Cycling Norway – Rested and back in the saddle

I’ve had a pretty long and very enjoyable rest break in Telemark. Hanging out by the lake doing some fishing and catching up with old friends but the time has come to once again start peddling north.
After some time off the bike I need to get back into the swing of covering miles and living out of my bags again.

I think today will be remembered as the third great leaving of this trip although I’ve been on the road for the best part of a month now I’ve spent quite a large amount of that time basking in the awesome hospitality of Josh and Karina first off at their place in grim stead and then more recently up at their summer house here in Telemark I spent a fantastic few days there completely on my own in the wilderness and then an even more fantastic few days with a low good mates hello the kids eating drinking and being merry fishing swimming hiking exploring the forest on a variety of very exciting machines and generally living like a king but they’ve all headed off now they’re going back down south and I’m back on the bike again pedaling north there’s a few days of good weather lined up I believe and I’ve got kind of a rout in mind a few bits and pieces to look out along the way there’s a lake about three days on from here apparently has a monster in it see if I can get some sensational serpent footage there’s some stave churches wouldn’t mind seeing a stave Church and I’m passing by one there’s the Rollo vagin which is a road that was put in as part of the construction of the Oslo to Bergen railway I think it’s like an offshoot of that that goes down into the big fjord and the road has since been converted into an apparently pretty epic kind of gravel cycle route so I’ll ride that and then even further north there’s hessdalen which is the Norwegian kind of UFO hotspot so I’ll go there and see if I can film some fire in the sky to complement my lake serpent that’s kind of a plan really it’s gonna get a bit wild from here and in I’ve got no more luxury rest breaks with friends planned until I’m well on the way home and I get to pound stat down on the west coast of Sweden and stop and see Louise for a bit but that’s least a month away probably six weeks maybe more who knows so I mean in the mean times I’m sure there will be waterfalls and forests and half sightings of deer and just general cycle touring good times we shall see I gotta just spend this afternoon getting my legs back in getting the calluses on my butt cheeks back to their old leathery standard and yeah just remembering what it’s like to sleep in the woods again [Music] but summer house was actually a fairway off the route which I’ve kind of been following to the first few hours of today we’re all backtracking climbing back up to my line on the map but coming around that last corner just now brought me back down into uncharted territory and now I’m back on unexplored roads virgin snow which makes things a lot more exciting it’s not really turning out to be the gold and sunny day – I’d hoped but it’s not bad there’s a bit of a wind there’s some clouds getting overhead but it’s very nice I can feel I’ve lost a bit of me your leg Fitness just from that chunk of days off but it’ll come back as quick as it went I’m sure got some hills up ahead [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that wasn’t a particularly easy pitch the spot I’ve picked is quite nice in the trees in that running water but it’s on an old service roads on pretty much pitching on to sort of broken tarmac yeah the pegs in was fun and there are mosquitoes in here the size of seagulls I’m doused up with repellent and it works pretty well actually deep free Sal to Din or something I got so it’s slightly less horrendously toxic than deep but it seems to work so it’s loads of them so yeah I’m gonna eat very quickly and then get in my tent and get an early one it’s a pretty good day today I think I was about 60-something kilometers so it’s about what I reckoned I might actually try and get up early tomorrow and do a big day but this was just getting the legs back in getting back into being on the bike was an all right ride mostly on roads so particularly inspiring but there will be better to come I’m gonna eat my bolognaise now and yeah see you all in the morning