Day 9: Måløy-Runde (113 km)

Since I haven’t used any rest days yet, I have been lying one to two days ahead of my schedule. Thanks to this, I could plan a little detour today to the small island Runde which is located southwest of Ålesund at the Atlantic coast. Runde is a bird island as has the third biggest bird cliff in Norway and the southernmost in Norway. In addition, the Norwegian tourist association has a cabin here at the old lighthouse. So my plan for yesterday was to get here and hope for a free bed (since you cannot book in advance). 

I started cycling from my camp right outside Måløy at nine o’clock. It was half cloudy, half sunny today. And since it was rather chilly, but warm when the sun came out, I put my jacket on and off a dozen times today. 

The landscape was more hilly than I had expected given that I was so close to the coast. But the coast is quite steep here many places, so I had a lot of up and down cycling today anyway. 

After 60 kilometres, I took a ferry from Koparnes to Årvika. And after 80 kilometres, I swinged left to go to Runde,  where I would have gone right towards Ulsteinvik and Ålesund normally. Runde was thirty kilometres away from this junction.

The ride to Runde was a very scenic island hopping with bridges connecting the small islands. Runde is the last one of these islands. The road stops after four kilometres, so I parked my bike there and repacked my stuff so that I had everything I needed for one night in one of the panniers which I then used as a shoulder bag. 

There is a trail leading from the road into a nature reserve. We had a fantastic view today, so I took many pictures and videos on my way. After one hour, I reached one of the bird cliffs. I sat down at a spot from which I had a good view and watched the spectacle for quite a long time. There are 100000 pairs of sea birds nesting there. In the evening, they swarm out which apparently is a social ritual. There are mostly gannets (Basstölpel/havsula), kittiwakes (Dreizehenmöwe/krykkja) and puffins (Papageientaucher/lunde) breeding here, but also many other species. 

After an hour or so, I continued my walk towards the lighthouse. Luckily, there were some empty beds, so I could stay here for the night. There were two other German tourists in my room so far. I had dinner on the cliffs and enjoyed the sunset outside. It’s a great place to stay, especially when the weather is as great as it was today. Today, I am looking forward to a rather short day and to seeing Vegar who guided our ski trip across Greenland four years ago.

Day 8: Viksdalen-Måløy (116 km)

After some very nice days in the mountains, today I wanted to go back to the coast – specifically to Florø. From here I wanted to take a boat to Måløy. This boat only leaves once a day, at 16:05. According to Google Maps, it was 94 kilometres from my starting point, Viksdalen, to Florø by car. But the car route includes a tunnel which is prohibited, so I estimated around 100 kilometres including the detour around the tunnel. 

I normally set my alarm to seven o’clock, snooze it once, then eat breakfast in my tent, start packing, take down the tent and leave at nine. And I thought seven hours should be enough for 100 kilometres, including breaks, without stress. 

So I left Viksdalen and had first a very nice ride along or above lake Haukedalsvatnet up to a mountain pass. From there it was a long downhill ride to Førde. I had planned to take a longer break here after forty kilometres, but then I thought, I rather get closer to Florø first so that I’m really sure I won’t have to stress. 

So I continued along the Førdefjord which was a very nice ride. I saw a sea eagle from very close distance – it launched from a rock and crossed the road right in front of my nose. Unfortunately, I had just switched off my GoPro, so no good footage. 

After a bit more than fifty kilometres, I reached the no-go tunnel and turned right to go around. Not only was this detour much longer than I had expected, it also included a mountain pass with 500 metres altitude difference which I had not foreseen. So I lost a lot of time and had to start calculating if I would reach the boat. My conclusion was that it was going to be very tight, so I decided not to take any more breaks and just go. 

Getting closer to Florø, I counted down the kilometres, and it seemed like I would make it by just five minutes. Of course, we had west wind, so that was slowing me down a bit, and those five minutes started to melt away. Finally, I arrived at the pier at 16:03 – two minutes before the boat left – woohoo! I thought I could celebrate with a beer or at least a svele (western Norwegian kind of pancake), but they didn’t serve anything on board. So I had to eat some potato crisps from my supplies instead. 

When the boat arrived at Måløy, I decided to eat dinner at a restaurant instead of freeze-dried dinner in my tent. I found a nice Thai restaurant and had a good dinner and a beer there before I continued for another ten kilometres just so that the day will be a bit shorter tomorrow. My camp tonight is not the nicest – it’s on a resting place close to the main road, but I was too tired to go any further today. The place where I hope I can stay tomorrow on the other hand will be pretty amazing, I believe. Coming back to that tomorrow. 

Yesterday, I didn’t have time to write a blog entry because I used all afternoon to review my GoPro files and make the first video (see link below). Here comes the recap of both yesterday and today. 

Day 6: Kvanndal (Hardangerfjord)-Myrkdalen (70 km)

As expected, it was raining in the morning. It took me a bit longer to get out of my sleeping bag, but eventually, I got up because I wanted to get at least half way to the Sognefjord.

The first ten kilometres were actually dry, but then it started raining again. It wasn’t a lot first, but it was raining constantly. At Voss the rain became heavier, so I took a longer break at a petrol station. I ordered a waffle and got a waffle – with brown cheese (Norwegian type of goat cheese – for non-Norwegians). 

After the waffle and a hot chocolate, I continued towards Myrkdalen, but before, I had to take another hot chocolate break at Vinje. From here it was only uphill to Myrkdalen, which is a ski resort in winter and quite deserted in summer – except for the huge Chinese group who came right after I had arrived. 

I set up my tent right at the bottom of the ski slopes and got out of my wet clothes. Then I packed my GoPro and iPhone and went to a big hotel which was close by. Here I ordered apple pie and another hot chocolate with a massive amount of cream and started to look through my videos. I soon figured out that this would take a while, so I had two beers in the meantime, too. Since it was warm, dry and comfy there, I stayed for dinner as well. The result of my film editing you find here. 

(Day 7 recap below the pictures)

Day 7: Myrkdalen-Viksdalen via Sognefjord (105 km)
When I woke up, I thought there was a hint of sunshine on my tent. But that must have been wishful thinking, because when I got out of the tent, it was just as grey with very low-hanging clouds as the day before. When I started cycling, it actually started raining lightly again. 

The first part of today’s ride took me through a very nice green valley which reminded me a bit of Iceland, and then up a mountain pass. Here I soon reached areas with snow fields again, and I could enjoy a very nice view over the valley I had come through. 

From the pass the route stayed up between 900 and 1000 metres for a while before it went over into a very long descent towards Vik at the Sognefjord. Here I stopped for some grocery shopping and a coffee before I continued to the ferry harbour at Vingsnes. From here I took the ferry across the Sognefjord to Dragsvik. 

The rest of the day, I hadn’t quite planned. My aim was to cycle another 40-50 kilometres so that I would have a chance to reach the west coast tomorrow. After a flat start along the fjord towards Vetlefjorden, the road continued into the mountains again, and I believe this was the longest pass so far. 

On top of the pass, there is a viewing platform called “Utsikten”. A nice Norwegian couple was applauding for me from the car right before I got up there. I asked them to take some photos of me and had some chocolate here before I continued down again on the other side. Strangely, while it was half sunny, half cloudy on the side I came up, it started raining instantly on the other side. It rained quite heavily for the next five kilometres, but then the rain got lighter again. It was only downhill from here, so I continued for another 30 kilometres and stopped in a small village called Viksdalen. Here I found a Joker convenience store right before it closed. And I found a convenient spot for my tent right next to the store behind a football cage. 

I have got approximately 100 kilometres to go to the coast, so I think I will reach it at Florø tomorrow. The weather forecast is good. 

Haukeliseter-Kvanndal/Hardangerfjord (118 km)

First of all, the three course dinner yesterday evening at Haukeliseter, accompanied by a wine package, was really nice. And the visit incl. dinner and breakfast was rather affordable as well. So Haukeliseter can be recommended. 

The best thing was when I discovered that there was smoke coming out of a small hut by the lake – a sauna! I only found it at half past nine, and they were going to close at ten, but there was still time for two rounds in the sauna and two jumps into the lake. ​​​Click for YouTube video

In the morning, Haukeliseter showed itself from its best side once more. But I had to leave because I had a long ride ahead of me. 

There were a couple of tunnels on the way today which were prohibited for bicycles. And that means I had to cross a mountain pass instead. The first one was not too bad – it was 1100 metres high, but I started at over 900 already. 

Then I had a long descent down to Røldal at 400 metres. From here I had to go over the pass next to the Røldal ski centre at almost 1100 metres again, so that was a long and tough climb. 

From the top I had a great view over the Folgefonna glacier, the third biggest in Norway. It was a long ride down to Odda then which is located at a side arm of the Hardanger fjord. My goal was to take a ferry to the other side of the fjord, so I had 45 kilometres still to go. 

Half way to the ferry, I stopped at a supermarket to buy some food and drinks. And when I came back to my bike, I suddenly saw that the luggage rack on the back of my bike was loose. It was hanging down in a strange angle, so I had to fix it. This took me about thirty minutes. I originally had good time to catch the ferry which goes only once an hour, but suddenly, I was in a hurry. I raced the last 22 kilometres as fast as i could and reached the ferry one and a half minute before it left. 

Before we reached the other side, I already spotted a nice park where I decided to set up my tent for the night. Tomorrow the weather forecast predicts quite a lot of rain. My plan would normally be to continue to the Sognefjord. But that would be a 115 kilometres’ ride, and I’m not sure if I’m up for that in rainy weather. I am one day ahead of my original schedule, so I might take it easy tomorrow.