week 1 part 2

Day 4

today was off to a bad start as the stove would not light so no breakfast, we decided to pack up and head on for a bit then stop and attempt to fix the stove. We found a nice marina with picnic benches where we could sit and get the stove woprking again. It was justa bit of grim in the fuel line but it took a joint effort to get it apart and cleared we then enjoyed a nice cup of tea and some breakfast. We then headed for Jørpeland where we found the public library and updataed the blog etc. It is again a very hot day, it has become almost impossible to cycle between 12 and 3 as the heat is just to much, this has come as a bit of a shock to us as we had planned on a pretty cold wet holiday and as such have not brought a lot of summer stuff. My sleeping bag comfort rating is around -5 so i am sweltering at night. We had a major climb out of Jørpeland and I hit my low point of the trip and got of the bike about a quarter of the way up the hill and sat at the side and cried. It was just so hot and so steep. Daan was great and talked me back on to the bike, once we got to the top we stopped for some extra banan and peanut power. this seem to help me on a bit and the cycling got a bit easier. We were cycling along the RV13 which was a wee bit busy so we had to cycle in file rather than next to each other. We then had a bit of a decent along this very small road which was covered in very fine loose gravel and the bends on it were so steep,ly cambered it resembled one ofthese speed cycling racinging circuits, it was absolutely terrifying, but at least it was down hill. we were aiming for Songsand but we eventually gave up near woodstock as the uphills just got to much and were both fit to drop. we later realised that one of the problems is probably that we are not eating enough for the amount of work we are doing. we only mangaed 18 miles today but i think 17.5 of them were up mountains. we got atop speed of 33.8miles which I was very impressed as most of the down hills have to many bends to get up to any speed withought risking dropping over the edge into the nearby fjords!

Day 5
I am so glad we stopped where we did yesterday as this morning we walked a few metres up the road and had the most amazing outdoor was. there were these huge waterfalls and great big expanses of smoothed rocks it really was like the bathroom of the Gods, I washed my hair and it was totally dry in under 15mins which may give you and idea ofthe heat already. We had a little more uphill to do today until we got to Lyngsvatten then it was down hill all the way to Songsand. The road just stops at the pier so you have to be a bit careful to use your brakes early, Songsand is a really fabulous little village with a little school that looked just like the one in the Waltons. On the pier is a little waiting room \building, which we decided we would make our room for the night to save putting up at the tent as the ferry that we were to catch the next day left at 6:50 and we didnt fancy trying to pack up that early in the morning. The waiting room had a sign on the door sayinmg please keep closed or else the goats will come in, and they were right there were about 15 goats who seem to sit about on the pier and around the waiting room until some secret signal when the all troop of back up the hill. We decided to take a walk ato the DNT hut at Bakken so we could see hwat it looked like, it was about an hours walk along the coast which involved some preety serious scrambeling over rocks and along chained pathways, but it was well worth it just for the stunning views of the fjord. Once we got there we dicovered that next to the hut is an old farm which is owned by the community after the previous owner got up and walked out. there is no services to this area and there were two mebers of teh community who where there to bring in the seasons supplies of gas bottles, loo roll etc they had got the ferry in that afternoon and had a litle lift which they use to bring the things up to teh farm, so after helping them with some chores ...Daan got the worst job of helping empty 2 cells of teh composting toilet and I got teh job of helping a rather cak handed It guy fix a loose drain pipe, they invited to stay for dinner whic turned out to be a graet feast of shrimps , mayonnaise salad and braed along with vast quantities of alcohol. we then sta outs ide in around a bonfire and had a jolly evening. We headed back down to the pier at around 10ish which was a little scary as daan was rather merry and this was no stroll in the park however we made it down with realatively few misshaps. Id id however have to persuade Daan it was not a good idea to scarmbel down the ricks into the fjord top harvest mussels as 1. he would likely fall in 2. there was no way I was letting him near a petrol stove with a match in his current state of merry ment and 3. if we kept them till tomorrow we would probably get shellfish poisining and die! he eventually accepted my arguments and we headed back to our beds. Just as we settled down Daan pinted out this rather annoying noise of a generator and said "do you think that will be running all night as it is really loud and I wont get any sleep" as I tried to respond to him he started to snore extremly loudly, needless to sya I got no sleep that night and Daan got plenty. only cycled a total of 14 miles but we ran out of road so not much we could do about that.


Day 6
Very early start to the day to catch the super fast ferry which litteraly throws itself into the harbour you jump on beforet he gangway is fully down and it speeds of. Daan loved it he took some graet pictures it really was like being on a sppedboat ferry. I currled up inside and tried to catch up on some sleep. Only to soon we arrived at Lysebottom and started our climb and oh my what a limb...remeber we hada super early start and as such had no breakfast but as it was so hot we decided it was best to ush on and eat in the shade latter. Well this climb which includes 27 switch backs and a 1.1km tunnel which is uphill. We made it to the cafe whcih is called the eagles nest this is about 640km above sea level, and I had realised we were going high when buses of base jumpers went passed. most people going up really cheered me on as I struggled up. We were erewarded to find that the oublic toilets had showeres so we werwe stright in, I quite quicky realised I was recovering as well as I should and very soon had my head down the toilet trying to be sick only there was absolutely nothing inside me to bring up. Daan was great he got me tcuked up in teh shade and made me some mash potatoes which he ended up having to spoon feed to me, and a cup of peppermint tea. I don't remeber feelins so bad before. I think it was a combination of lack of sleep, lack of food adn mild sun stroke. we basicallys ata about for the rest of teh afternoon, the restraunt opened up as there was some big bust trips coming in so we went in and had suasage and fries whchw as delicious. We had planned to walk to teh Kjeragbolten that day but I really wasn't in any condition for a 5 hour round walks. So as soon as I felt up to it we cycled further on which was still up hill for a long way we eventually got to the top which was 932m...that would count as a munro...and I cycled up it!! We meet some guys who were on a works team building exercise which involved cycling up the hill, althought the had a the lates gear adn super lightweight bikes they seemed to walk up the hills and free wheel down, I think they got a bit disheartened when Daan very casually cyclwed becide them for a while chatting whilst not looking like he was putting in any effort even with the bikes fully loaded then Daan just cycled ofgfa dn they all got off and walked. It helped me a lot as I keep comapring myself to Daan and getting frustrated and how hard I am finding it, but tos ee these guys give up made me realise that Daan really is extremly fit adn at least I haevn't had to walk up any of the hills yet I just keep taking my braeks and pushing on. We eventually got to the sign post for the DNT hut Børsteinen. And we new we had at least a 10 minute walk in, so we decided to walk to the huta dn see if it was open before we trekked allteh kkit in. Unfortunately when were about half way there we have to cros sthe water whcih has large lumps pf floating ice, and the bridge has been swept away in the winter. Daan showed his mountain goat skills by leaping across the water, i decide to stay on this side until he has checked out the hut, after a few minutes he comes back saying it is perfect, so we decide to head back out and get the bags, unfortunatley on his return leap of the water he misjudges domewaht and plunges in up to his waist! he turns blue rather quickly, so I run back to the bikes for dry clothes and the stuff we will need for the night. whilst Daan strips out of the wet clothese and huddles ina small dip in the ground. Once we get him into some dry clothes, we then both succesfully cross the water however I do accidently drop his trainers in and have to splash in after them, so we are both now wet a cold. Howevere when we get to the hut we realise it was so worth it. It is jsut fabulous, we get the log burning stove going to dry out the clothes and then set about preparing an fabulous 3 course meal, it was fantastic, latter on Marcus arives he is from Switzerland and is walking from hut to hut, he had come in from the other direction from us and had also taken a cold plunge traying to cross a different part of the water. We fed him some wedding cake and coffee and he soon warmed up.

Day 7
We decided that we would walk/hitch back down to the eagles nest and do the walk to the Kjeragboltena s we could face the cycle back up ( I say we but it was mostly me and daan was kind enough not to push me) We were in some wasys a bit unlucky with getting a lift as we had to walk for about 2 hours but yo really cant complain about walking when teh scenery is just so stunning. Eventually a German couple in a camper van gave us a lift the rest of the was and Daan had a nice chat with them in German. We then walked up to the Kjeragbolten this is a great big bolder which has dropped and is wedged between to cliff faces you can walk out on it and are standing hundreds of feet above the fjord. Daan wasnt to keen on the cliff edges at first and got a bit queesy when I went to close...it was truly spectacular. the actual bolder bit was okay but here were other view points that would take your braeth away. I watched some base jumpers for a ehile, whilst Daan wondered off. Once we got back we took advantage of the showers again, then we got a lift from two very burned norwegian girls back to teh turn off for the hut. Once we got back to the hut Marcus had left us a little note and a prsent of some powdered rum punch for the cold nights and a eyes mask for daan in the light nights as he is finding theis constant day light aa bit of a problem. So 0 miles sycled toaday but a fantastic walk.

Day 8
We weer both a bit sad to leave the lovely hut but time came to press on we had a huge braekfast of porridge then rice inorder to try and prevent any more reccurances of the previous days. The good news is that we were mostly descending for the rest of the day with only a few minor uphill bits. We stopped in Sinnes to buy some essential supplies as we had eaten pretty much everything we had. We made a discovery of banana goo whcih is banana, oil and sugar so super banana turbo power , it is pretty nice when added to milk in the drinks bottle shaken for a few minutes nad you have a fab milk shake. We stopped at Dogrefossen for lunch, This is meant to be a really impressive waterfall but it only a meer trickle at the minute due to teh hydropowere system adn the lack of rain. We had decided to hold of buying extra food until Tonstad as this si s alrger town and would be cheaper...big mistake, it turns out that on Staurdays the supermarkets shut by 3pm, so we were very low on food. We then had a climb out of tonstad having raelised thatwe were down to our last packet of risoto and then had just resurfaced the road so it was like cycling on toffee. I was really strauggelinga nd when we go to a picnic stop part way up the hill I had to stop luckily Daan was waiting for me a took my bike as I would have jsut fallen off otherwise. We found som shade by the stream and decdide to sit out of the sun for a while. Once we finally got to the top I was feeling pretty feeble and was just commenting on how Is eem to finding the hills harder rather than easier and I didnt understand why my fitness was not improving, when Daan told me to turn around and there was a warning sigh explaing that it was 10% gradient so that made me feel a bit better. We set up camp at eth junction of Moi, and iw as mightly gald to be back in the tent. We cycled 46.17 miles today with a new max speed of 34.9

Day 9

It is os hot today we had to get out of the tent at 7am as we were boiling. We had agreat cycle all down hill to Egersund, it was nice as it wasnt really steep downhills so you still had to pedal but you felt really good about it. When we arrived we used the public toilets to freshen up and I got to put on my clean blouse and look like a girl for the first time this holiday, it felt lovely. We then went to the nearest cafe for some food, I oculd tell daan was exhausted as he was jsut right this will do, wheras normallyw e have to look around for ages to find the prefect palce to eat. We ordered large fries each adn might me they wer large, we also ordered a prawn sald for me and a hot dog for daan, the girl looked confused when we orderd and it soon became clear why wene Daans hot do arrived with prawns in mare rose sauce all in the one bun, itw as rather funny amd we split it up, between us. After a walk round the town and a snoooze on a bench we cycled on to Eigerøy and stopped athe beach. We spent the rest of the day alteranating between sunbathing on the beah and hiding in the shade. Daan then went foraging to supplement our food supplies as we only had a packet of pea soup left and not much water, he collected lots of winkles which we boiled in salty sea water, then spent about and hour tweeking them out of their shells. Along with this we had sea kale and porridge with some mayoinnaie, it was one of the best meals we had so far. We then went for acycle down to the light house, whcich was lovely cycle/wlak although we were both pretty tired by the time we got back, we set up tent on the shore front rather close to some trees inorder to try and get some shade in the morning so we didnt get boiled out of the tent. we did 36.5 miles today with a new impresive top speed of 39.9 miles per hour