Day 39: Olderfjord-Honningsvåg (103 km)

Today was the day of the long tunnels, the zoological highlights, and the local music festival. 

We left at quarter to nine. We met many reindeer on our way today. In some cases we stopped to take some pictures, in some cases we just continued. 

At some point, I saw something appearing and disappearing into the water quite close to the coast, and at second sight, I realised it was either whales or dolphins. My first guess was harbour porpoise, but I’m not sure. They were two and fun to watch though. I filmed them for quite a while. 

Since there weren’t any cafés or other natural resting places along the way, we took a lunch break just along the road. Sitting there, I suddenly discovered a seal just outside the coast. 

After another hour or so, I stopped again because I had spotted a sea eagle. It landed on a rock and we waited for ages for it to lift again. I got some nice seconds of film of it flying in the end. 

Then we had the tunnels. The Nordkapp tunnel is seven kilometres long and 211 metres below sea level. It connects the mainland with the island Nordkapp is located on. It was very noisy, very steep, but OK from a traffic perspective.

There were a few more tunnels, but we finally got to Honningsvåg where we found a nice restaurant and I had some good fish & chips. Through the window, I spotted a poster on the other side of the street. And it appeared that there is a music festival in Honningsvåg this week. Since it was raining outside, we skipped our initial plan to camp outside town, checked in at a hotel and went to the festival instead. It’s called Oggasjakka – verdens naiseste festival (nicest festival in the world). Let’s see!

Different shades of reindeer

Nice coast

Quite cloudy today, but scenic

Bird is the word

Day 37: Alta-Olderfjord (111 km)

We left Alta at quarter to nine this morning. Our route today was first uphill, then over a plateau for a long time, and finally back to the coast at Porsanger Fjord.

After a few flat kilometres out of Alta, we soon reached the first uphill part. After 25 kilometres, we had climbed about 250 metres when we reached a Sami camp with a souvenir shop. Here we asked if they had any coffee. They didn’t have coffee at the shop.  Instead, we were invited home to an older couple who served us coffee, syrup, cookies and dried reindeer meat, which was very kind. 

With new energy, we had ten more kilometres uphill until we reached an altitude of 400 metres. From now it was a plateau with very little vegetation. The roads were straight for many kilometres, but the landscape and the views were very nice. 

We took a lunch break after 60 kilometres at a resting place with our own supplies. After 85 kilometres, we reached the next settlement, Skaidi, which had a petrol station/shop/restaurant where we enjoyed a second lunch. 

We made good progress today, so instead of cycling around 100 kilometres as planned, we continued down to the coast at the Porsanger Fjord and set up camp after 111 kilometres, which will make the coming final two days even easier. 

Tomorrow, if everything works well, we may cycle another 90 kilometres and get to or close to Honningsvåg. This would mean that we would cross the final tunnels, especially the Nordkapp tunnel, which is a 7 kilometres long undersea tunnel, so that we can enjoy a tunnel-free ride on our last day on Friday. 

I had a nice encounter with a reindeer today which I captured in a video. 

This guy’s got style

Endless plains

Not so winding road

Camp at Porsanger Fjord

Day 36: Baddereidet-Alta (110 km)

This morning I set a new time record taking down my tent and packing my bike. The reason was that we were attacked my mosquitoes the second we left the tent. I was hoping they would be less active in the morning, but they were very much awake and very mean.

When we started, we first had a long downhill ride and then reached a petrol station soon where we stopped for a coffee. Then we continued and reached the Alta fjord after a while which we had at our left hand side for the rest of the day – it’s very long. 

We had quite strong headwind all day. From 11:30, we started to became tired and hungry and looked out for a shop, café, petrol station or any place where we could sit down and have a lunch break. There wasn’t anything though, so we just stopped along the way and had some of our supplies. In my case this meant chocolate and nuts for lunch. 

When we continued, the E6 which we followed all day, went through a number of tunnels. Most of them we could avoid by following the old E6 which runs almost parallel (no idea why they built the new one really), but one of them implied a rather long and hilly detour. So the distance today to Alta became a bit longer in the end than Google Maps had made me believe. 

My most important mission today was to reach the Vinmonopolet (state-owned monopoly store for all wine and other drinks containing more than 4.7 percent alcohol) before 17:00. At 16:58, I left the store with a bottle of cava which will be opened at Nordkapp. 

We had dinner at Peppes Pizza (no reindeer after all) and found a tent spot on a mowed field outside the centre. Right before we came to the centre, we stopped at a traffic sign showing that Nordkapp is only 240 kilometres away. 

The weather was, apart from the wind, good today. And the forecast is decent to good for the coming days. 

Leaving our camp in the morning

Snow-covered mountains in the background all day

Approaching Alta – beautifully located

Wake up three more times

Day 35: Nordmannvik-Baddereidet (95 km)

The meteorologists were right today again. According to the weather forecast, it should stop raining around ten o’clock today. So when I woke up and it was still raining, I suggested that we should start a bit later today. And around 9:30 it did stop after it had rained nonstop for twenty-four hours. So we took down our tents and left at ten. 

We had three mountain passes to cross today – which we didn’t know in advance. After the first one and twenty-five kilometres of cycling, we took a lunch break. This was quite early (quarter to twelve), but there was a nice café and we were exhausted from the first mountain. 

The second pass was the highest – Kvænangsfjellet. Here we were rewarded with a great view at the top and a nice downhill ride on the other side. 

The last pass started after almost ninety kilometres. We had planned to cycle at least one hundred today, but when we reached the top of the last pass after ninety-five kilometres and there was a nice spot to camp up here, we decided that we can roll down the last five kilometres tomorrow morning as well. 

Alta is 101 kilometres away. My plan is to eat reindeer stew there. I guess they should have that somewhere?!

Conquered it

View from the top

Today’s elevation profile

Day 33: Tromsø-Nordmannvik (93 km)

Today I have to praise the meteorologists: They predicted very accurately that it would start raining this morning and keep raining all day. We left Tromsø at 9:30, and it had just started raining lightly. But it soon got worse. Our goal today was, despite the weather, to take the last two ferries on our trip and reduce the distance to Alta to under 200 kilometres so that we can reach Alta on Tuesday. 

After 51 kilometres, we reached the first ferry from Breivikeidet to Svensby. Our timing was quite bad and we had to wait for one hour. They didn’t have a waiting room which most ferry harbours have, but a toilet with a floor heating, so it was warm and cozy in there. 

The second and final ferry of this trip (at some point I need to count them all, but I believe I have taken between twenty and twenty-five) took us from Lyngseidet to Olderdalen. This time, our timing was perfect and the ferry left five minutes after we arrived there. 

After cycling for one more hour, we started looking out for tent spots. This was difficult today because it had been raining heavily all day, and all meadows were really wet and the ground very soft. We found one spot with a gravel ground which worked OK. The disadvantage with this place: it is quite close to a camping site. And indeed, after half an hour – I was just eating my soup – the co-owner of the camping site drove by, honked and told us from his caravan that we were too close to the camping site and couldn’t stay here. We played the “sorry didn’t know” card and told him we couldn’t leave again because of the weather. He said something about being back in a few hours and left. It is eleven o’clock in the evening now and still raining heavily, so I guess he won’t be back. 

We can be quite happy with our performance today – cycling more than 90 kilometres in the worst weather I have had so far on this trip. Alta is 196 kilometres away. I didn’t take any picture today. Imagine me being wet during the day and lying in tent during the evening, poking the roof of my tent from time to time so that the lake which forms in the middle of it will run down to the side. Let’s hope that the weather report is correct tomorrow as well. Then it should stop raining at some point in the morning – probably after we leave. 

Day 31: Brensholmen-Tromsø (58 km)

On Friday, we had a rather short distance to cover to Tromsø. It was sunny in the morning. The way to Tromsø across the island Kvaløya led us along the coast first and later over a nice green plateau. 

We reached Tromsø around lunch time and enjoyed a lasagne at Skarven restaurant, sitting outside in the sun. Then I visited a bike shop and some other stores before I went to my accommodation. I tried couchsurfing for the first time. My hosts, Guro and Niklas live in a very nice flat with a great view over Tromsø, not far from the centre. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with shrimps and some wine and went out for a couple of drinks afterwards. 

On Saturday, we had a rest day. I met Wolf right after lunch. We had a coffee first and took a cable car up to a place with a beautiful view over Tromsø. Then we visited the polar museum with a great exhibition about the Norwegian polar history and trappers in the Arctic. 

In the evening I had dinner at Guro’s and Niklas’ together with some colleagues of Guro’s, accompanied with a good selection of wines (they all work at Vinmonopolet, the Norwegian state-owned wine shop). 

After two great days in Tromsø, our trip continued towards Alta. 

On the plateau at Kvaløya

Crossing the bridge to Tromsøya

Some snow left high above Tromsø

View over town from the top of the cable car

My generous hosts Niklas and Guro

The city that never sleeps

Day 31: Andenes-Brensholmen/Kvaløya (89 km)

We took a ferry this morning at 8:45 from Andenes to Grillefjord on the island Senja. Unfortunately, it was very misty today, so we didn’t see so much of the beautiful nature at Senja. 

There are two ways to cross Senja – either via the west coast facing the ocean or via the east coast. My map of cycling routes indicated the eastern route, but the traffic signs for cyclists indicated the western route. Apparently, some of the tunnels on the western route have been upgraded in recent years so that they are safer for cyclists now. Since the western route was 20 kilometres shorter, we chose that one. 

There were many tunnels indeed. Some of them had a button which cyclists can push before they enter the tunnel, upon which a warning light switches on which indicates for car drivers that there are cyclists in the tunnel. Most of the tunnels were well lit and there was very little traffic, so they weren’t a big problem either. 

We had lunch at a motel in Skaland – a not so good hamburger at a weird place with weird people. When we continued, we noticed that the mist was getting thinner, but the sun first came through when we had crossed the last mountain pass. The route was rather hilly today, and we had more than one thousand metres uphill in total. 

When we reached the harbour at Botnhamn from where we took another ferry to Brensholmen on the island Kvaløya, the sky was all grey again. 

We now have a bit more than 50 kilometres to go to Tromsø tomorrow. So we will have a short day and the chance to wash clothes, take a long warm shower and relax. 

Senja is beautiful, but the clouds turned everything grey today

Nice resting spot

On the last mountain pass – wearing my reflex vest because of the many tunnels

View back to the pass – misty on the other side, sunny here

Ferry to Kvaløya – last island before Tromsø

I guess we will see more of these on our way to Nordkapp

Day 30: Sørmela-Andenes (54 km)

Today started with a tech emergency when I discovered that the memory card of my GoPro camera was full. I hadn’t even been aware that it was close to being full. In addition, my iPhone battery was very low. Therefore there are few pictures and videos from today. 

We started cycling at quarter past nine. It was cloudy, but the grey sky in combination with green meadows and the turquoise sea gave a very picturesque landscape. The first few kilometres were the wildest and prettiest, but from here I don’t have any pictures unfortunately. 

At Nordmela, we stopped at a local store/café – they seem to always serve as both here. Here I charged my phone and deleted some files from my GoPro since I assumed that I wouldn’t find a memory card anywhere before Tromsø. I also used the time to book a hostel in Honningsvåg, book a Hurtigruten ticket from Honningsvåg to Bodø, and a train ticket from Bodø to Oslo. So the plan is to end this cycling trip with a fraction of “the most beautiful ship journey in the world” (according to Hurtigruten’s advertising). And the return date to Oslo is set.

From Nordmela we continued to Bleik where we had fish soup for lunch at the local shop/café/restaurant. I originally considered to stay in Bleik for the night because they have a beautiful beach there. But then I realised yesterday that today would be a half cycling day only and that we would have time for a whale watching trip from Andenes. So we only admired the beach passing by and continued to Andenes instead. Here I spotted a small computer shop, so I tried my luck and asked for a memory card. And they had one indeed.

Andenes is special for Whale watching because there is a deep sea canyon, the Bleik canyon, pretty close to the coast. This makes it possible to watch species that would normally only be in the deep sea like sperm whales. When we left the harbour, however, instead of turning west towards this deep sea canyon, we turned southeast into the sound between Andøya and the mainland. Apparently the sperm whales were rather far outside today (both previous departures today had seen some). We counted on finding orcas or other whales in the more shallow waters instead. It turned out after three hours of unsuccessful searching that this was a bad strategy. So we came back without having seen any whales. The organiser is very fair though and pays back the money in such cases. So we had a nice dinner instead and plan to continue to Senja tomorrow – which I believe will be another highlight. 

Bleikstranda

Maybe the whales didn’t like our orange jackets

Day 29: Taen-Sørmela (108 km)

The morning started sunny. From 7:30, the sun hit my tent which was nice because it was a bit humid. When there is no chance for rain, I prefer to sleep without the waterproof outer tent because then I can enjoy the view. But then the morning dew can make things a bit wet.

We had breakfast on a bench in the sun and left our beach at nine o’clock towards Stokmarknes, which was 15 kilometres away. Here we were invited by Henny, Kathrine’s mum (Kathrine is a former colleague). Henny served us coffee and a good chocolate cake which we enjoyed on her balcony with a nice view. 

After one very pleasant hour here, we continued to Sortland. On this part, it was very warm. We had lunch at a pizzeria. When we continued from there, a cold wind had come from the sea and taken fog with it which we could see on the water all day. 

When we got closer to Andøya, the next island, we met two cyclists who were going to Nordkapp, too, and visiting their father on Andøya on the way. They told us about a nearby café at which we stopped for a waffle with cloudberry and cream. 

This gave us new energy, so we actually continued much further than originally planned. I spotted a nice beach on Google Maps (using the satellite function). So now we are at Sørmela at the west coast of Andøya. We are the only human beings here. But a flock of sheep has just joined us and enjoy dinner nearby. The sheep wear cowbells here (or sheepbells?), so we have some nice background music. 

It is cloudy now, but the weather forecast for the coming days is still good, so we hope for the best. 

Bridge at Stokmarknes

Coffee and cake at Henny’s

Mountain panorama close to Stokmarknes airport

Smooooke on the water (or rather fog)

View from my tent when the beach was still sunny

Day 28: Svolvær-Taen (47 km)

Today we left the Lofoten archipelago and entered Vesterålen. Our plan was to have breakfast at a café in Svolvær we had seen last night, but this one opened first at ten, so we went to a bakery instead. 

The official cycling route number 1 takes quite a long detour north of Svolvær, probably in order to avoid the main road E10. We didn’t find the traffic too intense the last days, and the route looked nice on the map, so we followed the E10. The route was indeed very nice. It followed the coast most of the time and had steep mountains on both sides. 

After 37 kilometres, we took a ferry from Fiskebøl to Melbu. This time we timed it quite badly and missed one departure with a few minutes only. So we had to wait for one and a half hours, which wasn’t a problem though because it was sunny and warm, and we hadn’t planned to go far today anyway. 

In Melbu we bought a disposable grill and food and continued to Taen. There is a nice beach here which Kathrine recommended to me. So we stopped here, sat up our tents and went swimming. Then we had a nice dinner. Now we are sitting outside. It is still quite early because we didn’t go far today, so we’ve got enough time for blog, diary and other things. 

Tomorrow we will pass through Stokmarknes and Sortland and see how far we get. 

Nice mountains along the main road

The water was more turquoise than it seems in this picture

Nice beach at Taen

Always good to have someone watch the tent