2nd August 2023 (sunny and warm, rain in evening) 44km

The rain was pretty sporadic during the night, but came in good doses when it did rain.

We also had wind, which was flapping other people's tents round a bit.  Not Vango,  she was solid as a rock and well anchored.

When I woke at 5am, I heard Joe from Durham, packing up his tent and gear. There was light rain at the time.
He'd mentioned when we first met that he was in the forces and I wondered how many times he must have packed up wet kit.
He was very quiet breaking camp and when I stuck my head out at 5.45am to go to the loos, he was just getting his motorcycle gloves on.
He's ridden bikes since he was fourteen years old and flew hangliders for twenty years.
He has a big BMW touring bike and said as long as you go through the same routine when you set up  and break camp, you'll be right.
Ju and I do exactly that with our routines. Keep them the same.
Follow the same patterns every time.
By 6am, Joe was on the road to catch the 7am ferry at Moskenes.
Nice guy. Travel safe.
Climbed back in the tent, with the rain now coming down a little harder and began to write.
The rest of the camp slept on.

I wrote that last piece and while Julia was editing and sorting photos for the blog, I fell asleep again and woke at 8.23am.
Both of us have been enjoying some great sleeps in the tent and it will be interesting to see how we sleep once home.

The rain had ceased prior to breakfast, which we always enjoy, both breakfast and rain stopping.  The breeze too, had dropped, but there was a cool feeling about the day, so we hope it warms up.
Coffee was savoured before we began our  pack up.

Julia desperately wanted a swim in the beautiful freezing waters.... well who wouldn't?  To be fair, while we were packing up, the sun had struggled past the top of the mountain behind us and was now heating up the day nicely.
So down to the lovely white, sandy beach and straight in.
We'd  walked past two girls and a guy from camp on the way down, who were in bikinis and board shorts, standing around, so decided to show them how it was done.

The ocean certainly looked the part. Total glass with a tiny ripple of a wave at the edge and a stunning shade of aqua blue.
Very tempting.

So into the bracing waters of the arctic..13C
I see a pattern here.. it's getting colder every day.
Went under a few times and did some underwater strokes, until the old "brain freeze" started to kick in.
Just in time,  we casually wandered up the beach, in no hurry, (because now we were out of the water), and back to camp to change.

Maybe we inspired the dithering trio back at camp or maybe they were finally ready, but they went down for a dip after we strolled past nonchalantly,  smiling widely (to stop our teeth chattering).

After changing and loading the bikes, we said goodbye to the Dutch couple we'd  met yesterday, Katja and Frank.  They were a lovely couple and it would have been nice to talk to them a bit longer.

Picked up lunch and rode off under blue skies, with no wind, but spectacular scenery.
This country really is stunning.
We were stopping at every opportunity to take shots, however, those opportunities were limited because we were on the narrow but busy E10.

The traffic was horrendous and you had no time to relax.
Once you pulled over was the only respite from concentrating constantly.
Tourist hot spots throughout Europe are trying to come up with ways to reduce the number of tourists.
Tolls on roads, charging entry fees to the actual cities, limiting numbers in at any one time etc.
I really don't blame them.
It's a catch 22. Everyone knows it. You want the tourist dollar, but it's the nightmare that comes with it.

Came upon Flakstad Beach and surf club.
Wasn't any surf, but oh my, what a lovely beach.
If we hadn't just had a swim and had been further down the road, we'd have gone in again.
As it was, we took some shots. We passed several tempting little swim spots so it was a good job we'd already scratched that itch or we wouldn't have made much progress.

Further on, we met a Swiss bikepacker and enjoyed a five minute chat with him, before continuing on to our least favourite part of the day.
We had a 2 km tunnel to travel.
First km down, last km up.

Just before the tunnel, we came upon a traffic jam, with everyone just sitting with engines off.  Waited about 15 minutes, we're still not sure why and then entered the abyss.

Going down....not bad, bit of speed.  Still had to watch out for potholes and it wasn't very wide or well lit.  It had a footpath, but on the opposite side.  So even if we wanted it, we couldn't cross as there was a constant flow and travelling fast.
And why not....don't worry about those idiots on bikes.
We should knock em off.

Reached the bottom and began the climb, which was testing.
Even though we were moving at snails pace, we still couldn't cross because of the oncoming traffic.
Even if they hadn't been there, you would take your life in your hands crossing into the other lane, in case you were wiped out by the idiots speeding up behind you.
Had one #*/*^## speed past with his hand constantly on the horn.
Finally, when an opportunity arose and we were clear both ways, we raced our bikes to the footpath and walked the last 200 metres to daylight.

Out the other side was yet another stunning view, at a rest area.
Here, we ate some lunch and reflected not only on the traffic and tunnel, but on the scenery we'd seen so far.

Some artwork at the rest area representing man, boat and fish.

This is 4 metres tall.

On the move again heading into Leknes, but bad signposting sent us to Gravdal.
Fortunately, hadn't gone far and ended up in Leknes in a mall, where we shopped for dinner and breakfast at the attached supermarket.

Heading out of town on the 815, a lesser road, so some relief, but also a climb, before heading downhill to our eventual destination Lofoten Camping.

Here, we were charged 300kr ($50 nz) for a pretty average site, plus an extra 20kr each for a 6 min shower.
On the plus side, we had good wifi and plenty of charging capabilities.

After pitching, showering, and our pre-dinner drinks, it started to drizzle.  So we ate dinner in the tent and then adjourned to the lounge area for coffee and pastries. Began writing the blog and preparing tomorrow's route.  This was a very nice room and much appreciated by us and a number of others as it was raining on and off by now.

With a break in the weather we wrapped things up and got into the tent ready for bed at 10.10pm.
Two kids were playing with a ball right outside our tent with accompanying squeals and shouts.  So we offered up our prayers for the big guy to send more rain down, which he obligingly did.  This was enough to send the noisy children scurrying back to their campervan. And that's why we take so many photos of churches.