Mandal: Norway's peaceful southern coast

Last summer a neighbour of mine, while chomping away on her garlic bread in a local pizzeria, bumped into a family she'd met on holiday in the Caribbean. Though surprised, she admitted that this was not the first time such a holiday coincidence had happened. What struck me was how unlikely such a meet-up would be for me. It would be fascinating to know the statistical likelihood of coming across someone in a Pizza Express who had been in southern Norway at exactly the same time as me. Someone whose path I'd crossed while, for instance, going on a late-night elk safari, or riding Viking ponies, or chugging about on a boat on the fjord.

My summer holiday destination is invariably Brit-free, in fact it's a fairly "people-lite" zone at the best of times. The towns, hotels and restaurants of southern Norway - the country's riviera - might be at their busiest during the summer months but it's relative. Although a popular summer destination for Norwegians, there are only four and a half million of them scattered around a country only slightly larger than the British Isles.

I have only one caveat to give to this idyll of sparse population - and that's when the various communities host their summer festivals, be they of music, art or food. Then the picturesque "white towns" along the Sorlandet coast heave in a very un-Norwegian way. These are former timber ports and shipbuilding communities that have been so well preserved by severe Scandinavianplanning legislation that they really do look exactly like the postcards.

The cobbled streets with their white clapboard houses, picket fences and climbing roses are filled to bursting point with locals and visitors pouring in to take part in the event. And last year I witnessed just such a mass gathering in Norway's most southerly town, "white" or otherwise: Mandal.

When a town like Mandal, population 15,000, swells to 40,000 for its annual shellfish festival in August, it becomes difficult to appreciate the picture-postcard detail. The culinary festival offers such delights as the world championship finals in shrimp-peeling, more shellfish-eating opportunities than there are Brits in Benidorm as well as funfairs, buskers and talent competitions. Our enjoyment was tempered only by the fact that my Norwegian husband is allergic to shellfish. (You wouldn't think it physiologically possible for someone from this seafaring country to have such an adverse reaction to the nation's staple diet, but sadly it is.) So instead of consuming the fruits of the sea, we explored the surroundings instead.

We headed for the geological feature for which Mandal is most renowned: Sjosanden, an 800m-long, golden sandy beach. It's famous because it's one of the very few on Norway's riviera. You can find more sand if you head westwards up the coast to Stavanger, but that comes with an Atlantic front: frequent rain and some nippy winds. Go east and you have the relatively protected and benign coastline of the Skagerrak, but here there's little sand - instead you bathe from a rocky collection of islets, skerries, and coves.

Our accommodation was in Tregde, a village just outside Mandal. Here there is a holiday centre with apartments, chalets, a shop and an outdoor pool. It was all distinctively Scandinavian: architecturally tasteful, built of wood and super clean. From the quayside we took a hire boat out and chugged around the coastline. And this is truly the essence of a Norwegian summer - bobbing around on a little craft, finding a rock or islet to picnic on, bracing the cold but oh-so-clean water, and returning home to a barbecue lasting into the long, light evenings.

Some will be wanting a more challenging interaction with the elemental beauty of their surrounds than merely motoring around on a boat, and there are plenty of opportunities for hiking and trekking, cycling, serious fishing, white-water rafting, abseiling and canoeing.

For a more intensive kind of interaction we drove 45km inland along the Mandal river valley to Hessa, a small settlement on the banks where Adventure Norway is to be found. Run by Ewen Martin - a Scot who used to be in the Army - it's a centre for rafting, canoeing and abseiling. However, in keeping with the contained exertion of our holiday we chose the elk safari option. This involved sitting on a minibus for a couple of hours and rushing to the relevant window when a sighting occurred.

To get you in the mood, Ewen gives a short introductory talk about the elk (it's basically the same creature as the Canadian moose, only smaller). He hands around pieces of elk salami for you to chew on, lest you start to get too romantic about the beast.

Elks are shy, timid animals that live in forests and only venture out at dawn and dusk to feed on surrounding pasture. Which is why we were combing the hillsides at 10pm - dusk arrives very late during the Norwegian summer. There were a couple of sightings on our trip, and the elk were near enough to the road for us to take photographs. It was an enjoyable expedition, but what I found particularly fascinating was touring this Scandinavian hinterland at dusk, getting a good look at a very remote rural community. Each house we passed was like a lighthouse beaming brightness out across the surrounding countryside with not a curtain in sight to ruin the effect.

On our last morning we visited "Vikingland", a Viking settlement at Spangereid. We spent a couple of hours riding docile Icelandic ponies - the same breed that the Vikings used. The centre organises hacking trips to a nearby forest or, for small children, guided rides around the grounds.

The historic settlement itself is still being excavated and several contemporary tourist features are in the process of being constructed. There is, however, enough to get the gist of what life was like in southern Norway a millennium ago: you can even have a go at shooting with a bow and arrow or sailing on a Viking ship.

Vikingland is so close to the lighthouse at Lindesnes that it would be a shame not to visit the beacon while you are in the area. Lindesnes is Norway's Land's End. It's a good brisk walk up to the top of the country's oldest lighthouse, constructed in 1655. At the foot there's a museum chronicling the lighthouse's history and development.

From here it's just a half-hour drive to the ferry port at Kristiansand where you board the Princess Scandinavia for the trip back to Newcastle. In true faux-cruise-ship style we booked into dinner in the à la carte restaurant - The Blue Riband. The reason: from the large restaurant windows you get the most spectactular view while sailing out of the harbour, past the flotilla of many varied crafts and rocks and islets that characterise this southern coast.

Only at that moment, as I pondered which seafood special I would decide to order, did I finally find myself in the company of other Brits.

TRAVELLER'S GUIDE

GETTING THERE

DFDS (08702 520524; www.dfds.co.uk) sails between Newcastle and Kristiansand. The writer paid £650 for a return sailing for two adults and three children, and their car, in peak season. There are frequent flight connections between Oslo and Kristiansand with SAS Braathens (0870 60 727727; www.sasbraathens.no). Oslo is served from the UK by SAS Braathens, British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com), Ryanair (0871 246 0000; www.ryanair.com), Norwegian Air Shuttle (00 47 21 49 00 15; www.norwegian.no) and City Star Airlines (01224 722610; www.citystarairlines.com). To reduce the impact on the environment, you can buy an "offset" from Climate Care (01865 207 000; www.climatecare.org). The environmental cost of a return flight from London to Oslo, in economy class, is £2.10. The money is used to fund sustainable energy and reforestation projects.

STAYING THERE

A two-bedroom quayside self-catering apartment at the holiday centre at Tregde (00 47 38 26 88 00; www.feriesenter.com) starts at NK700 (£62) per day or NK11,000 (£975) for one week in July.

VISITING THERE

Adventure Norway (00 47 48 15 18 54; www.adventurenorway.net).

Spangereid Vikingland (00 47 38 25 76 61; www.vikinglandspangereid.no). Open daily noon-6pm; admission NK50 (£4.50).

Mandal Shellfish Festival (www.skalldyrfestivalen.no) runs from 10-13 August.

MORE INFORMATION

Visit Norway: 0906 302 2003, calls 60p/min; www.visitnorway.com/uk

Mandal Region tourist office: 00 47 38 27 83 00; www.regionmandal.com

Sorlandet Region tourist office: www.vistorlandet.com