22nd July 2023 (cloudy with low fog, very light drizzle late arvo) 22km

Woke at 5.36am.  Had been up during the early hours (1.40am) woken by a German girl telling her mate how loud she gets when she's had a few beers.  She does.

It was looking like it may rain so we wanted to pack a dry tent again.  Once that was done and our gear was on the kitchen porch ready to load, we began breakfast with an egg sandwich, straight from the camp's free range chickens. These eggs were another present from Alfred and Heidi.  Followed this with our usual breakfast and coffee.  Kaspar was also up and moving and we met him in the kitchen for breakfast.

A nice little scene waiting for the ferry. 

Looking across the water at last night's campground. 

With Kaspar, waiting for the ferry.

At 8.15am, we made the initially hilly start to our 3km ride to the ferry.  Kaspar left after us but arrived in plenty of time and then a German girl from the camp pulled up in her van.  We all sat together on the ferry chatting  before disembarking in Nesna.  The plan today was to restock with food supplies at Nesna.  We also wanted to find free wifi and catch up on the blog.  Managed to do both of these things at the local Co-op supermarket. 

While we had free wifi, we also did a bit of investigation into the next stage of riding and found in the next 74km, there were three climbs of over 350m, plus two long tunnels.  The views were non existent due to the mist that was gradually creeping further and further down the surrounding mountains and rain looked imminent.   All of these things made riding further today seem very unappealing.

So then we discovered a ferry at 5pm would take us from Nesna to Stokkvagen, which was most of the route we planned to cover by bike today.  It was a speed ferry so we would have to pay, but it was only $20 NZ each.  While we just relaxed outside the supermarket,  eating and drinking coffee all day with an ice-cream for afternoon tea, poor old Kaspar was sweating it out on the climbs and in the tunnels.   We felt a bit like we were cheating,  but stuff it, we needed the rest.

Nesna doesn't have a whole lot going for it.  Our ferry to Stokkvagen doesn't leave til 5pm, by which time we had checked out the local church and toilets, thank you  (George Michael).

It is now 2.46pm.  Do you know how hard it is to keep occupied in a town where the highlight for the week would be the supermarket shop.  At least by the time we catch the next ferry, we'll be up to date with the blog for the first time in a week.

Have learned some interesting info on our way around Norway.  About half the population in Norway will experience a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.  Possibly due to long, extremely cold winters, lack of sunshine, isolation and drinking habits.

Just had a young Canadian cyclist rock up.  He's been cycling 3 months and went to Nordkapp. Said if you want scenery, don't bother.  It's his first tour and he'll definitely do another.  We also caught up with the German couple we've seen at a couple of camp sites. They are catching the same ferry as us, but then another just a bit further on to Jetvik.  We, on the other hand will stay in a campsite about 5km from the ferry and then catch the ferry to Jetvik tomorrow.

Julia chats to the German couple we have been crossing paths with over the past 3 weeks.  They brought fishing rods on their bikepacking journey to Nordkapp. 

Move forward to 5.00pm and all four of us are boarding the ferry after spending the day sitting outside and sometimes inside, if the two seats were free, catching up with the blog.

The ferry cost Julia and I, 240 nok or $20 each and took thirty minutes.
Rode off the other side and wished the Germans well before heading off to our campsite.
Had to climb a hill first of course, but were rewarded with a gorgeous view, although the mist was still hanging about.  The next six or seven kms was stopping and shooting, so much so that our German friends went past and that's the last we saw of them.

We get glimpses of how beautiful this coastline would be if the mist lifted.

 

We saw some cabins on our right, but no sign of life there,  so carried on.  However, we both figured that we'd already exceeded the distance to supposed camp and it must have closed down.
Julia saw an accommodation lodge and called the number on the board outside to see if we could pitch tent on his expanse of decking.

Jurgen could speak English thank goodness and was just finishing his dinner, but said he'd come down in ten minutes, which he did.  He couldn't let us sleep on the deck, but offered us a piece of grass on some of his land that he owned, and explained where it was.

We pushed our bike up the path we thought he'd said, and were feeling dubious but a guy drove past in a red ute, beeped out and waved us up the track.  I don't know who he was, (it wasn't Jurgen), but we're glad he motioned us to keep going because we were about to turn around.
We saw a family gathering at the top of the gravel drive and Ju said "I'll just ask them. This place is so small, they're bound to know Jurgen".  We told them the story and they told us this was their land, but we could pitch a tent on the most level part of their land.

We were highly delighted until the older sister, probably seventies, suggested we stay in the cabin right behind them. Oh my God, could this get any better?  She said we'd have to sleep on the floor as they had all sorts of their brother's new bathroom stored in there.

Home for the night.

View from the deck.

So, tonight at least, we will stay indoors and we won't have to pack up a wet tent in the morning. 
The rest of the evening was amazing.  We met Jonny, one of the brothers and Amanda, his daughter, both.....wait for it...fanatical Liverpool supporters.

The talk for the rest of the night covered all aspects of football transfers, old coaches, Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly, all the old teams etc.

Amanda also had two gorgeous Portuguese Water Dogs named Steven (after Steven Gerrard) and Ynwa, yes, for You'll Never Walk Alone.  They were gorgeous and kept us entertained all night with their antics.

When we cooked our dinner, Jonny brought out Norwegian sausages for us to try, mmm, delicious!  We sat talking to both of them until 10pm, by which time it was getting bitterly cold and we were out on the deck of the cabin.  So we said goodnight and moved inside the cabin where it took no time to warm up and then crashed.

Great finish, to what could have been an awkward situation as freecamping spots in this area are limited, as the mountains come right down to the sea.  Although we were able to take some shots, there was a heavy mist all afternoon which by the time we went to bed, was closing in around us.