Day 6 - Lysboten

Woke up this morning and it was raining, warm rain to be sure but still wet. So rather than pack the tent and move on, I decided to have a 'rest day'. The valley was shrouded in low cloud and I decided my bum could do with a day without being in the saddle.

Some rest day. Near here is a famous rock called the Kjerag. To get to it is a 2 hour moderately difficult hike. Not the sort of thing you want to take your maiden aunt for a jolly day out. I decided to make this even more difficult by wearing my bike jacket which weighs a ton. I intended to bring my rain jacket as a backup in case the weather turned but I for got it so had to make do with the fully armoured thing. 3 good hard steep climbs pointed out the error to me.

Kjerrag is a boulder stuck between two cliff faces with a 1000 meter drop beneath it. Real arse puckering stuff if you don't like heights. Hundreds of people a day make the 4 hour round trip to spend 10 minutes there and scare the crap out of themselves. It is genuinely dangerous. To get onto the boulder you have to step on a ledge about 30cm wide and the only thing to hold is a 15cm loop of rope. If you slip, it is a sheer drop, right to the fjord. There are no Health & Safety people in Norway, I think....

If you are brave enough to face the valley, this is the view you would get. I didn't & took this from the cliff-top, a good meter from the edge.

On the way back, I met some basejumpers who don't bother with the return walk, they just jump off and fly back. I have to confess, my feet were so sore, the idea had a lot of appeal. I met one of them later and he had been given a hang-glider and he didn't have a clue how to put it together, let alone fly it. That didn't stop him trying though. Then this older more experienced guy showed up and eventually talked him out of it. Each year, some of these guys impact the ground with terminal results....lots of balls but brains?

Day 5 - Kristainasand to Lysboten

Today's plan was to get to the southernmost point of mainland Norway, for no other reason than because I am supposed to be trying to get to the northernmost point too. So here I am next to a lighthouse called Lyndesnes Fyr. It is the big red thing next to the other big red thing.

In the car park next to the lighthouse, these two church ladies were selling the tastiest waffles I have ever eaten. Possibly I was very hungry but they were bloody good. They were very worried for me because I am on a bike and told me to be careful. I told them I noticed that Norwegians don't seem to know what indicators are for, or when the other person has right of way or pretty much anything about the driving etiquette we take for granted. They agreed and said the Norse way was to let the other person be responsible for not hitting you. At least now I am clear about where I stand.

I hit the 'North Sea Road', a winding beauty that hugs the coast for about 200km and had a ball. Some of the local lads seem to get a bit bored with sticking to the speed limit so shred their tyres where plod cant see them. These marks on the roads were very common. I lost track of time completely and managed to find a 20km stretch of gravel when I took a wrong turn. Actually, not really gravel, more a compacted gravel that sees a lot of travel. Still , I felt I was really in the sticks.

Then I came to Jossingfjord which has its claim to fame according to Wikipedia:
"The fjord is known as the location of the Altmark Incident, where, during World War II, on February 16, 1940, the British destroyer Cossack managed to free prisoners taken by the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee from the German tanker Altmark.
During the war, the term Jøssing came to mean a Norwegian patriot, the opposite of a Quisling (or traitor). The origin of this term is ironic: the Norwegian collaborator government tried to neutralize their nickname Quislings by using the Jøssingfjord event to coin a derogatory term Jøssing, referring to anti-nazis. This attempt backfired"

Anyhow it has a brand new tunnel at the end of it because the old one was a bit titchy. You can see it on the right in the previous pic. I was feeling brave so I went round the barrier and decided to see if I could get through the old tunnel. Actually, it is more a series of tunnels with holes out into the cliff to let air/light in. Fabulous views out but a bit constricted. In the end, I could get through as there was a drop on to rubble which I was a bit too nervous to attempt with nobody around to help me pick it up if I dropped it.

I arrived in Lysboten this evening which is just stunning. The road here is 32km of single track across the top of a 1000m mountain and then drops into this fjord at sea level in 8km. This is basejumper central. The place is crawling with adrenalin and testosterone soaked americans. Hope to get some pics of them doing their thing tomorrow.


Route 281 miles/13:41hrs


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Day 4 - Soggy Start

Last night, the campsite manager said there would be no rain, and 5 minutes later it started pissing. I had pitched the tent by the shore and that meant sea creatures all around. Ever notice that seagulls shut up when the rain is heavy and start up their racket when it lightens off? They had done this a couple of times this morning and each time the racket started up I looked out only to find another wave of rain on the way. At least it was warm rain...

Norway has some of the best biking roads I have ever seen. The main highway along the coast between Oslo and Kristiansand is in the main a queue of traffic all pootling along even slower than the ridiculously low Norwegian speed limits. I hung a right and just headed North and found myself in biking heaven. No traffic and 150 miles of bends with a lovely grippy service. And I even stuck to the stupid 80k limit....I am too scared to go faster, just in case some plod jumps out of a bush with his radar gun. The only place I noticed that people speed is the the tunnels and there are a lot of them and some are miles long.

I went to a campsite this evening and asked for a pitch. The (very) attractive blonde behind the counter said "Sure, that'll be 340 Krone". After I picked myself up off the floor (42 euro or £35 in real money) I went to find another campsite. Checking to another exorbitantly priced establishment ( but slightly less so) I bumped into a German couple on bikes and would you know it, they were members of the same motorcycle club as the guy (Wolfgang) who threw his bike into the same river as me last year in Morocco. Small world.

Route 265 miles/9:13 hrs


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Day 3 - Norway At Last

Got going at the crack of 10 this morning and hit the motorway again. This time I made a bargain with myself, just get north of Goteburg and then go for a play in the small roads. And it worked just fine. Actually, even the Swedish motorways are moderately interesting. The main road from Malmo to Oslo has to pass through some rocky forested hills so not much of the northern half is straight. I set the GPS for Oslo as a destination and told it to avoid all main roads and motorways.

I popped out by the coast a bit later and saw the main road in the distance crossing this bay/fjord. Looks idyllic but just round the corner is a huge factory & port. If the Danes have wind and turbines, the Swedes have rocks & trees and are busy turning them into cement & paper.

Apparently, Oslo is great for Museums and bumming around in the bay. Neither of which I could do with bike and luggage. As as the weather was starting to play up, I decided to skip going to Oslo and cross the Oslofjord about 30km to the south by ferry and 50 Krone later (less than the price of a beer) I was the last one on. I asked the trusty GPS to find me a campsite near Sandefjord and it duly obliged. As I pulled up to the entrance, I was disconcerted to see it was a bit shabby compared to the one I stayed at last night. This kid on a bicycle rode up to me and spoke english.....with an Irish accent. He offered to show me the way in to the office and I followed. The alarm bells should have been ringing loud and clear but I was in a bit of a rush as the rain was coming. Then I saw them...the caravans and various HiAce, HiLux & Flabed trucks plus the obligatory pile of rubbish. An Irish tinker camp in Norway....who would have thought. I did a big U-Turn and gunned it.

Route 341 miles/9:31 hrs


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Day 2 - More Motorway

Today was another motorway slog. I left Hamburg and tried to dodge the big thunderheads by speeding up and slowing down. It worked most of the day and I stayed pretty dry. Denmark is not a country I want to visit again on a bike....less said the better. Flat, flat, flat......and absolutely covered in wind turbines. I read somewhere that Denmark practically invented the things and the evidence is everywhere. I came across this huge field covered in new turbine blades. Hundreds of them lined up like swords in some giants armoury.

To get to Sweden, you can either fly, take a ferry or drive across an enormous bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo. I clocked it at about 18 km long. Actually the first part 6km is a tunnel and then you pop up out in the sea on a man made island and then continue on a 12km bridge. It is weird to be riding along with nothing but sea around you...and the speed limit is still 70mph. I cheated here, the bridge in the picture is the one from Jutland to Seeland and is only 16km long.

I cant wait to get to get away from 'civilisation'. I tried leaving the motorways a couple of times to get a look at a bit of the countryside but kept getting caught up in traffic. I remember reading the 'Long Way Round' and noticing that they hardly wrote anything about their ride back from Alaska to New York. Could it be that they rode mostly on motorways?

Route
387 miles/9:27 hrs


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Day 1 - Dull Motorways

Made it to Hamburg this evening but only just. Left Epsom late and just made it to the tunnel on time, then like a klutz dropped the bike (at the head of the queue with a big audience) & needed white van man to come and help me pick it up. I had forgotten just how unwieldy these machines are fully loaded and will take a lot more care in future. Then after 200 miles I pulled over to buy a coffee and felt for my travel wallet ....passport, money, credit cards....you know the drill, the really important one and it wasn't there. I had a horrible sinking feeling that it was somewhere on the floor when I dropped the bike. Then sanity resumed and I searched the tankbag again and it was buried in another bag. A fine start this is turning out to be, I thought.

Not much of a day as far as the riding goes, just lots and lots of motorway...550 miles in the saddle. I thought I would get as far as I could today and have a little more time up north. I devised many interesting ways to keep from going nuts from the boredom, including singing show tunes, Abba and Johnny Cash. In the end the rain held me back and stopped me getting over the border to Denmark. Looks like being a soggy couple of weeks ahead.

Am now camped on the shores of the Elbe just outside Hamburg and the sun is out again. This is a great little campsite....if you have a motorhome, not of you have a tent and a bike. The whole place is made of soft sand with a few weeds trying to hold it together. Riding a bike (especially a heavy loaded one) is impossible for mortals and pitching a tent is a bit of an ordeal too as the pegs wont stay in. Reckon I will wake up in a giant bivvy bag instead of a tent tomorrow morning. But the view over the river is great and these huge container ships plow up and down with a deep bass rumble from the engines.


503 Miles/10:47 Hrs


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Houston, we are go!

I have a shiny new driving license! After many calls and a fax declaring myself to be a bona-fide UK license holder and not having swapped for one of those inferior French ones, the nice DVLA man (Ceri) relented and dispatched one. It thumped on the mat this morning and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The plan is to camp & cook where practical to save $$$ as apparently Norway is excruciatingly expensive. Cheap hotels start at £70-£80 per night and a bottle of wine in a restaurant is in the region of £45. Yikes! I wonder what a diet of Pot Noodle and instant couscous will do to me?

I packed the bike and did a little test ride down to Ali in Horsham to see do my various 'improvements' to the bike work and if I had enough/too much stuff. Having 220V in my tankbag might seem a little ill advised if it rains a lot, but being able to charge the laptop on the way is very useful.

Discovered that I need to re-pack again...bugger.