After a relaxing day off in Mosjoen it was back to business and right on cue it began to rain.

Next stop, the Arctic Circle a huge landmark I have been looking forward to reaching. Between me and the Arctic were the Saltfjellet mountains, which were surprisingly easy to climb. Again I couldn’t stop smiling at the views surrounding me.

I finally reached the Arctic circle and the sign that announced I had arrived was a major letdown. With the temperature at a toasty 4 degrees I pulled into the visitor’s centre for a coffee and a warm but before I could get into it, I was mobbed by a dozen french tourists.

They couldn’t speak English, so I assume they though I had ridden all the way from England (felt like I had). Exclaims of ‘Bon courage’ could be heard from the ladies amongst the group, while the men took it in turns to lift the bike, one guy even had a ride around the car park.

I had my first encounter with the dreaded tunnels this week. Everything that enter’s, even the smallest car’s sound like a train is coming towards you. The only thing you can do is pedal as fast as you can. One plus point about the tunnels is that it doesn’t rain in them.

I had two awesome descents too this week. The first being 8km’s long and the second although not as long was slightly steeper and it was here I hit a top speed of 65kmh (42mph) as I casually overtook a car. Priceless.

The coastal road from Fauske to Narvik has been fantastically beautiful. The scenery quite possibly the best yet and the tunnels plentiful. Haven’t had a great deal of flatness that the locals had promised me. I’ve been constantly going up and down short steep mountains. Oh well, it has all been a pleasure to do.

However after 3 weeks of near constant rain and the expense of Norway I have decided to cut across Swedish Lapland instead of continuing up to the Nordkapp as I originally intended.