14th July 2023 (rain in morning, cloudy, cool afternoon) 33km

Had a great sleep in our field by the sea.  Even the squawking seagulls didn't keep me awake. After a pee at 1am then 6am, it was straight back to sleep til 8.30am, although I know that it rained constantly, with some heavy rain, throughout the night.

Today may be uncomfortable as we have a long distance to cover with a high chance of rain and a possibility of a head wind.  The wind, whilst blowing gently at present, isn't enough to dry the tent between rain showers, so we have a wet fly sheet to contend with tonight also.  Still, as far as we can tell at the moment, Vango did a great job again in keeping us dry and cozy last night.  It's 8.52am and we're just about to have a cuppa, before breakfast. Then we'll break camp, say our goodbyes to our hosts and plod into the clouds.

Fast forward to 11.30am and the rain has finally ceased and we got to say goodbye.  They were lovely people and the interesting thing for me, was that grandmother Elen, was the person who laid down the invite at 86 years old.

So, off we set, with a quick visit along the road to the toilets, which we used and threw our rubbish in the bins.  Leave places as you find them.

Just heading through Leksvik and Julia gets a puncture.  By now it was 12.15pm. The weather was still dodgy and it was the back tyre, which means more mucking around.  Tyre levers out, decided to repair puncture rather than replace the tube.  Ju checked the inside of the tyre and found a very sharp piece of glass that was still embedded in the tyre.  At least we knew exactly where to look on the tube for the hole and patched it no problem.  Patched it up, all looked good, but hadn't given it long enough to set and down it goes.  Being the calm person in these situations that I am, I had now beaten three locals to death and was starting on the cat population of the village.

As we were taking off the back wheel, along comes Terje, a lovely man who worked for the company we had chosen to change the tyre outside of.  He quickly jumped in to help us and with the three of us covered in grease, we fitted a new tube and will repair the old one tonight.
He was getting ready to go on his holidays when he pulled in but didn't even hesitate to give us a helping hand.  So, thank you Terje, our new found friend.  We will pass it on if we are able.  Although it probably won't be in the form of helping someone else change a tyre, as we are hardly proficient at it.  By the time we'd completed the task and were underway again, it was 1.30pm and the first big climb of the day out of the village loomed ahead.

Checking directions. 

Cute little church just out of Leksvik.

In all honesty we just photographed it because we needed a breather climbing up the hill.

Thank goodness that the climbs today had favorable gradients, because we had a lot.  The weather which was supposed to clear by 4pm, still wasn't good and the temperature had dropped dramatically.

The riding today was probably the least inspiring of the whole trip.  Huge forests with small nondescript lakes.  With the temperature falling, we decided not to stop for photos.  Around 4pm we spied a sign for a fishing camp - we had been looking for somewhere to eat lunch for hours.

Ju here: Well what a little find this afternoon. After getting off to a very slow start, first of all with a great sleep, then waiting for the rain to stop, then saying goodbye to Elen and family and finally the puncture, we were making slow progress.  After the 320m climb out of Leksvik, we then had a lot of up and down and we were quickly running out of energy.

Road 755 was quiet and a nice enough ride but quite boring.  Lots of trees, hills and lakes. Signs warning to watch out for moose, but no sign of a moose to brighten up the ride.  There was also just nowhere to sit down and eat our afternoon lunch.  We plodded on and on and eventually at 3.30pm stopped in a driveway and ate a muesli bar while standing over our bikes.

However, about twenty mins later we spotted a place where disabled people can go fishing.  We saw it had a shelter and a picnic bench and nobody was there, disabled or otherwise, so we cycled down the track to investigate further.  Bingo! Eight picnic benches and a sturdy, clean shelter.  It's 10km from the nearest town so probably not going to have anybody turn up here this late in the day.  Gratefully tucked into our liver paste and tomato sandwiches for a late lunch at 4pm.

Once we had stopped cycling  we noticed how cold it was and got all our layers on before eating, for me that was 5 on top and 3 on the bottom.  We reckon it was probably only 10C.  Whenever the sun briefly broke out, we went and sat in it, soaking up the warmth, as the tips of our fingers had gone white.

It occurred to us this would make a brilliant freecamp, so after our late lunch, we moved a few benches and set up the tent.  The weather is still looking a bit dodgy and we think the cover from the shelter could come in handy.

Luckily the next town is within striking distance for breakfast and we have everything we need for dinner. So all set up for the night and nothing to do but write the blog and keep our eyes open for moose.  Also nice to know that we'll have a very manageable 50km to the next campground tomorrow, especially if the terrain stays like this. Back to Pete.

By 6pm the wind had died, the sun was out, first time today and we were settling in for a night of possible moose watching, as we are right in the heart of moose country, with signs proclaiming the fact along the roadway.

About half an hour ago we had a lady come and walk around the lake. Took about five minutes. She was surprised to see us. Well of course she was, that's why we're stealth campers.

Still no sign of moose, but I did see a mother duck and her ducklings.

Into Mosvik to get breakfast tomorrow and hopefully a good sleep tonight. Let's hope for good riding weather.