After an early start and a 3 hour ferry ride, we continued South along the coastal road. After a week in Norway, even sheer cliffs rising several hundred meters straight out of the ocean become a little mundane. Passing past and then under a huge glacier in another 8km tunnel kept me interested.
As we approached our destination - a tiny middle-of-nowhere campsite at 11pm - it became apparent that something wasn't quite right.
Completely by accident, we'd stumbled upon the main event of a week long Northern Norwegian rock festival which was being held IN our campsite. Tickets were available, but only at Norwegian prices so we wandered up to watch from just outside the gates. Within 5 minutes a local invited us into a caravan for some beers. Details from the rest of the night are sketchy but I'm pretty sure Beer, Jaegermeister and Moonshine were all heavily involved.
Chris had wisely chosen to leave the party early, so when I stumbled back to the car at 8am he was ready to take up the driving duties. Although he assures me we were only close to crashing a couple of times, I spent the whole trip passed out with a jumper wrapped around my head, so I'm unable to corroborate his story. I was feeling well enough by 4pm to take a driving shift and we swapped back about an hour out of Trondheim.
Although Chris was an enthusiastic and competent high speed driver (literally pumping his fist the first time we entered a 110 zone), he did start to exude an aura of tension whenever complicated maneuvers were required (such as slowing down) or when other cars made any sudden movements (for example turning). It didn't help that the drivers in Trondheim were completely insane. On no less than 3 occasions we saw drivers reverse rapidly along a main street into heavy traffic. One of them was driving a public bus. Surrounded by maniacs and without any idea of our location, Chris reverted back to his primal instinct - driving fast.
He sped through a pedestrian crossing almost running over a cyclist, plowed through a roundabout and took a sharp left turn directly into the setting sun. Being blinded by the sun didn't diminish his need for speed, although it did prevent him from noticing the red traffic light until the last second. He brought the car to a halt a couple of meters over the line and I had just enough time to turn to him and comment on his excellent driving before one of the crazy Norwegians locked up his brakes and slammed into the back of us at about 30km/h.
It was only Aunli's 3rd accident of the year, which is probably quite good by Norwegian standards. Nevertheless, if any Trondheim crash repairers are reading, from their private jet or Monaco summer house, I'm prepared to pass on his address and phone number for a small percentage of future repairs. Although his car was quite a mess, only the back panels of our car were damaged and it was fortunately still drivable. The only physical injury I sustained was minor whiplash which sorted itself out in a few days. "I feel a bit lightheaded" commented Chris. "Maybe you should drive?"
As we approached our destination - a tiny middle-of-nowhere campsite at 11pm - it became apparent that something wasn't quite right.
Completely by accident, we'd stumbled upon the main event of a week long Northern Norwegian rock festival which was being held IN our campsite. Tickets were available, but only at Norwegian prices so we wandered up to watch from just outside the gates. Within 5 minutes a local invited us into a caravan for some beers. Details from the rest of the night are sketchy but I'm pretty sure Beer, Jaegermeister and Moonshine were all heavily involved.
Chris had wisely chosen to leave the party early, so when I stumbled back to the car at 8am he was ready to take up the driving duties. Although he assures me we were only close to crashing a couple of times, I spent the whole trip passed out with a jumper wrapped around my head, so I'm unable to corroborate his story. I was feeling well enough by 4pm to take a driving shift and we swapped back about an hour out of Trondheim.
Although Chris was an enthusiastic and competent high speed driver (literally pumping his fist the first time we entered a 110 zone), he did start to exude an aura of tension whenever complicated maneuvers were required (such as slowing down) or when other cars made any sudden movements (for example turning). It didn't help that the drivers in Trondheim were completely insane. On no less than 3 occasions we saw drivers reverse rapidly along a main street into heavy traffic. One of them was driving a public bus. Surrounded by maniacs and without any idea of our location, Chris reverted back to his primal instinct - driving fast.
He sped through a pedestrian crossing almost running over a cyclist, plowed through a roundabout and took a sharp left turn directly into the setting sun. Being blinded by the sun didn't diminish his need for speed, although it did prevent him from noticing the red traffic light until the last second. He brought the car to a halt a couple of meters over the line and I had just enough time to turn to him and comment on his excellent driving before one of the crazy Norwegians locked up his brakes and slammed into the back of us at about 30km/h.
It was only Aunli's 3rd accident of the year, which is probably quite good by Norwegian standards. Nevertheless, if any Trondheim crash repairers are reading, from their private jet or Monaco summer house, I'm prepared to pass on his address and phone number for a small percentage of future repairs. Although his car was quite a mess, only the back panels of our car were damaged and it was fortunately still drivable. The only physical injury I sustained was minor whiplash which sorted itself out in a few days. "I feel a bit lightheaded" commented Chris. "Maybe you should drive?"
1 comment:
Who'd have thought that you'd end up in a car accident with CV driving and it not being completely his fault!
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