Day 3: Kviteseid-Valle (103 km)

From the Telemark Canal, the next day started at once with a serpentine road up a mountain. This was only the first challenge of the day. It was a warm and sunny day, and I enjoyed the great view over the valley. Once I reached the top, the road fell again towards Vrådal from where I followed the Vråvatn lake for an hour or so. Here, I recognised for the first time that there was strong west wind that day, and I was heading west, of course. Right before I reached Dalen, I left road 38 and took a shortcut over another small mountain to reach road 45 southbound.

Unfortunately, my left knee that I had felt already the day before, still caused problems and was bothering me. I took a lunch break at a museum cafeteria and then continued. The road now turned west again and increased until I reached a ski resort and took another break at Hallbjønnsekken. Up here on this plateau, I head to struggle with the strong west wind of ten metres per second again. Where there were hardly any trees and many waters, there was nothing to stop the wind. Finally, I had crossed the mountain plateau and had a long downhill ride again towards road number 9 where I found a nice tent place for the night at Honnevje, close to Valle.

Day 4: Valle-Lysebotn (92 km)

While the last day had many metres uphill, this next one should be even tougher. After one hour of flat and pleasant cycling through the Setesdal valley, I turned right at Nomeland and met a road with ten percent incline up towards Brokke ski resort. From here, the road continued to gain height towards Suleskard and finally reached more than 1000 metres above sea level. Then there was a long downhill road towards the Sirdal valley where I made a stop at a store which was open on Sundays.

The final challenge was crossing the mountain between Sirdal and Lysefjord, which had both very steep roads, strong headwinds and, for the last two hours, fog and heavy rain. I should finally be rewarded though, that’s what I expected at least, by the spectacular views over Lysefjord from the Kjerag plateau. Kjeragbolten is one of the most photographed landmarks in Norway, a round rock which is locked in between two cliffs 1000 metres above the fjord. After a long and tough day, I finally reached the Kjerag parking where two parking guards greeted me and informed me that there was no point starting the hike towards Kjeragbolten because there was zero visibility. I had already realised this on my way there, so instead of being disappointed, I just went into the restaurant and enjoyed a hot chocolate and apple pie. Finally, I followed the spectacular serpentine road towards Lysebotn down at the fjord, where I enjoyed a nice dinner and spent the night at the DNT cabin run by the Norwegian Tourist Association.

Day 5: Lysefjord-Stavanger (40 km)

On my fifth day, I had originally planned to hike to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) which is the other famous tourist attraction at Lysefjord. However, there were still low hanging clouds in the fjord in the morning. So I decided to come back for Kjerag and Preikestolen another time and proceed to Stavanger instead. First, I took a boat from Lysebotn to Forsand and then cycled from there. In Ims, I met my former colleague Anniken and her family for a nice long breakfast outside at the water. Then I continued to Stavanger and reached my hotel just when it started to rain again.

Today, I have a rest day in Stavanger on which I visited a chiropractor because my back got completely blocked yesterday. I walk like a hundred-year-old man and don’t think I’ll be able to cycle much further on this trip. I will try, however, to ride the twenty kilometres to Sola beach tomorrow and might end the cycling there. I have booked a surf course, but don’t think as of now that my back will allow any surfing. If not, they have a spa at my hotel, and a jacuzzi sounds very tempting now.

Day 2: Saggrenda-Kviteseid (108 km)

Edit: Since I had trouble with the network, this post from Friday, 10th of June is published two days late.

This morning, I woke up to a sunny day. So I got out of my sleeping bag, out of my tent and had breakfast in the morning sun. I started cycling at quarter past nine, had a first coffee stop at Notodden and then continued towards Seljord.

At Sauland (which translates to Sheepland), I stopped for lunch and met my former colleague Kristian who was heading in the opposite direction by car. He gave me two delicious grilled sandwiches that I warmed up on my camping stove for dinner later. Shortly after, I also met another cyclist who had cycled from the North Cape. He is planning to reach Lindesnes, Norway’s southernmost point, tomorrow. He cycled in average 180 kilometres a day!

I had to go a lot uphill today: first from my starting point to Notodden, then to Seljord where I had to go around a tunnel, and finally from Seljord up to the last pass. My tent spot tonight is located by the water again. They have a small café here where I had a waffle, two cups of Earl Grey, and where I could charge my phone and camera. When I cycle and it doesn’t rain, I can charge as well, but today was too much uphill and too much rain, so I needed some extra juice.

Tomorrow will start with serpentines. So I better go to sleep now.

Contrary to other countries, in Norway we are not allowed (or at least not recommended) to travel abroad yet. So my plans to go on a rollerblading trip in Germany and the Netherlands need to wait a bit. And I left instead today on another bicycling trip in Norway.

My plan is to go to Stavanger at the west coast first via the Lysefjord with the famous Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen) and Kjeragbolten landmarks.

From Stavanger I will go to Bergen because our prime minister told us so (Erna suggested in a press conference to visit her hometown Bergen this summer since we can’t travel abroad). From Bergen, I will go eastwards again, via Rallavegen which is a famous cycling route, and back to Oslo, making it a door-to-door trip from my home and back.

Today, I left at nine o’clock, passed Asker and Drammen, had lunch at Hokksund (unbeatable lunch deal at Pizzabäckerei: pizza and soft drink for 69 kr), and finally stopped at a bathing spot at Saggrendadammen, where I found a nice spot for my tent. Mr. Nansen likes it here, too.

I changed my plans slightly, too. Instead of cycling from Pulpit Rock to Bergen, I will continue to Stavanger (which I had not planned originally). This gives me the chance to spend one night at Sola Strand Hotel which had an offer including a surfing class. That’s something I’ve wanted to try for a while, so now I’ll get the chance.