Back at it
again!
It’s now
been about 3 years since I flew back to Sweden after cycling 3700 km to
Malaysia. And for different reasons I’ve never gotten back out on a shorter
bike trip since. But now I couldn’t wait any longer and decided to head out to
Norway for the remaining 10 days of my vacation.
The planned
route was from Sandefjord in the east to Stavanger in the west, from there a
ferry to Denmark and onwards to Gothenburg.
And I have
to say it was such a great feeling to back up the bike again and just ride.
Even though the first morning ride was just to the train station in Gothenburg
it was just great. After a train ride up to Strömstad I got on a ferry heading
for Sandefjord and the start of the trip. I got there in the afternoon and
thought I would push on for a while to get a good start. And the famous Norwegian
hills started immediately and I started to regret I had rested myself in shape
the weeks before =)
I got a
good start of 50 km that day and crawled into my lovely little tent again where
ive spent so many nights before. The next day I woke up to a rainy morning, but
since its Norway that was expected. I got in just over 100 km that day and
ended up camping by a lovely little lake in the mountains. And if it hadn’t been
for the mosquitoes it would have been just perfect.
The
advantage of camping at that spot in the mountain was that the next day started
with a wonderful downhill to the valley. The ride along the lake close to
Vrådal was great, but I knew more challenging hills was coming up later that
day. Those hills just kept coming and around every bend there was more uphill. My
legs were literally screaming at me to stop, but since it was mostly wet lands
there was no good place to stop for the night. So I pushed on op the hill and
then down the hill to a great camp spot in a nice and calm valley by Flateland.
The next day
would be the toughest uphills with a peak at 1050 m.a.s.l. I was very lucky
with the weather and got to enjoy the mountain pass in mostly sunshine. It was
a lot of hard work but so rewarding and cycling up on the mountain was amazing.
After going
down one more valley I continued on the next day up on the last mountain pass
heading for the little village of Lysebotn. With only 35 km left I could really
enjoy a lovely ride up the mountain and later on down the winding Lysevegen
down to the start of Lysefjord.
Since I was
early in I took advantage of that and rented a kayak for a wonderful trip in
the beautiful fjord.
The next
day I left my bags at the campsite and cycled the road up the mountain again with an elevation of 630
meters. From there I hiked up the mountain to the amazing Kjerag and the famous
Kjeregbolten. So with and amazing view of the fjord and mountains I took the
step out onto the bolder that is jammed in between two mountain sides.
The next
morning The little speed ferry left Lysebotn and headed into Stavanger where I
later that night got on a night ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark. And after riding
the hills of Norway the flat roads of Denmark was a nice change. But it didn’t take
too long before I started dreaming myself back to the mountains and fjords
again..
