I added the gallery page now… Only a few photos until now, but I have to manually remove a magenta cast and doing a lot of colour corrections on a lot of the pics my digicam took. So far, my old trusty Canon Powershot A70 has always been doing good photos, until now…

Well, I should get me a new camera soon. At least before I start into another (holiday) adventure.

I updated my Google Map… It now looks very chaotically. Any ideas how to improve the look?

Asaa - Hou - Hals - Egense - Mou - Storvorde - Klarup - Gistrup - Sønder Tranders - Aalborg

Weather: rainy and clouded, around 20°

Kilometers on bike: 63 km

After a small breakfast, I get to know my neighbours. A young couple on their first outdoor bike trip. Well, their equipment is not that optimal, but it’s nice to see they have fun. We chat and they ask for some more advice on their equipment, which I heartily give. They intend to go around Northern Jutland and I wish them all the best, especially a better weather.

I head south through Hou to Hals, where I take the ferry over the Langerak to Egense. Not much interesting to see, there are mostly holiday homes around here. In Egense, my left knee suddenly begins to hurt. Oh, no. Not an injury. I take a small break, test the knee and the aching does not stop. So, what to do now? Go the the next camp site, stay for a few nights and hope it gets better? Ignoring the ache is not that easy, and going further south might be too risky for the knee and I could end up heavily injured outdoors.

I decide to go to Aalborg instead. Roughly 30 km which I have to endure with an aching knee. I follow the cycle route no. 23 east through Mou, Storvorde and Klarup to Gistrup. I am taking a few breaks on my way to rest my knee for a couple of minutes and sometimes I even push my bike for a few kilometres. Otherwise I am stoically going on, gritting my teeth and cycle through a somewhat uninspiring landscape.

I reach the outskirts of Aalborg. The cycle route leads directly into the university campus of Aalborg. It’s not easy to find your way into town, but in the end I end up in the beautiful town of Aalborg. Even the weather got better. And I see people, lots of people. Feels like I am back in civilisation.

I ask in the tourist office for a map and where the camp sites are. I decide to go to the camp site of the Vandrerhjem. Nice and cheap campsite near the water of the Limfjord and not far from the town centre. I set up camp and I am getting me a nice, cold beer: Thy Økologisk Humle! Ah, that’s refreshing. And from the Thisted Bryghus. Something I have missed in Norway. I rest inside my tent and eat the last of my supplies (well, mostly biscuits and some apples). So, what to do next? I hope my knee is getting better over night.

Hirthals - Hellehøj - Hjørring - Tårs - Østervrå - Thorshøj - Torslev Kirke - Hørby Kirke - Volstrup Kirke - Sæby - Solsbæk - Lyngså - Voerså - Asaa

Weather: sunny and warm in the morning, ~24°, later on colder and heavy rain and hefty winds from SE

Kilometers on bike: 97 km

Taris, Elisabeth and myself are having breakfast. We exchange more travel information and I exchange my last Norwegian kroner with them. Taris is having a look after my bike, cycles a round and comes the the same conclusion as me: the middle chainring is “broken”. It looks ok, but the chain doesn’t get a hold on it while cycling.

We cycle together to Hirthals harbour, say goodbye and they are on their way to Norway and I am finding my way south to Hjørring. I am mostly using minor roads and come to the Hellehøj. Well, a hill, a height of 89m, but with a nice view over Northern Jutland. The weather seems to change soon: I started with a blue sky and sun in the morning, but the sky begins to darken and the wind changes to southeast.

On the way I take a break at a supermarket and restock my supplies for the day. I arrive in Hjørring late in the morning. I am asking for directions to the Tourist Office at a strange Roleplaying Game Shop. This one got a few books, some latex weapons and armour for LARPing and a lot of animal food and other stuff. So a pet and RPG shop. At the tourist office I get free maps where the national cycle routes are marked.

I head to the southeast and follow the main road to Tårs. The sky darkens and soon heavy rain starts. Did I already mention the wind? Time to put on the rain clothes, which I will need for the rest of the day.

Well, I have to make some kilometers today,  my current intention is to head to Southern Sweden now and meet up with some Roleplaying Gamers in Foteviken at the Ivinia Con II. Doesn’t look that far on the (big scale) map and Denmark is mostly flat.

I follow the road, next stop is in Tårs. Interesting town name: it obviously was known as Thorse in the Middle Ages , meaning “Thor’s sanctuary”. There are a few sculptures of Marit Benthe Norheim standing here: Tilreisende. Well, interesting, because the town is otherwise not that interesting and you normally only go through this small part of inhabitated Denmark. Not much traffic here.

Next stop is Østervrå and then I head to Thorshøj and take the side roads via three churches Torslev Kirke (from 1200 AD), Hørby Kirke (from ~1100 AD) and Volstrup Kirke through nice rural landscape to Sæby. I don’t meet any person on my way. Well, the weather is not that good to have a stroll outside (nor do some biking). I can really understand them. If I didn’t had holidays I wouldn’t be doing that either. 

A few kilometers before Sæby the wind carries the flavour of the nearby Baltic Sea. I head to the town centre. Well, not much going on here. I guess I arrive around 18:00 and the town is nearly empty. Should I stay here at the camping site? No, I am going further south.

Because of the weather I have to switch on the light. I am following the national cycle route no. 5 south. I now understand why Taris said, you need a high morale to follow the roads in Denmark. Long straight roads, they don’t seem to end anywhere. They just go on and on. You really feel lonely in this greyish, dark atmosphere. I keep my morale high and finally reach Asaa. It’s getting darker now. I find my way to the camp site and pitch my tent in heavy rain. The camp site is ok, not many visitors, only one more tent next to me. It doesn’t look as it will stand the next rough wind.

I take a shower, eat some cookies and after 97 km of cycling I sleep very well. I have been over seven hours (driving time only) on the road today.

Due to weather, no photos taken.

Lyngdal - Kristiansand - Hirthals

Weather: cloudy, ~20°

Kilometers on bike: 12 km

I cycle to Lyngdal centre. I intend to go to the tourist information first before I go any further. The lady is quite astonished I was cycling one of the most difficult parts of the Nordsjøvei. Well, I don’t get a medal for it though. I inquire about alternatives about my intention to go to Kvinesdal. She is surprised that I want to take Sørlandsbanen. Busses are cheaper in Norway than trains. I more and more intend to go to Kristiansand, so she said the fastest way on bike is just follow the main road or take a bus.

The rutebilstasjon is directly on the other side of the tourist information. I suspect they get some kind of a commision when the recommend travellers to take the bus. An employee explains the busticket system and the prices to me and finally sells me a ticket to Kristiansand, for a bike you have to pay fifty percent of the price.

At the rutebilstsjon I meet Frank and Gabi. Frank was once a copy-writer in Germany and now works in Flekkefjord. Because we have some spare time until our busses leave, we go to Harry’s Kaffibar, have a chat and drink some coffee.

They got Illy espresso! My favourite espresso brand. I order a Latte Macchiato for 27 NOK. I got high hopes it should be ok. Well, somehow it only tastes like warm milk. Where’s the espresso? Someone should show the Norwegian how to make a good espresso. Because I didn’t hear the normal sound of espresso making, I suspect they put the espresso into a normal coffee machine.

Frank took an official retraining in Germany to get a job in Norway, he is one of two people (out of fourteen), who finally made it to Norway. We talk about his life among Norwegians. E.g. he observed that Norwegians obviously get really drunk every weekend, despite the high price for alcoholics. He tales are very interesting. I also inquire about the Norwegian company and work culture. Very, very interesting.

11:45, I have to go to the bus. I say goodbye to Frank and Gabi and wish them well. The bus is already at the station. Opening the side-gates, putting luggage and bike inside - ready to go. The trip to Kristiansand doesn’t take long. 13:30 and I am in Kristiansand again.

I now go to the Color Line-terminal and take a passage to Hirthals. 15:30 check-in, 16:30 the ferry will leave the harbour. Because I got some time, I go to an internet café and write a few short entries on my blog. Around 15:15 I am cycling to the check-in and put myself into the first line among other motorcycle bikers. At the top of the lane I also see some other heavily packed bicycles. So I am the only tough biker here…

It takes a long time until the ferry has spewed out all the cars and caravans. I wonder with such a flood of motorised tourists if going by car/caravan is really ecologically correct. It’s a sad view to see such a solid line of cars; I wonder what the Norwegians think about it.

The three bikers I saw at the top position are Gerhard, Gerd and Maurice from Cuxhaven. Looks like only Germans are nuts enough to go to Norway on bike. Two hale and hearty penioners and a son. They flew from Cologne airport to Kirkenes, took Hurtigruta to the Lofoten and cycled through Fjordnorway back to Kristiansand. Nice! They have a lot to tell. AFAIK, they shortly talked about writing something up on teh web, so I will try to hunt down their tale later.

On the ferry I am wasting most of my Norwegian Kroner: rekesmørbrød, apple juice, cake and lots of chocolate. At 20:00 we arrive in Hirthals. I take the three to the parking lot, where their “take-away service”, stepson directly from Cuxhaven, already waits. I say goodbye and look for the camping site, which is situated diretly next to the lighthouse. Very idyllic and directly at the sea.

The reception is already closed, so I pitch my tent next to another biker’s tent. They are obviously going on a tandem. Later I get to know them, bikers from Germany. Taris and Elisabeth are going by tandem and trailer from Swabia (south Germany) to Norway. All the way. We are having dinner, drink wine (Yeah!) and I bring my chocolate. We talk a lot and then it’s time to get into the sleeping bag.

Hei all! I added a few entries here in Kristiansand at an Internet Café. I will add more flesh to them when I have more time. So this is just to let you all know I am still not eaten by a troll.

Because of my bike troubles I decided to return to Denmark today. At least there I can cykle around with my remaining gears (I hope so!). Norway is too steep to loose one third of your “cykling power” and repairing costs too much over here.

So, I take the ferry to Hirthals today and hope to follow the old viking hærvejen south.

Lyngdal

Weather: heavy rain, ~18°

Kilometers on bike: 0 km

After an inspection of my tent, the whole “floor” of the inner tent is wet. Even with the extra tarp my matress and some other things I had inside the tent are wet. At least the sleeping bag is dry. Well, first some breakfast: crispbread with strawberry jam, biscuits and tea. After wards I move a few things around and hope my belonging will dry up during the day.

It’s raining cats and dogs; everything’s grey outside. Hmmmh, not the best weather to travel, so I decide to stay here for another night. Later on, I stroll around the beach… a rain walk. But still it’s nice to have that much fresh and good air.

I decide to go to Kvinesdal alongside the mainroad tomorrow and take Sørlandsbanen, either to Egersund or in worst case to Kristiansand to return to Denmark.

Around 15:30 the rain stops and the sun tries to get through the heavy clouds. Well, at least she’s trying. I thoroughly walk around the fjord and enjoy the nature. Some showers and sun. I hope the weather stays somewhat dry over night. So I can at least pack a partly dried tent.

Mandal - Sjølingstad - Vigeland - Reme - Spangereid - Gitlevåg - Lyngdal

Weather: warm, sunny, ~25°; a bit hotter later; thunderstorm in the evening/night and colder

Kilometers on bike: 55 km

Very quick packaging in the morning, last talks to the dudes and dudettes from Gelsenkirchen and I am on my way to the city centre. Nice town, but is it really worth a side-trip? Sunday morning - and Norway seems to be dead. No people on the street. I head to the house of Gustav and Emanuel Vigeland, now a museum, but I intend to follow my route again and go on.

I come to a supermarket, which is open on sundays. Nice! I fill up my stock on biscuits, chocolate and juice. Hmmmh, I wonder if all Norwegians are late risers. Obviosuly not. My route heads straight through a golf course. Plenty of older people here. Well, suits the normal tourist in Sørland.

I arrive at a junction, I now can decide to take Gamle Postveien (the Old Postway), a gravel road, or an ordinary road up to Sjølingstad. I take the latter. According to the map it should be less hilly. You can visit an old woolmanufacture complete with school etc. in Sjølingstad - from the old times when entrepreneurs still got a social conscience. A lot of car and caravan tourists are already swarming around the houses, so I just have a break and decide to save myself the visit.

I am cycling along some nice lakes and in Tredal I am joining the main road E39 and follow it to Vigeland. The first thing I see is a statue of a cleric (forgot to note the name), according to the statue, his motto is or better has been “Ora et Labora”. Well, to each it’s own.

I go through the town, pushing my bike and enjoy the silence. Another dead town on a Sunday (if you don’t count the cars on the main road). In a small street behind the church I see a Norsk Skogkatt sitting near a blue door. She’s obviously waiting to get inside, but I guess her human family is not there. She looks a bit pissed and when I try to make some photographs, she is hissing and behaving not like a lady. Finally I get my pictures, but she’s still not in the mood for stroking.

I am following the regional route out of town to Snik. Needless to say, heavy traffic. Obviously half of Norway uses the good weather to get into the wilds. Along the road there are small beaches for bathing in the “fjord”. Despite the gear problem, I fight myself over a lot of climbs to Reme. I really miss the nine middle gears, would make things a lot easier. It’s exhausting, so I sometimes decide to push the bike uphill. Well, exhausting, too.

No real outdoor holidays without a Stöngifoss. In Reme, some houses, moles for fishers and a nice beach, I take the opportunity for having a longer break and take a swim in the North Sea. The water is crystal clear and warm, really warm. Somehow I am feeling I am at the beach in Spain. I am swimming and enjoying the water for half an hour and then I ride into the direction of Spangereid.

There should be a viking grave (and a viking information centre) in Spangereid, but cannot find it. I think about going further south (10 to 12km) and visit the Lindesnes Lighthouse (which would mean, I have to return the same way later), but somehow I got a bad feeling about it. I trust my gut feelings and continue on my route to Lyngdal. Later on, I am glad I did this.

Uphill horror! That’s really hard with my broken gear. After I reach the bridge over the Lenefjord at Jåsund, I should have reached the first “peak”. But after Gitlevåg it’s getting worse. I push my bike uphill for four kilometres. It’s hard work, but could at least be a bit easier with a nice sideway along the road. Every 30 seconds a car drives by. Very annoying. After a long while, I reach the top. And now down again! I put on my helmet, check the luggage and ride down on a crazy wind. 50 km/h and more again, and this for a distance of five kilometres down to Lyngdal.

I pass by a camping site, which looks tremendously crowded, and another one, which name doesn’t appeal to me (Lyngalbibelcamp) before I reach the campsite in Kvavik, right before a small forest at the shore of the Lyngdalsfjord. A bit less then thirty minutes after my tent is pitched, a big thunderstorm announces its coming with loud thunderclap and flashes. I go down to the beach (roughly 150m behind my tent) and I see a big black cloudformation come into the fjord, flashes flashing, loud thunder rolling in from the sea. What a view! The Darkness is coming!

Back at the tent and despite heavy rain, I prepare a tea, this time well deserved enriched with some ten year old Ardbeg. I also cook: basmati rice with onions, raisins and almonds, spiced with Marroccan tajine spices. The tea and the meal do me well. After extensive listening to Svartsot and Cultus Ferox, I finally slumber away.

In the mid of the night, the rain is still heavily pelting down on my tent, I awake because my arms feel wet. Ok, obviously the sandy ground cannot cope with all the water coming down from above. Part of it flows between the floor(?) of the inner tent and the protective tarp on the ground. Well, I am now glad I took the Tarp’n’Travel with me, I get it out and place it into the inner tent. At least somewhat dry for the rest of the night.

Søgne - Røsstad - Harkmark - Tregde - Mandal

Weather: warm, sunny, ~26°; I guess a bit hotter later during the day

Kilometers on bike: 43 km

Thanks to my Danish neighbours I don’t want to get out of my sleeping bag. A long while later, I am finally on my feet. I pack my belongings and dry the tent in the sunshine. I just wanted to get into my travel clothes, when I discovered a black point on my left foot. Hmmmh, what’s that? It’s tick time! My first tick after a very long time. Ok, operation. Getting my swiss army knife, it has tweezers. It takes a while. It’s a bit difficult to get the tick into the right position. I press with my fingers around the location where it has biten and try to get the head. I have to press my flesh hard down to the bone to see a part of the head. Finally I get it done, it’s out. I am somehow glad I got a vaccination against tickbites this year. Now I just have to make that no red ring appears around the bite otherwise I have to visit a doc real fast.

Andrea and Jörg wish me good travels and leave. I am eager to see if my self-fixed saddle will hold. I go to Tangvall, a part of Søgne. That’s where the town centre and places to shop are. The saddle holds! So I go into a bookshop and get my one of those excellent route maps: Sørnorske Hjulgleder - Nordsjøruta Vest. Afterwards I stock up on food and drinks, because it’s Saturday. Somehow I lost the feeling for time.

Then I am on my way to Røsstad. Smaller slopes and hills are on the way. On a steeper one, suddenly my gear does make problems. When I put strength into my tread, the chain jumps from the middle chainring of the crank and the chain hooks into the front derailleur. This nearly leads to me falling to the ground. Not nice when your are on the road (no cycle-path available), to the left is the traffic and to the right is goes down… a lot of few metres. Well, I quickly check the chain and gear, but I cannot see anything wrong. Everything’s looks fine. Hmmmh, when I go on, the problem is still there. Did the wind something to my gear yesterday evening, when it topped my bike over? Will have a look later. Now I cannot use nine of my 27 gears. Sadly, the most important ones. What a fuck.

I am not seeing any other bikers. A big part of the route follows the regional road, on which every 30 to 60 seconds a car drives by. That’s not fun and after a while stretches my nerves, because you have to cycle fully concentrated to not become a traffic obstacle, especially when you get uphill. You can admire the beautiful scenery only during a break. That’s a shame.

A bit worn out I reach Harkmark, where I have a longer break at the old church from 1613 in longhouse style with an Iron Age stone circle right in front of the church. Nice, finally something archaeological! Ok, I go on and the route follows the road along the coast to Kige. I don’t see much of the North Sea. A bit disappointing. According to the map, I now should follow a gravel road. My expections from Icelandic gravel roads are not fulfilled. I take a longer break at a beautiful situated lake, which even isn’t marked on the map. I sit on a private mole and enjoy the silence.

I continue to Mandal. One last big climb before Mandal, prepared with a lot of smaller ones of course. The ongoing up and down combined with heavy traffic is getting on my nerves. I am riding down to Mandal with 50 km/h through the slopes, my brakes are certainly hot. Certainly I am astonishing a few car drivers behind me, because I use the road to the fullest (and they shouldn’t go faster than 50 as well).

I am arriving at Sandnes Camping, a one star camp site, but so far the cheapest (from a price point of view!) I have been to, and despite the price very nice and enough comfort for me. The camp site is directly next to the Mandalselva, a big river.

I meet five mountainbikers from Gelsenkirchen, which are travelling with a very big caravan attached to their car. They also had high hopes for biking in Norway, but they say Norway isn’t gerat for real mountainbiking, because it’s too rocky. They have been to a bike parc somewhere in the north, where two of them attained some injuries through an accident. Gladly, they really had luck.

I check my gear and try to finetune it. To no avail. The problem won’t go away. Sigh. I go to “bed” early and sleep like a stone.

Søgne

Weather: warm, sunny, ~26°; rainy in the evening

Kilometers on bike: 0 km

First time I have slept through the night without problems. I have breakfast with Jane, Trond and their kids. Their boy, Sander, is hiding behind the entry tarp of the tent and loudly singing the same songs over and over again… Very amusing, obviously drives his parents mad, because he obviously sings in the car as well. After the breakfast, I help them getting their stuff packed and I say goodbye to them. Meanwhile Stefan, Thorsten and Katja break their camp as well. They want to go to Kristiansand and take a ferry. I give them the hint with the “cheaper” ferry to Hanstholm.

My neighbours from Bergen will leave today, too. They are on their way to visit some friends. I have some smalltalk with them and the woman advises me to go to Lista, because it’s more beautiful than in the Sørland. And I could get a new saddle on my way through Mandal. A while later, her husband returns and says there will be a partial solar eclipse between 10:30 and 11:30. Because we don’t have those special glasses to directly observe it, he improvises an observationstand from branches, dark plastic foil with a hole. When you now hold a white paper beneath it, you can see a small sun and how the moon begins to cover it. It’s very small, so he gets the idea to get his binoculars. Now we get a bigger picture of the sun and the moon. Everyone is happy.

One after another the other campers leave from “my” meadow. After a while I am the only one left, resting in the cool shadows of the wood. Well, there will certainly some other arrive today late afternoon or in the evening. My sunburn burns like fire. I avoid getting too much sun over the day. Not as easy when you’re doing an outdoor trip.

Later on, more campers arrive. With them, a young couple from Rheine, Jörg and Andrea. They drove through parts of Norway with a rented caravan. On their way, they had a major breakdown: the brake tube burst. Gladly they were on a parking lot when that happened. A day before, they were in the mountains… We have a nice time and they got chocolate!

An older but very fit looking couple on bikes arrive. Lightly packed and we wonder if they are Germans. Somebody told me, you can always recognise a German biker because he got Ortlieb backrollers. Well, they also got a lightweight Vaude-tent… I go and check. They are from the Netherlands. Obviously they are taking the same route. We talk about optimising baggage and maps. They got a nice bike map of the Nordsjøvei, which I intend to get from a bookshop the other day.

My evening meal is not that tasty. I combine a dried forest mushroom soup with Basmatirice to get me an Outdoor Forest Mushroom Risotto. Well, not that tasty as it sounds.

Back to Jörg and Andrea. We chat and they show me their vacation photos on their laptop. Outside the caravan it slowly begins to rain. During the night, the rain becomes stronger. I guess I prefer the pelt down of the rain on my tent over the drunken singing of my Danish tentneighbours. I don’t sleep much that night.