Weekend in Sauda

Hi again,

As mentioned last post we went to Sauda for the weekend. Sauda is only about a 2 hour ferry ride but about a 3 hour drive (including ferry) from Stavanger. It is located up one of the many fjords here in fjord country and has a population of around 4500 people but is known for its ski fields in the surrounding hills. The kommune (larger than a suburb but smaller than a state - essentially a shire) and the ski field had organised for a band on in the snow on the Saturday night. The band was called TNT and apparently is quite well know in Norway - although I have yet to find any evidence of them being famous! So we were crossing our fingers for good weather to enjoy some daytime and then night-time skiing in Sauda. They even have lights lighting up their ski fiends - pretty cool.


As we weren't able to bring Cooba, we dropped him off at the kennel on Friday afternoon. The kennel was actually quite nice with lots of play areas, and the ability for dogs to share a section if they get along during their stay. Cooba apparently made friends with some female dog (unsure what type) whilst playing out in the yard so they were 'teamed up' during their stay. I am not quite sure what they got up to during their stay however as cooba had lots of scratches on the inside of his back legs (just near his private parts!) so it seems as thought he had an enjoyable stay there! He was exhausted when we got him back on Sunday night!

After dropping Coobs off we drove to the ferry terminal. We had to go through two of these massive tunnels to get there. They actually go underneath two of the fjords and went down to 233 metres below sea level and are about 6 km long. So if you thought the Burnley tunnel was big - think again. They were absolutely enormous - and good fun to drive through! We made it to the ferry with a few minutes to spare (they run every 30 mins) and drove straight on board. It cost 198NOK (around $40 AUD) for the three of us (Emma, Ryan, and myself) for the 20 minute ferry journey. The ferry was rolling around all over the place as there was some big swell coming through from the North Sea but all was good (despite some fears I may have left the handbrake off).

We then had a pretty harrowing journey in the dark along these cliff edge roads that make the Great Ocean Road look like a gentle doddle. Lucky enough it was dark, misty, and snow was around so we couldn't see how far we would fall if we hit the edge.

Anyway we made it to Sauda with the car packed full with our brand new skis and plenty of grog to keep things moving! Mari (a Norwegian girl I work with) and Kev (her Aussie boyfriend) were wonderful hosts. It was Mari's parents place and they were in Italy for the week so we had the place to ourselves. Despite being at sea level, it was only a 10 minute drive up to the ski fields and we were quite disappointed that it didn't stop raining all Saturday. As a result we didn't go skiing or even make it up to the band! I guess TNT will remain a mystery for a while longer.

We kept occupied playing scrabble (English version) which was good fun as well as playing Texas hold-em poker. All good fun. Here is a pic of Kev with an interesting set of letters (you may need to click on the pic to see the letters).

The other thing we managed to do quite well was eat - and we did a lot of it. Mari's grandma (Momo - stands for mothers mother - very practical these Norwegians - although I'm not sure on the spelling) kept 'harassing' us (harassing in the best way possible) with an amazing array of food. We got home cooked Norwegian style pancakes with homemade Blueberry Jam, wonderful cookies, slices, chocolates, biscuits, etc etc. Mari and Kev also put on an amazing spread which was great - especially the breakfasts which were huge! Very enjoyable. Here is a pic of us all sitting down to one of our many meals!

Emma and I did however manage to get to use our skis! However it was simply to try them on in the lounge room when we got home (see below). Hopefully the weather improves again and I get a good chance to go skiing in the next month or two.





















Till then - Ha Det Bra!