Navigation
Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2008-->Norway.-->Day 4

Day 4-4. Valle to Haukeli contd.

As we were finishing our sarnies and drinking the last of our tea, the DGG turned up and stopped for his lunch. We swapped information about the route, and discovered that he was not taking any of the tracks just sticking to the main road. His daily distances were the same as ours which cheered us up. We had already realised that he was a man of strong opinions, and was not impressed with our waterproof (German) panniers even though he acknowledged that his (Dutch) panniers had not kept any of his gear dry in the last couple of days. Niether did he think that Rohloffs were a good idea, preferring to soak his chain with WD40 in a regular basis to keep his derailleur working.

We smiled inside and saying doei headed back on our way. Emboldened by the fact that (apart from the one sandy section) the route as marked on our maps was good we took the diversion through the town centre. This turned out to be a bit of a bad idea as the town was much higher than the main road leading to rather a lot of unnecessary climbing, and we were in the middle of our post-prandial dip. The centre of Bykle was not exceptionally beautiful although the town hall had a nice lawn cum flower garden in front of it, and to cap it all a short rainstorm with strong gusts of wind hit us as we were leaving town. Donning raincoats we headed back out to the main road and plugged on uphill.

After a good half hour of light rain we and the storm parted company. With the sun shining we had to stop to take off our rain gear. The terrain had changed quite spectacularly from earlier in the day and we were now cycling along a broad valley with a wide river at the bottom of it. This sort of landscape we had not seen before in Norway and it reminded us of bits of BC. The cycling was now easier than earlier in the day although it would continue to be punctuated with short steep sections which did give us a different view of the landscape. One advantage of following the main road was the facilities along the way. At around three in the afternoon we hit this quaint toilet which despite the fact that we were now in a good rhythm we decided to make use of. We were not sure when the next one would appear, and given that lay-bys with facilities are spaced for vehicle drivers it could well be a long wait before we hit another one.

Then we carried on, the going remaining easy, the sun warm. It was about to get too warm for us as a half hour later we took another diversion away from the main road. This time we were directed not only by the map but by another route 3 sign. We'd looked at this loop earlier in the day on the map and it seemed to involve going sharply up or at the least up. The first bit turned out to be quite flat skirting a series of small lakes with more signs of hytte development on either side of the road. It was not really a wilderness here but rather full of people (for Norwegian standards that is).

It took us a half hour to reach the big test of the afternoon. We turned right after a reasonable climb to see an amazing wall of rock. On checking the map later it looked like it must have been the Vatnedalsdammen. Damae thought it was amazing enough to stop and take some photos. I looked at the hill ahead of me and decided that if I stopped I would end up walking the rest of the hill. This was the first moment where I was really glad that we'd got the 17 tooth rear cog fitted to our Rohloffs. Even with this I was struggling just a little to get up the hill. I cheered myself up with the thought that at the top of the hill there would almost certainly be a view which would make a great place for a cuppa. I was not to be disappointed and on reaching the top, in the hot midday sun, saw mountains and valleys all around me. However it was not the place to stop for a cuppa as within a minute of stopping a rather large hornet like insect started taking an unfortunate interest in my yellow Ortliebs and worse still the salt deposits on my arms and face.

Normally I'd have swatted a wasp but this insect was the Rambo on speed of the wasp world. Pumped up by the heat and a need for salt it zipped around me giving me no chance to hit it. By now, Damae was in sight and at first she was a bit curious to see me doing a rain dance at the top of the hill. Five minutes later she was standing next to me and suffice it to say the 'wasp' was not choosey about its victim and apparently not interested in yellow Ortliebs either. Damae quickly agreed that it was time to get moving and we headed off down the other side of the hill. This turned out to be as steep as the other side and saw both of us cracking 60km/h, Damae hitting 64km/h at one point. Gee, this was fun and made the climb well worth the effort.

Previous page Next page