30th June 2023 (cloudy and mild) 68km

What is it about waking up next to a gently flowing river. It's very soothing and relaxing.  After constant rain during the night, which itself was fine, because Vango was once again protecting us from the elements, the change from rain pattering on the tent, to the babbling brook noise of the river, making its way through the mountains was peaceful.

Although yet to stick my head out of the tent, the forecast is for rain to cease for the day around 8am.  Then we are due to have cloud, with sunny spells for the rest of the day. Saturday in this area looks to be a great day, but next week is terrible, so movement today is vital if we want to avoid that onslaught.  With no access to shops for 30km and the next campsite 68kms away, we have to move nearer to civilisation.

It's 6.25am and Julia is asleep next to me.  We've both settled into good sleeping patterns.  In general we'll get to bed about 8.30 or 9pm and sleep until 5 or 6am.  Sleeping on the mats has become normal after nearly a month and movement in and out of the tent was quickly adapted to after the first week.

At 9am we said goodbye to the Germans and on the way out ran into the owner, who we stood talking to for fifteen minutes.  Apparently he has a Thai wife who lives in Phuket.  He spends seven months of the year in Norway and the rest in Thailand.  Seems to work.

The guy who owns the Dodge we think is his son, and he wished me safe travels before he let his son drive to Sandane in the Dodge. Apparently, you have to be eighteen to drive and only at 50kms initially and you have to have a licensed driver with you.  Good luck trying to keep that at 50kms.

Then we were off on a beautiful quiet country road taking in yet more awesome scenery as we travelled around the fjord.

Still..."all good things gotta come to an end" and soon we were climbing.  It's funny.  You are cycling probably one of the most mountainous countries in the world, yet, everyday we think to ourselves, "I wonder if it'll be flat today?"

Glad we're going down this lot!

We climbed for about 3 1/2 kms, then flat and finally downhill, through a small farming community called Hope. After that we were Hopeless as we headed into the next village called Hyen.  In the middle of the mountains, a small village with a well stocked mini supermarket and views to blow you away.

Our first glimpse of Hyen

Lunch spot for today

After buying the necessary sustenance, we ate in the smallest yet most scenic of parkside areas overlooking this mighty fjord.  Whilst getting stuck into our food, a girl called Margaret wandered by with her four month old Bernese puppy Toran.

Lunch guest for today

He was beautiful. We offered her a cup of coffee, which she accepted and then found out that she had just completed her Masters and was going into teaching. Toran was her first dog, apart from a family one and her mother was in the shop catching up with old friends as she used to live around here. They were in the village for the weekend to spread her husband's ashes as he loved the place.

So that was a nice interlude and then we rode around the fjord, knowing we had two lots of two hundred metre climbs to come on the 38km afternoon stint, to go with the 33kms we'd just done.

Struck a couple of 50m and 90m tunnels and then an uphill tunnel of 1.4kms. I think we only encountered one vehicle in there, so all was good.   Not long after, a 1000m uphill tunnel.

Same thing. Hoping that they were the climbs that we had been expecting this afternoon, (they were), we plugged on.

Looking down the fjord to Sandane

Then a downhill to another fjord overlooking Lote, where we are heading tomorrow. However, nothing is ever that simple and we have to ride right around the fjord we were now on, stopping for the night in the town of Sandane. This was now 15kms away, but on nice mostly flat riding.

As we were entering the city limits, the guy who owned the Dodge from the campsite last night stopped in the middle of the road, as he had come back to pick up his son.  Said our final goodbyes, before he floored it and sped off into the distance.

It wasn't long before we rolled into the only campsite in town, Gloppen.  Right on the beach, as was our pitch, but not really swimming material.  Tide was out as well.

Finally got those ice-creams....mmmm, pistachio!

Treated ourselves to some longed for ice-creams while enjoying the view from our campsite. Pitched the tent and showered before riding to get supplies a km away and then back for pre dinner drinks and cashews.  Dinner followed and then over to the kitchen to blog and charge the devices.  The kitchen was so hot, we were almost passing out and the wifi was better on the beach than the kitchen. 

We'd facetimed Brody just before we went shopping and he's having a blast in Newquay. We're both so pleased for him and he's now got a busy time coming up with his photography work, so here's hoping he can make some good coin.

Tomorrow's journey will involve two ferries and move us ever closer to the coast and Alesund.  We have been keeping close tabs on the weather forecast and tomorrow is a cracker, with Sunday good until about 1pm.

Monday marks one month on the road.  It's as though we never stopped as far as our routines go.

Sleeping well, waking feeling good and riding strongly.  Support and comments from everyone has been terrific and currently our blog has 3100 hits, from all sorts of countries. So... keep them comments coming. You'd be surprised how much they are a topic of conversation when riding is tough.

About as close as we get to a sunset here.