10th August 2023 (sun, cloud, warm) 27km

Awake at 5.30am, but lay and dozed until 6.30am.

Beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, no wind, but apparently rain coming this afternoon. 
We have a "warmshowers" place to stay tonight. Bit like couch surfing, but for cycle tourers.
A retired couple from England, Anne and John, who live in a place called Klo.
Hopefully we'll stay dry and wake up to another nice day tomorrow.
Only sixteen days left until we go into the hotel in Tromso and box up the bikes, ready for the flight to Stockholm, then home.

Had breakfast in the kitchen this morning as those bloody midges were already hungry.
Packed up tent as the camp began to wake up.
Then off on the road to the top of the island to a place called  Sto.

Picked up lunch on the way past the supermarket in Myre and off down a flat road (always a bonus) to Sto.
On the way there, we passed the community of Klo, where we are staying  tonight.

The seagulls have taken over this building. 

The kittywhite seagulls are prolific here

Sto is the end of the line for the road, but has a quaint harbour and some great hikes.
On the hill was a huge observatory, or so we thought, until we found out from John, our host, that it is in fact a NATO early warning radar system.
Julia had our hike picked out ages ago.
It was to a beach....of course.
We covered our gear on the bikes with our rain covers as the weather is supposed to come in today and took off around the lower slopes of these rocky cliffs.

It was nice to be off the bikes and doing some walking.  About twenty minutes in we came to the hill overlooking the beach.  It was a very nice beach indeed and very inviting.  Worked our way down to the white squeaky sand, got changed, then straight in.  The water temperature would have been around 14C, and with no waves to catch, we couldn't keep warm.  So it was a brief swim.  Clothes on and continued around the cliffs along the shoreline.

All this area has signs of being settled in prehistoric times and that everyone, is a shit long time ago.  The views were stunning and the weather was playing the game.  Got as far as a point called Enge to a small shelter and decided that we'd better turn around and head back.

By the time we reached the swimming beach, well of course it was time for another swim.  Water hadn't got any warmer, but felt good after the walking.  Our walk back to the bikes offered up different views so the camera was on the go.

Had a nice lunch overlooking the harbour before we decided to make a move to our warm showers hosts.

Arrived at our hosts house at 3.45pm and they showed us where to store our bikes in the barn and then took us up to our room.

Anne and John are a great couple in their 70's and it was very nice to chat freely with people whose first language is English.  Over the course of the next six hours, we talked about travel, theirs and ours.  Their various cycle, kayak and hiking trips to places like Alaska, Cuba, Canada, Morocco etc, not to mention all the hikes they have done in this area.

They have owned this house for fifteen years, and have been spending six months here and six months in their home in Cumbria. But it's time for a change, so they'll be selling soon, possibly to try pastures new.
John cooked us a meal of fish, (haddock, which he had caught himself), potatoes and vegetables, which was delicious. Anne followed it with a rhubarb and ginger crumble, also beautiful. The best meal we've had on the whole tour.
Said goodnight at 10.10pm and wandered upstairs for bed.
Not sure at present which direction we are headed tomorrow. We will check the weather and see.


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