Månafossen

After a fitful night's sleep, M and I woke early to have a swim in the pool and a quick blast in the sauna for M before breakfast. Another lovely meal and a brilliant hotel for the night - I couldn't believe when we checked out we were only charged £180 for the room overlooking the mountians as well as 3 meals, several alcoholic drinks and a pool that was deserted both times we used it! Unfortunately when we left we'd missed the Great Mazda Exodus... What a good photo that would have made. The Chairman had told us last night they were heading off early this morning as they had a long drive ahead of them. I think M was a little jealous, I'm sure he'd like to take his Triumph TR7 on a mountain-roadtrip in Norway.

Instead, we took our trusty Nissan Juke off to Bjerkjedal to do a little souvenier-shopping for A and L, to say thank you for having us. When we eventually buy a cabin of our own, we'll have to get a spare set of keys cut for A and L to pay them back for all their hospitality! After wandering round the shop, M and I drove over to Manafossen to walk to the top of the waterfall (the highest waterfall in Rogaland). Another special place for me - the first walk M took me on 2 years ago! We took an identical photo to the one we took two years ago of the pair of us at the top of the waterfall - M was even wearing the same shorts and shoes (the boy needs more clothes)!

The waterfall was running heavy after all the rain, and made an even more beautiful sight than usual under the heavy clouds - we could even feel the spray on our faces from a good 80 metres away. On our final stretch back to A's house, we stopped off at Sandnes so that M could spend some birthday money on some new waterproof trousers. We also bought a couple of pizzas from Dolly Dimples - a real treat as they're quite expensive in Norway. £48 of half-baked pizza in the car, we drove back to A's house and finished cooking the pizza in our oven so it was fresh (what a good idea)... It was promptly all demolished with some beer while watching American Pie: The Reunion.

We had a great last evening showing A and L all our holiday photos (possibly more fun for us than them), relaxing and chatting. A and L are the perfect hosts, and we can't wait to get back and see them again - if they don't get to us first at Christmas!

Flight home tomorrow... We've had a wonderful 16 days, and I'm very lucky to have M to plan all these things. We're both lucky to be able to afford nice holidays like this one too... It's not been cheap but it's been more than worth it. Every time we come here I feel like we belong... It's cheesy as anything but we can't wait to move here permenantly - even our Norwegian's come on a bit in the last 2 weeks! Jeg har hatt en herlig ferie :)