Day 20-3. Bud to Vinsternes contd.
The next couple of hours was to consist of travelling towards the ferry to Kristiansund, taking the ferry itself and then navigating our way out of Kristiansund. The route became more undulating as the afternoon went on. This was not our main concern, rather the apparent lack of campsites in this part of the coast. We'd realised by now that this area, excluding exceptions such as Bud was nowhere near as popular with tourists and weekend visitors as the South Coast between Kristiansand and Sandefjord. Thus instead of the coast being peppered with campsites of various sizes we were quite limited as to where we could stay if we wanted a place to shower. To stop at Kristiansund would be just a little too early. The only site within reach after Kristiansund was one just after a ferry crossing marked at our map at Aukan. After some discussion we'd decided to try for it even if it meant a bit of a late finish to the day.
Still for now we had to focus on getting to the ferry terminal at Bremsnes and crossing to Kristiansund. About an hour after lunch we entered Bruhagen passing a reasonable shopping centre with at least one supermarket. We'd had to climb to get here as I remember going downhill into the middle of town on the way in. On the way out of town we climbed again which gave us some lovely views of Straumsvågen including a large white factory across the water at Kristvika. Then a little later we saw views of the Bremsnesfjord with Kristiansund in the distance. There we noticed a ferry heading towards Bremsnes and raced to the terminal. In the end we arrived with a few minutes to spare and Damae wandered off to buy some tickets whilst I stood around watching our ferry getting closer and closer.
There followed a stately fjord crossing in the sun, very reminiscent of the approach to Maløy a week earlier. Both towns have a big bridge that the ferry passes under and similar hillsides with colourful houses climbing up from the water to the highest point on the hills. Both crossings were made in the afternoon sun.
On arriving we made our way slowly round the bay with two goals in mind. One was to find a detailed map showing us how to get where we wanted to go whilst the second was to get some bike oil. This was something we'd omitted to take partly because our almost maintenance free bikes were quite new, partly because I forgot. We'd had a lot of rain earlier in the trip and despite having chain guards, it seemed only prudent that after a thousand kilometres to oil our chains. We found a Perry Sport and picked up some sticky oil for the chains. Outside I removed the Rohloff end of the Chainglider on both bikes and dribbled some oil onto both chains. Hmm that sure made a difference reducing that pesky scraping noise. Forty kroner well spent. Whilst I was doing this Damae wandered off to find the Tourist Information and once the bikes were re-assembled we headed up the hill to find a map.
It didn't take long for Damae to get the information that she sought and within a few minutes we were picking our way out of town. As luck would have it there were roadworks on the way out of town as a result of a new 'car only' tunnel that was being built. We had to be careful on this section as the lanes were narrow and road markings were absent in places. With a sigh of relief we turned right at a roundabout and joined a nice wide and separate cycle lane. Then it was a case of following the RV 70 over a couple of bridges and then the RV 680 to the ferry terminal at Øygardsneset and crossing to Tømmervåg (which both of us have forgotten completely).
After the ferry there was some climbing to be done. The scenery had changed again from the scrub and mudflats near Bud to more expansive hills. The weather that had been sunny on our arrival in Kristiansund had started turning and we decided to stop for a break just as the rain started. Fortuitously we found a bus stop in Tustna Kommune with a waterproof wooden bus shelter and took advantage of it. We managed to get the bike saddles out of the rain as well and decided a brew was well overdue.
The rain turned out only to be a shower and not the precursor of a storm. The snack turned out to be a bit longer than planned because of the shower, but by six we were back on the road and heading out into a quieter and wilder landscape. The rain showers had given way to sunshine and clouds and the temperatures remained pleasant. The road followed the coast quite closely, at times narrowing, at others widening where the road crossed bridges. I stopped to take a picture of Torsholmen fjord from the bridge at Tustna. To our surprise two subsequent bridges, not shown on our freytag & bernt map had replaced the ferry service from Aukan.