15th July 2023 (sunny and hot) 53km

A great night in our freecamp under shelter.  The midges were out, but not bad at all, we think because of the wind, which also subsided as the night wore on.  Outside at 1am there was a mist rising up from the lake, it almost looked like steam.

Once back in the tent, I slept on and off and could hear this jingling noise all night.  Wondered if Santa's reindeer were getting in some practice runs on the little used road, but figured it was more likely the sheep that roam all over the place.  They particularly like sleeping on the road during the day when the tarmac is nice and warm.

I was a bit cold until 6am when I put some more gear on.  Then I slept until 8am when we began packing up our gear and a nice dry tent.

The cycle through to Mosvik, the next little village was pleasant with a nice downhill to get us to a Co-op where we shopped for breakfast.  Ate a yummy meal at a bench outside in the sunshine.
Great way to begin the day.  About 10.30am we headed on to Straumen.

What a lovely, enjoyable ride.  Two things for me.  The riding was undulating, but nice gradients and scenery.  Farmland with wooded areas and lots of nice lakes.  Makes a world of difference from feeling enclosed in dense forest areas.  Of course the sunshine is the big kicker I guess. You always feel good when the sun is high in the sky.  Everything is right with the world.  We honestly don't know how the Norwegians can suffer the dark, cold, wet winters for nine months of the year.  It would drive us insane.

Rode into Straumen at 12.15pm, straight into the Shell service station, for our weekly top up of their free wifi and power.  Our powerbank has no charge since we've been out two nights in a row, in the wilderness.  Julia is currently working on the blog for the 13th. I've sent her through my written parts and photos, so I'm carrying on with today's writing.  In about half an hour, we'll buy lunch from the supermarket next door, head out of town for Steinkjer, where we'll camp tonight and buy tonight's dinner and food for tomorrow.

So, got what we needed and as usual, it was a hill to begin the afternoon.  As we were at the crest of the hill, Julia's back tyre suddenly goes flat.  I had been warning her to lay off the pastries (and then I could have two!), but she didn't heed my advice.

To make it worse, we had no shelter from a hot sun and so set about repairing it in the driveway of a farmers field.  Upon investigation we found that the valve had snapped at the base, so we couldn't repair it.  So wheel off for a tube replacement.   This was a tube that we'd bought from EVO cycles when we bought the bikes in March.  Two punctures (if you count the second one as a puncture) in two days.  Both on the back tyre, both a pain to change.  We put the repaired tube on from yesterday,  but when inflating it, we could still hear air hissing out.  Obviously our repair efforts need some practice.  So we replaced it with the other new tube we bought from Evo.  Despite all this, we were way quicker than yesterday.

Once we got going, the afternoon was undulating with climbs, but the gradients were, for the most part okay.  The road was a nice surface, but busy, for a supposedly quiet road.

We were ready for a break and spied a church with a seat in the shade and decided to have lunch there. Churchyards are one of our favourite places to have a meal as you find the inhabitants never bother you or ask for a cup of sugar.  Plus, you can always find cold water, as people are alway looking to give their mates that occupy space there, a wee drink.

On we went, making good time and enjoying the afternoon and the change of scenery from yesterday.  At one point, late on in the ride, we came upon the E6, but had a lovely quiet road on a slightly higher level, running parallel.

This road led us into Steinkjer and onto a cycleway for the remainder of the ride......until.....you are f#c#i# joking me.  Another flat tyre, another broken valve at the base.  I have never come across anything like that and it was the second tube we'd bought from EVO.
We buy two bikes, two replacement tubes and in the middle of nowhere in Norway, both valves snap..  that's bollocks.



Here we are, late afternoon, 2kms from the campground, no tubes available and no way of pushing the bike to the campground, without wrecking the back wheel.

Along cycles Per. He was on his way, of all places, to XXL Sport, to pick up some fishing gear.  Ju stayed on the cycle path, whilst I followed Per to a mall, where I had to manhandle my fully laden bike up an escalator. Told the guy what I wanted, but he didn't have the exact ones.....why would he....that would be too much to expect.

So, I bought two new tubes as close to the others as possible and hoped for the best.  Maneuvered my bike back down the escalator and managed to find my way back to Julia and we fitted the tyre back on the bike.

Per, on his way back home stopped to see we were okay.  What a lovely guy. Thanks for taking me to the bike shop Per.  I would have taken ages to find it on my own.

I have to interject here. Yes Pete went galloping off on his silver horse leaving me stranded by the motorway with my broken bike in the hot sun.  So trying to minimize the time all this would take,  I unloaded my 11 bags (I have a lot of smaller bags) and turned my bike upside down.

I thought what a shame Pete had the tool bag attached under his seat but because it was quick release, I managed to get the back wheel off.  But I had no tyre levers to get the tyre off, however I was pretty sure I remembered you could do it with a spoon in a pinch.  I happened to have one teaspoon, so put on my McGyver hat and bingo, it worked!

So I got the tube out to see the valve had completely sheered off again!  Thought the guys would be well impressed that I'd managed to get the wheel off and tube out without tools, but neither of them noticed.   If only my bike was in one piece, I could ride off into the sunset (that's if it ever set, which it doesn't at the mo) and they could say "who was that masked woman?"

But I merely helped Pete put the wheel back on and loaded my bike up once again.  Just then Per came back saying he thought he had left his very expensive sunglasses behind.  I pointed at them sitting in the V of his t-shirt and we all had a good laugh.  He said, "Nobody must ever know of this," so we said no, no, we will keep this secret, just us and our readers.

We cycled the remaining 2 kms to the campground, set up camp and cycled to the supermarket.  We were hoping to have a nice cold beer to share to end our day, as has become customary, but found out supermarkets are not allowed to sell alcohol after 6pm on Saturday and because of the puncture it was after 7pm by the time we'd showered and got to the supermarket.

After dinner we googled reasons for valves shearing off and cheap tubes were mentioned.  The tubes that broke proudly had Made In China stamped on them.  Hopefully the new ones Pete bought will be better quality....although they were not very expensive.   Especially considering this is Norway.