Farewell, lots of rain, lots of kilometres and lots of ice — onward, across the Arctic Circle
In sunshine and summery temperatures I left the hostel. It was almost the same feeling as when I set off from home. As if I were heading out on a big tour again!
Unfortunately it started raining again the very next morning…
My first destination was the Buabreen Glacier (the Buarbreen is the name of a glacier west of the town of Odda in Norway. It’s part of the Folgefonna. Under the UNESCO classification system it’s a type-434 glacier. That means it has a glacier outflow, a larger ice mass or ice cap, with a single firn area and with an icefall/ice step.)
After squeezing past the barrier for the car park, I pitched my tent right at the start of the hike. It was raining the whole time, by the way. Completely soaked, I reached the glacier! The path was very slippery, you had to cross lots of rivers and climb small mountains on ropes. The view was insane all the same!
My second destination was Trolltunga! I wanted to do a big 18 km hike there — translated: Troll’s Tongue. But sadly it rained non-stop. By now for three days straight. At first I considered taking accommodation nearby… but then decided against it, since rain was forecast for the whole week. So I rode on.
Since my hiking boots, my tent and my rain gear were completely wet, I really needed accommodation. By now even the inside of my motorcycle suit and the clothes in my panniers were slightly damp, because I had no chance to dry my things or lay them out in the sun for a bit.
Through Bunk a Biker I luckily found Lars Kristian, who offered a room! It wasn’t on the route, but it was now sorely needed! Lars Kristian ran his own farm and had by now built five houses on the property! One of them had tragically burned down completely two years ago. In it he lost two cats and a dog. The house was fully replaced by the insurance, but he still hadn’t quite come to terms with the loss — you could tell. In the house where he’d then been living temporarily with his family for the past year, I now found my bed for the next night! Since, luckily, the sun finally came out for about half an hour, I quickly dried my tent on the veranda.
The next morning it was raining hard. Luckily my bike was in a big hall and I could at least strap on my luggage in the dry! I set off for Bergen! I’d actually planned to spend a few days in Bergen to see the city. But since, as I said, it rained non-stop, I only made a quick stop at the Triumph dealer to get new front brake pads. They were slowly reaching their wear limit!
On to Voss (that, by the way, is where this water comes from that gets sold expensively everywhere. But surprise — it’s just water). That it rained the whole time here too, I don’t think I need to mention. So on to Flåm. There I parked among cruise-ship tourists who’d just come off the Aida. You could immediately tell the harbour had been built only for these tourists. Between selfie sticks and queues in front of souvenir shops, I then also got a text from Vodafone. Important for everyone planning to stay abroad for longer than four months in future: from 1 March 2022, a rule applies in the EU that if you use most of your mobile data abroad for more than four months, you then have to pay for it yourself. If, after four months, you log into the German network for one day, the four months start over again. Whether the prices are uniform, I don’t know. In my case it would have been about 20 € for 10 GB. On top of that, I was kindly also given a time limit of two weeks for a solution. To keep it short and show a possible solution: I was now able to cancel my contract more or less as a gesture of goodwill, without legal notice, from one day to the next. Now I have a prepaid contract so I don’t lose my number, and once I’m back in Germany I can look for a new contract. I didn’t actually want to deal with all this on the trip, but at least it kept me from getting bored.
Back on the route and onward, heading north:
A road led across a plateau. Here I pitched my tent for a night. A bit risky in that weather, but the view was brilliant:
The next morning, and back down from the plateau, I stopped at a big petrol station that also had a small workshop and a wash bay for trucks round the back. There I changed my brake pads at my leisure and dried my tent once again!
On across the next plateau:
Oh, by the way… it was raining:
On we went to the Geirangerfjord (the Geirangerfjord is one of Norway’s best-known fjords and has been a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site since 14 July 2005. It’s about 15 km long and between 0.6 and 1.3 km wide). Last year I’d found a great wild-camping spot there that I wanted to use again this time. Unfortunately everything was still snowed in and the snow piled up metres high along the road. So I rode on!
On towards Trollstigen! (Trollstigen is one of the best-known tourist roads in Norway, about 20 km south of Åndalsnes. It’s the north side of a mountain pass road running from the Romsdalsfjord south to the Norddalsfjord, a side arm of the Storfjord. The road is 55 km long and was built in July 1936.) I actually wanted to hike there too, but it was still raining… I took a few photos with my phone anyway:
Unfortunately, the following day I noticed that while riding my feet were getting wet. They’d been cold from the damp all week, but now, sadly, wet too. Whether it was because the boots had been constantly exposed to the rain and had also got wet from the humidity, or because they were now simply worn out, I didn’t know. And without drying them out properly once, I couldn’t find out either. So I rode to Trondheim to find someone who might be able to reproof and grease my boots. But sadly in vain. So I bought a small can of waterproofing spray. And since the cuff on one glove had torn — because all week I’d been trying to get into the gloves with wet hands — I wanted to have that sewn up too. But that also wasn’t possible the same day!
For the next night I’d luckily found a room with Marie through Bunk a Biker! She’d also offered to take a look at my glove in case I had no luck in Trondheim. About 1½ hours from Trondheim, I rode onto her farm. She lived there with her two daughters and her father. When I arrived, I was immediately asked whether I’d eaten yet! A short while later I was sitting at a laid table eating wraps. Luckily she had one of those cool shoe-drying devices where warm air comes out of short tubes you put into the shoes. So I could dry my boots out overnight. I was also allowed to do my laundry at her place, which was again much needed. In the evening I sat with her and her father on the terrace by the fire. At the same time Marie sewed my gloves! We drank beer and homemade potato schnapps!
The next morning we chatted until 1 p.m. before I set off! She also offered to put me in touch with the friendly motorcycle club in Mo i Rana and maybe arrange a bed for me there for the night after next! As already mentioned in the second blog entry, it’s normal for motorcyclists in Norway to be a member of a motorcycle club. Of course I was pleased about the opportunity!
Continuing north, I passed the Cascade Laksforsen and also a sign — or rather a gate — that showed me I was now very far from home: „Nord Norge“:
My next destination was the Marble Castle (Marmorslottet i Rana is an area about 45 minutes from Mo i Rana where, over thousands of years, loose rock masses such as limestone were washed into the river. Over the years the water has shaped several caves, gorges and rock formations) further to the north. The day was really good! The sun was shining, I found an amazing wild-camping spot with a stunning view, cooked my dinner with a view of the sunset and also got an email that almost made me drop the pesto out of my hand… A few days earlier, when I was at Lars Kristian’s, I’d applied more or less for fun to another Workaway position. Photos were needed for a lighthouse that stands on a small island north of the Lofoten Islands. The lighthouse is a hotel to stay in and had just been freshly renovated on the outside.
I was warmly welcomed and told that a bed would be free for me there from 21 July!
Here’s the link to the lighthouse hotel’s website: https://www.littleislandlighthouse.com
Just amazing!
So my second appointment of the trip, now coming up! Since I planned to cross over to the Lofoten Islands on 13 July, I now had a great schedule and a week to look at the southern Lofoten.
The next day I carried on briskly along the main road, the E6, towards Mo i Rana. I’d also got the contact for the motorcycle club from Marie, and a bed was offered to me there.
A little side note: on the way towards Mo i Rana I passed a truck weighing station. There I weighed my motorbike once… 300 kg with an almost full tank.
The clubhouse of the Anvil MC is a little outside the town. It’s a building complex made up of several halls, one of which forms the clubhouse with rooms. Since, luckily, a club member lives right next door, there was someone who could open the door for me. Otherwise there wasn’t much going on. I moved into my room, got a tour of the house and, a short while later, was sitting outside in front of the clubhouse in the sun with him, drinking beer. Shortly after, two more members came by. Since many of the members have a soft spot for old cars, we took a drive around town in a 1967 Ford Galaxie. Pure V8 sound!
In the evening I planned my route for the coming days and, completely overwhelmed by the impressions, went straight to bed!
The next morning I left Mo i Rana and set off for the Marble Castle. In sunshine I hiked about 30 minutes to the river! A pure natural spectacle:
Since the next day I wanted to hike to the Svartisen Glacier (Svartisen (Norwegian for „the black ice“) is, at 370 km², the second-largest glacier in Norway and lies in the province (fylke) of Nordland, just above the Arctic Circle in the Saltfjellet-Svartisen National Park north-west of the town of Mo i Rana. It has 60 glacier arms in total. Between the two main glaciers, the Østisen (148 km²) and the Vestisen (221 km²), lies the valley of Vesterdalen), I looked for a suitable wild-camping spot nearby. By a big lake I found a good spot!
The next morning I rode to the start of the hike. From here it was possible to cross a lake by a private boat shuttle so as not to have to walk so far. But since I found 35 € a bit steep, I decided to walk along the shore. The path wasn’t really official and, accordingly, not easy to walk. In places it was very muddy. After about 1.5 hours through mud and scrub I was finally on the main path to the glacier! A good bit further on, you could then finally see the glacier tongue.
It was breathtaking how huge it was! It was about 25 degrees that day, but I still wanted to go further, right up to the glacier — so another good stretch, with little climbing sections over the rock again and again. Finally there, I felt the cold from the enormous ice masses. I’d never seen anything like it before. Absolutely clear ice, gigantic!
In the evening I showered — as so often in the past week, this time for free — quickly at a campsite, and shortly after pitched my tent somewhere on a farm track. The next day I was heading straight on to Bodø. From there the ferry to Moskenes on the Lofoten Islands departs. On the way to Bodø, on the main road — or motorway, here in Norway — you also pass the Arctic Circle Center. About two years ago I’d saved this point on Google Maps once. In pretty much every North Cape video you see this building. It’s a sign that I’ve now crossed the Arctic Circle. Standing here now made me very proud! Depending on how you look at it, it’s not that far from home. But for me, since I’d been on the road for 2.5 months by now, it was a huge distance. And, as already mentioned… saved two years ago, I was now finally standing in front of it. I had to think back over the last two months. Think about everything that had happened. As the saying so nicely goes: if someone had told me this on the day I set off, I wouldn’t have thought it possible. On the way here everything simply worked out! I got to meet and get to know incredibly kind people. Got to see incredible nature and, so far, got to experience two absolutely awesome, adventure-packed months. Simply unbelievable. I didn’t have a single day of boredom or feeling uncomfortable, and I had no time for homesickness either! Every day brought me one experience further along! And now here I am, in the rain of course, at the Arctic Circle, about to cross over to the Lofoten Islands, where next week I’ll live for two weeks on a small island with a lighthouse. An incredible thought!
On along the E6 to Bodø, to the harbour. Once there, the sun even came out and it got to about 20 degrees. Since it was about 2 p.m. and the ferry left at 4 p.m., I quickly half-pitched my tent so it could dry!
At 15:45 the ferry docked and we could ride in…
