Day 10. Lunde to Spangereid (Rest Day).
Distance 41.4km. Average 15.1km/h.
We'd talked about having rest days, it didn't quite work out like that but we had a short day on this day. We were tired at Farsund and took some time to get up and going. One of the other disadvantages of doing the route the wrong way round is that you hit a lot of climbs quite early on in the trip. Starting in Sweden would give a bit more time to get used to up and down before the severe tests would start.
So we got up slowly in the sunshine ate a big breakfast of sosmix and lots of mashed potato mix and some strong milky coffee. I fiddled with the bikes a bit of oil some adjustments of brakes and handlebars and we drank lots of tea. At around lunchtime headed back to Farsund. In the harbour Damae spotted a supermarket and went to stock up on goodies and lunch whilst I took in the view and and some photos.
The 43 to Lyngdal was fast or so says one of my sporadic entries in my holiday diary. We picked up some Rød Sprit at Kravik, which turned out to be a bit of a bad idea for two reasons. The first the 210m climb meant we were carrying an extra kilogram and it was very steep in places. Walking was the only option. The second you'll read about on the next page!
On approaching Jasund the sky in front of us darkend and we heard the sound of distant rumbling. As luck would have it we skirted the clouds for at least an hour.
I can't remember for certain but I think this was the section where we encountered newly laid tarmac. Nice and smooth but also incredibly sticky which was about the last thing we needed. Both fatigued that day. It is interesting how the effects of a really hard day are only felt a couple of days later. Learning to pace oneself is a good idea as is improving physical condition.
Approaching Spangeried, the thunderstorm we had been skirting round decided to stop moving and the heavens opened just as we arrived and needed to put up the tent. Damae's wisdom said 'lets try and put this up in the washroom out of the rain' whereas my wisdom was 'get the bloody thing up as quickly as possible so we have some shelter out of the rain'. In the end we both got sodden wet, and squelched off to the local garage/tackle and DIY shop cum takeaway. Fortunately it was not too cold and our coats and cycleshorts started drying out quickly.