Trondheim

Day 36
Well we have finally got some internet access and some time to update the blog properly so I thought I should work my way backwards. we are currently staying with a really nice couple in Trondheim who are on the warm shower list, which is a list of cyclist all over the world who are willing to let you come camp in their garden and use there bathroom and washing machine. It has been lovely to stop cycling, we had planned to spend the day in Trondheim but we are both so tired that we are just pottering about the house, we need to do some repairs to the bikes before we head on for the next section so we are planning an afternoon of repairs. Unfortunately my bike seems to be taking a bit of battering so far I have broken the fron pannier rack which is now held together with some elastoplast, I have slow puncture in my front tire and my back tire is bald, yesterday we bought a new back pannier rack for my bike as the existing one had snapped in half! Daans bike is fairing much better with only the bolt for his stand having broken.

Day 35
we only had 35 miles to do today to get to Trondheim so we thought we would be in for a nice easy cycle, and we were for most of it. We had camped in midge hotspot the night before so we decided to get up early and get on the bikes as fast as we could then stop for breakfast at the first town we came to. Which was fab as we were on the road for 8:00am. We had thought it would be a bit of a head down and cycle sort of daya s the road we were cycling on was the E39 is the main road north, however we made a fantastic discovery, which was that the old E39 still runs alongside the new super highway. The Norwegians are fantastic in the is way when they want to improve a road they don't widen it or rebuild on top they build a totally new seperate road then they convert theold one in to a cycle road. In this case the road is still used by locals for access to villages etc but we were lucky if we saw 20 cars all day! Then to make things even better the old road runs all along the coast which is totally stunning wheras the new road runs through the hills with no where near as good a view. We fairly flew along the first 20 miles, then the temperature started to rise and with it came this really strong hot gusty wind which was like cycling into a wall so the final 15 miles were a bit more of a grind. We then had to go find a bike shop to buy a replacement pannier rack and tire for my bike, luckily the had a rack which is supposed to take 25kg like my last one, however like the last one it is also made of aluminium so I guess it will also eventually break. I am planning on upgrading to tubular steel once we get home, but we were just so realieved to find a shop that sold something as touring cycling is not really a big thing in Norway.

Day 34
Wow we set a new daily distance record today of 68 miles, we had such a fantastic cycle and both of us could have carried on further except thath it was around 11pm when we stopped and I was getting very sleepy and starting to swerve a lot on the road so we decided to make camp. I was amazedat how well I had managed with the days cycling. My fitness levels seem to have finally started to improve and I have noticed that my average speed is also getting better. when we started this trip my comfortable speed whilst on a flat was around 12 miles per hour and a few days a go I noticed I was going up a slight incline yet my speed was 13.7 miles per hour. I can now comfortably cycle next to daan at between 16 and 17 miles per hour. We stopped today at about 5pm in town and made a monster dinner,
which reallys et us up for the long evening cycle, however we were a bit low on water so when we got to a junction where it had a sign for a WC going in the wrong direction Daan decedide he would take the water bottles and cycle down to get the water then cycle back up, in the meantime I would cycle on and he would catch me up, I cycled on and afetr 10 miles I stopped to have some cake as a reward for staying ahead of daan for 10 miles and I planned to wait for him but the midges were ferocious so I had to cycle on, then after another 5 miles I stopped for another cake stop and as there was a toilet at this stop (which wasnt marked on the map) Idecided to wait for Daan at this poin, he took another 10 minutes to get to this point. I was really impressed with myself becasue when we started this trip Daan would have easily caught me with 3 or 4 miles. We then cycled on together, it was fabulous as we were cycling in the evening the temperature had dropped so it was really pleasant to cycle and the roads were really quite. We are really heading intop midge\mosquito areas now and it is getting hard to find camp spots where we dont get eaten alive.

Day 33
We cycled from Bådlen to Auren today it was a bit of a tough cycle at times due to the wind, which was really bizarre as it was blowing really hard but it was really warm air, it was sort of like cycling into a giant handdryer. We met a nice Spanish cyclist today on the ferry to Kristiansund, he seems to have about 60% less baggage than we do, however he seems to be sleeping on camsites and only carring the food for each day, Daan and I really need to focus on a more minimilst packing system fopr our next trip. Today was the day that my back pannier snapped in half at the barcket which holds it on to the bike. Daan managed to wedge it together enough to let us continue with teh cycle and limp our way to Trondheim. We stopped at one point as there is suposed to be a DNT hut not far from the road, so again I took the easy optiona nd staid with the bikes whilst Daan went see if he could find it, unfortunately we do not have the maps for this area. Whilst daan was away I met a nice Dutch couple who hada campervan and they come to Norway every year, when daan eventually appeared back haveing been unable to find the hut they invited us in for coffee, which was very nice, from the stories they told us I think they travel around picking up strays like us and warming them up with hot drinks. We camped near the sea shore that night and there was loads of fish jumping out of the water,
Daan really wanted to get the fishing rod out but we were just to tired.


Day 32
Today we cycled over the Atlantkerhavsvein which basicallya really high bridge. I was a bit worried when we stopped at the bottom of the bridge as it looks like it just goes straight up and you dont see and of the second half of the bridge almost like those bridges which split in the middle to let boats pass under them. Howvere once we were on it, it wasnt so bad and I managed to get to the top really easily. Daan has a friedn who he has known since university who lives in this area, he had lost touch with er but had looked her up on teh internett before we left and it turns out she has a restraunt really near the bridge, so we thought we would call in on the of chance that she would be ther. And she was, I think she go a bit of a shock when Daan walked passed the kitchen window and said..hello Quirien! The restraunt has only been open a year so theye are still having to put in a lot of work, but it is absolutely fabulous they found the site then they found an old house that was for sale they bought the house and took it down transportedit to the site and rebuilt it as a restraunt. The restaurant is called Bjartmars Favorit Kro, we had fabulous hearty fish soup and delicious pie, it was so good, Quirien was able to sit and chat for a while as we happend to have called in between the busy times, which was lucky, she then invited us to stay with her and her partner Jarle and their 3 year old son. Which was lovely so we went for a wee cycle around the area and went so see some rock carvings then went to their home for the night. It was fanatstic we did 41.25 miles today, and had a lovely relaxed day.

Day 31
we did 40 miles today and I was feeling a bit lethargic. We caught the ferry to Molde and then had a bit of monster climb out of Molde. We camped on a beach which was full of mussels and cockels so we harvested loads and added them to our dinner. It was delicious. the mussels were huge, its very odd they do not really eat them in Norway even although they have such great supplies of them.