Tag: michael lindsay

Norway 2025 Day 2: Sletta – Leirvik

Distance:

43.6 miles

Time: 4:45

Elevation Gain: 2,900 feet

There had been, what could only be described as biblical, showers overnight, and although I’d been hiding away inside the campsite seating area for the most part, it was an excellent test for my new tent. I had bought a Big Agnes Copper Spur earlier in the year, and as it was almost a kilo lighter than my previous tent, I had brought it along – despite being skeptical about its poor weather performance.

Well, now it had had a significant test, rain couldn’t really get any heavier, and the gusting winds had been fairly fierce too, and it had held up well.

Although the severity of the showers had dropped a notch or two by morning, a few showers of what I categorise as Pacific Northwest, rolled on through, sudden heavy and brief.

Leaving the campsite in the dry, it was raining again by the time I cycled back up to the main road. I was dismayed to find that the petrol station in the tiny settlement was shut, as it was a Sunday it would have been one of my few opportunities to stock up on supplies for the day.

Drawn in by the cafe sign outside the village’s impressive church building, I ventured inside. The lady running the small cafe and gift shop, only had coffee and cake, so that would do for starters. She quizzed me on my trip and hoped for good weather on my behalf, before drawing a blank when trying to think of campsites I’d be passing on my route. I was beginning to think that they might not be as easy to come across as I’d hoped.

Settling back into my rhythm, I pedalled along the 565 as it meandered along bays and hopped over islets in the North Sea.

Taking my chance for some sustenance at the XY petrol station in Mastrevik, the burger and fries I had there was one of the few opportunities to fuel I found all day.

Another opportunity, after 17 miles, was on the first ferry of the route, between Leirvag and Slovag. Whilst the motorists stayed in their cars, I found a small self-service cafe and indoor seating area. Quite well appointed for a 20 minute crossing.

Exiting the ferry terminal on road 57, I was hatching a plan. This road led all the way to another ferry terminal at Rutledal, 20 miles away. The cycle route seemed to start off along the road for the first 10 miles or so, before taking a route three times as long for the last part. There were four reasons I could think of for them not using the 57 the whole way: there was a tunnel you weren’t allowed to cycle through, it was too busy, it was prohibitively hilly, or the alternative route was unmissably beautiful. So, I looked up the tunnel map, and there was no tunnel, it was a Sunday and the roads seemed reassuringly quiet, I’d take any hill over travelling 3 times the distance, and no level of beauty was that unmissable. Decision made.

As it happened, my new route suited me nicely. After a steep climb out of Nordgulen, the road rolled past a pair of stunning lakes surrounded by steep-sided mountains, and as the road reached the end of the valley, I could feel it trending upwards, the road rearing up steeply away from the lake, the car-and-a-half width surface barely wide enough to fit my bike alongside a passing car. But, soon I was up and out and the road traversed an open col before plummeting down towards the sparkling sea, and at 20:45 I made my second ferry of the day.

Norway 2025 Day 1: Bergen – Sletta

Distance: 38.08 miles

Time: 4:32

Elevation Gain: 2,696 feet

It might not be the most sensible way to start the first day of a 1200 mile cycle tour, but I had engineered my whole trip so that I could factor in a parkrun, so it seemed unlikely that I’d back out now. It was a kilometre to the start of Lovstien parkrun, and much of that was steeply uphill. Not that this was a surprise as the terrain to the south of the hotel towered over the city, the lower reaches covered in the colourful wooden houses for which Bergen is famous, and above that a thick forest rose into the sky.

The parkrun course ran through the forest and was a double out and back, twice, if there is such a thing. On the first lap of the course, I was happy that I’d kept my effort to a manageable level – despite the steep hills and super-high humidity – but inevitably on the second lap I saw that there were a few places to be taken and got a little carried away, finishing in a reasonably satisfying 10th place.

Happy with my morning’s efforts, I made it back in time to have breakfast in the hotel’s 5th floor restaurant, which gave lovely expansive views over the city.

Finally packed and ready to roll – just as check out finished at 12 o’clock – I made my way into town, keen to sample the ambience of Bryggen’s historic port before joining the Norwegian section of Eurovelo 1, The Atlantic Coast Route.

Almost instantly I was muttering in annoyance as the cycle path I was on suddenly disappeared in front of me – due to repair works being carried out on a tunnel – so I had to bump back down onto the road.

As I pedalled around the first headland, the terrain was relatively flat, and shortly afterwards I was sitting overlooking the cojoined fjords of Sognefjord and Hardangerfjord, eating a picnic of Flotemysost (a version of the traditional Brunost, brown cheese, made with sheep’ milk instead of goats’) and strawberry jam, on pancakes (traditionally waffles), a flavour combination I’d first tried at the cafe on the previous day’s train.

Some steeper inclines sapped my strength in Morvik and Mjolkeraen before the stiffest test yet took me up and over to the first of a pair of bridges that would see me hopscotching across the bay to Knarvik.

After stopping at the Kiwi supermarket in Ikenberget for a tasty pasta salad, I’d had enough of overcomplicated cycling infrastructure when I ended up steeply dropping down into an underpass, before struggling up the other side, all to cross the road to a cycle path that stopped at a bus stop, 50 yards later.

Luckily, soon afterwards, the cycle path alongside the 565 petered out, and when the route forked off to meander around in a tangential direction, I opted to carrry on along the pretty fjord, on the direct, quiet road I was on. And, with one last climb to overcome, the road dropped down to Sletta Kai og Fritid, the only campsite I could find for miles around.

Norway 2025: Who Needs a Seat?

As the plane came in to land, I was struck by the sheer quantity of trees that surrounded the Oslo area. Already I knew that the landscape here was going to look vastly different to that of Scotland, where much of the native forest has long since been wiped out.

After exiting the plane, and collecting my baggage, I was relieved to see that my bike box and pannier, which had been in the hold, looked like they had had an easy time of it, so I was feeling confident that I’d have my bike built up in no time and very soon be on my way into Oslo on the train.

But then, on trying to pump up my tyres, the unmistakable sound of gushing air accompanied every stroke, and no matter how hard I tried, the tyres wouldn’t firm up.

Localising the air’s escape point was impossible over the noise of the Airport’s air conditioning, so it was only after realising that both tyres appeared to be similarly afflicted that I realised that it might actually be the pump itself that was faulty, its hose having burst during the flight.

My luck was in, just across the concourse was another cyclist, Kevin, in the painstaking process of putting his bike back together, 30 hours after leaving Edmonton, Canada. He was soon to set off on a 4 month journey crisscrossing Norway all the way north to the Nordkapp. He had been learning Norwegian especially, and the first stage of his expedition would see him travelling west to Stavanger to see the launch of a recreation of the first boat to safely cross to the Americas.

While gratefully using Kevin’s pump to restore some utility to my bike’s wheels, I asked if he was all set. ‘Do you not see something missing?’ he asked. Well you don’t appear to have a saddle, I commented… It transpired that his bike box had been searched before his final flight from Hamburg and whoever had searched the box had forgotten to reinstate his seatpost and saddle when they closed it back up. At least all I needed was a new bike pump.

Significantly later than I’d hoped, I arrived at Oslo train station with a fully operable bike and plenty of equipment, all that was needed now was for me to reach my campsite on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital of Oslo, a journey of some 6 miles, according to Google maps. The small detail I’d missed was that the campsite was situated at 200 metres elevation, and somehow 6 miles became 8.

Arriving at the campsite at after 11 pm, I had the comfort of knowing that I had already checked in online and had the number of my pitch already. On arriving at the site, though, I discovered that the non-electrical pitches weren’t numbered, and when I worked out which plot was mine, it was already taken by a campervan. Well, there wasn’t much for it but to find the nearest available pitch and set up for the night.

Norway 2025: The Atlantic Coast

For much of the year, my intention was to cycle the length of Italy during the summer; that is until a freak spring warm spell in Scotland caused me to pause for thought and decide that 3 weeks of cycling in 30°C+ temperatures might not be as fun as I had been thinking.

Luckily, I had been formulating a back up plan, one built upon the itineraries of fellow travellers I’d met on the road and one that might provide a nice change of dynamic, stunning vistas, long days and the low UV index that was now appealing. How about a ride that combined all three – and as it finished up in the Arctic circle and not too far away from the most northerly point in Europe – significant amounts of each.

When I spotted that Jenie and Pierre – who I had met while cycling in Iceland – were cycling in Italy, I thought I’d see what their recommendation would be, receiving a fairly strong signal when it transpired that their favourite place for cycling was Norway and that they’d been three times.

The route I had my eye on was a section of Eurovelo 1, the Atlantic Coast Route, the full route of which began at Nordkapp (the northernmost point of Norway, and Europe) and followed the coast south through Norway, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal.

A significant undertaking, and one that I wouldn’t be able to complete in the 21 cycling days available to me, so I’ll be attempting a portion of it, 1200 miles down the Fjordlands of Norway, from Bergen, to Tromso in the Arctic Circle. With a whole lot of ferries and tunnels along the way, it might not be as straightforward as it seems…

Wish me luck!