Day 41
Turns out the last blog post didn’t age too well as I ended up spending another day in Inari. I got up in the morning feeling extremely tired and paired with the absolutely horrendous weather I got to witness outside everything inside of me just didn’t want to get onto the road that day. So I just stayed in bed and did literally nothing but sleep and read. I think I actually really needed that break.
Day 42
Oh my… What an enormously tough day. That day and the next are the reason I’m keeping this real, real short. I had 118km of cycling to do through literal nothing, meaning no chance to call it a day earlier. And I so wished to call it a day earlier. The weather was terrible, with constant very strong headwind and heavy rain that turned into hail from time to time. Combined with the absolutely ridiculous road that just kept going up and down at 10%+ gradients I soon found myself way past my physical limits. But there was still so much distance to cover. I eventually had a bit of a breakdown, thinking I can’t make it and so on. Just really not fun.
After a long, excruciating ride I made it to the Finnish border town of Karigasniemi taking a long, long break before crossing the border and entering Norway. Entry went smoothly which was quite a relief, considering Covid and all. The border patrol was extremely nice and helpful, walked me through the registration process and after waiting 15 minutes for me test result I was good to go. I really want to compliment the Norwegian government for their modern, efficient and digital handling of the situation and for providing a free 15 minute return test in nowhere. Really showed me yet again how absolutely awful Switzerland is handling things. Anyway, ahead of me lay the last terrible 20km and as I arrived in Karasjok I really just crashed in the hotel bed not moving as everything hurt and I thought I’d never find any energy anymore. Which was of course wrong as after quite a while I went to eat something after my dad was the nicest guy ever and sponsored it. I ended up going to a restaurant ran by Sami, with Sami food, furniture, music and so on. It was an absolutely amazing, authentic experience and sitting in front of that open fire in the dim light, with the soft music playing in the background was an absolute keeper of a moment. Not to mention to super tasty food. After that I called a dear friend of mine before quickly catching up with my dad as well and then just falling fast asleep.
- Route: Inari – Karigasniemi – Karasjok
- Distance covered: 118.3km (1011m elevation gain)
- Total distance covered: 2309.66km
Day 43
And another day of purely having to push through with little enjoyment. The weather got even worse, the wind sometimes almost holding me in place and the hail battering down on me. What was only a mid 70km distance felt like a never ending nightmare and I could feel myself really being past my mental and physical limits. Not much to say about it, the scenery over the fjells was quite epic but with the weather that really wasn’t that much of a mood lifter. I eventually made it to Lakselv, totally knackered and wet where I against all odds did finally encounter a massive morale boost. The couple running the camping gave me a huge discount on a room because they saw I came by bicycle and was completely battered. I’m eternally thankful for that! Because budget is the next worrying thing. All the ordeals of the last week have stretched my budget really thin and I’m worrying quite a bit about how I’ll best move forward from here. But oh well for now all that was left to do for me was yet again crash in my bed, dreading another day on the road with the same conditions.
- Route: Karasjok – Lakselv
- Distance covered: 76.17km
- Total distance covered: 2385.83km
Raphael's Travel Blog 