Translated with Deepl
I wake up early, just after 4am. That’s good; I want to ride over 100km today and reach the highest point of the planned route (Capital to Mountain Gravel Loop from Cycle Norway). Nevertheless, it takes me a long time to get going. First, I hide from the cold in my sleeping place. When I’m warm enough to get going, the mosquitoes unfortunately see it the same way. So it’s the same game as yesterday: I run around trying to escape the mosquitoes. I try to pack my bike mostly with my upper body in the tent, only the extremities stick out. At some point I’m done, at least the bites of the tiny mosquitoes heal pretty quickly.
My bike and I have now developed a sophisticated balancing technique for crossing streams. We support each other, and so I manage to get through one or two obstacles again this morning. I also use the first river in the morning to filter water. A herd of cows gets more and more curious (or thirsty), but then runs away from me when I move on. Norwegian cows are definitely more skittish than the ones I know from the Alps.
This morning I’m listening to “Algorithms to Live By”, a book that uses results from maths and computer science as decision-making and search methods for everyday life. I’m using the intuitions from it to find a place for my second breakfast (I’m already getting hungry again at 9 o’clock). Instead of stopping at the first stone I see, I want to find a nice spot. At first glance, I’m very successful at this. Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell how mosquito-infested a place is just by looking at it. So I also spend my lunch break fleeing from mosquitoes. I spread a little bit of spread on a slice of bread, then run away from the mosquitoes again, then spread some more. Once again, I must have been an amusing sight.
I make good progress with this boost. Without them realising it, I try to keep up with a group of e-bikers. They overtake me on the first incline, but on the up and down that follows, I put my foot down enough to leave them far behind. How much I enjoy it is probably a little ridiculous.
My choice of lunch spot is also very successful. The rapids where I stop invite you to imagine a group of brown bears standing on the edge, fishing for salmon. Not an image that would please my mother so much (I am actually in bear country). The only real fishers here are other homo sapiens. I take my time over my lunch and enjoy the sun. In the meantime, my solar charger is diligently charging my devices.
Then, at last, I am at the foot of the big climb for today. The scenery reminds me exactly of Ischgl, where my dad and I cycled through last year on our Transalp. I am standing in the valley again and looking at the steep slopes and lifts of a ski resort in front of me. The style of the ski hotels, which cater to the masses in winter and stand empty in summer, seems just as out of place in Norway as it does in Ischgl. And just like in Ischgl, the steep asphalt road snakes up the mountain behind the hotels. The only difference is that there is no church steeple here for a person on a rope to do repair work on. And this time my bike is fully loaded, but at the same time it has fewer small gears.
Apart from the fact that I enjoy cycling uphill, the ascent is really worth it. It’s getting really beautiful here, I’m above the tree line. I’m really in the Norwegian mountains now. I’m happy to mentally take a step back and realise that I cycled here all the way from Munich! On the plateau, I enjoy the view and the spectacle of the clouds - which also announces tomorrow’s rain.
After a rapid descent - I only stop briefly to watch a few goats and sheep - I arrive in the valley. I am completely exhausted, I have never been so tired on my tour before. I don’t want to go any further, and when I see a beautiful meadow, I knock on the door of the house next door in the hope that I can spend the night there. Wild camping is allowed in Norway, but I don’t have the energy to look for a place to sleep.
A young woman opens the door for me, only a little older than me. The meadow does not belong to her, but she refers me to another meadow, only a few hundred metres away. To my great joy, she, Ingrid, then comes to me in the meadow with her dog Niels and two beers. She wanted to see if I had found it correctly. We talk for a while. She is (like many Norwegians) also a mountain person, and keeps herself pretty busy with her dog, horse and work as a nurse. Perhaps I will inspire her a little to fulfil her dream of working on a horse ranch in the USA.
After that, I’m relatively disorganised and chaotic. It doesn’t help that the mosquitoes have found me here too - they’re the big ones you know from southern and central Europe. My dinner is in keeping with the chaos: it’s ramen with mashed potatoes and dumplings - not a culinary highlight, but warm and filling.
Ingrid recommended another hut to me, and I decide to head for it tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain all day, and I think I’ll be glad of a warm hut. Besides, my route from here leads through the valley for a long time, and I’d rather be back on the mountain.
