#ArcticEVRoadTrip Day 13 Review: Grong, Norway to Driva, Norway via Trondheim

Yesterday marked Day 13 of our journey. Leaving behind the tranquil landscapes of Grong, we embarked on a journey through Norway’s ancient history and modern culture, with a visit to the historic city of Trondheim en route to our final stop, Driva.

It rained. And rained. And all our phones received an emergency alert about the rain. While we were driving in the rain. As a result of the weather, our visit to Trondheim was short and we just kept moving as much as possible to get to our destination.

Car charge and usage data

It looks like we managed 3.4 miles per kWh, which under the circumstances seems about right.

We noticed that charging appears to be cheaper like-for-like compared to at home. If we have got our calculations right, we are seeing fees of about 18p per unit at Tesla Superchargers at off-peak times.

Driving stats

Story of the day

There was a loud family in the small cottage next store to us and so it made it a little bit of a struggle to sleep. After getting up and out of bed, we got ready and headed over to the main building for breakfast.

It was a lovely place and apart from the disturbances and internet issues (of which the latter, on a different road trip, might have been heaven) it was really enjoyable.

Breakfast was obviously another traditional hotel buffet with toast, meats and cheeses. But there was something quite interesting about the chocolate spread. It was in a small tube that was similar to toothpaste. It was quite hard to spread on toast though, so the jars definitely take the win here. After that, getting onto the E6 road was easy as it was just next to where we were staying.

The scenery was beautiful. There were all different shades of green and grey. The grey was because of the rain clouds up in the sky. But the terrible weather didn’t get in the way – we just carried on. One of the other big moments was seeing our first long dual carriageway stretch of road as we went further south down the country. It was good being able to cover ground a little faster. Though nature was still so vibrant outside even with the more urban, industrial roads.

Our first charge of the day was in another retail park. Though, unlike the day before, everything was open to the public. Here, weekdays are always good for travelling if you want things to be open.

Back on the road and the rain had started to pick up again. It was a shame as we were meant to be going on an extended visit to the city of Trondheim for lunch. And it didn’t really clear. Out of the right window, we could see quite large lakes that would usually sparkle in the sunlight. That wasn’t going to happen.

We still went to Trondheim for a quick look and fortunately, our choice for food was not too far away from the car park so we didn’t get too wet.

After lunch, we decided to just head back to the car. The weather was still dreadful and we didn’t want to be stuck walking in the rain. Then, we left the city. Originally, the navigation seemed to be taking us the wrong way as we began the journey by heading north but it was just a temporarily diverted way, albeit counter-intuitive, to get out of the city. As soon as we were out, it was only an hour and a half until we got to our hotel so not to long at all.

For the majority of the drive, we listened to the radio. Norway has a plentiful supply of radio stations, including on DAB digital radio. While we were driving along, making progress through the rain, the weather worsened even more, so much that we got Severe and then Extreme Rain Warnings on all of our phones. A piercing alarm coming from every device you own isn’t really the noise you want to hear while abroad, especially while driving… through the rain.

After what seemed like longer than the time predicted, we finally made it to the hotel. The rain just seemed to slow the day down.