Woke up in Vikhammer camp, Groovy camp really!
We made a decision to ride the West Coast...Whoa!
First we travelled north on the E6 then West on the smaller roads, around Trondheimsfjorden and south to Vanvikan. Then it was North to Namsos. The coastal road takes time, is very windy and picturesque, littered with ferries, which are not cheap.
We covered around 600km this day, including a little detour.
As we reached the short-cut to Holm, we were greeted with a (very large) sign, indicating that the road was closed and a detour was in-place. Scott wanted to try and get through, I was of the opinion that we should heed the warning. But hey, you'd never know if you didn't try. We passed about 3 signs indicating that the road was closed, but we persisted. Eventually we came across a barrier across the road, these Norwegians don't mess about. We got off the bikes and walked down the road to see if we could get the bikes through. After about 1km walk, We discovered the cause of all the signs and detours, The road was indeed washed-out. Sometime in the past a landslide had taken out the road, there was no road and no way of getting the bikes past. So, back on the bikes and 25km later we were back to where we had started. The detour had cost us about 1 hour and about 50km. Norwegians don't mess about, when they say a road is closed, IT BLOODY IS!
Despite the messing about, we made about 600km this day.
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| This had been the road |
A little tip Olav had given us made the progress quicker and smoother. He had advised, when there are lines of traffic waiting for a ferry, don't wait in line, just move up to the front. There is always room for the bikes up the front. And believe it or not, no-one really was that bothered as it seemed to be accepted practice. Most of the roads leading up to the Ferry points were 2 lane, so we had to be a little careful when passing. But it really made the trip up the west coast quicker. First on, first off.
14 July
A late start, Claudia had developed a squeak in her rear suspension that I couldn't pinpoint and the heated grip on the Left had failed, I tried to correct both but ended up correcting neither.
We decided that we'd had enough of the west coast, roads and fjords as progress was extremely slow and the ferries expensive. We got underway around 10:00 direction E6 and Mo i Rana. We made good time and had lunch in Mo i Rana, Pizza. Then continued north, direction Narvik.
Once we had reached the Arctic Circle (66 deg. 33'), also known as the polar circle. We decided it was time to head East at the earliest possibility, unfortunately giving Narvik and Kiruna a miss but heading the most direct route to Sweden and eventually Finland. We travelled about another 30km north then turned East (SE) on the 95 to Arvidsjaur (Lappland). The main obstacle we came across were the Reindeer. They didn't care that we were on their road and weren't that bothered. They were generally much bigger that I'd expected. I wouldn't want to hit one. We arrived around 20:00 - Dinner and bed. Nice Camp.
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| Arctic (Polar) Circle, first pass |
15 July
We woke our normal time and hit the road around 08:00. Then it was direct to the Swedish/Finnish border, south along the West Coast and onto Vaasa. What a beautiful camp, situated on the water, we'd had no expectations. This day we'd covered around 730 km.
16 July
We were once again up early and once breaking camp headed along the west coast (E8) onto Pori, where we had Coffee and re-fueled. Then onto Helsinki via Turku. We arrived at Bike Team (Service tomorrow) around 15:00 and met with Mike, our contact person at Bike Team. We also happened to meet two Chinese bikers who had no idea how to get to the camp, so our group swelled and we led the way to Camp. They also needed to return to Bike Team the next day as they need some repairs to one of their bikes, also at 10:00. Despite the language barrier, we managed to communicate using phones, translation devices and pointing. That evening we ate together, drank beer and talked, a lot, about anything and everything.
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| Helsinki Camp |
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