1997 Land Of The Midnight Sun - Sighting Of Our First Nimbus

I could start each entry with “we got up late and set off after 10 o’clock”, and today was no exception. We had a pleasant ride towards the mountains and stopped at Soggebru Camping, which is 15km before the start of the Trollstigen.

Having dropped our luggage off in a free hut we decided to return to the nearest town, Andalsnes, where Ian was so dehydrated that he drank a litre of coca-cola straight down by having to steady one hand by gripping it with the other!

Whilst Ian was recovering from his dehydration we sat talking to a group of Norwegian bikers. They wondered why we did not speak any Norwegian and we explained that Ian could read and speak a little French and Guzziesue could do the same with German. It was also explained that foreign languages were not taught in our schools until we were 11 years old. Our big question to them was why they all had sports bikes when the national speed limit was 90km/hr. The reply was that when the winter snow had gone they could go like f**k to meet their friends!

Having bid farewell to the bikers we walked a little and came across a strange outfit. This turned out to be a Nimbus, a Danish motorcycle that stopped production in the late 1950s. Unbeknown at the time Nimbus motorcycles would creep up on us again at a later date.

Back at Soggebru 3 other Brits, the first we had seen for about a week, had parked their car and were putting up their tents. We chattered with them for a little but did not have much common ground. As we were returning to our hutt the lady in the next one commented on how good our English was! When we explained that we are English she replied ‘Bloody great. I’m a Maori’, so we spent a long time talking to her and hubby as we watched bats flying around in the sunset.

I had better just mention that Sossebru is a small campsite with only 4 hutts and basic amenities, but to make up for this there is a clean river running at the back of the hutts and a small beach area nearby. An old lady on a bicycle came round in the early evening to collect our rent for the hutt and gave a receipt. We did not see her again until next morning.