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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2009-->Summer.-->Day 17

Day 17-3. Dalen to Valle contd.

We sat and ate our dinner, looking up the road towards the next high point. There was a very big saddle in the mountains ahead of us. It reminded me of the old road over Haukelifjell, close to Røldal where the road climbed steeply over a similar saddle. It didn't look like the road we were followuing today was going to go up quite so steeply from here on. It looked like it would just continue to undulate until the final downhill section of the day started. That was more twenty kilometres away point so there was still some cycling to be done. As we sat and ate we noticed that whilst we were not above the tree line we were close to it. The predominant type of tree was now scrub birch instead of mature pine.

We spent about half an hour on our lunch break before we packed up our things. A few minutes after starting off we reached the dizzy heights of seven hundred and ninety metres above sea level. Although there followed a small downhill the next lake we were heading towards (Kjønnerviksvatn) was marked on the map as being eight hundred and twenty metres above sea level (which when I came to write this travelogue puzzled me somewhat). As you can see from this picture looking backwards, the road does appear to drop down to the lake. This suggests that there must have been another higher high point between the last marked high point an the lake. There then followed a relatively easy section as the road skirted Kjønnerviksvatn. We passed a hut with a new roof but the rest of the building was clearly much older. Weathered grey timbers on the side contrasted sharply with the new roof and end gable. A little further we passed the hut at Storestøyl which marked the end of the lake and where the valley narrowed noticeably. Five minutes later we crossed the border between Telemark and Aust-Agder and entered Valle kommune. Our excitement was tempered by the fact that we still had more than thirty kilometres of cycling ahead of us.

Once across the border the road ran downhill to Store Bjørnevatn, and flattened out again. The sun made some more half hearted attempts to shine as we passed some hytte that looked out over the lake. Just before the penultimate marked highpoint, (eight hundred and thirty metres above sea level) I stopped to take picture of the lake. Damae caught me up a few minutes before we crossed the two bridges at Mjåbu. On one side of the bridge the water was calm whilst on the other side of the bridge the sun glistened off ripples created by the gentle breeze.

We were now about five kilometres from the last high point marked on the map. The going was a bit easier than earlier in the day, the weather was not bad and we were feeling quite good. We had paced the climbing well, and taken stops when we needed them. That makes a big difference on a more demanding day. I arrived at the waterfall called Ædansfossen just before three in the afternoon and stopped for a look. This was not actually marked on the map, only later did I find out what it was called. It was a rather modest waterfall but it was nice to see. Damae caught me up again and carried on past me stopping a couple of minutes later to take a picture of me. Fifteen minutes later we reached the last marked high point of the day. Here we found another enormous lay-by, this time on the other side of the road.

The downhill into Setesdal was a hoot. It was steep without being scary and winding without too many slow hairpin bends. It was such fun that I couldn't bring myself to stop and take a picture. We did the seven or so kilometres in less than fifteen minutes and arrived at the junction with the main road to find a set of cycle route signs. Cycle routes 2 and 3 merge for a short while near to Valle so we were back on familiar territory. Well almost, as we immediately encountered a section of road that had been widened and resurfaced since our previous summer holiday in 2008.

Setesdal was narrow at the point we joined it but soon started opening up. Before we knew it we were cycling through lush green farmland. Ten minutes from Valle I spotted a second old Volvo tipper truck parked by the side of the road and stopped to take a picture. This was in much better condition than the one we had seen in Holtebu at the beginning of the day. It looked like it was in use still, probably someone's pride and joy. I caught Damae up and we cycled the last couple of kilometres to the campsite. The sun decided to go shortly afterwards so Valle look rather grey as we approached it as did Valle's signature bare rock cliffs.

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