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Day 9 part 2. Hirthals to Bergen with the ferry.

At around lunchtime we started to get hungry, and went off in search of some food. We ate some of the food bought at the supermarket in Hirtshals the day before, making sandwiches for the following day. We did a quick wash or two in the sink before returning to the outside deck.

Later in the afternoon having done our chores and explored the ship, we returned to the sunny aft deck. I spotted the Norwegian coast, in the distance, and it looked very rocky. We realised we were sailing past the coastline we had cycled in 2005.

It was interesting to see the coast from a distance. When cycling the route it was impossible to get a perspective on the landscape nor work out the lie of the land. The boat sailed round the outside whilst we had toiled round the coast route that at various times heads off in all directions. It did look rather impressive as a coastline, nothing like the dike lined coasts of the Netherlands Germany or Denmark. Huge chiselled and scraped rock faces plunged into the water, the range of greys was wonderful.

I spent some time trying to pick out some of the features we cycled. This I think is Flekkefjord. I guessed that this was the area round Lunde (Farsund) where we camped last year. (I could be wrong so corrections welcome).

It made me want to go and cycle it again, bringing back the memories of our first cycle tour. Still we had a new set of challenges ahead of us, (when the boat finally made it to Bergen) but Damae was doing her best to enjoy the sun.

At tea time we got hungry again (surprisingly enough), and after much deliberation, we decided to go for the buffet dinner option on the boat. After all it was a holiday and we expected to have a hard days cycling ahead of us the following day. It was not especially cheap at around twenty euros each but there was sufficient choice for us as vegetarians. The food was not bad either, and we returned to the buffet for seconds. Two desserts and a couple of coffees later we were ready for the evening.

As the ship neared Stavanger we headed back up to the deck. I made use of the disappearing light and took some more pictures of the Norwegian coastline. The seascape reminded me of the skerries we passed when we took the boat down to Stromstad from Fredrikstad the year before.

We arrived late in the evening in Stavanger and I went to the highest deck to take some photos. The harbour area seems to have a mix of modern apartments and older buildings. There is supposed to be an old town nestling in there somewhere, but that will have to wait for another trip.

We were now a little tired and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow we would have to work out how to get to the start of the Rallarvegen and start the journey.

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