Norwegian Coast, Days 46 to 51

Saturday June 27 to Thursday July 2

Five days of riding the coast heading south from Bergen to Egersund. It has been good, with a few unexpected twists. No rain while riding (it did rain at night), no serious headwinds, and at times warm sunshine. Many bridges and three ferries as we hopped from the mainland to islands, between islands and back to the mainland. We’ve cycled through farmland and forest, and over both flat and quite hilly terrain. It is like British Columbia in some ways, but neater, cleaner, better transit, more colourful, and all with style. While expensive, the food is good; even a sandwich from a gas station in an isolated town is tasty.

We had a surprise in Haugesund: we discovered that the ferry we planned to take the next day to Stavanger had been retired from service in 2013 when new tunnels (no bikes allowed) had been opened. Because Norwegian ferry information is hard to find on the internet, it took a long time to find the alternative route. A trip to the tourist office the next morning confirmed that we’d found the right way to go. It was a long day as the ferry, a fast passenger-only catamaran with capacity for about 200 people, did a complex route serving small communities. However, we enjoyed a three-hour tour of fjords and islands we would never have seen otherwise. We arrived Stavanger at 7:30 in the evening and quickly found our hotel and a good restaurant for dinner.

The two days after Stavanger have been sunny and warm. Yesterday was the first day of the trip we began the day without jackets. It is July and finally summer weather is here.

I’m writing this on the train from Egersund to Kristiansand. We are avoiding very strong headwinds today and heavy thunderstorms tomorrow which would have made the next two days difficult, days that are already a challenge with long steep climbs and big distances between accommodation. The train runs inland and only returns to the coast at Kristiansand, cutting off more of the coast than we would have wanted, about 280km, but it seemed better than sitting in Egersund, an expensive town, for two days. The good part is that we save money – Norway is costing a fortune.

Here are some photos:

Fountain in a park, early morning in Bergen

Car ferry

Just like home

Haugesund

Haugesund

Shooting a photo

Who needs a road?

Farm field beside the coast

Rock cut and tunnel on rail trail