Friday 23rd July
75.48km covered in 3hr21 (Max speed 62.2kmph, avg speed 22.4kmph)
Weather: Strong winds (worse than yesterday)
Terrain: Exposed coves with blustering crosswinds
Sleep-in. Checkout at 12noon. Breakfast (lunch made). Shoes dried through combination of sauna and radiator overnight. Heavy rain predicted, easing in the late afternoon. Elected to spend the morning (and most of the afternoon) hanging out in the hotel lobby waiting for weather to clear. Resulted in Hazel formulating method to prevent soaking of shoes as experienced yesterday by utilising the huge role of duct tape purchased in Alta. Unable to describe the resulting effect - see photos. Needless to say, our sporty look was added too quite significantly, and we set off with high spirits at around 3:30pm for Olderfjord where we planned to spend the night.
Despite the lessning cloud cover, the winds did not abate, and we found ourselves hammering along with a massive tail/crosswind; whilst at times this certainly added to our speed, for the most part we were hampered by the winds and spent the majoirty of the 22km to Olderfjord leaning heavily into the wind. Ali's worst fears were realised on this relatively short stretch, and for the first time I did not find myself falling behind as Ali battled with the wind and her concerns of being swept clean off the road.
Arriving in Olderfjord, we were told there was no room in the hotel or camping areas, and that we would need to carry on to the next town (Repvag) approximately 43km away! The number of coach tours who appeared to be in town were clearly frustrating our efforts to have a hassle free journey north...in the words of hungry Hazel "Why don't they just catch a cruise?!?". Needless to say, Ali was less than impressed with this (only) option. In an attempt (successful I might add) to remove the surly expression from Ali's face, Hazel and I promptly ordered a serve of reindeer, mediterranean pasta, and tomato soup (dreamy) to fill the aching bellies before we pushed on though the wind and rain (clearing slightly as we headed north).
Light was certainly not an issue, but wind became a big one as we rounded numerous small inlets along the jagged north Norway coast with horrific winds racing down the valleys out to sea. Finally arriving in Repvag after some arduous stretches of coastline, we were told once again all rooms and camping grounds were full, and that we should continue to Honningsvag....another 55km further north!!! At this point it was close to 8:30pm, however we figured that with a bit more food in our bellies we could probably make it...after all it had only taken us 3.5hrs to cover 75km! So we settled into the hotel for all-you-can-eat buffet dinner of soup, fish and potatoes, with fruit (jam) compote for dessert. The friendly hotel staff promptly advised that there was E. coli in the water and we were restricted to tea and coffee (not that we minded too much). After enjoying the warmth for an hour or so, we were beginning to doubt our decision to push on, and thought we would try again for a campsite, at which point we were advised that we could pitch our tent in the vicinity of the hotel, with use of hotel bathrooms as required. "Satisfatory outcome". We began to scout around, and flattened an area of grass in the middle of the small cluster of houses that comprised the tiny fishing village. At this point a very kind man (who we would later come to know as Rene) insisted that we stay with his friend (behind whose house we were planning to pitch our tent). We subsequently made ourselves at home (dumped panniers on the floor), and then headed up to Rene's home/office where we drank far too much for our dehydrated bodies (particularly given we were unable to re-fill our water bottles!!) A night of conversations alternating between English, Norwegian, Finnish and German, we had a few laughes before exchanging contact details and finally heading to bed sometime after 1am, with best intentions of leaving first thing.....Slightly sidetracked by the fisherman who had kindly leant us a room (whose name we still don't know!), we indulged in a glass of red wine with our host, before crawling into our sleeping bags at close to 2am....sky still bright as day....welcome to Norway!
75.48km covered in 3hr21 (Max speed 62.2kmph, avg speed 22.4kmph)
Weather: Strong winds (worse than yesterday)
Terrain: Exposed coves with blustering crosswinds
Sleep-in. Checkout at 12noon. Breakfast (lunch made). Shoes dried through combination of sauna and radiator overnight. Heavy rain predicted, easing in the late afternoon. Elected to spend the morning (and most of the afternoon) hanging out in the hotel lobby waiting for weather to clear. Resulted in Hazel formulating method to prevent soaking of shoes as experienced yesterday by utilising the huge role of duct tape purchased in Alta. Unable to describe the resulting effect - see photos. Needless to say, our sporty look was added too quite significantly, and we set off with high spirits at around 3:30pm for Olderfjord where we planned to spend the night.
Despite the lessning cloud cover, the winds did not abate, and we found ourselves hammering along with a massive tail/crosswind; whilst at times this certainly added to our speed, for the most part we were hampered by the winds and spent the majoirty of the 22km to Olderfjord leaning heavily into the wind. Ali's worst fears were realised on this relatively short stretch, and for the first time I did not find myself falling behind as Ali battled with the wind and her concerns of being swept clean off the road.
Arriving in Olderfjord, we were told there was no room in the hotel or camping areas, and that we would need to carry on to the next town (Repvag) approximately 43km away! The number of coach tours who appeared to be in town were clearly frustrating our efforts to have a hassle free journey north...in the words of hungry Hazel "Why don't they just catch a cruise?!?". Needless to say, Ali was less than impressed with this (only) option. In an attempt (successful I might add) to remove the surly expression from Ali's face, Hazel and I promptly ordered a serve of reindeer, mediterranean pasta, and tomato soup (dreamy) to fill the aching bellies before we pushed on though the wind and rain (clearing slightly as we headed north).
Light was certainly not an issue, but wind became a big one as we rounded numerous small inlets along the jagged north Norway coast with horrific winds racing down the valleys out to sea. Finally arriving in Repvag after some arduous stretches of coastline, we were told once again all rooms and camping grounds were full, and that we should continue to Honningsvag....another 55km further north!!! At this point it was close to 8:30pm, however we figured that with a bit more food in our bellies we could probably make it...after all it had only taken us 3.5hrs to cover 75km! So we settled into the hotel for all-you-can-eat buffet dinner of soup, fish and potatoes, with fruit (jam) compote for dessert. The friendly hotel staff promptly advised that there was E. coli in the water and we were restricted to tea and coffee (not that we minded too much). After enjoying the warmth for an hour or so, we were beginning to doubt our decision to push on, and thought we would try again for a campsite, at which point we were advised that we could pitch our tent in the vicinity of the hotel, with use of hotel bathrooms as required. "Satisfatory outcome". We began to scout around, and flattened an area of grass in the middle of the small cluster of houses that comprised the tiny fishing village. At this point a very kind man (who we would later come to know as Rene) insisted that we stay with his friend (behind whose house we were planning to pitch our tent). We subsequently made ourselves at home (dumped panniers on the floor), and then headed up to Rene's home/office where we drank far too much for our dehydrated bodies (particularly given we were unable to re-fill our water bottles!!) A night of conversations alternating between English, Norwegian, Finnish and German, we had a few laughes before exchanging contact details and finally heading to bed sometime after 1am, with best intentions of leaving first thing.....Slightly sidetracked by the fisherman who had kindly leant us a room (whose name we still don't know!), we indulged in a glass of red wine with our host, before crawling into our sleeping bags at close to 2am....sky still bright as day....welcome to Norway!
finally sunshine!
2am still light!!
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