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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2008-->Norway.-->Day 15

Day 15-3. Ålesund to Midsund contd.

Lunch done we headed off, towards Stett before turning left at Eidsvika and this involved some uphill work. The climbs were not too taxing and the scenery kept us occupied. We were crossing the ends of bits of land rather than following flatter coastal roads. We'd heard from the gentleman at lunch that the Remme tunnel a bit further up was actually open to cyclists. This would let us cut off quite a few kilometres from our route down to Brattvåg. We would have preferred to be twenty kilometres further on before we stopped for lunch and we were fairly sure that we'd encounter more undulating roads before we got to Midsund itself. So we decided to take the tunnel and save our legs for later in the day.

From Eidsvika we climbed gently until we approached the tunnel. Just by the entrance there was a safe place to stop so I waited for Damae to catch up. On busier wider tunnels we liked to go through together, one of us at the front on the outside and the other behind on the inside. This maximises our usable light output forward giving the second person a much better chance of seeing and avoiding potholes. The rear light on the leading bike is not obscured either, presenting two red lights to traffic approaching from the rear.

Damae arrived a couple of minutes later and together we cycled slowly through the tunnel. I remember the first section in the tunnel being quite steep but the climb then turned into a fast descent as we exited the tunnel. This meant that we reached Brattvåg quite quickly after taking a left turn down to Håvik. Brattvåg was a bit of a strange place, with a very modern looking church. It was rather quiet even though it was only a quarter past three when we arrived, and we guessed everyone was still at work. We realised we were not going to make Midsund before the shops shut. So Damae went into the Co-op to get some fresh food, whilst I waited outside, watching the comings and goings of the locals.

Then it was a short cycle out to the ferry terminal where we found a quay with a view, or two, ferry timetables and a large map advertising the sights of Midsund. We were going to have to wait a while as the next ferry was not due to sail for around an hour or so. As we'd suspected in Florø our rate of progress was being determined now by the ferry rather than how fast we could cycle. It was hot though with a cooling sea breeze and the ferry serving Harøy and Ona came and went giving us something to look at. Damae sat and read whilst I admired the views around us. Was this a place to come and live?

At twenty past four the ferry arrived and around fifteen minutes later we arrived at Dryna to start the last section of the day. We waited a few minutes for the ferry traffic to pass and to admire the view and we then had the road to ourselves. If we were to follow the route we'd take the Northern road up past Midøya and Bjørnarern. We did consider and try to follow the road on the south side but first of all turned right too soon and ended up on a no-through road. When we finally arrived at the junction we should have turned right at, we decided then to carry on on the route itself. I can't really remember why.

The views along this road were fantastic although I took precious few pictures. We stopped for a couple of minutes to look at the historic border (dry stone wall) between Sweden and The Union of Denmark & Norway which, for a few days in the 17th century marked the dividing line between the two countries at a time of war. If it were not for the small information board by the wall we would have assumed that wall was just a division between two fields.

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