Day 16-1. Kilen to Dalen.
Distance D 77.15 km Max 51.0 km/h Time 6.06:44 Average 12.6 km/hDistance S 76.92 km Max 49.0 km/h Time 5.27:00 Average 14.1 km/h
The new day started as grey as the previous one ended which wasn't a problem for us. "Why not?" you might ask. Well, besides the price, and the sand the other big disadvantage with the campsite at Kilen was its location. The campsite nestled on the east side of little spur off the Flåvatn and even if the sun had been shining it would not have reached our patch of sand until long after we had left the campsite. So grey was fine with us this morning, we weren't missing out on anything.
We were up and about reasonably early and by a quarter to nine we were in the last stages of packing up. A half hour later we took one last look at the sand, which only later I wondered if it was natural or imported. We'd seen plenty of rock the day before but not much in the way of sand. Except on the gravel tracks. It made me think of the beach at Rovenska in Veli Losinj in the seventies and eighties that was sandy only because of the efforts of the owners. Maybe that was why the campsite at Kilen, like the sandy beach at Rovenska, was so expensive?
We made use of the facilites one last time on the way out and chucked our small bag of rubbish into the bin, hopped on our bikes and headed north towards Kilen. Not long after leaving the campsite we passed the small church "Kilen kapell" with its orange-ish paintwork and the interesting bell tower. It made me think of all the old churches we'd passed earlier in the trip on the NSCR in Germany. The churches that had lost their towers, or towers that had lost their church, or the churches that were only standing due to the addition of huge flying buttresses. I doubted that a small wooden chapel would suffer the fates as the brick churches of Ost Friesland but having a separate bell tower was probably a good idea.
The route took us left at Kilen as we wanted to go towards Kvitseid today, which, if our maps were to be believed, would involve several minor and less minor climbs. The first of these, a minor climb started as we left Kilen. The sun seemed to be making feeble attempts to come out as we started uphill. I paused near the top as I'd spotted the campsite at Kilen across the lake. The sandy beach didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the scenery looking like some sort of scar on the landscape.
Not long after, the sun decided to come out and a couple of minutes later we reached the top of the climb and paused to take in the views and adjust our clothing. The landscape looked lovely in a hazy, hard to photograph sort of way. Across the lake I found a huddle of houses, probably Kåsi and ahead of us was a nice straightish downhill. That looked like it would be fun especially when Damae disappeared out of sight in just a few seconds. I followed suit shortly afterwards and rued the decision to take off a couple of layers after the climb. Still, on the bright side, this was Telemark, Norway and as we have learned "what goes down, must go up". So we'd get a chance to warm up very soon.
As we got nearer to Fjågesund I stopped to look at the view back down the lake. From where I stood as the crow files to the eastern end of the lake was probably fifteen kilometres or so. Although it was still hazy I reckoned that I could see at least ten kilomtres of the lake.