Igor at sunset near the Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 11th.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

There is absolutely nothing worse...

Once again we got up and drove at 6:30am. And once again, we didn't go very far... only 9 kms (5.5 miles) to our next stop!

There's a lot to see and do in this area, and we've still got six days until we get to our ferry departure in Kristiansand which is only 150 kms (93 miles) from here. So there is no need to do much driving everyday.

We were surprised that our next overnight spot was empty. You would think that arriving there before 7am you would find other campers still there from the night before, but there were none.

It was going to be a warm day. Yes, we know that most of Europe is baking, and we are getting the northern end of the current heat wave... taking our high temperature up to about 25C (77F) which is of course nice summer weather. Except that our plan was to climb the 434 steps up an old mining rail so we wanted to do it while it was still morning.

First though, we wandered down to Helleren which is a couple of old houses situated underneath a rock overhand. Apparently there has been some sort of community underneath this rock overhang since the stone age, and the current houses date to the mid 17th and mid 18th centuries.

The roofs never had any proper roofing since they never get wet.

They are completely covered by the rock overhang.

They have been abandoned since about 1920 and are looked after by the local museum.

On the opposite side of the road is the trail leading up to the titanium mine. The mine itself is still in operation, but the old rail cart line is not used anymore and has been turned into a hiking trail.

There are 434 steps to the top.
Glad its still in the shade!

I took a short video for you...


looking down.

This big pipe is made of wood, and held together with hundreds of steel straps.

View of Jossingfjord from the top.

Looking across at the two old houses down below.

Zoomed in.

Zoomed in on Max.
It seems Max has a neighbor.

We just don't get it. And yet it happens time and again. You have this big empty parking lot, and someone pulls in and parks right beside us. Right beside! This is why we always choose an end spot whenever possible. To me, there is absolutely nothing worse than opening your blind in the morning only to stare at another camper parked right beside you. 

Fortunately, they didn't stay overnight. 

Max's overnight spot at GPS 58.330346, 6.356421

One other camper did join us for the night, but he gave Max lots of space, exactly the way Max likes it.

View out our side window.

Calling for a high of 27C (81F) so we are off to get some exercise early in the day.

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And in Canada...

10 comments:

  1. We've long pondered this same question. Herd instinct maybe? Or maybe the fact you chose your spot for a reason (flat, easy to get out of, shaded, firm ground, feels safer etc) and your new neighbors chose a similar spot for the same reason? Or perhaps just plain laziness - pull into a big open space, can't be bothered to work out which spot is the best/legal and just pick one near the other vans. Lots of possibilities? I doubt folks do it to wind each other up, it's just unthinking default behaviour, in my mind anyway. 👍

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    1. We have to agree with you that it is just unthinking on their part! We are sure that we will never figure out the reason why and we know that it happens time and again to many RVers. The one question that we keep asking ourselves, is "do they not want to have a little more space themselves"?

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  2. I just want to jump in our campervan and head out to Norway when I see your pics....so beautifull!

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    1. We couldn't blame you if you did, it really is that beautiful here! We are glad that you are enjoying the pictures. :-)

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  3. Whenever we have Boondocked the same thing always happens.
    Great scenery. Be Safe and Enjoy staying cool.

    It's about time.

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    1. Yep, we have had it happen all the time and in many different countries. This question is asked a lot on many of the RV Facebook pages and I think one of the main answers is for safety but even then they could still leave some extra space in between, you would think they would like to have a little space themselves!

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  4. I always enjoy catching up with your blogs and some of this reminds me of traveling down the Alaska inside passage and stopping at the various islands for a few days. I like your video links having just started a youtube channel I'm curious as to how you put these links in your blog?

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    1. When you look at any youtube video, you'll see a tab just below the video saying "Share". That will bring up another window that gives you options to share, including one that says "Embed". When you click on that, it will bring up a window that has HTML code on the right side. It starts with <iframe or something similar. Copy the code, and paste the code into the edit HTML section of your blog post.

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    2. Ah so easy when you know how, thanks very much Kevin the font of knowledge

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    3. You're welcome, we are glad that we could help you! :-)

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