Trust....

I started drafting this post about a year ago but never finished it.....however because of some of the things which have occurred/ are occurring in our local community recently, I felt compelled to finish it off!

We travelled to western Norway back in 2013 for a big summer expedition with the kids for my 40th birthday and despite feeling a little under the weather I was adamant that we needed to visit a place called Hoddevik (one of Norway's well known surf spots). There was one particular image which was embedded on my mind, which was of the name sign to the village perched high up on the mountain road that eventually dropped down to see level along a switch backed single track road.

The entire journey just to get to that sign post had been pretty epic, a 2.5 hour drive from the summer ski area of Stryn along some insane roads, complete with one ferry crossing and then finally arriving at this amazing vista.

As we dropped down into the village there was even a surf shop/ B&B which i hadn't even imagined and the beach, of course (and quite rightly so) was pretty deserted. There were a couple of surfers playing in the small swell, an old beaten up camper van and a tent, few picnic tables, the skeletons of some old boats and it was heaven! It was how I'd always imagined it, desolate and isolated by english standards, but actually quite inhabited by west coast Norwegian standards!

We pulled up at the only beach car park, albeit you could park on the road and also along the harbour if you needed to. The car park had direct access to the surf, a couple of people were camping in it, there was a toilet block with some showers and some brick made bbq areas where you could light the obligatory fire (moreover to warm you up when you got of the water, we were there in summer and there was a still bite in the wind and the sea was pretty chilly!)

We spent a good few hours there and when we came to leave, Kath pointed me to a little timber kiosk, no bigger then the sort of things people in the uk sell flowers and eggs by the side of the road. In it was a pad, a pen, an enclosed post box and a sign - we had no idea what it was or what it said. At the time we thought no more of it and carried on our merry way none the wiser.

Peddle forward a couple of years to last October and we were scouting out the mountains up around Hessdalen where we had been told about this amazing toll road leading up to the mountain lake and that we had to take it.

At the entrance to the toll road was another of these said kiosks, except this time with the luxury of 2 years of being slightly more fluent (ahem .....its all relative...) in Norwegian and by association, i.e its a toll road, ergo you probably need to pay, we figured it out.

So the poster has prices on for the use of the toll road / car park - it's a single rate for the day (which is really cheap or you can buy a week, month or annual pass) BUT here's the best thing........ you write your registration number on a piece of paper and pop that and your payment into an envelope and post it into the letter box! There's no CCTV, no man in the booth, no checking, it's all based on trust. On the toll road at Hessdalen there also composting toilets (i.e maintenance free), little shelters to have fires in which often people leave candles, sticks, matches and in one even some kids toys! (I guess the local school use it?)

Can you imagine that happening in the UK!!!.....I must one day also tell the story of the honesty bar at Fagerness airport! - yep that's right folks at an airport there is tea, coffee, snacks and other drinks and when you take one you just put your money in tin... Exeter airport take note!

So this is a public apology to owner of the Hoddevik car park, but when i return I will put in double to make up for my oversight. 

So how does this relate to our community situation, well maybe we should try the trust box out - see how it works at Saunton or other beach car parks...........what do you think?

Also, as an aside, at one toll booth leading up to Killingdal there was a magpie lying at the base of the booth.... I later found out that in Norway you get paid for shooting magpies as they are considered vermin, so maybe the last person forget his wallet, but luckily for him remembered his rifle............