Recap - Weeks four and five

Hooray! We’ve been on the road for over a month. Sometimes it feels longer and sometimes it feels like we’ve only just left. We smell like we’ve been on the road a month, I can assure you…

Since our last recap, Norway has continued to delight. There have been more staggering views, more experiences in nature, more hills, more culture including churches and folk music, more huts, more sound recording (snow and tunnels feature this time), more hills and more amazing views.

Again, the lovely people who we have met along the way including Pavel from the Czech Republic who sent us this great photo he took when we met on the climb out of Lysebotn, the kind folks who put us up in Stavanger, meeting up with Per and family again, Marco and his family (who had seen our bikes on the internet and recognised them!) and other cycle tourers like David and Marlen (we should’ve grabbed a photo!) who we’ve stayed in touch with via text ever since, including many helpful tips from our route ahead as they are covering similar ground, only faster. We have chatted with so many people along the way who have offered water, advice and encouragement. Turning up somewhere with heavily loaded bikes does attract some attention and we’re happy to chat about where we’ve been and where we’re going even if we’re not sure about the latter ourselves. It’s been great to hear about other people’s journeys and the holidays/tours they’re on and where they’ve come from. We’ve had recommendations to travel to Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand and Canada, and offers of places to stay all over…so who knows where we’ll end up.

A couple of weeks ago I also had my first fall off the bike which was bound to happen at some point. Whilst daydreaming along a quiet road, a lamb ran out in front of us and I didn’t see it in time, Sam slowed and I ran into the back of him and went off the verge down a rocky 5 foot drop. Saved by the panniers which softened the fall and kept the weight of the bike off me, I luckily escaped with a minor bruise and a little scratch. The Coo withstood it all and we were back pedalling in no time. Note to self: keep a close eye on lambs…

Day to day, our roles have become more ingrained which speeds up our packing up and down so it’s now down to abut 45 minutes. This has been really great when early starts have been essential to beat the heat. Temperatures have been in the high 20s to low 30s which is hotter than we had anticipated and with Norway being so hilly, riding in the coolest part of the day has been important.

After a really big day up to Finse on the Rallarvegen this week - our highest altitude and elevation so far - we have had a break in Geilo. At the end of the big climb and the day after which involved a descent into a headwind, we both got grouchy and knew it was time for a break. It was also my birthday so we’ve blown the budget on a cabin and meals out, just what we needed.

Tonight we have headed out on the road again and are ready to make some progress towards Gøl and Vinstra. This will be a mainly gravel section called the Mølkevegen so we’ll do a bit of planning before we get there to make sure we have enough food to stop (me) getting hangry. Sam is giving the bikes a once over this evening to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be for the next part of our trip. It’s exciting to see what the next bit of our trip holds.

[Pfffft! See the latest update from Sam. We might be heading back to Geilo for a bike fix tomorrow…Sam doesn’t like heading backwards ;]