Monday, November 24, 2008

Snow driving...

I haven't driven in snow since 1980 probably; so why start now? Because in Stryn, where we were last night there was over 1 meter of snowfall and towering mounds of show piled up on spare street corners. We left Stryn for Bergen this morning and I'm happy to say that we made it safe and sound, and the car is still in good shape with four fine fenders. One stretch of road is very narrow, only wide enough for one car. There are turnouts intermittently where you stop and wait if you meet a car. Today I saw a sign there that I've never noticed before, It says "Olden - Innvik
Norway's worst road"
I was in a little car wreck on that stretch in the late 80's, so I thought about that today as we carefully skidded across the snowy washboard textured surface, to our left was the unyeilding stone mountainside, to our immediate right the frigid, grey fjord. Then we met a car, and I had to stop and back up to the nearest wide spot.. got stuck and couldn't get out of there The nice man stopped and got out to push, and Inger J got out and pushed, and a truckdriver stopped and got out to help push, push from behind...no good, push from the front, no good...it's starting to snow...a car caught up behind us and couldn't get past, then a big bus came and had to wait...oh dear, then the nice truckdriver man got great big snow chains out and laid them out front of our right front tire, then they pushed, and we're on our way! We drove very carefully from there, up over the Utvik mountain pass, and ever so carefully back down, because of those nasty slippery hairpin curves - hitting the brakes to slow down can have unpredictable consequenses when the road is as slippery as an old soap dish...finally after Førde we had clear roads, now all I have to watch out for is those speed cameras...

7 comments:

Mimi/Susan said...

My nerves are shot just reading about it.

Ethel said...

glad Norwegians are nice, anyway ;-). btw..ever get to Hallingdal?

Anita said...

Good grief...

That pic looks awfully familiar... could I have been there? Or are spots like that a dime a dozen in Good Ole' Norway?

alleykat said...

Yes, Anita, you've been there, on the way from Bergen after the funeral as we were headed to Stryn. This picture is one I stole off the web, is misleading because of the lack of snow.

Anonymous said...

wow, that sounds like quite an adventure :-b glad that they finally managed to pull your car out!!

Diane T. said...

Reminded me of the time were were visiting Germany. We made many stops getting out and helping push cars that couldn't make it up hills. Lisa L. was so excited to help push. There was one car we were tempted to give a push in the ditch, because it couldn't manage the slightest incline. That was an unusual adventure for us.

Anonymous said...

This is how they roll in Stryn:

http://magazine.volvotrucks.com/en-gb/Articles/International/2009/1_09/Customer_Story/Customer_Story_video/TV_Extreme_driving_in_Norway/