My journey continued - Kritstiansand

My journey...............Continued
After breakfast the next morning as I checked out I asked directions for the town and set off. Visiting the grave as I passed. I also had the advantage of a map this time, but still managed to get lost, but eventually got into the town center and the Skagen Quay side around midday. After a visit to the cathedral, I lashed out on a bottle of pop and sat on the quay side for a while to contemplate.
My train left for Kritstiansand at 1530 so I was in for a wait .The bottle of pop made me need the loo, so I went to rail station and to my surprise had to pay 50p for a pee!. At the same time found that the rail network was undergoing repairs so the first part of the journey would be by bus to Sandes. It was full of young people national service men and women.

When we got to Sandes a quick dash up some stairs me following the crowd hoping that the train I got on was the right one! It was an extremely modern streamlined Train with announcements in Norwegian and English, displays in carriage telling you the next stop, how high above sea level and other Information. There were seats with plug points for your computer, children's rooms and seats just like aircraft seats. The journey was approximately 300km and took three hours..... very scenic.

At Kritstiansand I was met by Brian Desmond the tour organizer, Brian is English married to a Norwegian girl whom he met while in the army and has been there since 1984. He is ex RA gunner who runs a small travel consultant business, he has had a special interest in the events of 1942/43 and has been a great help in finding out information that I had not seen before. He is involved with Ray Mears the survival expert at this moment making a film for BBC TV to be shown 21st September in three parts. Following the tale from start to finish. He offered me a place on the expedition he runs in winter, retracing the saboteurs trail. He also runs events from the ex Norwegian military training base called Evjemoen suitable for the adventure training of army personnel.

We travelled north to Ejve in the Setesdal valley visited a large wartime German camp taken back after the war by the Norwegians and used as an outward bound training camp for snow and mountain conditions by UN forces. At Bygland we visit the war graves of the crew of a flying fortress the first to be shot down over occupied territory in 1941. We are told about this by a local lady who was in the village at the time .

North to Ejve

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