Hope things are settling in now.
Safe trip and have fun
Good to see you both t'other day
Ha ... will do Bill. All OK so far
Thursday 20th June 2013
I took the advice/suggestion from Magnet and Harry the Cat. A 17 tooth gearbox sprocket was fitted in place of the standard 16 tooth just before this trip ... along with standard rear sprocket and the usual DID heavy duty gold professional chain. The chain and sprockets replaced had done a good 30,000 miles. The bike now feels far more more relaxed, shows 60mph at 3,500 rpm and still pulls away in sixth at 60mph like nobodies business. Both Fran and Tony have logged a 1.027% and a 0.872% gain (respectively) in mpg since fitting said 17 tooth but I'm not in to this because of that possible slight saving. The bike just seems more relaxed. Bimbling along main roads I look down to see that I'm still in fifth and have sixth to snick in to ... result
The ferry cutting a big chunk of road out keeps us in Denmark but takes us closer to Copenhagen
Back to Denmark for a mo ... as we left the ferry at Havnebyen, taking the easy and short cut to Copenhagen, Sue says later (she's in front) early morning, maybe some deer about, that she took a bit of speed off. Ha, good idea gal .... two minutes from the ferry and a young dear shot out of the woods to our right, airborne, saw Sue mid flight, was braking hard on all fours as it landed, ABS coming in to play, fell in a big heap, scrambled to its feet, saw me and as quick as it had come in to our lives it had gone again in a cloud of dust. Close escape for the both of them!
Copenhagen to Oslo overnight ferry, this DFDS ship has a better idea of securing motorcycles.
What is it about the Italians? Guy waiting to board the ship, riding an R1200RT, quickly told us he was Italian but working in Norway ... and that was before a formal introduction. He volunteered the information within minutes that my new F800GS Adventure was a very nice bike. I pointed out to him that it was five years old and NOT the new Adventure model, but he knew better and insisted that it was! He was also riding back from Italy to northern Norway because he had heard that some rain was coming in from the west and there would be heavy rain for his ride home. Ha, well we can thank Italy for giving us a Guinness World Record holder for an entry in their book ... 'The Worlds Thinnest Book' it goes to the undisclosed author of 'The Italian Book Of War Heroes' this guy would have been a likely candidate setting off a day early in Italy to ride to northern Norway a day early for the possibility of missing a little rain .... which never transpired as it happened
Off the ferry early morning Wednesday 19th June and straight in to Oslo's rush hour. Strewth, seen one city you've seen 'em all. No easy way, motorway out, but Sue has her GPS set for no motorway so it tries to take us off at every exit, so she leaves at every exit .... and back in to the melee! Even the tunnels had roundabouts in them
Over 350 miles, back roads, mountain roads, dirt track roads, sees us into the centre of Trondheim in, you've guessed it .... rush hour. We want to be to the east and take the E6 north, but find ourselves to the west of the town, with open sea to the north. Both GPS's are throwing wobblies so looking at the map I see a ferry just to the north of us and a bit more to the west ... well it will keep us out of Trondheim and once off the ferry t'other side we can head east and north to our hearts content. Anyway, does it really matter where it's going ... it'll do
We stop for a cup of coffee and stretch the legs. This little museum is for a local guy, an author and an illustrator ...
We head for the ferry, a gorgeous twisty road hugging the coast line with rises and dips ... a real proverbial roller coaster. I see a ferry ahead, heading for the shore on our side, I turn the wick up and do a dogs leg down to the ferry terminal just in time to follow the last car on, Sue in hot pursuit. Oops, we'd seen the radar/camera controlled billing scheme of things on the motorways, and totally ignored them. The ferry billing was the same, but we had nonchalantly ridden past the cameras!
We were forgiven our sins and allowed to pay on board
But then the Gods stopped smiling on us ... we couldn't turn right, and east, off the ferry, the road was closed and the detour was errr mmmm well .... tortuous!
We twisted and turned along narrow roads, other vehicles off the ferry going different ways, until eventually we were on our own.
Land of the midnight sun? Ha .... the rain clouds gathered, darker it got. Petrol was getting low and we stopped to ask each other "Where the fuck are we?" Nearest petrol was showing at twice the distance we could possibly hope to have remaining in our tanks. It was dark, it was raining. We saw two cyclists pedalling away with all their luggage and without knowing it at the time, we both asked ourselves where the two lost souls could be heading for ... there was absolutely nowhere!
The road crews here work at night. Good or bad they work at night. Road repairs ahead, it's dark, flashing lights, two guys in reflective clobber stood together at the far side having a fag. It's not until the last minute that I see its not gravel, it's not hard core, it not new road, it's bloody mud, a quagmire! As in all similar situations I shut my good eye and nail it and come to an uncontrolled stop at the side of the two blokes. They admired my skills, I'm sure they must have, little knowing that I had merely placed my well being in the hands of Lady Luck while she was holding out her hands and clenching her eyes too! Before speaking to them I looked in the mirror for Sue, no sign .... "Oh shit, she's gone over the edge" but then I heard the unmistakable beat of her trust Xcountry at the side of me. Quick chat with the guys .... petrol ahead just 10km
We ride in to Malm on vapours and fill up at a petrol station with real people, we'd had two false alarms trying to get our cards to work in sleeping sentinels of petrol pumps, alas to no avail!
Two kids on 50cc jazzed up mopeds with expansion chamber exhausts, turned down bars and all plastic removed (taking me back to when I was sixteen) escorted us in a right royal fashion to a motel, where at 10pm we were able to get a good room, a Pizza and a bier or two ... result!
The bikes are safe for the night
Note .... Denmark and Norway, no police seen on the road at all. No speed cameras, or only very occasional ones that are clearly signed and easy to see .... and yet
we don't see anyone speeding or driving in an aggressive manner. On the contrary, it's a pleasure to drive over here. So what's the answer? Education? Enforcement? Where have we gone wrong in the UK? I must look up the death per head of population on the roads in these two countries when I get home!
Thursday 20th June
So today .... we set off from Malm after a light breakfast and headed for Grong so that we could head north on the E6. We ain't too bothered about the Nordkapp but our idea is to get to the Lofoten Islands to the west of Narvik and then head south hugging the coast roads, the Fiords and eventually to Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway, for the return ferry to Denmark.
We reach the Arctic Circle by late afternoon in a wintry sunshine. The temperature plummets to 11 degrees. We take photos and buy the ubiquitous stickers. Heading north, we had already agreed, to dive in to the first camp site we saw, and NOT to be on the road at 10pm ;-)
We dropped off the plateau of the high mountains and back down to the lower climes, temperatures back to 15 degrees and stumbled in to the Saltdal Turistsenter.
Now folks, we have our tent and camping gear with us, but two ageing geriatric lovers require some certain comforts .... so we were looking for a hut. We could put the tent up if we had to ...
A camping hut is 990 NOK (Nowegian Kroner) about £110.00 "But we can offer you a double room with breakfast for the same money"
Mmmmm a no brainer then, but Sue interrogates the young lass and we find out that the camping hut at 990 NOK will sleep five people! Sue goes in for the kill, and we have a small camping hut for 450 NOK, about fifty quid. OK, we know its expensive but it's home from home, we can stand up in it, it has a heater and proper beds. This is Norway and were lapping it up. Now why didn't I stop and take a photograph of that signpost for Lapland?
Home from home ...
For those that need to know, petrol is expensive .... but it's all relevant of course. Everything is expensive. A fill up today cost me 14.96 Kr/L which I reckon is £1.67 a litre
"We may never pass this way again!"
Another ferry ...
Sue try's to negotiate a price
Friday 21st June
A memorial to the Norwegian and English that fought here on the fiords of Norway during WWII. This is close to Harstad
Beautiful morning what with the sun streaming through the chinks in the woodwork of the hut. Up at 6.30am and coffee on the go. Lovely sunshine but cool up in the hills or in the shade. Cooler and cloudy in the afternoon with a hint of drizzle that never actually happens. Over 300 miles today and end up for the night in a wooden cabin on the coast at Harstad, having ridden to Narvik and then heading west for the Lofoton islands. The camp site here at Harstad is good value and well situated but there is a festival on in the area and attempts to grab the cabin for a second night are fruitless. The ride up here involves numerous tunnels, all of which are totally dark, the meagre lighting not showing the sides of the road, the centre line, or the bends. But then I guess Aviator Polaroid don't help the matter. Hey, one tunnel trying to leave Oslo had a bloody roundabout in it!!!!!
Saturday 22June
Two German guys had a cabin next to ours, a couple of nice guys ... we'll call them Fritz and Max for I do not know their real names. They rode scruffy but high mileage bike's .... a naked K100 and an R1150GS-A, they were quiet and polite. This morning I watched Max dry out the water that had leaked in to his plastic panniers overnight. Been there, done that. Half an hour later, just before leaving, he walked across to say goodbye. Just as he turned to go he asked me if the alloy panniers on my 800GS were waterproof. He wouldn't have noticed the faint wry smile on my face as I said that they were totally waterproof.
That'll teach me to harbour faint wry smiles ....
Twenty minutes after leaving, doing a U turn, yup, Sue was leading, while turning round in an entrance I hit my offside pannier on some Armco. I knew it was going to happen .... B A N G now the fecker ain't waterproof
We go in search of Adolfs Cannon, a locally used name for a nearby huge gun from WWII but unfortunately all is locked and unavailable. We look in at the most northerly Trondenes stone church, dating back to the 1200's, being built over the top of the earlier wooden ones.
Behind the church thousands of Russian prisoners of wars were housed during WWII and used as slave labour to build the defences along the coastline ... including Adolfs Canon. Many died here and were buried in mass graves, to be exhumed at a later date for proper and recognised war cemetery burial further along the coast.
It turns cold as we head along the Lofoton peninsular, and more ferries. At one we get talking to a Norwegian boat builder, we have an hour to wait for the boat. We learn a lot from him about Norway, it's economics, and discuss the well behaved motoring population. The Norwegians are not aggressive by nature, from childhood they are taught respect and patience ... this clearly shows through with their driving habits. At no time on the road have we been hassled, cut or carved up, tailgated or otherwise had our space invaded. They wait patiently for us at junctions.
More tunnels, one at 7Km takes us under the Sløverfjorden and on to Svolvær where we find a hostel at a very reasonable price, clean room and breakfast included. WiFi too ...
Some random piccies ....
That's about it for now folks
...am enjoying the read....
