26th July 2023 (sunny and warm) 66km

It was after midnight before I got to sleep, due to the young kid in the tent less than five feet away, whining for Momma all bloody night.  Don't know if he shut up eventually, or I was just too tired to care and fell asleep.  Woke this morning at 7am.  Feeling better at present than yesterday, but not counting chickens, will see how I feel, once we get underway.

But the best way to wake up, according to my wife, is to drop yourself into an ocean in the arctic circle.  Down to the beach we strolled.  The sun was warm and the sea looked beautiful.  No waves, just a nice gentle sound of the water coming to rest on the sand.  We pick it was probably 16C in the water and definitely a good way to start the day.

Ate breakfast, but had to wait for the shop to open at 10am as we have a hard day in store and no shops before our intended campground for the night.  We have a 3.2km tunnel, a1km tunnel a 750m tunnel and a 270 metre tunnel. Then we have three climbs of 200m each in succession before our campground, 38km away.  There is no shop until after that campground, so we need to stock up, otherwise this little piggy gets very grumpy.

So.....fast forward.  Time is1.17pm and we've stopped at a rest area having completed our 38km already.  We have been through five tunnels, the longest 3200 metres.  We have climbed three passes and now we are looking forward to our banana butties for lunch.  Having completed all of the above, we decided to carry on and not stop at the campground we intended to stay at.  Instead, we'll  aim for another 31 kms and one more 200m climb, which = one campsite and more food.  Both of us are feeling great, the weather is fantastic,  so we thought, why not?

So the afternoons ride was great....scenery wise. However, this road is quite busy, especially for a national cycle route.  Whenever we have someone waiting patiently behind us for an opportunity to pass (which most people do....far more cautious than the average kiwi driver), the first chance we get to pull over and let them pass, we take.  But not all cyclists are like this.  On our last tunnel we could hear a truck change down and chug behind us as we slogged through this slightly uphill tunnel.  He also had the courtesy to do this about 100m back from us so the noise wouldn't be deafening and we wouldn't be breathing in his exhaust fumes.  Or so we thought.

As soon as we exited the tunnel, we pulled over to let him pass but about 100m behind us were two more young bikepackers who we thought would pull over too. But no, they probably just thought we'd pulled over cos we oldies were exhausted, that's if they thought anything at all.  They carried on oblivious to the plight of the truckie who still couldn't get past, probably had deadlines to meet and is sick to the back teeth of all these tourists clogging up his road.

We spent about 4kms on a side road today, which paralleled the main road and it was bliss.  Bonus was, on this road was a supermarket....don't know how they make a living, cause all the traffic was on the other road.  Even though we'd only just had lunch, this was the only shop between here and the next campground,  so if we wanted an ice-cream,  it was now or never....obviously it was now.

The two truck-stopping bikepackers were there along with another one, sitting out in the blazing sun eating their lunch at a picnic bench.  We bought a couple of ice creams and sat in the shade, before heading on to Saltstraumen, giving them a wave as we set off.  I think they were French, but it could have been the donkeys in the neighbouring field.  I just heard Haw Hee Haw Hee Haw.

A tempting little swim spot.  Sometimes it's hard to believe we're in the arctic circle. 

Then we see these signs across the road and remember. 

More climbing this arvo, but we soon came across a mountain viewpoint, which was well worth a half hour off the bikes for some great shots.

Back to playing Dangermouse on the roads until we finally rolled into our destination over one of the two bridges in the town from which you can witness one of the strongest tidal currents in the world, called the Saltstraumen maelstrom, but like I said to Julia, "It's all just water under the bridge to me."

Did a quick shop and rode down to the campsite, where we threw up the tent, (I warned Pete not to eat it), chucked in the gear, showered, ate and began compiling the rest of the days thoughts.

I rode without any pain today and only twice did I feel the grabbing feeling.
"Get off" I said to Julia, "Time for that when I'm off the bike."

A couple of final images to cap off a very nice day indeed.
Now...what's going to keep me up tonight..?