Fortunately, like Germany, Norway is a very motorhome friendly country and some municipalities and some gas stations have free RV dump and fill facilities. In fact, some of them are really nice!
They're not around every corner though, so you have to do some planning based on where one might be located... and definitely take advantage of one even if you don't really need to. Here's an example of the one we used yesterday...
The AutoSan 2000!
So, this one was located at a truck stop pull off beside the highway. It's an all in one unit, with cassette dump and rinse and step flush on one side, an automatic hands free sink on the other side, and a fresh water fill with quick connect on the front.
The vast majority of European motorhomes don't have a black waste holding tank. They have a removeable cassette that usually holds about 5 gallons of toilet waste.
You dump the contents of the cassette here.
You can't see it in the photo, but there is a water nozzle at the top where you hold the neck of the cassette while you press the pedal with your foot. This simultaneously rinses your cassette and flushes the contents you just dumped.
Foot pedal.
While you're doing all this, you've also parked over the grate where you grey water empties, so that is being done while you are emptying the cassette and filling your fresh water.
Don't forget to close your grey water valve before you drive away!
Really good system!
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
We went for an early walk before leaving our campsite.
There are rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and waterfalls all over!
It was a calm morning, but no sunshine.... yet.
The weather is really changeable. You never know what you're going to get, and looking at any kind of a forecast is pretty much pointless.
We drove into the nearby winter sports town of Hovden. They have a ski hill, and a roller skiing training course, and lots of cross country ski trails that are open to biking and walking during summer.
We got there and the sun came out, so we decided to go for a bike ride.
You can see the ski hill on the right.
Scenery along the way.
Really beautiful trail, but too many steep hills!
We ended up on a paved route, but learned that it is reserved for roller skiing! This is how the Norwegians stay in shape for cross country skiing when there is no snow. Fortunately we didn't bump into anybody using the course while we were on it with the bikes which is forbidden. It took us a while to find our way off of the course!
Eventually we found our way onto a bicycle route...
The cycling/walking path follows the road, but is separated by a concrete barrier.
We got back on the road and did a little more driving north... just as the sun disappeared again, so the timing for our bike ride was perfect.
The highway in this area has these tall markers on each side.
Maybe to do with the amount of snow they get here? We've never seen these before.
Scenery along the way.
It's always a little hairy when you get one of these coming towards you on a narrow road.
I always slow down as much as I can, but they usually don't.
Somehow, there always seems to be an inch or two of clearance!
We came down a steep switchback road into this valley.
And then we took a dirt road about 2 kms (1.3 miles) off the main road and arrived at our next overnight spot...
Max, parked at GPS 59.785084, 7.416048
Really pretty little spot, but we're up to about 870 meters (2,850') altitude now so it's a bit cooler. High today expected to be 15C (60F) with an overnight low of 8C (47F). We're going to stay put here for a second night though. Lots of walking to be done in the area.
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And in Canada...
Looks like a tough (but pretty) place to ride a bike with all the steep hills. Good on you both for going for it!
ReplyDeleteIn places yes it would be. We started off on the cross country ski trails which were made of large loose gravel so going up the steep sections of the hill was difficult because your tires had a hard time trying to grip onto the surface, once we got onto the pavement it wasn't so much of an issue. It gave us a workout and that is what we wanted, even pushing the bikes up a couple of steep sections, sure worked your legs!
DeleteMakes dumpstations in the Americas look quite a bit primative.
ReplyDeleteNot really because the dump station in North America are set up for a totally different kind of dumping. We have been to some nicely set up ones back home too.
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