12th June 2023 (sunny and hot) 57km

Woke numerous times in the night, but managed to drift off again. The spot we had was perfect.  No noise, which is something for us.....well me, Julia can sleep through anything, even tanks coming down the track.  However.....there was one major problem this morning. Mosquito infested bush.  We had already decided that due to lack of provisions we would take off early. By 6.30am we were breaking camp and swatting bloody great mozzies.  Managed to pack up quickly and hit the road in the coolness of the morning.

The route we were on yesterday was a scenic one to a small village called Helle. That's right everyone.

"We're on the highway to Helle"

Commence headbanging and air guitar.

If this is the highway to Helle,  sign me up!

Found a small supermarket in Helle, bought our breakfast of banana, blueberries, prunes, yoghurt, (but ended up being some sort of rice pudding thing), tasty though.

Our spot was at the back of a supermarket car park with a spectacular view, as it was up a hill....of course it was...and in full sun, so we could dry out the sodden ground sheet and fly sheet. Took them over to a corner, well away from the most used car parks and they dried to perfection, as we ate a delicious breakfast.

Although we had been on the scenic route yesterday, there were only a few smaller lakes, whereas this morning, suddenly there were lakes and fjords around every bend and the views were stunning.  It really is picture postcard material.

10kms further on was the small town of Kragero, where we immediately found the lovely little library and plugs to charge our stuff. The biblioteks are great over in Europe. You can stroll in, settle in, plug in and begin to update your entries.

They also have toilets, which is very useful when all public toilets you seem to have to pay for, with a card that we don't have.  This biblioteka only had one disabled toilet. If users hadn't been disabled when they went in, they would have been after I'd used it.

Down to the front, firstly to buy lunch, then check out ferry times. Ferry leaving at 2.20pm, so across the road was a couple of benches in the shade, perfect to eat at. After lunch we found a hardware shop and bought camping gas.  Had an hour to kill before the ferry came so went to cycle round the small island of Oya. Except it wasn't round, it was up, with some very steep climbs.  Not very enjoyable on a full stomach. 

Above: scenes from Kragero 

Back to meet the ferry. We also met a very nice Dutchman Aeyav (I apologise if that's incorrect) who has cycled from Holland on the North Sea Cycle Route.  Interestingly, Julia and I applied to do the same route as part of a Spark/Hilary Commission back in 2000, but were unsuccessful. Never mind, their loss.

Anyway he was also cycling to catch another ferry at Oysang to Risor, 20kms away.  He plans to take 10 weeks to do the journey and even though he's never toured before, he's cycled and raced.
He bade us farewell and suggested we may meet at the other ferry, then cycled off.

After a sharp hill climb, we enjoyed a lovely, yet undulating run all the way to Oysang, where Iyav was waiting to give us the news that he had missed the last ferry of the day by 10 minutes.  It was very nice of him to wait and let us know.  So now we had 20 km to cycle round the fjord to Risor.  He set off ahead of us and we continued, but if we'd known what was coming, I'm not sure we would have.

We rode on until 4pm passing lake after lake and taking shots along the way. Then we arrived at another lake, ripe for swimming. In we went and spent the next hour swimming and sunbathing in the most gorgeous location. By the time we came out, we were well pleased.

Not so happy an hour later, having climbed and climbed and climbed and well and truly earned back all the sweat we had just washed off. It was hard work and it scares us a bit, thinking of what's to come.

The legs were screaming and energy levels were waning, until we reached the small hamlet of Solendal, where they had a supermarket. First up an ice cream. Bloody delicious. Didn't even hit the sides. Now we were looking for a freecamp and looking, still looking. You see, everyman may have the right to wild camp in Norway, but who wants to get bitten alive, literally, in a forest or even by a lake. There are millions of the little bastards.

About 5 km after our lifesaving ice cream, we came across a campground.  Who should be there, but Iyav, who also found the hills a serious challenge, (we were relieved to hear it wasn't just us!).

Tent up, Julia showered, I shaved and showered, then we ate dinner, ooh mackerel again, yum yum!  It's now 10.30pm and my eyes are closing as I try to finish this blog.
Night night.