The terrain has gradually been getting hillier since we arrived in Sweden - but that was only a taster for the last few days in Norway. You cycle up 50, 100, 200 or 300 foot hills, go over the crest, zoom down the other side and then start all over again. Especially great fun when it's chucking it down with rain! Yesterday we arrived at a small ferry - a 15 minute sail to the other side of the inlet (and part of the official route!!) but found that it doesn't run on a Sunday ... the guy who confirmed this for us had a nasty smile on his face and said in broken English that it was 3-4 miles around the head of the bay to cycle - the map we are using isa strip map - which is a pain if you have to go off route significantly as you have to guess what the roads do ...- anyway, it wasn't 3 -4 miles, it was 20 miles - and very very HILLY miles as well - and then it started pouring down -but by the time we arrived at a campsite 33 miles laterthe sun had decided to make an appearance - and it hasn't rained today as yet - yipee.....
Sweden was a funny country to cycle in- very much Jeckel and Hyde. Realised that it was our fourth time in the country, and yet still don't feel that I have got to any sort of understanding about the place. The cycle route was the worse of the trip - no special cycle tracks anywhere - just routed along exceedingly busy and often very dangerous roads - but then again you'd find yourself on a lovely quiet road, sometimes gravel through the forests, past beautiful lakes and the sort of houses you imagine belong to Sweden. There are not that many campsites really, and those that there were were packed out as it is peak holiday time - and they were so expensive - over £30 a night, and often you had to pay for showers and even hot water to wash up in as an extra as well.
Cycled over a bridge above a fairly deep ravine like river to get into Norway - in the rain - and to be greeted by a one in 3 climb up the cycle path at the side of the busy main road - most definitely 'Welcome to Norway'. This was the first night we opted for a hut as we were soaked right through by the time we had walked the bikes up some sections of extremely steep large rubbled gravel track. What a treat.
Next day I had a very close brush with meeting my end - and was incredibly fortunate. We were following the cycle route, cycling along the pavement with oncoming traffic on a very busy major main road on the same side as the pavement we were on. The pavement surface was terrible - in general there is a lot of what I presume is frost damage to the roads and pavements as we have cycled around Norway - but especially as we crossed a narrow bridge the pavement we were cycling along was narrow and very rutted. It was also raining hard and my glasses were making it hard to see the surface as well as I could have done. All of a sudden my front wheel hit a wide and deep rut that went right across the pavement at about 45 degrees - it whipped my wheel to 45 degrees (there is a lot of weight and power there with the two front panniers affecting the steering) and catapulted me and the bike straight off the pavement in a heap right in the middle of the stream of cars coming towards me. I remember seeing the startled eyes of the woman driver coming towards me, thinking 'this is going to be nasty' and 'this is going to hurt!' - when miraculously her fast reflexes meant that she was able to stop in time and not hit me, and also that the rest of the traffic was able to stop in time without anyone hitting each other. I'm still not sure quite how I escaped with only a scraped leg and a banged elbow - luckily I had my waterpoof on which saved my arm from being grazed. Knocked me sick though as it was quite a thud when I landed. Everything in my top box ended up on the wet road, and had to scramble around to pick everything up and get out of the way of the traffic. One of the panniers fell off due to the impact and a few ore scrapes were added to it. Makes you really careful and paranoid after that about any sort of rough ground we have to cycle over - much much more careful now. That night, I was really quite ill - had to waken Roger suddenly in the night and ask for a sick bucket - there was a tupperware near by luckily. Not sure if it was a bit of a bug or a reaction to my dice with death!!!
Here in Norway the coastline is so indentated, with holiday homes all over the place in nooks and crannies, all looking very nice places to own. They invariably have a dock and a boat outside them - in fact there are so many boats here, of all shapes and sizes and price bracket, they are the equivalent of cars to be honest - with every community on the coast having a marina and general jetty to moor up to - and a small shop near by - or even Thai takaways - so instead of taking the car you take your boat instead. Virtually everyone wears a lifejacket of some sort if they are in a boat. It seems a very nice way to spend your summer, messing around on a boat. There are really good guides you can buy that show in photos all the marinas, explaining the way in and out, and how to get to the moorings etc and all the information about them - like coffee table books.
It seems to be taking us forever to move along the coast of Norway - we keep looking at the North Sea Cycle Route overview map and despair that we'll ever get to Bergen!! We crossed over from Sweden 8 days ago now, but still have another 675 tough km's to cycle yet. Up to now we've cycled about 3,100 miles, so likely to be about 3,500 miles by the time we finish.
We expect we will be home by the end of August - start of September. Roger is looking forward to his comfy bed and settee- he struggles more than I do in getting comfy when he is relaxing - ok when he's fast asleep but gets bad back ache unless sat on his stool(the stool from the Freegon pile at the campsite at Edinburgh that both of us have repaired many times - it's very much on borrowed time at the moment).
The latest thought is that we will fly to Manchester from Bergen, cycle to Elsie and Deans in Sale, then get the tram to Manchester and the X43 to the bottom of our road, then pick up the car from home and drive back to Elsie and Dean's and pickup the bikes and panniers.
Thanks once again for the various emails, texts and postings - lovely to her from you all. Hope you are all having a great summer.
Included the above photo to show us the 'great' camping spot we got at this very expensive Swedish campsite - the tent is down now and we were just leaving but our spot was the lighter area of grass to the right of the entrance to the 'tunnel' under the road to another bit of the campsite - so a constant trail of people walking through it to the water and also to the toilet block and reception/shop etc - all thinking they are very cool by shouting and hollering in the tunnel to hear the echo!!! Immediately behind the pathetic little hedge was a cycle/walkway that again connected other higher bits of the campsite to the toilets, water etc, and above the tunnel was a very busy and noisy main road.
Another rainy lunch stop, not far from the border between Sweden and Norway.
Over the bridge and into Norway - in the rain .....
Drying out the bikes and panniers on the balcony of our wooden hut - they are available on many of the campsites and would be good value if there were 4 of you sharing. Camping is much cheaper for cycle campers at least in Norway compared to Sweden - has varied from 120 (about £13) to 190(where we are tonight) - and the huts have cost 550, 550 and 150 - yes 150 is correct!!! - see later.
The 550 hut!!!
The Swedes especially love their large imported vintage American cars - saw lots of them while we were there.
This excitingly grey photo could have been the last photo I ever took!! From the bridge about 30 seconds before I fell off into the road!!!
The lucky escape!!!!
A fellow North Sea Cycle Route cycle camper - from the north Germany coast area - started a few weeks ago from there, expects to be back again in November. A teacher, having a years sabbatical. All the very best to her, hope to hear about her exploits from her blog when we get home. Have fun!!!!
I love the humour behind this imaginative mail box area - at the bottom of a very long and steep hill that we were just about to cycle up.
Another ferry ride ... I think it might have been about number 25 - need to work it out sometime.
... and yet another ferry - 2 minutes at the most on a very small cycle ferry - look at Mr Bigs house behind Roger - its own man made beach and 2 large motor launches mored up outside it - and I bet it was only the holiday home as well ....
Saw one of these signs about a week ago in Sweden - first one I've seen since then.
An hour or so later and the route gets to yet another ferry - we'd just missed one that would have taken us direct to where we needed to go - had an hour or so to wait for the next one that would take us to a small island near by, and then 45 minutes later the same ferry would arrive back at where we were dropped off and pick us up again and take us to where we were really going!!! - only it was suggested we might like to cycle from the interim stop down to the next stop off point for the boat, further down the small island - which we did.
The ferry arrives - room for one vehicle on the boat.
Leaving on the ferry...
There are no cars on the island where we are dropped off - the locals use a variety of means to transport their shopping and luggage around = eg building materials dropped off by the boat put onto the quad bike ...
This guy was met by this girl and her bikes and the dog- his luggage and shopping was loaded in the panniers, the girl road off on the bike and the bloke walked the dog - up the hill and nearly to the next ferry stop on the island (but he got there sooner than he would have done if he had waited for the next boat that would have taken him directly there -does that make any sense to you?)
... or you have the humble wheelbarrow, lined up for general use by the inhabitants of the island - seem to be plenty of holiday homes here as well - a delightful place.
We cycled to the next ferry spot along the forest trails that connect the various houses and small shop etc
and caught the same ferry on it's crossing to where we wanted to go - a delightful little interlude, well worth being late into camp that night.
a strange sort of campsite - needed some TLC -seemed a very tranquil spot -
- until the neighbours from hell arrived home and partyed and made lots of noise till 2 am or so - slam slam of the car door, laugh laugh like a hyena, ring ring of a text message - a very long conversation appeared to be in progress judging by the number of messages there were, kick kick the football, charge around our tent (the kids not the adults I hope!!), thump thump of music - you get the picture I'm sure. Felt particularly sorry for a girl cycle camper who had pitched her tent very close to one of the neighbours from hell - even closer than us.
Loved this water sculpture - the water spurted in a random way mimicing the crashing waves - it is a small boat with men harpooning a whale.
... and another wet lunch spot ....
the second hut for 550 Kroner so that we could dry out once again ...
Ferry waiting once again - made the maximum use of our hut - didn't stop raining till after 11 am - so as we had it until mid-day - we didn't decide if we were moving on or staying another night until then. Decided as we were having a late start we would take a ferry across the harbour and miss out a 20 mile, hilly route -but we would have to wait till 3pm now - not a problem as the sun was out and there was a suitable place to sit and people and boat watch by the busy and bustling marina and public jetty. Could have sat there all day. Just happened to be shop selling ice creams - and I was about to say - Barry, saw this and thought of you - but then realised that it might get taken the wrong way .... - it's the hundreds and thousands that the ice cream is dipped in that I'm referring to...
Every ferry is totally different- all have their own way of dealing with our bikes. Another fascinating hour long ferry trip -round all the small islands and inlets to drop off the post and one or two passengers. Again, glad we missed the earlier ferry which was a much more direct one.
The wooden box is the mail box, the boat girl has hardly any clothes on (the briefest pair of shorts and her white strappy top) and bare feet - her job was to jump on and off the jetties to tie up the boat and deliver the mail - and no doubt had the eyes of every make on her at each stop.... (what me jealous of her fabulously slender and toned and young body - never ....)
This guy was a passenger on the ferry - the girl put the mail in the box,he got off the ferry an then proceeded to rifle through it to look for his mail, then walked off up the jetty with his shopping in his rucksack. There was a sale in the outdoor clothing shop next to the ferry when we were waiting - both he and the boat girl had made purchases there while the ferry was waiting - a half price sale..... I did mention that we had spent our waiting time people watching ...
A narrow channel for the ferry to slip through.
Trying to show the steep descent but doesn't really work - other than you get a feeling for the speed that the cyclist that came from nowhere as I took the photo is going at ....
and the fact that someone is pushing their bike up the hill the other way ....
another very very steep descent-a gravel track but the steep bit had been tarmaced, but then at the very bottom was a corner into deep and wheel stopping deep gravel - no wonder there was a great big warning at the top of the descent to go very slowly!!!
A lovely spot to stop for lunch - by the time we had finished though the sun had disappeared and the rain wasn't long in starting up once again.
Another ferry to catch, another 2 hour wait - but once again very enjoyable because there was an inline skating competition taking place - very complicated because the circuit went across the car ferry track - so wonderful choreography to get the cars across in between the racers. Gosh they must be fit to do that - you see them out and about on the hilly cycle racks around the larger towns practicing.
You do your shopping in town then take it home with you as a foot passenger on the ferry.
Grotty wet weather once again.
soaked through by time got to the camping site - didn't think there was a hut there but had a 'simple' one for 150 Kroners which we grabbed as fast as we could - no electric just tea lights for candles, a very basic site, no advertising for it so hardly anyone there. The lady told us they were having a concert that night - pop and country and western, starting at 11pm (!!) - luckily we were quite a way from where it was held - could hear it a little but not a nuisance. Raining too hard for us to think about walking up to it. A wood burning stove but no kindling -just an axe and some logs.
the do it yourself hot tub...
The ferry that doesn't run on a Sunday .....
Last nights campsite at a marina-a lovely spot with a Thai takeaway -we think the owner is married to a Thai girl - open to 8pm. Everyone came by small boat and tied up at the jetty to collect their order or wait for it to be cooked - then back in their boats to their holiday home to eat it.
and just to prove we've been to hell (and back) ....
Its after midnight now, cold, pitch black and silent -everyone on the campsite is in bed and I'm still sat here on the jetty. Night night ....
Gosh that was a long blog. So glad you saved yourself from the fall. Bless that carefl woman driver, Hope the grazes and bumps are healing o'k. You certainly have had your share of bad weather. Take care Love Mum
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