First and foremost, I am sorry for not having written an update sooner. As will become clear when reading this post, me and particularly my mind were quite preoccupied and together with exhaustion after long days and a lack of Wi-Fi to upload images whilst not chewing through all my cellular data, it made giving an earlier update quite challenging.
Day 1: Bergen – Knarvik – Austrheim – Sløvåg
Distance covered: 86.01km | Elevation gain: 1138m
Total distance covered: 86.01km | Total elevation gain: 1138m
The adventure finally started! Although exactly in the way I remember Norway from the last time: rainy. Not too much can be said about this route. As I’m cycling Norway, it’s inherintly beautiful, but for that it wasn’t too special. In the beginning a lot of it revolved around cycling next to the big roadway leading north out of Bergen, which included some demanding ascends. Eventually the landscape changed to cute little villages alongside different fjords, it’s fjells covered in trees. Visually it made for some nice scenery, but the bad, gloomy weather and light, paired with really nasty climbs somewhat diminished my amazement. Now, some of you probably are already wondering about me whining about climbs, but you have to keep in mind that with the amount of weight I carry on my bike, any incline gets just that much more brutal compared to cycling it with let’s say a race bike. Eventually I made it to a campsite, a bit westerly of Sløvåg and was very glad for it. Towards the end my legs were really not happy with me any longer and I was definitely able to feel that there was a ways to go, before finding my groove again.
And speaking of finding my groove again, this is where I can transition into the big part of this blog post. My change of plans.
Change of plans
After one day on the road, it became apparent, that I faced on major hurdle again. The weather. Just like last time when cycling Norway the weather report projected over ten days of straight downpour. And this time, the prospect of that really didn’t sit well with me. Days and days just being wet, your stuff never able to dry properly, and that at the very start with thousands of kilometres ahead of you. That thought really unsettled me this time – it just sounded like a miserable time, a receipt for getting ill and strayed far from the main goal of this trip. Having fun and enjoying the moment. So all of a sudden looking ahead felt grim and no longer exciting and that didn’t pair well with another novelty of this trip. That chest tightening feeling of loneliness, of being so far away from the people I hold dear. Now this, unlike the Norwegian weather, caught me completely off guard and was new to me, as when I previously went for big adventures, a big part of what I loved about them was the possibility to just really be with yourself. So when all of a sudden, my chest felt tight with loneliness, I really started to waiver and was unsure how to respond to that. Especially with so many challenging wet kilometres ahead. And so I started thinking and assessing the situation and came to the conclusion that I needed to make a tough decision. I was only one day in and it felt like I was rushing things, but I also knew that with every day I kept going, I’d be treading further into extremely remote areas, where changing plans would become more and more challenging. And deep down I felt like I knew that the combination of extremely bad long-term weather in the south and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of time ahead, that I’ll spend on my own, required a change of plan. And so I started to bounce around ideas, asked for opinions from my girlfriend and family and came to the conclusion that I wanted and needed to focus on the core ideas of this trip. Enjoyment and what I was most excited for.
What that meant was, that instead of cycling through the south and mid section of Norway, I would take the train all the way up to Bodø and “start” my trip at the south point of the Lofoten. The reason being that the Lofoten were by far what I was most excited for when planning this trip and what I was most bummed out about missing, last time when I had to come down from the Nordkapp with public transport instead of cycling. Combine that with a better weather forecast up there and it just made sense. That way I would for sure do the part of the trip that meant the most to me, escape the bad weather and would have easy possibilities to cut the trip short in Tromsø or the Nordkapp, should I conclude, that loneliness was not the thing I want this summer. It would also allow me to head back south after the Nordkapp however and extent my trip by cycling some of the stuff I skipped earlier in the south, should I feel like not wanting to go home yet. Basically, it leaves open a lot of options, while making sure that I get to do the part I am most excited about first, whilst I’m not sure for how long I want to continue.
Now obviously that will most likely considerably cut down the trip in length, both time and distance wise. And with that come mixed feelings, especially since I worry about how it looks to other people. Weak-willed etc., but in the end I have to remember that I am doing this for my enjoyment. I know that I can battle through a lot of bad weather from the last time where I did do the whole long route north through Finland and I know I have the endurance, but maybe this time, with the horrible weather and the unexpected feelings of loneliness it’s meant to be a shorter adventure. I’m sorry if have disappointed anyone reading this, especially in regards to my charity run, but hopefully most of you will understand that this is best for me.
Day 2: Sløvåg – Austrheim – Knarvik – Bergen
Distance covered: 85.69km | Elevation gain: 1134m
Total distance covered: 171.7km | Total elevation gain: 2272m
Now with this change of plan came the logical conclusion that I needed to go back to Bergen to catch the trains all the way up to Bodø. So I used the last day of good weather before the two weeks of downpour to head back the way I came. I would be lying if that didn’t feel a bit weird and of course I still had some mixed feelings, some doubt if this was the right decision but a decision had to be made and now I stuck to it. The way back was more fun than the day before, simply because the sun was out and made everything a lot more pleasant and everything look more stunning. As I still have a lot of stuff to write about I’ll leave it at that.
Day 3: Moskenes – Å
Distance covered: 5.94km | Elevation gain: 90m
Total distance covered: 177.64km | Total elevation gain: 2362m
As I’m only counting days that I cycled in these blog posts, day 3 will also have some stories about my journey up to the Lofoten. There isn’t too much to tell to be honest, other than that it was extremely exhausting, as I basically sat in trains for 30+ hours straight before catching the ferry from Bodø to Moskenes at the southern tip of the Lofoten. One really cool thing that happened was, that I met another cyclist in the train who also planned to cycle the Lofoten up to Tromsø. So we chatted on the ferry and decided to camp together for the night and cycle together the next day. After my issues with loneliness, that was such a nice and welcome stroke of luck! So at 10p.m. after the ferry landed in Moskenes we decided to cycle down to Å, the southern most settlement on the Lofoten and set up camp there. Even though at this point I was incredibly tired and exhausted from the train rides and the lack of sleep they brought with them, once I was on the ferry and then when we cycled those 5 kilometres an immense joy flooded over me. The landscape was so incredibly stunning and so unlike anything I’ve seen before, that I just couldn’t help it. I think I made the right decision!
Day 4: Å – Ramberg – Leknes
Distance covered: 72.80km | Elevation gain: 841m
Total distance covered: 250.44km | Total elevation gain: 3203m
Wow! I knew that the Lofoten must be stunning, but nothing could have prepared me for this! I cycled almost the whole day with Jannike, for which I was super glad as it was just wonderful to have some company. The whole way I just couldn’t stop my jaw from hanging open, in awe of the sights in front of me. It was as if the towering, unwielding rock faces and mountains were in an eternal battle against the gnawing, raging sea and I a spectator in this epic contest. It felt like riding through poetry, inspiring all sorts of philosophical thoughts and ponderings within me. Even the small fishing villages encountered now and then seemed like they perfectly fit into the landscape. Like a leftover from olden days, they felt untouched by modern influences.
The riding was also mostly incredible, with the route itself making for easy cycling and beautiful views. Only the flood of car tourists put a dent in my euphoria, as it’s sometimes just a tad too much and takes away from the fun and peacefulness. And then there are the tunnels. Most of them have a little road for cyclists and pedestrians to get around them, but we had to cross a big undersea tunnel and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was dark, wet, incredibly loud and plain frightening. When I got out of it I was severely unsettled and I’m genuinely horrified of the next tunnel I will have to pass.
That scare and the exhaustion from all the train rides caught up to me and towards the end of the day it became clear, that I wanted a bed for once. So Jannike and I parted ways, her looking to get some more distance in whilst I looked to rent a small cabin at a camping some six kilometres east of Leknes. And this is where I’m writing this from, staying one more day at the camping, waiting out some heavy rain and following my mantra I set for myself when I changed my plans. Doing what feels best for me on any given day. Who knows, maybe this way my budget only gets me up to Tromsø but already now, I can say this trip was worth it and when it’s time to go home, be that due to budget or because I want to, amazing people and a wonderful future await me at home. And for that I feel extremely blessed and thankful.
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