Going out over the Fjell flushed out a solitary Willow Grouse.
Finally finished up the day with a wild camp at N 59°21'29" E 07°45'44” just off 45 on a small lake up on top of the Fjell. Most pleasant, spent most of the time trying to locate the Siskin that were chirping away. Managed to locate them after awhile and could watch them feed.
Were a a large number of Chaffinch where we took our obligatory break.
Re-planned the route out of Norway this evening. Will pass south of Oslo with the Ferry running between Horten and Moss and go over to the eastern border with Sweden to overnight and out by Halden the following morning.
01.06.12 Undisturbed night and todays ride was fun as far Akkerhaug with the fun ending there. The route continued over the B roads I had selected but was stymied by height restriction on two railway bridges of 2.6 metres max. First time for that and means we shall now have to stick to the A roads which is a bore and consequently a b….r.
Wild camp again to the side of the road just after crossing the new bridge on the ramp of the old one which had been demolished. Again great night and no traffic disturbance. Location was N 59°27'37" E 09°18'56”
02.06,12 Uneventful ride down and across through pleasant enough countryside, but the wild and lonely is behind us now. This is the civilised part of Norway. The planned camp site was chocker so landed back at Stora Lee which was our first site on the 2011 trip after the long run up through Sweden. N 59°15'48" E 11°48'05”
03.06.12 Early start with a planned stop in Puttgarden. It is a long boring run all down Sweden's west coast to Malmø, across the Øresund and zip down to Rødby in Denmark. Ferry to Puttgarden and as luck would have it drove straight on to one and it embarked about ten minutes later. Once on German soil though decided to crash out the last kilometres and drove straight through to Poel, which closes a large loop having set out from the same site on the 16.04.12.
It was a long run aggravated by a continuous cross wind which was rather strong all the way through to Rødby, but especially in Sweden. Blew the van about quite a bit.
N 53°59'40" E 11°26'45” which is only a few metres off the spot from 16.04. Check me if you dinna believe.
Hard drive, almost 900 km and quite knackered, bit can chill tomorrow and shall stay around here until Sunday when it is off to Bremerhaven where I have an appointment to get the suspension put back in order by professionals who know what they are doing, and not a hobby mechanic playing gas station air hose jockey pumping the van up and down. Whole thing has caused me to leave a large quantity of tyre rubber behind me.
Thats it folks for this trip, probably have to post this at home as I do not have much hope of a hotspot. Hope it ha been of some interest, if not I apologise.
Whatever, I’ll close the trip Blog with my overall thoughts on it in the comfort of the flat in Düsseldorf and prepare for the next one for Oman.
04.06.12 Slept like a log and a slow start to the day. Planned out the rest of the time we have before Düsseldorf.
Walked across to the Bird Sanctuary and back. Spotted a Reed Bunting for the first time and all the water birds mentioned before.
Rest of the day then spent sorting out the picks for this trips photographs.
05.06.12 Checked out Grevenmühlen for old times sake, used to drive through it in a hurry twice a day when on the Project in Rostock, between Lübeck and Rostock. The centre was interesting but not much of it. On the way back stopped off in Wismar to treat ourselves to a fish meal. Disaster!
Back to Poel, other end of the island this time to another Bird Sanctuary and indulged in a little bird watching. Later moved onto the grass parking area for that area in the trees.Protected on all sides either with trees or hedgerows.
06.06.12 Spent most of the day in Wismar. This was a grey falling apart place when I was giving it the same treatment as Grevenmühlen back in ’82. Was pleasantly surprised however, they have put, and are continuing to do so, a large amount of money into getting it back into a reasonable state after the DDR apes had ruined it like everywhere else.
Have decided to check out Rostock tomorrow so have landed up at the back of the Ammonia Plant we were building way back then in Poppendorf. N 54°08'32" E 12°19'52”
From here it is only a 26 km run back into Rostock. Interested to see how much it has changed.
07.06.12 Rostock. As to be expected a return visit is usually a disappointment and this was no exception.
In trying to analyse why I have come to the conclusion that at the time it was exciting new and a very DDR experience. The buildings grey and falling apart due to lack of money and materials. The atmosphere in the pubs. The VOPOS all over the place and recognisable Stasi as well, whilst knowing that the unrecognisable ones were searching our flats and belongings with great regularity whilst we were at work building their plant for them. Or taping our phone calls back home from the Post Office where we had to report and request a call outside of the DDR.
This time apart from a deal of fond memories found that Rostock held less interest for me than Wismar.
Sorted out finally where we lived and drove across to the other side of the Warnow River to Gross Klein which is a suburb of Warnemünde. Found the terrible Plattenbau (prefabricated concrete slab buildings) district that we were made to live in. The Poles lived in the buildings with no glass in the windows because they always threw their empty grog bottles out that way rather than disposing of the in the usual manner. The Swedes also lived in separate blocks, which were also short of glass in the windows. This was because when they got legless they found it fun to throw the bathroom porcelain out that way. Bogs, hand basins and whatever else would come loose. The blocks we lived in had all the glass in the windows but could be recognised by the endless stream of stumbling drunks going in and out, or weaving their way back from the HO shop with some more crates of beer. I have never before, or after, been associated with a project with so much drunkenness involved. The Polish guys, they were responsible for the civil works, were only allowed to use none mechanical tools on Mondays as the were always too drunk to operate anything much more than a broom or a shovel before Tuesday.
I digress, the settlement has been pepped up by planting grass and trees etc., but this in no way changes the atmosphere.
With all the above missing I don’t suppose it could be of any great interest too me anymore. Glad to have checked it out though and put the geography back into place at least.
Bad Zwischenahn tomorrow.
08.06.12 Endless boring Motorway drive with endless roadworks but fortunately without any terrible queues.
Not a fan of the place but “B” has a Bee in her bonnet about a particular Artist from whom she has a piece of work and wishes to track her down again.
09.06.12 Walk about and a search for the Artist. “B” fond out her address and we have an appointment on Sunday afternoon.
10.06.12 Loafed around until the appointment and “B” finished up with a new piece of work and is minus the bee in the bonnet.
Drove down to Bremerhaven after that and camped in the workshop yard where we finally hope to get my amateur adjustments to the suspension fixed with new parts and professional setting.
11.06.12 Suspension fixed and I was rather pleased to learn that my adjustments were acceptable and did not cause any further mischief.
Drove from there to Bielefeld to visit family.
12.06.12 Back in Düsseldorf at 18.40 end of tour.
Total distance travelled 11,699 kilometres, couple of good photographs and plenty of fun.