Week 3 – (527km – 326 mile)

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.

 

Week 2 (611km – 379 mile)

After a breakfast consisting of a few peanuts and a swill of water, off I set for Trondheim and beyond.

The first half off the day took me through the Dovrefjell national park in some fine weather. After an hour or so the uphill’s turned into downhills, pretty much all the way to Trondheim. The scenery was again mind blowing and I couldn’t help but smile the whole way.

Then the day took an about-turn. I now found myself riding through a thunderstorm, with a good measure of rain and hail and no place to hide. Not fun at all. It was the lowest point of the tour so far and thoughts of quitting were sounding good. However, I forced myself to soldier on.

After I left Trondheim the road had somewhat flattened, thus the scenery was now less dramatic. I spent the majority of the time riding through end-less pine forests, which are all well and good but they start to lose their charm with each passing mile.

It wouldn’t be very British of me not to mention the weather. This week I’ve had 2 day’s of sun, 5 day’s of rain. Quite British I’d say.

My fitness has improved now, however I’m still not setting off any speed cameras. I’ve one more mountain range to climb and then it is apparently flat from then on. We’ll see.

 

Week 1 – 531 km-329 mile

As the plane came into land, looking out of the window my first thoughts of Norway were “man, there’s alot of trees”.

As I was putting my bike together at the baggage collection point, the last few remaining people collected their belonging’s and I was now truly on my own. Miles from home, yet the closest I would be for the next 3 months.

I pointed my bike North and pedalled the first stroke of God know’s how many that are needed to get me to Turkey.

During the first week I’ve had two slap’s in the face from Norway. Firstly my budget. The cost of everything here is unbelievabely expensive. Everything cost’s a small fortune. I’m going to have to ease of the beer’s whilst here. The cheapest thing I found was a pair of kid’s gloves. Sadly they weren’t edible. I tried.

Secondly the hill’s or mountain’s. When does a hill become a mountain? It would be fair to say I have spent the best part of a week going uphill and slowly at that. My lack of training was showing.

Since Oslo the sun has not set. A strange feeling it is bedding down at midnight in broad daylight. I can certainly get used to not having to worry about finding a camp spot before dark though.

The latter part of the week was spent pedalling through the Rondane national park immersed in some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. Sometimes in temperature’s as low as 5 degrees sometimes as high as 25 degrees. Sometimes in sunshine, mostly in the rain.

I’ve cruised across mountain top’s spread with snow alongside the road. I’ve had ice cold decent’s as I followed crystal clear river rapid’s downstream. To my right were sea’s of pine forest’s, to my left row upon row of snow capped mountain’s. I lost count of the amount of waterfall’s I passed.

Had I done this trip in a car or tour bus. I’m pretty sure I would have seen a third of what I have seen on the bike and it would of all been a blur at that. I would of experienced a tenth of what I have experienced so far.

My mother gave me some wise word’s before I set off. “Don’t talk to anybody, trust no-one” “Okay mum” As I was idly killing time outside of a shop. A man struck up a converstaion with me. Against my mother’s wishes I was more than happy to chat. Coversation done, he dissappeared into the shop and upon his return he presented me with 3 British beer’s and expected nothing in return but a handshake.

See mum people aren’t so bad. The beer’s went down a treat.

First of many, many uphill’s