Day 76 the last track in Europe

It's really early when I wake just after 4am.... Seemed a good time to catch up on the blog! 

Also to get out of Oslo! 

Walking through the early morning dark to central station

to catch my last train that I can use with the interrail pass! For about £600 I've travelled 12,362 kilometers by the time I reach Oslo international airport, that's bloody good value!!!

Intentionally I'm early really early! I haven't flown in nearly 15 years and yes I'm nervous, Not being a fan of heights!

Still it's an opportunity to face my fears, and at 9.25am we take off..... I won't deny I'm sweating, and breathing deeply! 

It doesn't last an hour in and I've chilled out enjoying the sunshine above the clouds

descending into Reykjavik international and it's become normal, future flights will be that much easier.... And the next being further is only a few weeks away, when I get around to booking the flight!

Picking up a bottle of whisky at duty free, to circumvent the cost of alcohol in Iceland, and I'm ready to be picked up by the camper company! Nice organisation and lovely staff! This is Eliska who picked myself and two others up

really cheerful lady, she dealt with setting me up in my little camper

a nissan Nv200, and I was first away! 

First stop the Bonus supermarket, that Eliska had recommended, loading the van for a few days I enjoy the autonomy of not being dependent upon a city for a while!

Driving out I have two stop at a roundabout (successfully negotiating the wrong side of the road!) the reason I stopped? 

Finally a Viking sword with a Petersen type O Pommel!! 

i didn't know at the time but there's a Viking museum nearby, that I'll have to visit on my last day with the camper! 

For now I travel around route 44 circumnavigating the airport on minor roads while I get reaccustomed to driving, stopping at Brimkettel lava rock pool

not planning on bathing today in this fierce sea! With sea spray on my face that tastes of sulpher! And the dried crust of black lava all around me I'm in a strange world! And in all it's ways I'm sure it will get stranger!

I stop at the famous blue lagoon spa with huge protective walls of lava to protect it and the nearby thermal power station for future eruptions.

I didn't go in I'm pretty tired and have forty minutes to drive to my campsite..... Which is free!!! I wonder how often that will happen!!

but now I can sit in the warmth of the van with it's diesel heater going and cook (reheat!) a lamb curry! 

With whisky accompaniment I'm in my happy place, and sleep comes, I'm two time zones further west than when I left Oslo and with an early start it's been a long day! 

day 75 historic adventure!

Not just historic adventure, memories from my youth and innocent times 😊

One theme that unites all of today's objectives is that they are both nautical adventures/adventurers! And that their aims albeit shorter than mine are true adventures with the hardships and risks to life that modern travel has taken from this and will likely not be written into my travelog, who knows tho perhaps they will? 

A quick breakfast on the run, I'm out the hostel and catching a bus from Hausmanns bru just around the corner to Bigdøynes! An easy trip out, going over ground I've travelled before through this I'm now pleased to say pleasant city, never trust first impressions!

Onto the Peninsular through Bigdøy,I go past the Viking ship museum that's currently undergoing building work until 2026.... A return visit perhaps? 

The first visit is to the Kontiki museum, telling the stories of the many voyages of Thor Heyerdahl as he built and tested the seaworthiness of ancient designs of ship to understand the spread of humanity through the Pacific, the first was in the balsa wood raft back in the 1940's called the Kontiki after a South American chieftain who sailed east to escape capture after defeats in war ... Who knows if he made it! 

But this boat was design to see if could have survived

this is the actual raft Thor Heyerdahl used! Proving it's capability travelling from Lima to Tahiti.... Just... It wasn't in the best condition when it arrived, but it arrived... Pure adventure with all the risk! 

The next two adventures sailing the Ra which failed quickly sailing from Northern Africa due to poor construction and the Ra2 which sailed from

Morocco to Barbados using mostly the trade winds to blow them along!

this is one adventure that I remember from my childhood! As a kids we used to make models of this ship from dried grass and sailed them to destruction in local streams! Happy simple times 🥰.

Thor Heyerdahl himself really pushed his boundaries being a poor swimmer and actually scared of the sea!! It takes a special kind of person to pursue his understanding of past technology/history with these constraints! 

But pushing to the extent of your ability and succeeding or failing is the theme of the second museum named after the ship The Fram used for many explorations by Roald Amundsen 

a ship designed for travel through Antarctic ice and even becoming icebound... It has a short curved hull designed if stuck in the ice to not be crushed but pushed up out of the ice until it's either possible to free the boat or a melt allows escape! 

Making this the perfect ship for his most famous adventure to the south pole! 

Where on the 15th of December 1911 he beat Scott leading the British endeavour by nearly a month! 

And got his team home. 

The ship did eventually become unseaworthy and after a period of decay was restored to the current state, and becomes the fascinating museum piece it is! 

You can explore the interior looking over the engines 

electrics

and even Amundsens living quarters!

space was indeed precious! 

Taking a few minutes to look over the fyord before heading back to pack for leaving Norway tomorrow!