Day 14 continued. Kragerø to Bamble.
In truth we should have sat down and eaten something in Kragerø in one of the nice waterside cafes. We did find a tofu selling health food store where we also got some nice soya drinks. Damae had the urge to see the Edvard Munchs lookout point and by the time we had found it we had climbed so far that we didn't really want to lose height again and go back to the cafes. This turned out to be a mistake as we had done 110km the day before and 20km in an hour that morning.
With a grumpy Stan we stopped to do some shopping and then bought some chips from the kiosk next to the supermarket. It was not as nice as a cafe would have been and in the baking sun. With me still feeling dischuffed we headed off, hot and a bit too tired to be cycling and with tender knees.
The 20+km to Valle were really hard work. We passed some roadworks and new junctions (which may or may not have had NSCR signs in the past) and guessed right as to which way we needed to go. By the time we hit Valle we really needed to rest and eat. Valle is a small place with a marina and a restaurant and shops next to the harbour. We both had an excellent 'greek' salad with again wonderfully fresh tasting vegetables and lots of everything, some soft drinks and coffee, all very reasonably priced. Sitting in the afternoon sun we were in no real hurry to carry on. However Langesund was calling us.
The first gentle climb out of Valle was hard I felt heavy and Damae more so. The terrain was not too hard, the scenery nice. It was still very warm.
A little later heading towards Bamble baking in the midday sun we said something like "ooooh look at the map it is less than 15 km to Langesund. We'll make it with plenty of time". If you have been paying attention then you will know that what followed was anything but an easy cycle. We rounded a bend and stopped to check the map, as it appeared to want to send us up a gravel road.
At this point we encountered the following sign and believing it to indicate a degree of suffering ahead paid homage to one Mr Munchs (now deceased). Our perception was entirely correct, although it was another lovely section, we didn't want lovely we wanted easy at that point.
So we started with the first climb round the bend. We made it from a standing start after the usual refuelling and carried on along a reasonably gently undulating road. After a few kilometres the road dipped back down to a small lake, a couple of houses and fields. So far so good. Then came the climb back up from the lake, which looked like it had been tarmaced recently, which seemed rather strange at first.