Day 16-2. Kilen to Dalen contd.
Five minutes later I caught first sight of the bridge at Fjågesund, a rather modern looking structure made from concrete and steel girders. I wondered what had been there before this bridge had been built. An older bridge or a small ferry? Or in days gone by you could cadge a lift across the lake with one of the boats that plied their trade along the Telemark canal? I had plenty of time to consider this question as there followed a short climb up to the start of the bridge.
Once on the bridge there were views in both directions. Flåvatn became Kvitseidvatnet on the west side of the bridge. Ahead of me was Fjågesund with its cliff of furrowed and wrinkled rock, a sign of the geological forces that shaped Norway during the last ice-age. There were also a few signs, this being our first real junction since leaving Kilen. Turning left would take us to Grova or place to do some shopping which was but a few hundred metres from the bridge, plus a cycle sign pointing to the canal boat. To the right were signs for Kvitseid, one for cars and the smaller one for National Cycle Route 2. It looked like navigation would not be one of our problems today.
As I waited at the junction for Damae to catch up three children who were playing next to the road paused to look at me. I said "Hi" and got a trio of shy greetings in return. Damae arrived and we waved goodbye to the children before rolling down the short hill just after the bridge. The sun had done a bunk and now we were cycling under bright grey clouds. So far there was no sign of any rain and it was warm enough that we didn't need much more than a T-shirt.
At Rud we climbed from the lake to the heady heights of one hundred and fifteen metres above sea level, actually less than fifty metres above the level of the lake. So only a very minor climb. Once over the top we coasted back down to the lake and ran along it for a few minutes as we approached a tunnel. The tunnel was blasted through a bluff that went straight into the lake. This would have presented many problems for the road builder. However, the cliff was also unstable, a recent looking scar and a pile of rubble at the edge of the lake suggesting that it would not have been a good place to try to put a road.
Just before we entered the tunnel we saw a sign telling road users to be aware that there could be cyclists in the tunnel. The tunnel was unlit but short and our B&M lights made sure we would be visible to other traffic. On the other side of the tunnel the sun was shining and we started climbing up to the high point of the morning. Halfway between Lii and Lindestad we gained a hundred metres taking us up to the dizzy height of a hundred and seventy metres above sea level, before we returned back to the level of the lake. To put this into context some of the peaks above the steep valley walls rose to over one thousand metres.
It was now eleven in the morning and we were around five kilometres from the next junction near to Kvitseid. We pushed on and at half past we arrived at the junction. There we found that our left turn went uphill straight away and looking at the maps it was going to be a three hundred metre climb. We looked at each other and decided that it seemed like a jolly good idea to take lunch at the Kvitseid bygdetun to the right of us.