Stranded, but sunshine

Our first day in Stavanger was the start of 2 weeks of beautiful summer weather with hot days and long nights. It was even muggy and humid on occasions, and only rained once.

Unfortunately the next 2 weeks only included 1 day of the continuation of our tour.

On the first full day in Stavanger Nadia and I headed out to a bikeshop in an area called Madlakrossen. There we were entertained for an hour by the 2 staff who were surfers and were happy to have someone to talk surfing with. Eventually we got around to the bikes and with some good advice and a new brake cable and safe in the knowledge that Norway has the best surf in Europe, we headed into town to have a look around.

This week is set to be a big party week in Stavanger, with the town hosting a leg of the World Cup Beach Volleyball Tour.

We found the fish market and sampled some prawns - nice, and some fish cakes - very nice. A bit of shopping next to buy some new lures, a new fork after mine became prongless at last night's dinner, and thongs. After this it was home to rest.

The Friday started with bike maintenance and then a trip to the airport to meet Jon Cope. His plane was on time, he came off all smiles and life was looking good.

But then... a phonecall to the transport company in charge of delivering Jon's bike and tent would change all that. Jon's bike was at this present time... misplaced. Where is it? 'Not sure, but it might be in Holland.' When will it get here? 'Not sure, but it might arrive tomorrow, but because tomorrow is Saturday you can't collect the bike until Monday.'

So that was that for now, Monday at the best, but it might be up to a week before the bike arrives.

Back at camp we had to relocate to the trees as Jon's tent is with his bike. So after getting some ropes strung out between the trees, we threw one of the tarps over, and Jon had himself a 'shack' until his package arrives.

A night out on the town was in order to celebrate Jon's arrival, and a very nice arvo was had sitting in the sun at the docks, watching some volleyball and listening to some live music coming from 1 of the plethora of bars along the waterfront. We met the Australian Institute of Sport girls from Adelaide who were competing in the tournament and had ourselves some pizza for dinner. After the consumption of lots of beer, we wandered home and got back to camp at 2 a.m. with still enough sunlight to walk without a torch. It has been only a few days since the longest day of the year, and now that the weather has cleared up the light is going throughout the night and into the next morning, which happens at about 4.30 a.m.

Saturday morning was spent like we were uni students, with a sleep in and hangovers all round. Saturday afternoon had us all heading into town again to eat more fish cakes and watch the Aussie girls be convincingly beaten by Belgium. Kerri Pottharst is in town and was keen to say g'day after we called out to her, until she realised we were nobodies in the volleyball world, and was suddenly very busy. But no to worry, as we were off to another bar. At this bar we were served by a young lady from Bayswater, and who informed us the manager was from Bairnsdale, but still no discounts for a fellow Gippslander.

Pulpit Rock was the day trip destination on the Sunday for Jon and me, with Nadia opting out due to issues with cliff edges.

Pulpit Rock is a massive rock slab stretching up 604 vertical meters from the fjord below, and sitting just separated from all the other rock around it, with a small gap that can be stepped across. The top of the slab is a flat 25 by 25 meter square of bare rock. The Norwegian name for the rock is Prekestolen.

The journey to Prekestolen started with a bike ride down to the harbour in town. From there a short ferry ride to the town of Tau, and then a bus up to Prekestolen village before arriving at the starting point for the hike up to the rock itself. Instead of charging straight onto the walking track with all the other tourists from the bus we took a downhill path to the lake beneath us and found ourselves on a nice little beach for some good photos and a stretching session.

Once heading up the hill we quickly reeled in all the more elderly tourists and made our way to the cliff faces where stunning views abounded. Prekestolen is a very popular place and at the top, even though early in the day, we were just 2 of the hundreds of faces buzzing about. There were even hikers up there who found it necessary to have their dogs along. What the dogs thought of this is unknown. So after moving from 1 photo pozzie to another for an hour or so we headed a bit off track to a lower cliff and found ourselves alone for a very peaceful lunch with a good view back up to Prekestolen itself. We probably also are now featuring in thousands of photos taken by the people on the cliff above. At least we will give their photos some depth perspective.

On the way down we stopped for a swim in a mountain lake, and then caught all the transport legs in reverse to arrive back at camp for dinner and a rest.

The next few days were more swimming days. 1 local beach has 3 giant iron swords coming out of the rocks at the end of the beach. We didn't know the local name of the beach, so we named it Sword Beach. At another beach further away we were planning to camp, but the beach was lacking trees, and as Jon was still sleeping under a tarp, this was no good, but the beach was nice.

This then takes us to Wednesday. On Wednesday we were still calling and chasing Jon's bike. We now were fairly uncertain that Jon's bike may or may not at one stage never have been in Bangkok, or Holland, but we are welcome to call again tomorrow. The general gist of it is that we wouldn't be getting access to the bike until Saturday at the earliest, and as it would be a Saturday, we couldn't pick it up until Monday.

So with this knowledge safely confusing us we decided to send Jon out on my bike for a few days on his own, to take his mind off things.

That left Nadia and myself in Stavanger for a few days of trying to chase up Jon's bike, watching the volleyball, seeing the Aussie girls lose again, organising photos, reading books and making friends with other campers in the park.

Sunday brought us a beautiful day to celebrate Nadia's 25th birthday. The day started early as we wanted to listen to the Cats V's Saints 'clash of the Titans' footy game, which turned out to be a cracker of a game. When this had finished we were joined by 2 Slovakians who we had become friends with over the last few days. As they knew it was Nadia's birthday, they came to join us with a bottle of brandy. It was only 10.30 in the morning but we were away.

After a few drinks at camp it was off to a park near town to listen to a free piano concert, and then into the harbour area to wander about and play at the park. Katarina and Thomas left us there, while we went and found some cheap icecreams and waited for Jon to get back from his adventure. Once reunited we were back to camp for dinner and birthday cake. A very pleasant day indeed.

The Monday brought good news with the missing bike situation, in that it might be right to be picked up the next day. It also brought rain. This lead to the amusing situation of Jon, who was still tent-less, joining us for the night, making it 3 in Nadia's little tent.

The situation was all rectified the next day though as we were able to get Jon's bike, and after collecting the package and putting the bike together we rode back to camp and prepared for departure the next day.

Throughout our stay at the campground in Stavanger we were kept entertained by the goings on of the gypsies. When we first arrived, 2 caravans of people with Spanish semblances were all ready in residence. They kept to themselves in a very noisy way and conducted conversation from one end of the campground to the other. We didn't think too much of the fact that both the caravans were identical, as they looked like nicely designed vans, or that they had a lot of washing to do each day, usually consisting of half a dozen doonas and armfuls of bed sheets taken about by 4 of the 17 gypsy kids. What first grabbed our attention was the amount of kids emerging from these 2 caravans, with our best count being a good dozen per caravan. Also, the angle grinding that took place for about an hour each night. What they were grinding is a mystery. Why they were grinding had us baffled, but hey, each to their own.

Over the next 2 weeks the number of gypsies increased, as did the number of identical caravans. By the end there were 11 caravans - all identical, all parked in a defensive position on the hill, and not parked next to each other, but with a good grassy patch in-between each, giving them control over a large area of the park.

Our last day at the campground in Stavanger saw a confrontation that had been brewing for a week or so, and thankfully, the good guys won.

This confrontation was between the gypsies who believed they had ownership through weight of numbers of the laundry room, and myself, representing all the other campers. The first round was against one of the young mothers who put in a half hearted performance with an argument based around the story that she had been up since 6.30 to get her washing done and she only had 2 more loads to do. This I countered with 'we waited all day yesterday while you did all your washing then. She must have been thinking that there would be no fightback, as she looked shocked and gave up meekly, saying that I was not a nice person, but we could use the washing machine next, then disappeared back to the gypsy fort to spread the word and send in the big artillery.

The big gun arrived and the knockout round was an epic battle of wits between me and a 14 year old girl speaking in her second language. She had several arguments lined up ready to spit at me like a dragon breathing fire. She was quick, wily, well rehearsed and was obviously more at home in an argument than I. After I was able to squeeze past a few jousts she was running out of options and came up with a classic, that even though her family had been washing nonstop for the last 2 weeks, this was only her first load for the day. After this failed to move me she was starting to look a bit desperate and thought an all out offensive would work but it ultimately led to her downfall. The line she gave me (remembering she was only a 14 year old girl and speaking her second (possibly 3rd) language) was 'shut up when I'm speaking!' After a quizzical second whilst trying to figure out if I was mishearing I burst into laughter and that broke her. She gave up then, but even in defeat she still had enough anger to strike at me with 'but you can't have the dryer'.

Waterfalls and Vikings

Waterfalls and Vikings.

A perfect weather day greeted us on Wednesday, the 28^th day of our trip. After exchanging email address with the German lady and having 1 last chocolate-chino for the road, we were off and away from Ebne and heading towards Kryping. We had to stop at Kryping for the night, as this was where our tour boat was picking us up the next morning.

We stopped in a little town called Skanevik and I spent an hour and a half of this glorious day standing inside a servo trying to get a Norwegian SIM card organised for my phone.

After leaving Skanevik we hit the 2 hills of the day. In Nadia's words they were 'dramatic' hills. I referred to them as 'big fuck off hills'. The first climb was about 3km, followed by a flat section of a good 400 meters before the second climb began. At the top we had ourselves a well deserved lunch shared with many flies, and Norway does the same annoying little buggers as we have at home, the little bush fly.

After all that climbing we had the joy of an 8% decline back to the highway we left a few days ago, before arriving nice and early at the Kryping campsite. A very friendly lady booked us in and seeing we were in a tent (the only people in the whole campground without a caravan) gave us the grim news that it was predicted to rain, but that she had some old cabins that she doesn't like and that we could stay in one of those if it started to rain. We thanked her and put up the tent, before I went off fishing. It was a few minutes later when the promised rain came and came in fu.., I mean bucket full's.

So we ran to the cabin carrying as much as we could, then Nadia started hanging our wet gear while I completed a dozen trips bringing back armfuls of gear. But eventually we were all in the cabin and with gear drying we were able to cook up on the little stove and save our own fuel.

 It pelted it down all night and the wind howled but by morning it had settled down a lot, which was good for us, as today was the day of our fjord cruise. Even still it was our worst day of weather in Norway up to this point, with rain on and off all morning and into the early arvo.

When packed up we rolled our bikes down to the pier and were helped onto our cruise boat which had just pulled in. We were the only passengers all the way to Akrafjordtonet, which was where the tour would begin. The people running the tour were very chilled fellas and were happy for us to leave our bikes on the boat all day as they ran other tours. Our actual tour was the second tour of the day.

Whilst waiting for our tour to begin we were approached by a young lass who wanted to interview us for the local newspaper, as this was the grand opening day of the tourism season. And apparently only the second tour season ever in this fjord, so they were pretty excited to have some foreigners to make it sound a bit more worldly.

The tour we had chosen was a boat trip up the Akra fjord, with the spectacle of Langfoss Waterfall the highlight of the trip. For the tour there were 6 people (all of which were foreigners I think), so an easy first day for the crew, who were happy to give us commentary and made it very enjoyable despite the poor weather.

Just the views of the fjord from the water were special enough, and then we got to the main waterfall and it was spectacular. The Langfoss Waterfall is 612 meters of water cascading down the rockface from somewhere up above us and ending in plumes of spray that covered our boat which pretty much put its bow under the bottom of the falls. I was fairly wet from the rain already, but that was just on top of me. But after the boat finally backed away from the falls, I was wet through from every angle.

Back to Akrafjordtonet and that was meant to be the end of our waterfall viewing for the day, but as I said, these fellas were pretty chilled, so they let us stay on the boat while they went and picked up a bunch of school kids and took them up to the falls too, so even more photos and another soaking and big smiles all round. And wouldn't you know it, one of the teachers was heading to Australia a week later for a holiday and planning to go to Uluru, so we were able to give her a bit of insider info and recommendations.

After all the other passengers were off the boat then brought us all the way back to Valevag, a little dock way back down into the central fjords area, as they said it was an easy pier to get our bikes off (it was) and they were heading that way anyway. Brilliant!

I would recommend this trip to anybody who is coming over this way. It was a brilliant day even though the weather was lousy. By camp the rain had settled in again, but smiles were on our dials.

Overnight the weather lingered and passed the hours by finding different angles of falling on our tent. The morning was actually nice, until the weather realised it had been caught off guard, and then over compensated by lashing us with a half hour burst of hailstones and a thunder and lightning storm about 10 meters above our heads. Once this was all said and done we packed up and headed off. The rain was on and off all the way with us and we even took shelter in bus stops and under a bridge before just cracking on with it. We were back on the E93 soon and heading south, back in the area of Lie Beach from a week earlier. As it was wet and threatening to get wetter, and we knew that Lie was nice, we knuckled down and got there late in the arvo. One of the plusses of Lie Beach was that it had a big wooden shelter we could use if the heavens opened again.

Much to our surprise there was a marquee assembled on the decking in front of the shelter. You pricks!, was what I was thinking, but then the heavens cleared, the sun came out and everything was rosy again.

The marquee was for some of the local teenagers having a party. They were friendly folk and a few of them came and chatted to us when their Dutch courage was up.

The next 2 days were spent at Lie Beach in improving weather. By the Sunday it was sunny nearly all day, but still with a chilly wind blowing.

We gave ourselves 2 full days off to rest and dry everything, and because we now knew more about the arrival of Jonny Cope. He was getting in on Friday in Stavanger, not too far to the south of where we were, so no need to rush. The days off were filled with bike maintenance, stretching, reading, collecting mussels, fishing, watching the parents of the kids from the night before come and have their own party and I managed to fit in a nice jog, followed by a wash from our fold-up sink.

On the Monday we got moving again in the best weather we had seen for a week or so. After the initial stint on the highway we found a very nice, deserted cross road with lakes and forest, but soon enough it came to an end and we turned south onto the number 47 road, and back onto the official north sea cycle route for the first time in a while. This road quickly brought us into the town of Haugesund, and the memorial of Harald Fairhair. Harald is said to be the man who unified Norway in the 13^th (ish) century. Surrounding the central column are 29 pieces of stone that represent the counties that came together to form the new Norge.

In Haugesund we utilised the internet at the library to check emails and footy results. We also saw a copy of the local paper from the Akra fjord area and found that a picture of us had made it in.

After town we ended up in Avaldsnes, the home of the Vikings and former capitol of the then newly formed Norway. Once again with the help of friendly locals, we found our way to a more than ample campsite. This night was spent on a little island with a Viking village – a re-creation of what a village may have looked like way back when. The buildings were based on different ruins found around the country. 

Tuesday the 23^rd of June – the longest day of the year – with sunrise this morning at 4.08am and sunset booked in for 11.12pm, making it just a lazy 19hrs of sun-up, and of course it doesn't get real dark in-between. I've been reading my book until 11.30 at night with no torch.

We took a tour of the Viking village, with a very knowledgeable young fellow all dressed up in traditional costume leading us around. He was very enthused and knew his stuff (probably what I should be like when tour guiding in central Oz), and the tour was only 8 Aussie dollars, making it the cheapest thing in Norway by a long shot.

After lunch in Kopervik we booted it! Our only stops were when choosing which path to take. The last 16km were done in 50 minutes, with the help of a stiff breeze coming in over our right shoulders, like a right arm quick coming in round the wicket. The wind blew us right into Skudeneshavn where we had to catch the ferry the next day. We found the info office/tour booking desk just before 5, where the nicest tourist office fella ever answered all our questions and even let us bash away on the internet for a while, even though it was probably past his closing time. This internet session was so we could find some contact info for people we know in this part of the world.

Another nice beach was found and camped on. Still no more luck with the fishing though. Since the first 2 fish, I have caught nothing but seaweed and lost 2 lures in the process.

A cruisey day was had getting into Stavanger, and a day that we got to share with other cyclists heading the same way. While waiting for the ferry, a young American brother/sister team rolled into port and waited with us. There tour was a bit more jumpy than ours, in that they would cycle where they wanted, and then catch trains to the next point of interest. The brother thought our cause was valiant, and donated an ice-cream to the Waratah Beach S.L.S.C, which I can report would have been enjoyed by all. After the ferry we all rode along the North Sea cycle route together, with the girls chatting about how it was unfair that the boys could ride up all the hills, and the boys chatting about how good they looked in lycra. It was very nice.

Eventually we came into the outskirts of Stavanger and all 4 of us were instantly lost. We met some Swedish girls (also tourists) who were heading to town and they said we could follow them. Then about 5 minutes later all 7 of us were lost. It was fun.

Eventually we made it to town and found the info centre where we came across our most unfriendly tourist office lady yet. Next we found our way to the campsite and got ourselves settled in for what was meant to be a day or 2. Jon was due to arrive on Friday.

Fjord lands

The Fjord Lands.

After seeing the beauty of the fjords on the ferry yesterday, we were keen to get up and moving, so we broke all speed records to be on the road by 9.08am. We had another overcast morning to contend with, but quickly made our way down the west coast, across the south and into the islands main city of Leirvik.

*This name might appear similar to those following the blog, as to the name of the capital city on Shetland Island, Lerwick. That's because it is. A lot of the names of towns on both the Shetlands and the Orkneys were given by the Vikings on all their crazy, long, open ocean voyages, and the ensuing pillaging and plundering that took place. A magnificent old church we visited in Orkney was actually built by the Vikings originally, and is known as St. Magnus's Cathedral. The name Leirvik and all its other spellings translate to 'Muddy Bay'. *

Our aim in Leirvik was to find info on cruises that head into the fjords so we could see all there is to see.  After a frazzled info lady had thrown 15 pamphlets at us we found that the tour we were most interested in hadn't actually started for the season yet, and didn't start until next Thursday. With today being Friday that left us with the options of filling our week with day trips, or riding further up the fjord itself and catching the tour boat at one of its stopping points further down the line.

This option was chosen and would have us exploring a few more islands, catching another ferry and seeing a lot of the more open areas of the fjords. Before going much further we had to stock up on supplies. Never hard to do in these southern areas of Norway, as there's usually 1 or 2 supermarkets in most little towns – RIMI 1000, REMA, SPAR, KIWI, CO-OP...

To get off the island there were 2 big bridges (1km each). The first bridge was pretty much north to south which was good, as there was a hefty northerly wind blowing us along. This bridge ended on a little rock, and turning to the right we then had the second bridge heading east to west. This bridge we walked, for safety against the cross breeze. This was the first wind we had noticed in Norway, and with our path for the next day taking us south, this northerly was more than welcome.

This night (Friday, 12^th June) we found a little picnic sort of area on the side of a lake. It had a knee high wooden fence bordering it from the road,, giving the impression of private, but the gate was open and there was a rescue ring there giving the impression of public. The big house across the road was the only one near us, but a knock at the revealed that no one was home at the moment.

So we set up camp and were soaking our feet in the lake when a car drove past very slowly with a few sets of eyes watching us closely and pulled in at the house. After drying the feet and heading to the door again we were met by a young tradesman who said that yes the land was private, but if we were only there for 1 night then it was ok to stay. Nice.

The next day the northerly was still blowing with a huff and a puff and for most of the day was blowing with us. This wind helped us to coast the 25km into Bomlo. There were a few big climbs along the way, one of which was a bit too long for Nadia, who had to resort to pushing.

The views we were receiving made it all worthwhile though. It reminded me a bit of the Greek Islands, with the barren looking rock dominating the landscape, and the sparse vegetation doing its best – perfect goat terrain. We even scored our first uninterrupted views of the North Sea.

 A kiwi fruit at the top and the promise of a long downhill, mixed with the sun on our backs had us up and going again, and after getting a few basic supplies from town we were on the ferry at Langevag and relaxing on our way back to the mainland at Buavag. This half hour ferry ride cost us about 6 Aussie dollars each, with bikes, which makes the ferries in Norway about the cheapest things in the country. Thankfully, all the ferries so far have been roll on – roll off, which means we don't need to unload, which is handy.

Once back on land the choice was made for a scenic route up and around the headland to the north, instead of heading straight to the main roads we knew we had to take later that day. This extra loop took us through some quaint little gatherings of houses, all done in the very traditional style of Norway – small square 'doll house' like buildings, painted in red or blue. A lot of houses here have their own national flags flying. Interestingly there are 2 types of national flag – the big, square standard flag with the full Norwegian blue and white cross on the red background. The other flag is an elongated triangle, once again with a red background. This flag doesn't have a full cross, but just straight lines of white and blue. We were to discover the difference when talking to a lady in an info/gift shop the next day. The big square flag is for important events and dates, such as weddings, funerals, birthdays, graduations, etc. And when it is flown, it can only be flown between sunrise and sunset. The smaller triangle flag is just for national pride I guess you could say; just to show that you are Norwegian. A very proud people to judge by the number of houses with flags. Back in Oz, I look at houses that fly the Australian flag and think 'you goose', but here it's the done thing.

Reaching the main road after this loop was a shock at the amount of traffic heading north to Bergen, or south to Stavanger. There mightn't be many people, but they seem to all be going places.

This was the first time we had to ride on one of the 'E' roads. This was E39, coming down from up north somewhere off our map, all the way to Kristiansand on the south coast.

We were intermittently on the road and the bike path which popped up every now and then. We found a big servo along the way and stopped to fill the drink bottles, get an ice-cream and purchase a better map.

So far in Norway we haven't bought any chocolate. This is due to the price of chocolate, with a chocky bar costing about 3 dollars, and a block about 8 dollars. What is that all about? I think this is the longest I have ever gone without chocolate, and if it goes for much longer I might perish.

After changing from the E39 to the E134 we were heading east. The E134 goes inland all the way to Oslo and seems to be the most direct route from Bergen. This also makes it one of the busiest roads in Norway, and severely lacking in bikepaths unfortunately. So with heads down and bums firmly planted in the saddle we waddled along with big old trucks and monstrous campervans barrelling past, with occupants most likely cursing us in many differing European languages.

After eventually finding a bikepath we relaxed and started hunting for the night's campsite. Our newly purchased map was working beautifully and it was telling us that up ahead was a place called Dagsland. That sounded funny enough to us to warrant camping there for the night, but some timely advice from a local fella enjoying the sun on his deck had us heading to Lie Beach, which was much closer than Dagsland, and turned out to be a very nice little beach a long way up the waters of Grindefjorden, with soft green grass, a wooden shelter, toilets and running water. We shared this campsite for the night with 3 German campervans. There are lots of Germans in Norway.

Heading down to the pier I found a heap of mussels clinging to the rocks, so I spent the next hour happily collecting our dinner for the night.

Sunday started slowly. We didn't have far to go before reaching the starting point of our tour, and still had a few days to play with. So after studying the map for a good length of time we were away at 11.30. Here again as with most campsites and ferry ports, the first few hundred meters were straight up, to get away from the shore and up to the roads which track around the coast.

It was a very relaxed ride this day and just on 30km we passed a sign for a beach, so we pulled in, headed down the very steep hill and found ourselves with a beach to ourselves, once again with toilets and this time we even had a volleyball court.

There were no mussels this night, so it was back into our bags of goodies. Most nights we are munching on rice or pasta with veggies and packet sauces – basic, healthy and nourishing.

This being our first Sunday in Norway, we weren't to know that not only did we have a day of rest, but most Norwegians do the same thing too. Admittedly we aren't in a built up area, but all the shops we passed today were closed, including 1 supermarket on the highway. We didn't actually see anybody else until late in the afternoon when our beach was invaded by a big group of kids and parents who ran amok for a few hours and then disappeared back up the hill.

 

Our distance was back up again the next day (51km) and we hit the 1,000km mark of the trip! Hooraa to us and high 5's all round. To celebrate (prematurely) we bought some souvenirs and even lashed out and bought a readymade lunch for the first time. I also bought a fishing rod, to hopefully get us some more free dinners along the way.

Shortly after the 1,000km mark we found a beach on private land that the owner allowed to be a free campsite. He's even made a toilet and shower room for visitors, with steaming hot water, and all for free.

There were already a few German campervans in residence, and as the day was very cold and windy, we pitched our tent pretty close to the back of one campervan, trying to utilise its windbreaking ability. It was probably less than a minute after we had the tent up when 2 old ladies came across from 1 of the campervans and gave us big mugs of hot chocolate-chino. I don't like coffee at all, but this stuff certainly hit the spot.

After a good chat to these ladies, of which 1 could speak very good English, we got dinner organised, and then headed over to the campervans to chat some more to our new friends.

It was also decided to enjoy a rest day here the following day.

This turned out to be a very pleasing day indeed, with the sun out all day (but still a cold northerly). The new fishing rod worked very nicely and I'd landed 2 decent size mackerel after 15 minutes of fishing off the rocks. The ladies bustled over and showed me how to fillet the fish and explained different ways of cooking it, and yes, even provided samples from their fridge. I was happy with 2 fish for Nadia and me, but 1 lady thought it wasn't enough and brought us a big Tupperware container of some other type of fish her husband had caught the day before.

The rest of the day was laundry, showers, mucking about with cameras, sewing and reading books.

Then fish for entree and dinner. A very nice day indeed, and topped off with a phonecall from Simon and Jon at home to say that Jon had booked his tickets and was officially coming to join the trip.

Nordland

If the views we had from the flight into Bergen are any indication of the adventures to come, then we are in for a few good weeks. Yes, we are in Norway, the land of the Viking, the home of the mysterious troll, and a country in love with moose, judging by the amount of car stickers available.

The flight from Shetland to Bergen was a quick entry in Norway, but afforded us our first amazing views of the Fjordland area, that Bergen is the gateway of. Coming down out of the clouds we could see mountainous land rising straight out of the North Sea, then there were highways running north to south, and then there was water again..? And then there was more mountains coming out of the sea with even more human habitation on show this time. The first land we saw was the islands of the coast of Norway. The second bit of land is the mainland. And then cutting into the mainland south of Bergen in a slap hazard sort of fashion are the fjords, and a lot of them.

First things first. Upon entering a new country I like to know a bit about the peoples of the land, so I devised a cunning plan to test the honesty of the local inhabitants. It was a simple plan - firstly I withdrew a large amount of cash in the new currency, this being Norwegian Kroner's (of which 5 kroner equals 1 Aussie dollar). Then I casually walked to the toilets, and the key to the success of this plan was to look so innocent as to appear not to actually have a plan at all. This completed, all that was required was to use the toilet and then 'accidently' leave my wallet in the cubicle, vacate the cubicle, wash my hands and then 'apparently' realise my mistake and feign some panic stricken minutes. In the extremely localised furor that ensued, I was able to slip away back into the grey area of 'just another stupid tourist' and watch what happened next.

A few minutes later when hearing my name being called over the airport intercom, with instructions to proceed to the information desk, I then had a much clearer picture of the typical Norwegian - very honest and happy and thank fuck for that.

Or maybe I should be choosing 1 of the Norse gods to be thanking. There are a few to pick from - there is Oden, the wisest of the gods, and the father of a few of them, who gave 1 of his eyes for a drink from the cup of wisdom. My favorite though, and the best known of Norse gods would have to be Thor, the son of Oden. Thor is the big fella with the big hammer - the Mighty Thor!

Outside the airport it was time to put the bikes back together and cycle our first Norwegian kilometers. Bike tracks seem to be common in Norway. Too common in fact, as we were stopping what seemed to be every 500 meters to check our basic map and figure out we had missed a turn 400 meters back, so back we would go, start in the new direction for another 500 meters before repeating step 2.

In this fashion we floundered our way around the eastern edges of Bergen to a basic little campsite. This campsite charged us through the nose to pitch our tent. I figure they were charging for the location, which was fair enough, as we did have uninterrupted lakeside views.

As there was a bit of moisture in the air, and it was getting late we decided to buy a big can of gruel from the campsite shop, which they charged us through the nose for. I figured they were charging for the can, which was fair enough, as the slop that came out of the can couldn't be worth all that much.

The next day we went into Bergen, a sizeable city in a country of nearly 5 million. It's the second most populated city, behind the capitol Oslo, with about 250,000 residents. Norway is riding the oil boom at the moment, with the North Sea producing a lot. Due to this, the unemployment levels in Norway are very low.

Most Norwegian cities are having lots of civil works done at the moment, and Bergen is no exception with road works and bridge building projects under way all through the town. This is an effort to stimulate the economy we have been told, a bit different to the way Kevin looked at the problem at home - give everyone $900 and hope they buy shit, or create jobs for many people, creating incomes which can then be spent. Hmmm -, anyway, my point is that due to all these road works, we got lost a few extra times.

Going into Bergen also had us entering into Bruce Springsteen mania - The Boss had played the night before, and was playing again tonight. Unfortunately all hostels were full, so we had to camp out of earshot of the great man. He was such big news he even made it into the conversation we had with the customs official when entering Norway. So town was hectic, and seemingly for us, very crowded, which had us doing what was needed, and then getting back on the road to the south.

As we were in Scotland, we would again be following parts of the North Sea Cycle Route. This is officially the longest cycle path in the world, covering 6,000km through Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium and England, sometimes on car roads, other times on bike paths. We have passed many cyclists completing sections of the path they haven't done before, and some attempting to complete the whole loop in 1 go. It isn't an aim of ours to complete all or any of this cycle route, so we are free to come and go from the official track as we please.

The next morning we started with a picturesque 10km loop that brought us back to where we were the day before and then back past where we had camped the night before, all without much knowledge on our behalf. It is going to take a few days to get accustomed to the roads and bike paths of this country. Once we were heading in the right direction we came across our first 'bugger me!' hill with a little road going up and over that we had to cycle. It can't really be said that these roads wind up the hills, because there isn't much winding going on. It's more of a full on attack up the mountain face.

Getting to the top of this hill though opened up some really beautiful country in front of us, and apart from a few wrong turns there wasn't anything in our way of heading into the famous fjord lands on Norway.

Our first real look at the area was catching the ferry from Halhjem, past a few islands and headlands, and down to Sandvikvag, on the northern end of the island of Stord. This 40 minute ferry ride took us through 1 postcard shot after another. The amazing waters of the fjords butting up to the sheer rocks jutting out of the water, and then off in the far distance, what seems to be miles above this battle between ocean and earth, stand snow capped mountains looking regal in the crystal clear air and late afternoon summer sun.

Off the ferry we rode for a short distance along the western side of the island and made camp in a little clearing on the edge of the road. For the second night in a row, and no doubt there'll be many more, we were wild camping. This is legal in Norway, as long as you are no closer than 150 meters from the nearest house. In a country with not even 5 million people, this should be easy, but these Norwegians like spreading themselves out, and when seemingly you find yourself in the deepest wilderness, a look around the next corner will usually reveal 2 or 3 houses that look to have been there for a long, long time.

Our first few days in Norway have given us the warmer weather we were needing. It has drizzled a bit, but mostly at night which leaves us with overcast but warm days. And long days at that.