Day 22. Kristiansand to Selseng NO, 596 kms.

The ferry from Hirtshals, Denmark, landed in Kristiansand, Norway, just after midnight in the early hours of Friday 29 June 2012.  Three hours on a ferry is not long to keep yourself amused, and to relax.

The plan was to find a motel and get a few hours sleep, but since everything appeared closed, I didn’t bother to try a find a motel with a 24 hr reception.

It seemed like a pleasant night to do some riding.   It was dark, but would soon start to light up.   The days are getting longer and lighter as I go north.  I was to find out that was not such a good plan.   I set the GPS to Haukeligrend, and because I am unfamiliar with the town names and spellings, I had some difficulty.   The map writing is not very big either.   I was only about 20km out.

The road would take me into the hills, as planned, but these were not hills, but mountains.   I was soon getting a bit cold, so stopped to add another layer.  Then it started to rain, so I added the rainsuit that I had purchased in Holland.   (I forgot to pack mine, which was an advantage, as I got to buy a hi-viz suit.   This gave me more confidence that others would see me on the road in bad weather.)

I travelled for about 3 hours, and then needed some sleep, so I found a park bench in Haukeligrend and went to sleep on that, in the rain.   No problems, with the rain and cold.   The rainsuit did a good job, and sleeping with my helmet on kept my head dry and was my pillow, so everything was OK.   I woke about an hour later, a bit stiff, and hit the road again.  It was still drizzling, but not too bad.

I set the GPS for the Laerdal Tunnel.   This is a 24 km long tunnel, from Aurland to Leardal and one of the longest in the world, until recently.   You can Google that.   It’s interesting.   I really enjoyed the ride in there and stopped in the middle, as we did with Loulynnup, and took some photos.

I seem to be always stopping to take photos, which is nice because I get to see the sights much better than just riding past.   U turns, etc are easier now that I have had some practice.

At about 4pm, I needed a break and some more sleep.   After being, put-off by the prices in the hotels, I found a cabin at Selseng.   (A hotel room can cost up to 1,000 Kr, $200 AUD.)  This was very cheap (200 Kr) by comparison to other prices I had received for hotels, and I got the whole cabin.   As the lady said, it was unlikely that anybody would want the cabin now in the rain.  As I didn’t have any food and the nearest shop was 20 km away in Sognal, the lady offered me some bread and eggs, which I graciously bought.   I cooked them up and had a good night’s sleep.

I forgot to mention that the riding here in Norway is great.   So much variety and the car drivers are patient, too.   I am meeting many other bikers who are also going to Northcape (Nordkapp), or have just been there.   It's holiday season now, but the traffic is not a problem.   Mostly I feel that I have the road to myself.  I try to take to smaller roads where possible, but that takes a long time to get anywhere, but it is fun.   I can be riding up in the snow, and then 15 minutes and lots of hairpin bends later, I can be at sea level in the fjords.  Great stuff.

     

   
LN2N2012