Day 5: Emden-Norden

When I first skated out of Emden this morning, I thought: That went smoothly, given that there was little traffic and good roads. But after two kilometres, the road was closed and I had to take a detour which involved a bike lane on a paved sidewalk for kilometres. When back on the original route, there were bike lanes, but most of them had pavements of non-skater-approved quality.

Due to the road conditions, I was pretty slow on my first ten kilometres. But the second half towards Greetsiel where I had planned my lunch break, had better roads, fortunately.

I started to eat lunch outside at a supermarket, but quickly moved inside because a heavy rain shower came down. Because I wanted to avoid skating on wet ground, I had another coffee and waited a bit longer. Luckily, the sun came back and dried the roads pretty quickly.

The second half of the day took me from Greetsiel to Norden on good roads and with a gentle breeze from behind. In Norden, my feet thanked me for visiting a pharmacy and stocking up on Hansaplast and Bepanthen.

Tomorrow, I plan to continue to Bensersiel and either Saturday or Sunday to Wilhelmshaven. The other weekend day will be a rest day.

Day 4: Lauwersoog-Delfzijl

Yesterday was my fourth day of skating and the last one in the Netherlands. Due to the weather forecast which predicted rain for today (rightly so), I had decided to combine the last two planned stages into one, skip the night in Uithuizen and go directly to Delfzijl, located at the Ems delta which marks the Dutch-German border.

The distance was roughly 60 km in total. I took 30 in the morning, had a lunch break at an Albert Heijn supermarket, another 15 before the next supermarket break, and the final 15 towards my destination.

The landscape was different as I was not skating close to the coast anymore. instead I was mostly between potato fields and small canals. The asphalt was mostly fine, except for the last kilometres in Delfzijl which had pavement which was difficult to skate on. It felt like I spent half an hour on the last two kilometres.

The hotel in Delfzijl was in urgent need of a renovation. The temperature and humidity in my room were way too high, and there was only a tiny window that hardly let in any fresh air. In addition, I spent quite some time in the bathroom yesterday – already during my supermarket breaks and later at my hotel. I have decided now to skip the tab water and buy bottled water instead. I figured that tab water which I carry around in thirty degrees for hours might not be the best option.

Today is a much needed rest day. There are rain showers anyway, so I hope that I can continue tomorrow. My original plan was to take the ferry from Delfzijl to Emden, but the ferry is currently being repaired. So there is a bus replacement instead. I’ll spend the night in Emden, Otto’s hometown, and tomorrow, I hope to skate to Norden.

Day 2: Hippolytushoef-Oude Bildtzijl (50 km)

After a quick breakfast topped off with some vla, I left at quarter to nine so that I had no stress to catch the bus over the Afsluitdijk which left at half past nine. The bus ride over the dyke which is currently closed for cyclists (and skaters), took about twenty minutes.

On the other side, I continued skating towards Harlingen which had a nice harbour. I was tempted to take a coffee stop there, but since it’s Sunday, a lot of places seemed closed and I felt like I hadn’t earned a proper break yet, so in continued. Skating out of town, I must have taken a wrong turn because I had to follow a road for two-hundred metres which was not allowed for cyclists, to get back to a bicycle lane. There wasn’t much traffic at all, but I got two angry honks nevertheless.

From there I followed a road a couple of kilometres away from the coast, until I took a left swing again close to Firdgum to get back to the dyke.

From here I followed the dyke for some kilometres, took a water and chocolate break among some sheep, and finally reached the Oudebildtdijk which led me all the way on immaculate asphalt with a gentle breeze from behind to my destination today, which is Oude Bildtzijl.

There is supposed to be a thunderstorm tonight. And according to the forecast, temperatures tomorrow should be around twenty degrees only as opposed to thirty the last two days.

Today was my first day of skating. This stage was probably the longest of my whole trip. It was planned to be 57 kilometres, but due to some unintended detours, it ended up being 63 kilometres in thirty degrees Celsius.

I started from Bakkum outside Amsterdam shortly before nine o’clock. Skating with a backpack (which I couldn’t motivate myself to do during my training) was not too bad. I packed as little as possible, so the backpack only weighs seven kilos including a polar bear.

The roads were very nice to start with. There are a lot of bike lanes in the Netherlands which I can use. Unfortunately, I learned today that whatever Google Maps finds suitable for cyclists, does not need to be appropriate whatsoever for a skater. I took a little tour into a dune nature reserve which was indeed pretty, but the brick paved route was terrible. So I turned around after a two kilometres, but had to continue another five or six kilometres on bad roads until I came back to a nice bicycle lane.

For the rest of the day, the roads were very good, and the landscape was picturesque. Shortly before the end of the trip today, I crossed the dyke between the Amstelmeer and the sea, and after four hours, I reached Hippolytushof, a cosy little town a few kilometres away from the IJsselmeer.

Tomorrow, I want to start early because the weather forecast predicts thunderstorms in the late afternoon. I first have to reach the Afsluitdijk which is currently closed for cyclist and hence for me as well. There I will take the cyclists’ bus and continue on skates towards Leeuwarden – a total of fifty kilometres, unless I include some unplanned detours again.

Strava link

Three years after the last blog post, it’s time again for a new Mountain Polar Bear adventure. 

This trip, I have planned since 2019. Then came Covid and two years of travel restrictions, and then one year with injuries and a lack of motivation. This year, however, I have been training fairly well, so I feel like this trip can finally happen. 

Here is the plan: I’m going to take a plane this Friday, the 7th of July, to Amsterdam and then skate on in-line skates to Hamburg. The distance is a bit more than 500 kilometres in total. Originally, I was planning with three weeks for this trip to allow for some rest and rain days. However, other plans came up in week three, so now I’ll try to finish in two weeks. This means roughly a marathon distance per day and no more than two rest days.

My planned route follows the coast all the way. I assume that there are some bike trails or roads with not too much traffic, and I hope for little gravel and a moderate amount of sheep poop. (I’ve been training at Fornebu which is full of goose poop, so I feel well-prepared for this particular challenge). I also hope for some vla breakfasts and pancakes to provide energy in the Netherlands, and some good fish dinners (sole Finkenwerder) in Germany.

Whether or not Mr. Nansen will join is still open for debate. He has been training little this spring, and I have to carry all my luggage on my back. So I need to do some test-packing and discuss with him if he will join or not.

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.

The fourth day of our Salkantay trekking started with two hours of zip lining over a canyon. It is hard to describe how much fun this activity was, so it’s best to watch the video on my Instagram account.

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A post shared by Stephan M (@mountainpolarbear)

After the zip lining, we continued our hike along the rail tracks from Hidroelectrica to Aguas Calientes – a small town at the foot of Machu Picchu. It was sunny and very warm, and the hike through the jungle was beautiful, including some groups of parrots flying over our heads.

Yesterday was the last day of our trek which was also the highlight: the visit to Machu Picchu. We got up at four o’clock in the morning and had to hike first for twenty minutes to the first checkpoint. From there we had to climb two thousand steps to get to the entrance of Machu Picchu. There, some of us had paid for the entrance to Machu Picchu mountain which meant another two and a half thousand steps. The view from up there was marvellous though, so it was worth all the hard work.

We had beautiful weather and after our return from the mountain time to walk through the remains of the old citadel. In the afternoon, we returned to Cusco by train and car. From here my trip continues to Arequipa, Lake Titicaca, La Paz in Bolivia, and finally back to Lima.