18th July 2023 (cloudy, rain, cloudy, drizzle, cloudy, rain) 45km

Woke after another great sleep at 7.25am.  The rain had subsided to a light drizzle, but soon ceased and even some blue sky poked its head out of the clouds.  Even so, we were wary of this changeable weather as it can turn so quickly.  Met everyone else as they fell out of their tents, over in the kitchen, for a nice breakfast together.

Guillermete had eaten and I said au revoir and wished her bon chance, before she cycled away, for probably the last time we will see her.  That's the thing about living life like this.  You meet people and because it's for a short encounter, you always hear the best aspects of their lives and their aspirations.  Then, you move on to another set of people.

We waited for the rain, which never came. Everyone else was on a tighter schedule and packing up.  But then we saw some blue sky so started packing up ourselves. Had everything packed except the tent outer when the rain came in.  So chucked everything back on the groundsheet under the tent outer and huddled there with our stuff until the worst of it passed, probably about 15 mins.

Everybody else was sheltering too, nobody wanted to start their day in that. Everyone had psyched themselves into going by now and Alex was the first to leave. Nice guy. Would be nice to see him and his girlfriend in N Z. Then the Dutchies were gone.  And finally, our little crew had dispersed, probably never to see each other again, but with tales from a one night encounter.  Picked up some food from the supermarket in Kolvereid, as we have a long day between food stops today.

 

The riding once again was undulating with some short sharp climbs, just to stop you from getting comfortable.  The scenery this morning was pretty much trees and mountains, but not in a WOW way.

It was when we reached a Co-op in Bagsund, that we had a decent lake thrown in.  Of course  everything would have looked a whole lot better if the sun had been shining.

One highlight was meeting Henry from the Netherlands in his Velomobiel. Essentially a recumbent bike wrapped in a carbon fibre shell. Without luggage it weighed 24 kilos and he was averaging about 100km per day. He was on his way back from Nordkapp. We envied the fact that he wouldn't have to keep changing his clothing according to the weather because today it was very much rain gear on, rain gear off, rain gear back on and then off again. I guess we have to be grateful we didn't need rain gear on all day.

We all sat in the loading bay to eat our lunch because it started raining again, but wouldn't you know it, a truck turned up to use the loading bay so we had to move. By then we had at least finished our sandwiches so we decided we may as well hit the road again and forego our usual lunchtime coffee.

Donned our wet weather gear as the sky looked threatening and started with a nice sweaty climb. So at the top, we removed the wet weather gear again and only had to sit out one downpour after that which lasted about ten mins.

We revived ourselves with an ice cream mid afternoon. Not far from here was our chosen campground for the night and after pulling in and setting up the tent, it began to rain again, so we got hot showers, glad to be out of the weather.

We had been thinking about staying in Kolvereid today but we certainly got enough nice weather to make it worth riding. We also had a tailwind most of the way, so that was a bonus.

This campground is a real hub but like most it has a huge population of those unwelcome little guests called midges. We met two Germans again who we first met in Flakk and another German guy on his way to Nordkapp called Michael.

The only tent.....to start with.

We are situated about 70 metres back from the waters edge and with a stunning view of the lake.

Only problem here, other than midges, is no wifi.  The owner's an old guy, who, when I asked him if he had wifi, said "You're on holiday now".

I should have said, "Tell that to our readers mate."

So we are currently running a couple of days behind in the blog.  As day turned to dusk, at least "expression" wise, we settled into the tent for a yummy dinner.  While doing the dishes we met a young Dutch couple, Ulsa and Rohl, travelling in their van. They have until September and are just going where the road takes them.

By 8.30pm, more bikepackers had turned up, but left, as there was no more room in the tent zone.  The rain had at least for now, ceased.  Forecast for tomorrow is fine weather, which we'll believe when we get it.  A good day would be welcome.