Day 35-3. Sandefjord to Horten via the NSCR contd.
Just before four o'clock the ferry arrived, we boarded and a couple of minutes later were heading towards Tenvik. Just like 2005 we enjoyed the views of the fjords in the afternoon sun. Fifteen minutes after boarding we were on the quayside at Tenvik and, after a quick loo stop started cycling up toward the centre of Nøtterøy and Tønsberg. The first couple of kilometres I chatted to a guy on a mountain bike who had cycled most of the interesting bits of Norway, as a teenager, so went abroad for his holidays these days.
After a while we parted company as Damae had fallen behind on the long gentle climb up from Tenvik. We cycled on together as far as a small supermarket at Borgheim where we stopped for a few groceries. In the vicinity of the supermarket we'd spotted a couple of examples of modified signs. In one case the signs had been partially obscured by the undergrowth and in the other the signs had been twisted to point the wrong way. After Borgheim, we cut across country, West towards Tandstad, although took a wrong turn somewhere and popped out at the junction at Hjemseng (home bed according to my internal translator). We thus followed the RV 309 for a bit longer, encountering the signs to Husøy a few minutes later.
At half five we entered the outskirts of Tønsberg. "Ahhhhhhh this is Tønsberg" we both exclaimed. This was the town we'd both forgotten and had to admit to forgetting it whilst chatting to a Swede on the campsite in Alesund. He moved to Tønsberg so it was quite embarrasing to say "We've been there but can't remember anything about it". Neither of us could work out why we'd both forgotten it (I mean this bridge is memorable in itself) until we realised it was somewhere we'd got a bit lost in on the 2005 trip. This time we wanted to do it right and adopted the 'go straight on if there is no sign' method of navigation. This seemed to work better than in 2005 and soon we were following the signs to the middle of Tønsberg. If we'd followed the signs in 2005 we would have noticed the town was wedged between little hills with small streets that required some care and attention to navigate on a touring bike.
Before we knew it we were heading East on the road out of the centre of Tønsberg crossing the main roads a few times. First a zebra crossing over the RV 300, then we took a modern bridge over the RV 308. This kept us away from the traffic for a bit before we crossed back under the FV 468 and headed South into open countryside. We'd decided to follow the route proper this time, as last time we'd cut off the section South down to Husvik. Half an hour after leaving Tønsberg we encountered seaside suburbia at the tip of Tangen. In 2005 we'd wanted to take the short ferry ride to cut out Tønsberg but it had been out of service. Although much of the next hour would be through built up areas we hoped that we would not get lost. Luckily the signing was good, and although the small roads and streets slowed us a little it was varied cycling. We saw the mother of all tree houses and wondered if the JCB in the foreground had been used to create it. Then there was a long tree-lined bit of the route bathed in dappled sunshine. We followed the quiet roads along the bays, short climbs giving us better views of the scenery. We crossed the road at another zebra crossing following the cycle track as we approached the bay of Surka.