Sunday 11th September At home day in Kristiansund

Bath time!

Par for the course, the rain was pattering down on the roof when we woke this morning, so snuggled back down with my book. It is such a great spot here, very quiet, a few other motorhomes, a fabulous view and it’s free…can’t ask for more, so we decided that we would just “hang out” here for a couple of days and relax. We have been on the road for a while now,  moving each day and it is rather nice to have a little go slow time.

By 11 the rain had stopped and the sun came out to a really nice warm day. We are having issues with the wifi, with nothing available and think that we may have used our allowance and not due to have some more for a few days, so needed to find a place to check emails and load blog (most important!). Also we wanted to empty tanks, and fill with fresh water and had seen an Esso Service Station on our way into town with facilities. In a number of places we have come across a “sani centre” at Esso, they seem to have got their act together to support motorhomer’s, so we do our best to support them.

That done, we then drove around to see if we could find some wifi,  had heard that supermarkets have free wifi, and with all shops closed on a Sunday, including supermarkets, we had plenty of room to investigate. After two stops with no luck, finally pulled up outside a Co-op store and hit the “jackpot”. The carpark was empty so we found the spot with the best signal, made some coffee and caught up. Might have the same issues for the next few days until we get more data.

Driving back to camp, I spotted a car wash with a big bay – Ruakiwi is really rather dirty after all the wet weather we have had. So we turned around and drove in. All the instructions of course were in Norwegian so got out the phone with Google Translate and set to working out what the different buttons were for. For 40 NOK we were able to give her a good shampoo and rinse and she really looks a picture again.

Rocked back up to our camp spot and decided that I would wash the towels and a few other bits and pieces and make the most of this weather. Ian wanted to check the “house batteries” out as we feel that they are not holding their charge as well as they should, especially with having solar panels. Deano suggested a clean of all the terminals which meant pulling out all the sliding shelves in the boot area to get at them. So all done but not overly optimistic, may have to get new batteries and with the days getting shorter will be using them a bit more.

Went for a walk around the boats after all the chores were done. Got chatting with a guy who had just returned from a day out fishing but hadn’t done very well. We asked about how the halibut fishing was, evidently it has been very poor and he explained that the monk fish had been eating the young halibut but they seem to be in a decline so there is hope that soon there will be more halibut. We were discussing the weather with him and he said this week it was supposed to be very good with some really warm days…here’s hoping.

Had to rush back to Ruakiwi to get the washing in as the rain came again, lasted about an hour and now it is fine again. Strange weather in Norway!

...and back to the supermarket this morning (Monday) to check emails and load the blog before leaving town. Hopefully we will have a new allowance of data tomorrow and can be back in touch with everyone. And the sun is shining and it is about 20 degrees!!! Wahoo

Working bee!

Still some roses growing along the side of the road, and the perfume was really strong.

A wander around the old wooden boats kept "his nibs" happy!

Evening view!