GR3 HITS THE ROAD

 

Well, it’s time to hit the road. GR3 is ready to be introduced to the world. New adventures await, hopefully on much more civilized roads. Our daughter drops us at the airport for our easy flight to Munich via Doha. Unfortunately, we are late leaving Doha so hopefully we will make all our train connections with all 4 of our suitcases plus a big rolled tube full of graphics for GR3. We manage not to lose anything AND get all our 4 trains, finally reaching Schladming in Austria mid-afternoon. There is a small supermarket down the road – enough for a small stock up. 

The next day is supposed to be handover. It proves to be a slow frustrating process. There are still jobs to be completed but when we insist that we must leave today they rush to finish. By evening we head off with all our new stickers firmly in place. Norway here we come. We have a date with a ship!

We don’t get too far because we are trying to avoid the toll roads (we don’t have the transponder required by trucks) and the roads are narrow and very windy.  GR3 is a bit wider than GR2 and we seem to barely fit. By 7.30pm we pull into the last free campspot at Hallien. Phew! In the morning, we get snarled in narrow roads that are busy with traffic heading to Salzberg, so we are relieved to cross into Germany and onto the Autobahn. We are heading to our good friend’s place in Hipilstein, between Munich & Nuremberg. But first a stop at a supermarket to stock our empty shelves and then a huge camping store for outdoor table & chairs along with some other necessities.

It is lovely to see Konrad & Ingrid again. We met them in Greece on our very first adventure in GR1 in 2005 and have visited them in Germany many times since then, even leaving GR2 stored nearby. The whole extended family arrive for a BBQ dinner, and we have a lovely evening with them. But we haven’t time to tarry, so we say our goodbyes that night and the next morning head off bright and early as we have a long drive ahead of us. And it sure is with just over 700kms to cover today as we head towards Berlin. We have been checking on which ferry to use as they are rather busy at this time of the year but decide in typical Pinder fashion to just wing it. And spectacularly we do. We roll up to the terminal in Rostock to find the ferry to Sweden is fully booked but the one to Denmark is due to leave in 10 minutes (Its running late!). So, we drive on for a lovely 2 hour cruise and arrive in Gedger at the tip of a Danish peninsula by dusk and easily find a lovely quiet spot behind the Church for the night.

Another day of driving as we cross the flat countryside of Denmark, over numerous rivers and skirting around the sprawling city of Copenhagen to reach our next ferry at Helsinger. Again, we practically drive straight onto another ferry. This one is a very short and is a very scenic trip to Helsingborg in Sweden. We follow the trucks off the ferry and out onto the motorways passing lush green pastures and wooded hillsides. We pull off at the little town of Kobe, just off the motorway, for the night.

The next morning, we head into Norway and wind our way through the motorways of Oslo as we navigate our way to the airport. Traffic isn’t too heavy as it is Sunday. We want to check out parking at the airport so that we are all prepared for our flight tomorrow. There are lots of huge parking areas, rather pricey, but they include a free shuttle to the airport. Bonus. We head about 30km north to a gorgeous free camp spot beside the river in Eidsvoll. Perfect.

In the morning, we pack our bags and return to the airport, but yesterday we didn’t notice the long cameras hanging over the carpark entry. Bother, we won’t fit. But fortunately, we find a carpark further away and manage to navigate the online booking and then the online tickets for a bus to the airport. Finally checked in and on the plane. We are on our way to Longyearbyen on Svalbard. The start of our next adventure, an expedition around Svalbard in the hope of spotting icebergs, glaciers and the elusive polar bear.  And of course, get within 800km of the North Pole.