Cultural Sausage Trip

Most Saturdays start with a 4 year old running in at 6am and jumping up and down on the bed. My wife is generally in the middle of a symbiosis with the bed so it falls to me to remove the little devil from the bedroom and retire to watch children s TV, read MOG mag and of course become one with the coffee pot.

This Saturday was different though, MOG of Hell had organised a trip around the Norwegian ford with a stop for dinner at a farm to eat locally made sausages. Due to the lack of Morgans in the area the local Jaguar cars had also been invited to make it a classic British car tour. I was wondering if our progress around the fjord would be trackable by the oil trail we would be leaving with 9 classic British cars, none of them particularly known for retaining oil in the engine block.


At 9.30 Johnny a good friend arrived. Johnny would be accompanying me on the tour. We did a quick clean of the car to make it look extra sparkling clean, then waved good bye to the family and headed off to Stjordal the meeting point. In total 4 Morgans and 5 jaguars would be joining the trip. The Morgans consisted of a 2010 4/4, a 1982 plus 8 and a new Roadster. My car a 1997 Plus 4 meant that we where actually only missing the 3 wheeler and Aero for a full compliment of Morgan types.


 The Jaguars consisted of a truly spectacular red E type from 1962 and 4 XJS which seemed to be luxury cabins on wheels.

At 10.30 we headed south along the E6, we where short of time and had to meet a ferry crossing. At this point it started to rain. Roofs stayed down and we continued on our way heading through Klett and on towards Orkanger. The road soon turned into a very twisty road following the coast of the fjord. The driving would have been great apart from two minor details. Firstly the roadster and 4/4 decided that that driving at mark 1 and completely ignoring the speed limits in wet slippery whether would be a fabulous idea. My car being a good deal older didn't even try to keep up. Secondly the amount of pot holes in the road was just shocking, after a further hour bumping along the road at speed my spleen and kidney's felt as if they had swapped position. Norway being the richest country in the world seems to have problems filling in large holes. Maybe they should just fill them up with oil or something.

We continued west along the 710 until we came to the end of the fjord at Medholmen and the ferry crossing to Brekstad. We all pulled in to the second lane and found the first lane was filled with elderly American tourists. As i turned off the engine i was greeted by an American gentleman, saying "I always wanted to see a Morgan but never thought i would in this lifetime and then 4 turn up at once''. A row of Morgans and classic Jags  certainly raised alot of eye brows and got people moving up and down the waiting line with cameras snapping left right and center. The only unfortunate obstacle was that it continued to rain. It seemed the clouds where determined to follow us where ever we went!

The ferry eventually turned up and we drove on, the rain started coming down again and umbrellas where raised in an attempt to keep part of the insides of the car relatively dry. The trip over the fjord only took 30 minutes but a couple of coffees and some chocolate helped pass the time. The views weren't to bad either. Arriving at Brekstad we drove off the boat and took a short drive to Hovde Gard.

Hovde Gard was a magnificent old building used in the past to teach young women how to be good house wives. If it was still active in such a capacity I would seriously consider sending the better half for some training but sadly this was no longer possible.  The current owner had completely restored the building and now it was used for events and could have upto 50 overnight guests.

Considering the size of the restoration I doubt there was much spare change from 10 million dollars. Since we had such beautiful cars we where given pride of place right outside the entrance while all other cars where relegated to the Hotels parking place.

We where given an excellent tour round the building and the grounds by the owner before retiring to the bar to enjoy 3 types of sausage, mash, coffee and desert. The trepid but slightly damp drivers enjoyed the food and stories of trips taken in the past year.

After a good 2 to 3 hours at the farm we climbed back into our cars and started the drive along the North side of he fjord. We drove along some great  twisty and really narrow roads with the fjord next to us while passing through small hamlets. The weather began to clear up and we even saw some blue sky occasionally. At Follafoss we stopped and cake was wiped out of storage and we all enjoyed some along with coffee and chocolate. Again we started to drive and eventually hit the northern end of the fjord before turning south again towards Trondheim.

In total my Plus 4 drove 415km over 12 hours. It started off in pristine condition and returned in a very mucky and muddy condition. Close to 500 pictures where taken, we waved at dozens of people and had dozens of people wave at us and take pictures. In all a great trip if somewhat a wet one. Now I have a week to wash the car and get it ready for May the 17th, Norways national day. At the end of the month is the National Morgan meeting in Molde where a total of 50 Morgans will be attending. Life is good and it only gets better by owning a Morgan !