Where's Bertie? He's in a motorhome parking area, with his nose about 5m from the edge of the fjord, in the small town of Sand (exact location: 59.485, 6.24716).
Jarred rudely from a deep slumber into wakefulness at 1.20 this morning, it felt like we were on a ship. A blustery wind had picked up and was hitting Bertie side on. Before putting serious thought into whether we should move to put his end to the wind, I groped for my phone and looked up the weather forecast. Apparently we were at the peak of the wind and in two hours time it was going to be calm again. Still being rocked, we went back to sleep.
It had calmed by the time the alarm went off, but it was also raining - and not just a gentle pitter patter. That rain continued off and on as we breakfasted and made our way through a considerable succession of tunnels*, to the town of Sand.
There are only six motorhome parking slots on the old quay here, but three of them were empty, so we slotted Bertie in, marvelled at what a nice spot it is, and had a little look around the immediate area before the next shower had us hastening back indoors for elevenses.
View from Bertie looking left, towards the town
View from Bertie looking slightly to the right.
A trip to the Tourist Office between showers proved to be an initiative test that was failed by everyone we saw there. The door handles (which did press downwards) worked by lifting them upwards. Obviously...
We managed to shelter from a torrential shower there, and to pick up quite a few useful leaflets, before heading back for lunch.
More rain, and some accompanying thunder, kept us indoors until at 3pm I had finished the crochet project on which I have been working and could stand sitting around no longer. Fully waterproofed we went off to look at the local fish ladder. Alas, even though we are right at the peak migration time, we saw no action. I wonder if that was because of how high and fast the river is running at the moment?
The higher flow rate applied to the location where we were standing. Just after I took the snap it increased to 98.8 cubic metres per second. That's a lot of water!
Just up the road from the falls...
...is a bridge which is much touted as a point of interest by the Tourist Board. Indeed, it was voted Bridge of the Year in 2014 by some magazine. Personally, I thought it an ugly construction that didn't sit nicely in its surroundings at all:
Moreover, it's not even a functional bridge for anyone who won't walk across a mesh floor suspended high above fast moving water:
We did, of course, walk across. Then back again. We'll likely cross again tomorrow when we plan (weather permitting) to take a walk on t'other side of the river.
It hadn't stopped raining the whole time we were out, so Bertie's shower is currently hung with wet waterproofs and we are now in for the rest of the day ... although I do see that there is some sunshine heading our way. Wonder if it will last more than ten minutes?
(*I forgot to mention a couple of days ago that we went through a tunnel which lost so much height that, to keep the gradient to an acceptable degree, it put in a 360 degree loop whilst underground.)
Jarred rudely from a deep slumber into wakefulness at 1.20 this morning, it felt like we were on a ship. A blustery wind had picked up and was hitting Bertie side on. Before putting serious thought into whether we should move to put his end to the wind, I groped for my phone and looked up the weather forecast. Apparently we were at the peak of the wind and in two hours time it was going to be calm again. Still being rocked, we went back to sleep.
It had calmed by the time the alarm went off, but it was also raining - and not just a gentle pitter patter. That rain continued off and on as we breakfasted and made our way through a considerable succession of tunnels*, to the town of Sand.
There are only six motorhome parking slots on the old quay here, but three of them were empty, so we slotted Bertie in, marvelled at what a nice spot it is, and had a little look around the immediate area before the next shower had us hastening back indoors for elevenses.
View from Bertie looking left, towards the town
View from Bertie looking slightly to the right.
A trip to the Tourist Office between showers proved to be an initiative test that was failed by everyone we saw there. The door handles (which did press downwards) worked by lifting them upwards. Obviously...
We managed to shelter from a torrential shower there, and to pick up quite a few useful leaflets, before heading back for lunch.
More rain, and some accompanying thunder, kept us indoors until at 3pm I had finished the crochet project on which I have been working and could stand sitting around no longer. Fully waterproofed we went off to look at the local fish ladder. Alas, even though we are right at the peak migration time, we saw no action. I wonder if that was because of how high and fast the river is running at the moment?
The higher flow rate applied to the location where we were standing. Just after I took the snap it increased to 98.8 cubic metres per second. That's a lot of water!
Just up the road from the falls...
...is a bridge which is much touted as a point of interest by the Tourist Board. Indeed, it was voted Bridge of the Year in 2014 by some magazine. Personally, I thought it an ugly construction that didn't sit nicely in its surroundings at all:
Moreover, it's not even a functional bridge for anyone who won't walk across a mesh floor suspended high above fast moving water:
We did, of course, walk across. Then back again. We'll likely cross again tomorrow when we plan (weather permitting) to take a walk on t'other side of the river.
It hadn't stopped raining the whole time we were out, so Bertie's shower is currently hung with wet waterproofs and we are now in for the rest of the day ... although I do see that there is some sunshine heading our way. Wonder if it will last more than ten minutes?
(*I forgot to mention a couple of days ago that we went through a tunnel which lost so much height that, to keep the gradient to an acceptable degree, it put in a 360 degree loop whilst underground.)
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