19th June 2023 (cloudy and mild, a little drizzle) 75km

Was woken at 4am, by a guy wandering around our tent, which we had set up under cover of the shelter.  I climbed out of the tent thinking he was up to no good.

"Sorry...sorry" he said as I glared at him and he moved off.

Julia had been woken of course.
"What the hell is anyone doing up at 4am"
Shortly after we hear the same guy. This time he's on the small jetty. Then he's in the water. We have no idea if it was intentional or if he fell in, but he made noises like it was unexpected and also very cold (oooh! Aaah!), and was out as quick as he was in.

Ju and I dozed til 7.06am and then began packing up the gear. Cuppa to follow.
The odd person was now up and moving, not as odd as old jetty jumper.

At 8am, I cycled to the supermarket 1km away, whilst Ju sorted the blog.  Back for a delicious breakfast, although I'm beginning to think that if you put an old slipper in front of me, I'd still think it was delicious.

Heading out of camp and Toffa, you'll be interested in this. An American lady approaches us and comes over to talk."I thought you looked like long distance cyclists, you've got that athlete look about you." Good job she saw us in the morning and not last night!

Got talking and it was Carolyn Burkhart, the first woman to do the Pacific Coast Trail, in America. In fact, she was one of the first well known female solo hikers.  She has been a trail angel for eight years and her trail name is Ravensong.

She was fascinating and is over here for six months, three hiking around Norway and three attending a course on the Sami people, native Norwegians, of which she has heritage. She was saying that she'd been hiking in the surrounding mountains and couldn't believe how high the rivers currently are. In fact she had quite a job getting across some of them.

Beautiful hotel, even if we were in the cheap seats out the back.

It was time to leave, so off we set.  Riding this morning was great.  Fantastic road surface and gradual gradients as we were climbing into the mountains now.  We had a little light drizzle from time to time and at one stage took refuge in a bus shelter as it came down a bit heavier for 15 mins.

The bus shelters are beautiful as well as very handy.

My view from the bus shelter.  Didn't want Pete cramping my style so he stood out in the rain 🙂

Noticed a lot of motorcycle tourists around over the last couple of days and a lot of campervans.  Both groups tend to travel in pairs or packs, but the drivers so far have been mostly very courteous.

The beauty of cycle touring is you can stop anywhere to take a photograph.   There was simply nowhere for cars and campervans to pull over here.

So now there were short sharp climbs leading into our first tunnel of the day.  We figured we were in for one, as all the cars had their lights on and sure enough there it was.  We hoped we wouldn't get a convoy of campervans as we went through, but all was good. We turned on our front and back lights and only encountered one car and before we knew it, we were out. 

Not too far on was another, but the cycle trail went around the outside.  It was while we were enjoying the view, rather than the dark like the motorists, that we stopped for lunch and enjoyed it sitting on the outside road, used only by cyclists.

Where we had lunch on the cycle trail around the tunnel.

Pete thinks cos he's wearing yellow, he's king of the mountains now.

Our view at lunchtime 

Pete walking back from getting the two shots below from the bridge. 

Because we are climbing now, there was snow scattered on the nearby hills and it was overcast all day, but still 17C.

By 3pm we were heading for Hovden, where we were going into camp as everything needs charging. The road this afternoon has been so enjoyable, with a hot mix surface that you just roll along on easily.

Look at that road surface!!

Every now and then, we came across these amazing rest areas. Free toilets, picnic benches, rubbish bins and one time one had a shower, but it was locked up so we couldn't investigate further.  The thing is, everything is made to look beautiful,  even the rubbish bins, which were so cleverly disguised to look like carved wooden huts, that Pete couldn't find them.

That's the rubbish bin that my bike is leaning against. 

Not just any old picnic bench, these things are a work of art and built to last.

There is a lot of wood being stored up ready for winter.

As we approached we could tell Hovden was a massive ski resort. The slopes were obvious and the amount of holiday cabins and homes, most of which are empty of course, covered a vast area.

Into the supermarket to stock up with dinner and breakfast.  By the way, anyone who thinks this blog is solely about eating, you are correct.  Julia and I have eaten our way around Europe, this cycling has nothing to do with history or various cultures, it's all about burning calories and then replacing them.

The weather by now was looking ominous. The clouds dark and threatening and the kind of weather and terrain you did not want to be stuck out in.

Starting to look a bit bleak now.

Found a Hotel/Hostel/Camp just beyond town, further up the mountain.  It wasn't very obvious that this was the camp, but with no other buildings in sight we asked at reception if we could camp here as there appeared to be nothing else on the horizon and it was starting to look very dismal outside.  We couldn't believe our luck. We could choose our own site amongst the buildings and use the hostel facilities.  This included a shower with unlimited hot water and a kitchen/lounge area with plenty of power plugs to charge our phones and power bank. All this for 175kr.  The best we've had before that was 225kr and you had to pay for showers, with no access to charging.

Set up the tent behind a building not currently in use so the tent was out of the wind, which had now picked up and made us very grateful we had stopped here. No sooner had we put the tent up, it began to rain and the snow on the hills made it look very bleak.

Whilst Ju showered, I blogged and vice versa. We relished being in the warmth and sanctuary of the hostel lounge which we had pretty much to ourselves.  We only saw two others the whole evening and they were just passing through.

Forecast for tomorrow is a high chance of rain, but if it looks too bad, we might have our first rest day of the tour.