Travels with Spaniels: If Carlsberg made traffic jams (yes, yes, I know we’re in Norway not Denmark)

Traffic waiting to enter the tunnel

On Sunday morning we set out from a little wild campground beside the road between Lillehammer and the Jostedalsbreen National Park. It was our intention to be nestled next to the Briksdal’s branch of the great Jostedals glacier by lunchtime. We forged our way through two of the great 5k tunnels carved through solid mountains, and turned into a large lay-by viewing area to recover. As the spaniels pranced through the grass at the edge of the gravel, we realised that traffic waiting to enter the tunnel below us was at a standstill.

Our stop the previous night - we had this area to ourselves

We decided to wait out the delay by taking Max and Elsa down to the river. There hadn’t been much of a walk that morning as the overnight stop only had about 500m of track, even though it was next to a fabulous glacial river. They flow too fast to let the the spaniels off-lead, and it’s technically against the rules in Norway in the summer months to protect wildlife. At our overnight stop there had been signs of red squirrels, elk droppings behind the van, and a pugnacious cross between a gull and a puffin which charged at anyone who
came close. We had erred on the side of caution.

Spaniels bathing

Beneath the lay-by we had stopped in now were the more familiar cattle and sheep. But these were Norwegian attack-sheep. They had no fear, and charged at the spaniels, who naturally responded by barking. There was a stand-off, which was only resolved by human intervention. We told the sheep to bugger off. We got back to the van with damp spaniels to find others arriving at the lay-by. We warned them of the hold-up, and word gradually spread.

Norwegian attack sheep

Looking around, we agreed we were in possibly the most beautiful place we had ever taken Florence. Meltwater from ice fields trickled and gushed down from the top of the ancient mountains, worn down by glaciers which had carved out the rounded valley below. Trees clung to the cliff faces, until they could no longer gain a foothold in the bright craggy surface, sparkling in the sun. The river in the valley below was the impossible turquoise of glacial lakes. Soft green grass ran down to its shores. If we were going to have to stay somewhere for a while, then this wasn’t a bad place to be. And as for that urgent appointment in… well exactly. We had nowhere to be. By now the temperature was over 30C, so we opened all the windows, closed some of the blinds, and put our feet up.

That was shortly after 11am. Word eventually filtered through that there was a rock fall on the other side of the tunnel. But it was Sunday, and no-one was telling the traffic behind, which continued to pile into the valley unawares. At 3.30 the road reopened, bringing to an end the almost carnival feel of the queued traffic. Many had turned around immediately to repeat the journey through the two long tunnels and find an alternative route. Some had waited for a while before deciding to turn around. Others had turned the wait into a picnic. We were able to keep abreast of developments as English was the lingua franca between the assembled German, Dutch, Norwegian and occasional others.

No chance of playing Poohsticks here!

By now we had made ourselves comfortable, and the thought of stowing everything away and moving on wasn’t attractive. And after all, we were in one of the most breathtaking beautiful spots we had ever seen. So why move on? We decided to spend the night. At 8pm, as it eventually began to drop below 28C, we took the spaniels for a walk up the side valley, along a track beside a rushing stream. By now we’d been joined by two other vans. This was definitely the place to be.

Glacier fed lake

The next morning we took the spaniels back up the side valley, before heading on towards Briksdal. The journey involved driving around two beautiful lakes, and then the water changed colour slightly, and we realised we were now looking at seawater. We had reached Nordfjord, where a large cruise ship could be seen at the quay in Olden. We turned down into the blind valley that ends with a spectacular glacier, and rolled onto the campsite for our first paid night in Norway just in time for lunch just yards from the massive waterfall crashing down the rocks above us. Much more on Briksdal in the next instalment.