BBQ’d E Class Mercedes Anyone?

Day 54 - July 17^th

With much of what we wanted to see and achieve in Sweden now out of the way, we set our sights on one of the places we were anticipating most – Norway.

Being further up north than where most people enter Norway, we decided to head directly west towards the town of Lillehammer. This was good for two reasons. Firstly, because it was host to the 1994 Winter Olympics and also because it was the first supplier of LPG we would hit, with our gas tank nearly running on empty. 

Luke and his lucky hubcap.

It was a fairly lengthy drive through the Swedish forest; however, as we passed over the border the change in terrain and scenery quickly became obvious. 

Our first entry into Norway was also quite remarkable as we went down an isolated, bumpy dirt road and found something quite unexpected. About 30mins down the road, I spotted a shiny silver hubcap hanging from a tree branch and as I passed, noted that it was exactly the same as those on our van. 

Given that we had lost a hubcap in Scotland months earlier, I quickly threw the car into reverse, assured that it wasn’t a shrine to someone who may have died there and then pilfered it. The van now had 4 shiny hubcaps! 

After a very scenic drive through the eastern Norwegian towns, we finally arrived into Lillehammer late afternoon. We then spent the next hour or so trying to find the Shell station that sold LPG, eventually finding it on the third attempt. 

Lillehammer itself was fairly uninspiring compared to the towns we had gone through, so after inspecting the massive ski jump we headed further north to a town called Hunderfossen, which hosted the Olympic Bobsled in 1994. 

We had read that the bobsled track still operated in winter and also did bobsled rides in summer using sleds with wheels, that athletes would train on reaching speeds up to 130km/h. Having found bobsled quite interesting since ‘Cool Running’s’, we decided to take a look. 

Regrettably, we arrived about an hour too late as the track had closed and did not open until 11am the next morning. With this in mind, we decided to park up in a family amusement park just across the road and have dinner. 

Following dinner we noticed a fairly large plume of smoke coming from just above the parking lot. We were about 200 metres away so couldn’t completely make out what it was, but thought it may have been a rubbish bin on fire. 

The smoke managed to capture the attention of a few people in the car park and we figured that it wasn’t a bin on fire as the flames quickly grew. Not wanting to miss out on the action, we left the van to take a closer inspection. 

What we found was an E Class Mercedes station wagon on fire! The Norwegians didn’t seem too concerned (this must happen all the time) and we overheard a Scottish man calling the fire brigand. Not too much time had passed when the police and fire brigade arrived and the car was quickly doused in a foam bath and the fire extinguished. 

Is it a dust bin or a E Class Mercedes?

Firemen at work :)

The aftermath.

Thankfully there was nobody in the car. In fact, I would say given that it didn’t appear to have an owner it must have been stolen and for some reason the thief thought it would be a good idea to burn the car out in one of the most populated areas of Norway. 

With all that excitement and a whole bunch of cars coming into the amusement park for some evening Troll show, we decided to give the bobsled a miss and continue eastwards towards Bergen. 

The drive was again very scenic and we climbed a huge mountain to get out the district. One thing that came as a surprise as we climbed the hill were the cautionary signs advising of cows and sheep on the road. 

Now given that we had seen a million signs advising of ‘Springy Deer’, we didn’t take too much notice until we rounded a corner and came face to face with a herd of cattle!

This continued for a little further as we came across sheep camped in the middle of the road and a few more head of cows just wandering on the side of the road. This was an early warning to take heed of the signs in Norway as they often come true.