to wait very long before they signalled us to drive onboard.
We were separated from the cars and held back. They loaded from the stern and us taller vehicles had to wait and ended up pretty close to the back of the ship.
As before they had given us our room keys on check-in and we took the stairs up from deck 3 where we had parked to deck 11 where our cabin was. I was initially confused because our cabin number didn't seem to fit into the room numbering scheme or be identifiable on the diagram on the wall. But a sign indicated we needed to head forwards. We headed down the ship, checking the diagrams and signs again at each stairwell we came to. Eventually we got to the bows and found our cabin on the gangway running across the ship. That meant we had this view from our porthole - even bigger than the last one:
Looking up we could see the bridge above us - kids would have loved this room, could sit there pretending to steer the ship.
We still had some time until departure and could see they were still loading late arriving trucks. So we went downstairs to the restaurant for a meal. It was all pretty simple food, so I was happy.
We returned to the cabin and watched the ship depart.
I awoke at around 4 AM and was shocked to see we were almost at Harwich. We had a shower and dressed as the ferry manoeuvred into port. We were surprised there hadn't been an alarm call.
Just as we were wondering, the cheerful music came out of the PA system and an announcement invited us to breakfast. It also pointed out that we wouldn't be unloading for another 90 minutes. We went upstairs and got an expensive coffee. It became clear that they unloaded the trucks first, and must have given the truck drivers an earlier alarm call. I imagine the truck drivers would be relieved to get onto the roads before rush hour. We weren't quite so lucky, so the trip home was a slow one in heavy traffic.
The trip had gone very well. We had been extremely lucky with the weather, had no real problems and the scenery had been stunning.
I can strongly recommend Norway to others; it is a great country to visit.
Thanks for sticking with the journey - I hope you all enjoyed the trip.
All the best,
Steve and Sally.
