Day 13. Lillesand to Risør.
Distance around 110km. Average 16km/h.
The following morning we left in sunshine again not quite ready for the marathon that we ended up doing. A short sharp climb up to the road (rather like climbing up to a Dutch dike), handing back the card for the showers and we were off. The wonderful meal and the magical sunset were still rattling round in our heads as we headed off.
Bearing in mind that we wanted to get at least somewhere near Risør that evening we were a bit perturbed to hit another unmetalled section shortly after leaving Lillesand. This happened a few times on the trip, usually proceeded by Damae looking at the map and saying something like 'the next section looks like it will be easy' (particularly during a mid-afternoon dip or when rushing to reach a ferry/campsite or something at the end of the day :) It was however a very lovely section through cool woods not as extremely steep as earlier off road sections. At one point it dropped down to a canal with boats on it, which was a bit of a surprise to see.
We stopped to eat twice in that day, once in Grimstad, chips coffee and chocolate from a kiosk where the heavens opened. The kiosk was in the harbour and behind it were public toilets which were welcome. We dropped in at the tourist information to check the ferry times, which a nice lady looked up for us.
We stopped sometime later in Arendal to take off our rain coats after a short shower had passed and Damae nipped in to an office building for another call of nature. I took a picture of Arendal as you do, as it had a nice brick church with a copper roof which reminded me of the one in Bergen.
The second food stop was at tea time at a pizza restaurant 100m from the route and I think that it must have been in Tvedesand. There was a cash machine nearby and a Narvesen newsagent across the road from the restaurant, so whilst we were waiting for the pizzas to arrive we stocked up on chocolate and other sugary products. I remember that the heat of the previous days had gone due to the showers which was a relief. The food which arrived quickly was good, and cheap, and a couple of colas later we paid up and headed on.