The only way is NORWAY
It’s famous for fjords and winter sports. But in summer, epic hiking trails and endless beaches provide a Scandi drama all their own
Norway must be the most outdoorsy country on Earth. In winter, everyone is out on their cross-country skis; in summer, it’s cycling, hiking, surfing, sunbathing, practising cross- country skiing or, well, just being outside.
That’s true whatever the weather — which is just as well, as Stavanger, on the west coast, can get drizzly in summer. This is where Spain’s Torremolinos wins out for a lot of people.
But, given a choice between 16C (61F) and drizzle on Stavanger’s Sola beach and 45C- plus in andalucia — temperatures that are no longer out of the ordinary — there are lots of us who would take Norway any day.
I’ve been visiting this spectacular country (population 5.4 million) for 25 years: to the arctic peninsula of Svalbard and the magical Lofoten islands in midsummer; for New year’s Eve on Tromso and Utsira (of shipping forecast fame).
I’ve slept in a pepper-pot lighthouse in the harbour of alesund,
hiked above the towns of Bergen and the Voss, taken the scenic railway to Flam and spent a few nights in the funkier parts of oslo.
But this is my first time in the oil city of Stavanger in the south-west of the country. Maybe the clue is in those words ‘ oil city’. It conjures up images of Houston. or Canvey Island.
Shame on me. The beach here has tufty dunes, one and a half miles of clean, pale sand and a handful of bathers not finding social distancing an issue. you feel as if you have landed in a remote corner of australia without the bother of a 24- hour flight. The cheerful, white-walled Sola Strand spa