I’m back: Nordkapp 2.0

Hi there! It’s been a while, I know! Life moved fast, loads of stuff happened, and my focus laid with things other than travelling for a while. Which makes it all the more exciting to sit down again and share some new adventuring news!

The Idea

It’s not long ago, that I first learned of the chance to do some solo travelling again this summer. Thus, I knew right away, that it would have to be something that needed limited amounts of planning beforehand. My mind immediately jumped to another cycling adventure – after all, I felt the itch to really put my legs to the test again for a long while now. So, the question was where to? My plans to cycle to Amsterdam never came to fruition, but I knew I wanted to do something a bit more extensive, so it felt logical to head north again. And since I ended up not doing the way down the west coast of Norway the last time, I jumped on the chance to finally conquer that part of the north as well! It’s decided – I’m heading back to the Nordkapp, this time along the west coast of Norway, starting in Bergen. I took a little screenshot of the estimated route I’m planning to take.

All in all I expect the total distance actively cycled to be around 2’700 kilometres, with quite a lot of elevation changes along the way. In comparison with last time, it will be physically more demanding, but I should also be in better shape than back then, considering I started right after three months of post-surgery bed rest last time.

Dates & Thoughts

I will start my journey on the evening of the 25th of May by train and spend four days on public transport before hopefully starting to hit the road on the 29th of May. On this note, I’d like to extend my gratitude to Elke and Björn who both give me a place to stay over the night in between train rides up north. This time I have a concrete time constraint as I will have to be back for a wedding on the 2nd of August. Having planned with a daily average of 75km a day, I should have no problems making it.

Typing this out got me weirdly excited! It brings back a lot of wonderful memories of last time, even if the situation is completely different. Last time was the big “first”. The unknown, but also the life goal, the big dream I chased for so long. This time, it’s a spontaneous idea, a dive back into known territories, all the wondering and the imagination replaced by excitement for what’s to come again. I can’t wait to feel this unmatched freedom again, just living out of my bags, being able to go wherever I want, see whatever I want to see. But weirdly, I’m also more scared this time, knowing how rough the Norwegian weather can be and how lonely things can get sometimes. Overall, though, I am beyond stoked to head out again and say hello to the far north again.

If you’re planning to follow me along again, then welcome on board! It’s so great to be sharing all of this once more, and I’d feel honoured if I had a couple of people cheering me on again. I can’t promise any specific time intervals for updates, but I’m planning to keep it similar to last time.

As a last thing – I brought back Cycling for Life, after I had to postpone the last initiative due to the last second change of plans. So if you are interested in supporting suicide prevention in Switzerland, then I’d be overjoyed if you decided to chime in and help me raise funds for Ipsilon – a suicide prevention initiative in Switzerland. You can find more infos about Cycling for Life here.

I can’t wait to head out! Let’s make this one just as special!

Best

Raphael