19th July 2023 (sun and cloud, mild or cool) 68km
This was the scene as I went for my 1am loo break.
The question is, sunrise or sunset?
This is as dark as it gets here.
Woke at 5.39am and just lay listening to Michael, our German neighbour and the young German girl on our other side, packing up to go. It's been interesting to see the amount of females doing these trips with a lot going solo. When I first started, there were no females on the road at all. When Julia and I first toured there were couples, but virtually no solo females. Wind the clock forward nearly forty years and it's great to see so many taking it on.
Michael departed at 8am for the ferry at 9.40am, but it's 20kms away and hilly.
We left at 8.30am, but thought it would be a push to catch his ferry, because of those couple of big climbs, one straight away.
We'd done 11kms and saw it was 9.15am and realized if we put in some effort, we could catch the early ferry. And man did we put in some effort. We were doing 25-32kms on the flat and still motoring up the climbs. We spotted the ferry coming in and moving past the headland to dock. Every corner we rounded, we were hoping to see the ferry sitting in the harbour, but there was just another hill or corner to get past.
Came around what we thought was the last bend, only to find a 500 metre straight with another corner at the end and still no view of the ferry. That was demoralizing, but we dug deep and kept up the effort and finally went round a couple more corners and glimpsed the ferry. Kept those pedal strokes up and rolled onto the ferry with a yee-ha and two minutes to spare.
Let me tell you, there was very little left to give. That was basically a 10km sprint.
A twenty minute crossing, where Michael introduced us to Yana, another cyclist in the 120- 150kms per day range, like Michael, (makes me tired thinking about it) and got both their contacts.
Once we departed the ferry, a quick photo and they were gone......never to be seen again. Yana had been cycling with a friend, until he hit a lamb at 40kms per/hr.
He did his shoulder and his trip is finished (now back in Germany) and the lamb is dead.
Mary had a little lamb
She used to let it roam
A cyclist travelling 40kms
Made sure it won't go home
Baaaa baaa baaaaaaàgggghhhhhh
Started to cycle to Vik on a nice road and the bonus was no traffic, until the next ferry.
Riding was mainly flat to undulating and the scenery of course was coastal (always our favourite).
Vik was a very small community, but with a supermarket, so we bought lunch. Decided to eat in the shade and picked a tree with a bench at another church. Apparently midges are one of God's creatures as well and had decided to attend a service, until they realized there were better pickings to be had and surrounded us both. Only thing to do was to leave the shade of the tree and we ended up sitting in full sun by the supermarket, but it was preferable to being eaten alive.
Early afternoon and we were now on our way to Berg, but our quiet road was getting busier. It surprises us that this road (the fv17) is also the recognized cycle route known as Eurovelo One and also the Atlantic Coastal Route scenic drive so you get a lot of cars and campervans and motorbikes. It is also the main through road in these parts, therefore plenty of trucks too. Not really ideal and it's only going to get busier, with all these different types of traffic frustrating each other.
The scenery today was beautiful and with the sun shining, all we had to do was deal with a head wind, which to be honest, wasn't too bad. So at 4.30pm, having completed 68kms for the day, we rolled into Bronnoysund and decided to shop for breakfast, to save us going out in the morning, as it's supposed to be raining. Also splashed out on a Carlsberg for me and a Crabbies Ginger Beer for Ju, what extravagance.
This is obviously an expanding tourist town as per the new buildings going up. Got what we needed and headed a few hundred metres up the road to Mosheim camp..."Alright already".....
This camp is owned by older people who have a fetish for trolls. The fact is, they are starting to morph into their figurines, which are positioned all around the camp. While we were blogging and enjoying a beer in the kitchen, I happened to glance up out of the window and see one of these things staring back at me. At first I just thought it was someone with an incredibly big nose, but it was a troll, stood under a tree.
Showers taken, washing done, breeze blowing and ready for dinner which tonight will be kjottbollers, not to be confused with kids bollocks, because that would be naughty and probably abusive. A whole can of beer is already taking my mind to places not really suitable for the reading public.
Just before we left the very nicely decked out kitchen/ lounge area, where we'd been catching up on three days of blogging and enjoying the homely kitchen feel, we heard a woman urinating in the toilet next door. I'm not going to tell you what the next occupant of that cubicle was doing,
but I'm glad we weren't cooking sausages.
Back to the tent where the wind was drying our washed clothes, had dinner and then settled in for the night.
Probably catching up with the blog, while we can.
Campground this morning. It certainly filled up.
We left at 8.30am, but thought it would be a push to catch his ferry, because of those couple of big climbs, one straight away.
We'd done 11kms and saw it was 9.15am and realized if we put in some effort, we could catch the early ferry. And man did we put in some effort. We were doing 25-32kms on the flat and still motoring up the climbs. We spotted the ferry coming in and moving past the headland to dock. Every corner we rounded, we were hoping to see the ferry sitting in the harbour, but there was just another hill or corner to get past.
Came around what we thought was the last bend, only to find a 500 metre straight with another corner at the end and still no view of the ferry. That was demoralizing, but we dug deep and kept up the effort and finally went round a couple more corners and glimpsed the ferry. Kept those pedal strokes up and rolled onto the ferry with a yee-ha and two minutes to spare.
Let me tell you, there was very little left to give. That was basically a 10km sprint.
A twenty minute crossing, where Michael introduced us to Yana, another cyclist in the 120- 150kms per day range, like Michael, (makes me tired thinking about it) and got both their contacts.
With Janne and Michael (right)
Once we departed the ferry, a quick photo and they were gone......never to be seen again. Yana had been cycling with a friend, until he hit a lamb at 40kms per/hr.
He did his shoulder and his trip is finished (now back in Germany) and the lamb is dead.
Mary had a little lamb
She used to let it roam
A cyclist travelling 40kms
Made sure it won't go home
Baaaa baaa baaaaaaàgggghhhhhh
So nice to see the sun again.
Started to cycle to Vik on a nice road and the bonus was no traffic, until the next ferry.
Riding was mainly flat to undulating and the scenery of course was coastal (always our favourite).
Vik was a very small community, but with a supermarket, so we bought lunch. Decided to eat in the shade and picked a tree with a bench at another church. Apparently midges are one of God's creatures as well and had decided to attend a service, until they realized there were better pickings to be had and surrounded us both. Only thing to do was to leave the shade of the tree and we ended up sitting in full sun by the supermarket, but it was preferable to being eaten alive.
Early afternoon and we were now on our way to Berg, but our quiet road was getting busier. It surprises us that this road (the fv17) is also the recognized cycle route known as Eurovelo One and also the Atlantic Coastal Route scenic drive so you get a lot of cars and campervans and motorbikes. It is also the main through road in these parts, therefore plenty of trucks too. Not really ideal and it's only going to get busier, with all these different types of traffic frustrating each other.
The scenery today was beautiful and with the sun shining, all we had to do was deal with a head wind, which to be honest, wasn't too bad. So at 4.30pm, having completed 68kms for the day, we rolled into Bronnoysund and decided to shop for breakfast, to save us going out in the morning, as it's supposed to be raining. Also splashed out on a Carlsberg for me and a Crabbies Ginger Beer for Ju, what extravagance.
This is obviously an expanding tourist town as per the new buildings going up. Got what we needed and headed a few hundred metres up the road to Mosheim camp..."Alright already".....
The troll figurines
The owners
This camp is owned by older people who have a fetish for trolls. The fact is, they are starting to morph into their figurines, which are positioned all around the camp. While we were blogging and enjoying a beer in the kitchen, I happened to glance up out of the window and see one of these things staring back at me. At first I just thought it was someone with an incredibly big nose, but it was a troll, stood under a tree.
Showers taken, washing done, breeze blowing and ready for dinner which tonight will be kjottbollers, not to be confused with kids bollocks, because that would be naughty and probably abusive. A whole can of beer is already taking my mind to places not really suitable for the reading public.
Just before we left the very nicely decked out kitchen/ lounge area, where we'd been catching up on three days of blogging and enjoying the homely kitchen feel, we heard a woman urinating in the toilet next door. I'm not going to tell you what the next occupant of that cubicle was doing,
but I'm glad we weren't cooking sausages.
Back to the tent where the wind was drying our washed clothes, had dinner and then settled in for the night.
Probably catching up with the blog, while we can.
You guys need to publish a book when you get home. Your blogs are awesome. Lovely pics again. Let's hope the sun keeps shining. Stunning day in Taranaki today, blue sky and no wind. D&D
ReplyDeleteOoh nice, we can just picture it.
ReplyDeleteAh Pete you didn’t tell me you had visited Norway before when you were younger . You obviously made an impact in those parts as they made a Troll figurine in your likeness ,that second pic I swear is you ,when you had hair like that as I recall.must have been when Ju was in her Brunette phase or was that the first wife?? I did watch a you tube Mathew Norway vlog where he cycled in the mountains going through villages with Trolls everywhere. They seem to have a thing for them in some parts. We are assuming youare struggling for wi fi as you must be a day or two behind. We’ll let you off ,….for now. I’m on truck everyday at moment for reasons I’ll explain later so haven’t been able to read everyday last couple. Hope you are both good and are not keeping the midges too well fed. Oh football news ,firstMillion pound footballer died today and Kylian N Bape has been offered $500 million to join that Saudi club trying to buy everyone.
ReplyDelete… my mistake there were more blogs ,I hadn’t hit refresh . Will try to catch up
ReplyDelete