Riniken – Nordkapp - Fosslia

4 June – 21 August 2008

Wednesday, 4^th June Photos

Weather-wise, it was not a good start to the holiday. The weather forecast was bad, and it proved to be accurate. I decided to shorten the distance to Koblenz by climbing the hill to Böttstein, and then staying on the road to Leuggern, Gippingen and Felsenau. This worked out well, since the gravel road along the Aare, although beautiful, is quite hard work, and can be quite muddy.

The next decision to shorten the route was to cross the Rhein in Koblenz and cycle via Tiengen and Lauchringen to Schaffhausen – another good decision, but again, not as scenic as going via Kaiserstuhl.

Having stopped for coffee and ice cream in Erzingen, just before crossing back into Switzerland (all my Swiss francs were packed away out of reach), it finally decided to start raining. At first, it rained on and off – not much of a problem – but during the afternoon it set in heavily, so that I got completely wet. Fortunately it was reasonably warm, so I didn't bother with over-trousers. Just after crossing back into Germany from Switzerland near Thayngen, there was a promising restaurant in Bietingen for lunch. Unfortunately the service was unfriendly and the food mediocre. Pity!

Then followed the problem of getting to Singen and Stockach. There is no obvious route to follow by bicycle. The roads criss-cross in a strange way due to the hillocky geography and the country borders. However it was easy cycling, and I reached Stockach too early to stop for the day. So on I cycled to Messkirch.

Never believe people who only travel by car. I stopped for a coffee and something sweet in a baker's in Orsingen, and asked the shop keeper if there was much of a climb between Stockach and Messkirch. "No", she said, "it just climbs a bit on leaving the town". The bit, although never really steep, went on forever climbing onto the Schwäbischer Alp. In the process, the heavens opened. There were no rooms to be had in Messkirch, so I had to cycle on in more rain, eventually finding a nice hotel, the Gasthaus Linde, in Göggingen.

As a further comment, the cycle track from Stockach to Messkirch was only intermittent. It was the most unpleasant stretch of the day. However, Ulm is now only 90 km away.

Thursday, 5^th June Photos

It turned out to be a harder day than expected, but at least it was essentially dry. Göggingen to Sigmaringen might have been downhill most of the way, but the road to Mengen took a more direct route, which involved a very steep climb on a road with heavy traffic and no cycle track.

However, at Mengen the Danube was waiting and, with it, the Danube cycle route. It was very easy going and very well marked. By the time that I reached Riedlingen it was time for morning coffee and ice cream. The choice of cafés was quite large.

By this time, the cycling had become quite dull, so it was time for a short cut along the B311 to Rottenacker. The map doesn't have contours on it – it turned out to be quite strenuous. Then, just before Rottenacker, I noticed that the left pedal was rattling – the screws were loose, but fortunately not lost. Lunch (sardine picnic) was combined with a pedal repair, which also showed that the "multi-tool" Allen keys are cheap. I must buy a set of better Allen keys as soon as I can. Somewhere along the way, I also stopped at a garage to oil the chain after all the rain of yesterday.

I then stuck to the signposts through Ehingen. This included a nice tour of the old town and rather strenuous climbs. Soon thereafter I picked up a trio of old dears on bicycles, who proceeded to follow my wrong turn just after Nasgenstadt, which turned into a rough, grassy track before getting on to the right route again - I hope I don't meet them again!

There was a very slight head wind, so I was glad to be able to tuck in behind a very lightly loaded trio doing the Danube route with a support car. They kept up a steady 25 – 27 kph, so I was also glad when I had the chance to stop for a beer and a rest, without having to show that I couldn't keep up! It was then a gentle plod into Ulm. At the second try, I found a room in Hotel Stadt Lindau, but it's a step down from last night. The great thing was that the heavens opened whilst I was in the shower.

There followed a slow stroll around Ulm in the rain – very much worth a visit. But I must be getting old; I decided against climbing the spire of the Dom – the view wouldn't have been worth it anyway. The pizza/tirami-su for evening meal might have been unimaginative, but it was much better than the previous meals that I've had in restaurants so far. Then I had a beer to help with the writing of the diary.

Friday, 6^th June Photos

Today was a bit more how I imagined the Donau Radwanderweg to be – gentle sun, easy going (except for the last 10 km), almost no traffic, and a bathe in a gravel pit near the river to finish off with.

Despite the rather run-down appearance of the hotel, the breakfast was excellent, including a hot, hard-boiled egg. Leaving Neu Ulm was straightforward, and I was soon cycling along gravel tracks through thick forest more or less along the left bank of the Danube. This went on for so long, that I decided to go along the road from Offingen to Petersworth to find a pub for my morning coffee. "Pech gehabt!". Petersworth was a dormitory village with no pub and no baker's shop! However, I persevered, and in Echenbrun in the outskirts of Gundelfingen, I found an up-market restaurant with shaded patio, and enjoyed a shandy and slice of apple cake.

Having got into "road-mode", I continued to follow the road all the way through Dillingen, where the looked-for baker's shop turned up. They had some made-up sandwiches, which I bought for a late picnic lunch. Eventually, I returned to the official bike trail, and stopped for lunch at the crossing of the Danube in Gremheim. Having seen almost no cyclists all morning, they now came past in droves as I struggled to get the stove to light to make a cup of tea. Maybe I'm going to have trouble with it in the north. I must try it again soon.

The afternoon was, to be honest, a bit dull. The scenery is superb, but the cycling undemanding, except for a slight head breeze. My right Achilles tendon started to play up, and I was constantly experiencing stiffness in the thigh muscles. I eventually reached Donauwörth, my original goal for the day, at 15:00. It's a delightful town with recommendable ice cream, but it was too early to stop. I thought that Neuburg might be reachable, but the route suddenly turned hilly – what a surprise. By Marxheim, I had had enough and called it a day. The Gasthaus Bruckwirtschaft, an old-fashioned looking inn, had a free room, so here I stay tonight. What's more, just 2 km away, there's a nice gravel pit where it was fantastic to bathe, except for the mosquito acupuncture during changing and getting dry.

Now it's diary writing time, with 0.5 litre of white wine and a ham, cheese, and bread meal to go with it. The cheese is rather bland, but the ham is good.

Saturday, 7^th June Photos

First a prologue to the day. It occurred to me whilst packing as I was waiting for breakfast, that I was missing a bag. Slowly it came to me what was missing – British passport, lots of UK money in case credit cards wouldn't work, and a credit card. It was horrific, and I could hardly eat my breakfast trying to work out where I might have left it, and if there was any chance of getting it back again. So, after breakfast, I emptied and repacked every saddle bag and, eventually, I found it tucked in the food bag. What a relief! Explanation – the hotel room had no key, so when I had gone bathing the previous evening, I put the bag of valuables somewhere "unlikely". It fooled even myself!

This was a mucky day. It rained heavily during breakfast - I had to wait to set off until it eased a bit – and there were lots of gravel tracks, which were quite muddy. To think that I had climbed the hill into Böttstein on the first day to avoid a bit of gravel track along the Aare!

Anyway, because of the conditions, I kept to the roads quite a bit rather than following the Donau Radwanderweg religiously. At Riedensheim, the route took a detour up a steep hill and back down again, not as marked in the guide book. On the way up, I caught up with a tough couple of Australian ladies on their way to Vienna. They had camped in the rain, and were looking a bit the worse for wear. All the same, it was quite brave of them.

After Neuburg, the route entered the grounds of Schloss Grünau, and then proceeded to wander around the fields on very soggy, not well-compacted, bridle tracks – very heavy and dirty going. By this time, I was missing my morning pub with cake and shandy. It eventually turned up in Weichering in the form of a large, posh establishment in the process of serving the mourners of a huge funeral. Everyone was dressed extremely smartly with the waitresses in Tracht. The drink and cake took a long time to come as a result.

I slipped through Ingolstadt without sightseeing – the weather was not inviting. But then it was off into the wilderness again, and I needed to buy some lunch and it's early closing in Germany on Saturdays. I eventually struck lucky in Grossmehring after leaving the trail to cycle through the villages. Shortly afterwards, the heavens opened and there was thunder all around. Fortunately it didn't last long, and the weather improved in the late afternoon. I returned to the route along the Danube dam again, scaring 3 hares and a roe deer in the process. It was the first deer that I have seen so far, quite surprising considering how rural it is around here.

Decision time: how to get past the Donau Durchbruch? The route on the map from Neustadt to Weltenburg looked convoluted, and there was a sign on the dam suggesting that one could stay on the left bank of the river past Neustadt to a ferry at Eining, cross the river there, and simply follow the river bank to Weltenburg. The guide book made no mention of this variation – would the ferry be running? Would the boat from Weltenburg to Kelheim still be running when I got to it? In the end, after asking a dog-walker and a fisherman, I decided to take the risk. It worked out very well. The ferry was only Eur 1.50 and the boat Eur 6.50 with a relaxing 30 minute ride.

It remained to decide where to stay. Regensburg was just a bit too far, so I settled for Bad Abbach and the very cheap (Eur 25) but very pleasant Gasthaus Kötterl. Evening meal was a mild Indian vegetarian dish, and it was still trying to thunder and lighten as I returned to the hotel.

Sunday, 8^th June Photos

Another good day. The weather was warm and sunny until early afternoon and my decisions, on the whole, turned out well. The first was to follow the main road from Bad Abbach to Regensburg rather than following the bike track along the river. This involved two quite steep climbs, but was 8 km shorter, and gave a spectacular view of Regensburg's Dom on the descent into the city. It was rather nice dawdling around the old town towards the Dom, further enhanced by a fire brigade procession celebrating their 150 year jubilee.

At the Information Centre, I was able to get an overview map of the cycle routes in Bayern. I decided on the Falkenstein route, followed by the Festspiel route to Cham, which would then be followed by the Chambtal route to the Czech border.

The Falkenstein route turned out to be a disused railway track. It climbed and climbed and climbed, but never very steeply, and it was idyllic. In contrast, the Festspiel route was extremely hilly and very indirect. I think that it was linking various shrines where passion plays are performed. However, it too was extremely scenic and with almost no traffic. The weather had turned thundery in the afternoon and produced a short shower in Falkenstein, but it didn't hold up progress.

Eventually I arrived in Cham, a bit of an American style urban sprawl so, apart from a quick Big Mac to "bridge the gap", I decided to see if I could get out of the town and find accommodation on the Chambtal trail, which succeeded at the first try in Windischbergerdorf. The pork fillet was very good too.

Monday, 9^th June Photos

It's getting late (23:00), it's been a long day, so this will probably be a short diary entry.

Following marked cycle trails is all well and good, but it should really only be done if one's maps are good enough to guide you if you miss a signpost, or if a signpost is ambiguous. I set off fine on the Chambtal route, and all went well to within a stone's throw of the border. Then, to use the UK colloquialism, it went pear-shaped. After a visit up and down the steep hills of Furth-im-Wald to post some expired maps back home, the route was fine, but never seemed to get anywhere. At some point a signpost was either missing or missed, I climbed up a steep hill unnecessarily, and ended up in the steep town of Eschlkam. At least it was a good shandy and excellent Coupe Dänemark (Eur 3).

Afterwards I followed the road for the last few km to the border. It was an anticlimax: no steep hills, no customs officers on duty. Then I was hit by Czech signposts – quite daunting. But there was a signposted Bike Trail No. 3 going to Plzen and Prague. I followed it. As far as Kdyne, all was OK, and the cash machine spat out Czk 1000 for me. But Trail 3 turned into a mountain bike trail, very beautiful, but also very steep. It reduced me to pushing, and almost to a ferrying of my panniers.

So, when the route finally hit the village of Namcice, I decided to abandon Trail 3 and rely on my map reading abilities instead. It worked much better, and I found nice quiet side roads with no problem. But the contrast to Bayern is staggering. Fifty or sixty years of communist rule have really left most of the population in a sorry state.

By mid-afternoon, I decided to force my way through to Plzen by evening. I therefore took to the main road at Stankov, and followed it until about 20 km short of Plzen. One made good progress, despite the A5-type switchbacks, but eventually the traffic got too heavy and I turned off onto a side road to enter the city. The hotel prices were ridiculously high so, despite it being nearly 19:00, I decided to head into the suburbs to find a more reasonably priced hotel. It was soon found, but not really good value for money (Czk 500 = Eur 21) compared with Windischbergerdorf (Eur 16.5) – 2 rooms sharing a bathroom and very basic, uncared-for furnishings. Time was getting so late that I settled for an evening meal of pizza, again.

Tuesday, 10^th June Photos

This was an easy day. I picked up Route 3 by chance just after leaving the hotel, and followed it for a while. But, after getting to Rokycany, where I managed to change Gbp 100 into Czk 2940, despite a very mistrusting bank manager, I finally decided that reading the map, and picking one's own route along side roads, is more interesting. One also stays in touch with where one is.

My route went through Myto, Cheznovice, Komarov, Horovice, Lochovice, Nové Dvory, and finally along road 115 to Revnice, just 20 km short of Prague. It was easy going with only a few short climbs and lots of cruising. The high point of the day was a fried, breaded, slice of cheese with chips and a beer in Myto. A stop in the forest for salted peanuts and a grapefruit wasn't bad either.

After yet another lovely beer in Revnice's square, it was off to look for a hotel. This time I was going to find a private establishment. The "Grand Hotel" opposite the station was therefore dismissed, but the Western Pension around the corner was more promising. It was still more expensive than expected (Czk 500 = Eur 21) with no breakfast, but it was a very big room with private shower/toilet. After showering and washing out some clothes, I took the train into Prague for the evening. Without a street map, the main activity of the evening was walking, walking, walking. The Western Pension was dead to the world when I got back to it. I was expecting square dancing or equivalent.

Wednesday, 11^th June Photos

Getting into Prague was considerably easier than getting out, though even that had its problems. There were intermittent cycle tracks along the river bank, which were difficult to continue at times. One even ran onto an island, which was over 1 km long and which had no way off at the end, except for retracing one's steps. But eventually I got there.

My main concern was to find a reasonable map to cover the distance from Prague to the Polish border. On the previous evening I had found two specialist map shops, by chance, and was wide-awake enough to mark them with the GPS. It was therefore simple to find them again. Karluv most (the famous Charles Bridge) had quite a lot of tourists on it last night; but this morning I could hardly push the bike over it for all the people. At the second map shop, I got 3 1:100'000 maps to cover the area that I was missing. I also got a free cycle map of Prague from the Tourist Office. So, it was time to try to head off in the direction of Poland.

It wasn't easy. My cycle map was minute with only a few street names, and none of the places on the road signs were on my map, except for Warsaw! And not being one to ask, especially when there is a language problem, I got out the compass and headed NE until I finally found a big street which was on my map. Then it was just a question of keeping to pavement and/or cycle track along big, busy main roads through the suburban sprawl until things thinned out and suburbs became recognisable names on the map. Then it was easy to find quiet roads and peaceful cycling.

The final destination, Stara Boleslaw, is a charming little town, especially by Czech standards as I've seen them so far, and the B&B is very pleasant too, though not cheap (Czk 630 incl. breakfast). I'm hoping to need just one more night in the Czech republic. I might need to camp tomorrow night to eke out the money. Tonight's meal was Chinese, by the way.

Thursday, 12^th June Photos

This was a very straightforward day with little to report, except that it tended to be rather cool. So cool, in fact, that I shall start off with long sleeves and long trousers in the morning. At least it stayed dry.

Because the normal road ran parallel to the motorway all the way, the traffic was quiet, and there was no need to look for side roads. The highlight of the day was the town of Mladá Boleslav, which had a very impressive setting on top of an outcrop.

Later on, around Mnichovo Hradiste, there were rocky outcrops (remains of volcanic cores?), which looked like promising rock climbs. But on the whole it was rolling country, with lots of larks singing, and with the occasional steep climb to break up the otherwise easy progress. Hilly country was finally reached at Turnov, with a really steep drag over to Mala Skala, which seemed to be mainly an adventure centre for youths. I finally settled on Zelezny Brod to stop, though the town is rather depressed due to a closed glass making factory. The hotel, Starý Mlýn, looks nice, all the same. Turnov's tourist office had an Internet terminal for public use (Czk 50 per hour).

Friday, 13^th June Photos

Note 1: The distances in the above table have been corrected by an estimated 6 km. My bicycle computer is very susceptible to electrical interference, and I left it standing against a transformer station by mistake!

Note 2: It was a late start today because the hotel breakfast didn't start until 08:00.

This was the toughest day yet. It was raining when I got up, so I abandoned plans to wear long tights and a long-sleeved shirt, and put on my usual wet-weather togs, i.e. cycling shirt, shorts, underpants, sandals with no socks, nylon raincoat and over-trousers. It wasn't enough, though it improved when I put spats on over the sandals. The air was cold, and the long downhill runs made the sweaty cycle shirt very cold. I also felt myself under time pressure - I wanted to get over the Polish border and down to a bank in time to change money since this was Friday and the weekend, with closed banks, was looming.

The day had a good start, though: ham and eggs for breakfast, though the fried food has a strange taste, presumably the oil. But then it was 7 km uphill for the next course, followed by a long downhill. Altogether I counted 4 long climbs, but I'm no longer sure where the last one was. The map is too poor to reconstruct afterwards. The climb up to Korenov was, however, a real killer, followed shortly after by the final climb to the border. I walked some of it, more to give the blood circulation a chance to have a rest. Walking wasn't much slower than cycling anyway, 5.5 kph compared to 6.5 kph. And nowhere are there any signs to say how high the passes are – a real pity.

Finally, however, the border was reached and it was more or less downhill from there on. I found a bank in the first town, Szklarska Poreba, a ski resort, so celebrated the acquisition of Polish money with a beer, pizza and coffee. It rained heavily whilst I was enjoying that, but it stopped, more or less, before I started cycling again. So I never actually got wet all day, despite the threatening clouds – it was just damnably cold. The downhill run or easy going continued all the way to Jelenia Góra, where I decided to call it a day.

The geography of this town is difficult to fathom, so I spent ages and ages tootling around trying to find a private B&B, without success. The 3-star hotels were too expensive (Pln 180), so I settled for a strange 1-star hotel for Pln 110 (Eur 34) built as part of a sport stadium. The room is palatial though, and my bike shouldn't get stolen. I was advised to take it up to my room!

Poland seems to be a repeat of the Czech republic. I feel very disoriented. After partially getting used to the signs in Cz, it's back to square one, but more so. Polish is, to me at least, totally foreign. Since I'm likely to take 2 weeks to get through the country, I've bought a Polish-English dictionary. Maybe it will help!

Saturday, 14^th June Photos

The mountains of yesterday are now no more than a bad dream. Today, the km just sailed by, except for the unpleasant traffic until the road crossed a motorway at Kostomloty, where it turned pleasantly quiet. I had contemplated bypassing Wroclaw to the north but, on studying the map, I couldn't find a good side road heading east without adding lots of km to the route, so I decided to try the direct route. The majority of drivers are very considerate, but it only takes one to make a mistake.

The road headed generally east, and there were 2 ridges of hills going WNW to ESE, which had to be crossed. It meant winding away for a while just twice. The remaining climbs were normal, run-of-the-mill things. There was quite a good breeze from the west, which helped as well.

Either I haven't learned how to recognize Polish pubs yet, or it's considerably harder to get a beer in this country than in Cz. In the end, I bought a bottle of beer in a village shop, and had to drink it in the shop, since it wasn't licensed as a pub. It felt a bit sleazy. For lunch, I bought some rolls and cheese in a supermarket in Strzegom and brewed up a cup of tea. On the way out of the town, crossing a bridge on the pavement, I misjudged the width of the pavement, caught the handlebars on the railings, and crashed heavily into the railings. Fortunately nothing broke, either on me or the bike, just dramatic bruising.

I reached the outskirts of Wroclaw by about 18:00, and tried hard to find a private B&B, both on the way in and then on the way out, without luck. In case I was going to be reduced to putting up the tent, I nipped into a M^cDonalds on the way past to keep body and soul together. After talking to Kari on the handy, though, my luck changed, and I found a nice place (part of a snooker hall!) for the same price as last night, more or less (Pln 120). But it's a 4-bedded room and nicely furnished. The shower has a hook on the wall too, which can't be taken for granted around here.

I had no luck in finding a pub for an evening beer, though.

Sunday, 15^th June – rest day in Wroclaw Photos

I wonder if I'm experiencing a form of culture shock. It's really hard to feel at home in Poland. By the time I had been in Cz for a couple of days, the signs started to make some sense, and one could recognise restaurants and places to sit outside to enjoy a beer. I've now been in Poland for 2½ days and, although this evening on the bus back from town to the hotel started to feel OK, it's still very difficult to get a drink or eat anything other than M^cDonalds, pizza, or something from a street stall.

The country is also not geared up for tourists in any way. The country is obviously poor and struggling to modernise, and one appreciates that tourists are not top of the priority list, but it seems as though things are actually being made deliberately difficult for them. For example, this hotel has no tourist literature of any kind, not even simple maps of the city centre, which are normally subsidised by advertising elsewhere. And trying to find a tourist information office, with no map of any kind, is difficult – they are tucked away in inconspicuous premises with only the occasional signpost to help one find them.

I had a very interesting time today bootstrapping my way up to speed as a tourist. After studying road maps for a couple of hours to fix my route from here to Warsaw and doing some washing, it was time to take the plunge and go touristy. Someone at breakfast said to take Bus 131 into the centre, about 3 or 4 km away. The bus driver sold tickets (Pln 2.40 single), but it was only later that I realised that they had to be validated by stamping them in the machine in the bus, so I rode "black" into town.

The bus stopped in a side street; the centre could have been in any direction. So I started by taking a GPS mark of the bus stop! Almost no one, whom one stops on the street, speaks enough English or German to be reasonably understood so, after a while, one gives up asking and concentrates on working it out for oneself. Eventually I found a bus ticket machine and fathomed out that Pln 9 would buy me a day ticket – but I didn't have so much in coins, the machine didn't take notes, and the lady in the kiosk nearby wouldn't give me change. So, it was time for an ice cream to create some change, and I am suddenly mobile. One of the rare tourist maps on the street indicates an Info Centre at a railway station, and I work out which direction to head in (compass), and get a tram in that direction. In the meantime it has started raining – thundery weather.

But the Info Centre at the station is only for trains – back to square one, almost! In the meantime, a sense of direction has been asserted, and the location of the old town has been sensed. With the help of tram and compass, it is finally reached and, lo and behold, there in the corner of the town hall square is a drab, green shop indicating that it is a Tourist Information Office, and on the counter is a tear-off pad with a map of the town, and an indication of bus and tram routes. All is well with the world. Some 2½ hours have gone by.

Off I go to the cathedral and, what do you know, the tower is open for Pln 5. Intending to make up for my weakness in Ulm, I set off up the spiral staircase. To my surprise, it leads to the ticket office with, behind it, a lift. So I can't recompense my weakness. The view was worth the Pln 5, by the way. Then I decided to return to the hotel for a snooze and check-up of the bike (tyre pressure check in a garage). The hotel also has tea-making facilities like an English B&B – very civilised.

Then, with my new-found knowledge of the city's geography and transport system, it was a doddle to get back into the centre for cake and coffee. After that, I even found a beer!

Monday, 16^th June Photos

This is a bit of a case of rain (or beer) stops play, about 15 km short of today's target, Blaszki. Yes, I found a reasonable bar serving a good draught beer for Pln 3.50 for 0.5 litre (last night in the centre of Wroclaw the same thing cost Pln 8). So I might as well write a bit of the day's log. It was really a simple case of burning up the km. All the way to Sycow, it was smooth dual carriageway with enough space to the right of the white line for a cycle. It felt reasonably safe and, after the first 15 km, was no longer all that busy. Then I was able to turn off onto minor road 449 to head for Lodz, which I hope to reach tomorrow.

The minor roads are much more pleasant, except where the edges are potholed by the traffic, but not necessarily safer than the main roads. As long as there is no crossing traffic, it's fine; the Polish drivers are quite considerate. Unfortunately, they don't always wait if there's oncoming traffic, and it can sometimes be unpleasant. However, the traffic is quite light and there are long spells with no cars. There are no hills to speak of either, which also adds to the pleasure.

Next Morning, 07:30, just past Szadek

Yesterday evening/night turned into something of an epic. The rain turned into a real downpour so that all the holes in the road turned into lakes. Then at Blaszki there was no sign of a hotel or room anywhere. In fact, I don't think that I had seen any such thing since Ostrzeszow, some 50 km earlier. So it was teeth-gritting time, and plodding on to Warta, another 15 km. Again no "noclegi" (B&B) and only one closed-up hotel. The locals are totally unhelpful – perhaps I'm still looking too well-fed. It was a toss up between a bivouac in a bus shelter, or camping wild. There was a beautiful pine forest, so it was decided to camp. It rained again quite hard during the night.

I was up and packed at first light before anyone could find me and make a fuss.

Tuesday, 17^th June Photos

I'm really too tired to be bothered writing much tonight. It was simply a case of hacking away at the km so that I can reach the psychological goal of Warsaw tomorrow. Most of the cycling was easy with just a few hills around Lodz. I added a few unnecessary km by zig-zagging around Lodz and ending up too far north, but it wasn't serious.

Once Poland woke up between 08:00 and 09:00, the traffic became a pain until I turned off the main road at Jezow. The last two hours were peaceful, as were the two hours having lunch, snoozing, and drying out the tent.

I haven't really worked out the Polish hotel system. There seems to be no signs to this hotel anywhere. It was only by constantly asking that I found it. It's quite grand in typical post-war communist concrete style. Perhaps they don't want guests. One place I tried, which called itself a "Pensjonat" turned out to be a brothel!

Wednesday, 18^th June Photos

Until it became time to find accommodation, this was a perfect day. The expense of the hotel in Skierniewica (Pln 160) justified itself in the quality of its breakfast. It was a breakfast buffet with really fresh bread, scrambled eggs and, if you fancied them, hot sausages. I ate my fill and stole a sandwich and banana for lunch. The breakfast was preceded by a good night's sleep, no doubt catching up for the nervous night in the tent in the forest. The main worry there was not so much the fear of getting robbed, as having to put up with Grzegorz having the pleasure of saying: "Told you so", when I got home.

The cycling sailed along. My right Achilles tendon feels as though it might, at last, have decided to get better. Perhaps the cream that I bought 2 days ago in Grabow is actually helping. By coffee time, I had done 30 km and there, on the way into Zyrardow, was a M^cDonalds. So, coffee and a M^cFlurry. If they come to Switzerland, I can recommend the M^cFlurries (ice cream whip). After another 30 km, it was time for lunch, and up popped a restaurant on the outer, outer, outskirts of Warsaw. The spaghetti carbonara was nothing to write home about, although quite filling. It was followed by a huge helping of strawberries and ice cream. It was not particularly cheap (Pln 40, incl beer), but it hit the mark perfectly. As a note added much later, it is this meal that probably gave me salmonella poisoning and the associated digestive problems that beset me north of Warsaw.

Then it was on into Warsaw, but then came a problem. There was a sign on the road which I interpreted as "No Cycles". There seemed to be no other way. Someone I asked pointed me to the railway station and said, "Go by train". I set off in that direction, but found a police station after 300 m, so I went in there for help. Of course, the officer on duty couldn't speak English or German, but he phoned to someone who could. After a protracted 3-way phone call, it transpired that the sign was really a warning to car drivers of the end of the cycle track, and to watch out for cyclists from here on. So I continued on Road 719, sometimes on the road, sometimes on the pavement or cycle track, whatever was available. The traffic got so heavy that it was too slow to be a problem any more.

Then, in Warsaw, I had learned from my lesson in Wroclaw and became a profi tourist. I wanted to do the same as in Wroclaw, i.e. find a hotel on the way out and spend two nights there, going back in to sight-see by bus the next day. On the way into the city, I passed the main station, and it had a tourist office, and it gave me maps of the city centre and bus ticket information. I was fully armed. What's more, the map showed a hotel at just the right distance on my way out of town. Next time, I'll go back to the office and get them to book me a room by phone – it's always easy to be wise after the event.

With the bicycle and the street map, it was quite pleasant dawdling through the old town. Distances are quite big, so cycling slowly on the pavement works very well. Eventually, though, it was time to head out to the hotel. First there was the river to cross, and a bridge to get onto to do it. The topography of the town made this quite difficult to do, but to a resourceful person, who is prepared to carry his bicycle up and down embankments, these things can be accomplished. I think, though, that I must be blind to hotel signs. I cycled round and round and asked many people before I found it. It had quite a respectable sign over the door, but purported to be full. Bother! And no help as to where to go to find a room. In retrospect, I'm of the opinion that there's a Mafia type racket in Poland associated with prostitution and hotels. Many of the hotels that I've stopped at have had a couple of heavily built men hovering around the entrance, a bit like bouncers, turning people away.

So I pedalled and pedalled and pedalled, and stopped at a very unfriendly, sleazy, broken-down motel here in Marki. I have a room, and the beer, helping me to write this long logbook entry, is very good, but I wonder what the night holds in store.

Thursday, 19^th June Photos

This was a miserable day. Despite the very easy terrain, and the modest target that I had set myself, it was hard going. At first, I thought it was due to not having had a good breakfast, but it became increasingly clear that my digestion was out of sorts. I had bought a mini-pizza and doughnut in a baker's and stopped to brew up a cup of tea to have them with, but I still felt lifeless and, when lunch time came around, I had no desire for food.

Fortunately, I found a very nice, cheap hotel in Ostrow Mazowiecka with the help of the young ladies at the information desk in the town hall. I was able to nurse myself, tried drinking a beer, and was eventually sick. Since then, I've been feeling a lot better.

Friday, 20^th June – rest day in Ostrow Mazowiecka Photos

This was a non-day, spent nursing sickness and diarrhoea. I thought about visiting Treblinka by bus, but by the time that I got around to it, thunderstorms got in the way and it got so late, that the bus station was too much of a challenge.

Saturday, 21^st June Photos

This was a trivial day's cycling. An proof of this, my average speed, not counting time stopped for drinks, was 21 kph. It was a case of nursing continued diarrhoea. Fortunately the sickness seems to have abated. The afternoon was spent either in the hotel room (very nice, by the way) or in an Internet café, in both cases in reach of a loo.

The evening saw a venture out on foot to a M^cD to brave a Fish Mac. The night will tell if it was a good idea or not.

The countryside, by the way, is very scenic with the odd stork or two adding a different flavour. There have also been lots of fieldfares but, on the other hand, very few birds of prey, at least by Swiss standards.

The goal for tomorrow is Grajewo via minor roads. If the diarrhoea clears up and things go well, we might risk cycling a little further, since the number of hotels seems to have increased.

Sunday, 22^nd June Photos

But for the continued necessity of having to nurse my digestive system and the consequent small concern that I am not eating enough to maintain the energy output, this was a very pleasant day. The breakfast in the hotel was chaotic. There was a coach-load of Polish ladies and a considerable number of German males, part of a charity convoy of lorries from the Bremen area of Germany to Lithuania, all crowded around the buffet. So I joined the throng and concentrated on the cornflakes and scrambled eggs.

There was a choice between taking the main road to Grajewo, Route 61, or adding 6 or 7 km on minor roads. Since it was Sunday and I might need the loo of a service area or two, I opted for the main road. It turned out not to be too bad, nice and smooth with none of the frightening ruts present along the edge of many other Polish roads. Outside Lomza, there turned out to be some hills for a change, though nothing very serious. The countryside was mainly agricultural with rye as the main crop. There were cows loose in some fields, western style. This was quite a novelty. Further south, very few cows were to be seen and, where they were, they were usually chained to poles individually, a bit like goats sometimes are in Norway.

I refrained from eating, except for a delicious ice lolly, and felt good enough in Grajewo to plod on the remaining 15 km or so to Rajgrod, which looked from the map as though it might be a bit touristy. In fact, the whole area is notably more touristy. Hotels are more numerous, and the litter level along the sides of the road has dropped significantly. Rajgrod turned out to be much smaller than expected, but it is giving me a taste of a Polish B&B, which makes a nice change. The back garden backs onto a lake, and it's all very beautiful. The sunset over the lake was magnificent. There was a service going on at the local church with the doors wide open and people hanging around outside. I sauntered over to see what was going on – it looked as though the church was full and this was the overflow congregation! They take their Catholicism seriously here.

I was able to use the kitchen of the house to cook a packet of Rösti that I had brought with me from Switzerland. It was delicious – just what my system needed, I think. Tomorrow, or the night, will doubtless tell.

Monday, 23^rd June Photos

I should really have written this last night (it's now 10:20 on Tuesday morning in Marjampole), but there was no football (Euro 08) on TV, and so no half-time interval to act as an incentive to start writing!

Anyway, my digestion continued to improve, though still demanded care, and Poland also continued to improve. The countryside is really beautiful, there are small hills, and the weather has changed. There's now a stiff SW wind and scudding clouds. But for the cereal in the fields being mainly rye, it looks very like rural England. The frequency of accommodation has also increased.

The cycling was OK, given that it was all main road. There was a hard shoulder all the way, but one really gets tired from the noise of all the 40-ton trucks rolling by. Augustów was a pleasant town with central square. I was tempted to try a simple pizza – it went down rather well, though the pastry was a little sweet. Then came Suwalki, also very acceptable, followed by the question of whether to stop there for the night, or risk going on and not finding a bed near the border. I took the risk and it paid off. Well, at least I found a bed, but the inn was a bit dire and noisy. I was reduced to using ear plugs for the first time this trip. It was very nice, though, strolling around the fields in the evening sun, but it was necessary to wrap up because of the wind.

Thoughts on Poland

Having just left Poland behind, perhaps I should try to put down some thoughts on the country having spent 11 days crossing it. I should say first, though, that I was forewarned by all my Polish friends in Switzerland about how it would be. I have only myself to blame for insisting on coming anyway - I have always needed to find out the hard way.

As a country for cycling, Poland is certainly not to be recommended, at least if one's intention is simply to cross the country. The size of the country makes it impractical to buy large-scale maps, so one tends to be restricted to the major and semi-major roads. I had maps with a scale of 1:100'000, and on those the minor roads did not join up in a reasonably direct fashion for them to be a viable alternative to the main roads. On looking at a 1:50'000 map once, it seems as though the minor roads often become gravel roads for stretches through the countryside, and these joining sections were omitted from my road maps, which were intended to be used by car drivers.

On the other hand, the country did improve fantastically further north, and I could imagine that a more modest cycle trip around such a smaller area would be very pleasant. The signposting of cycle routes seems, however, to be sporadic at best.

Most of my time in Poland was spent having negative thoughts. Partially this must be moderated because of my digestive troubles for the past five days. I was, however, staggered by how unhelpful people were, in general. When asking for information, people would simply shrug and turn away if they had no English or German. Just occasionally one would be pleasantly surprised by an exception.

OK, enough. Let's get on.

Tuesday, 24^th June Photos

I spent my remaining Polish coins at the supermarket last night. The plan was to get up, pack, leave without buying breakfast, then get over the border into the first large town, Marjampole, to change some money and have a brunch. Well, the first part of the plan went well – the wind blew me here. The second was a disaster – it's National Day or something of the sort, and all banks are closed. Having carefully dawdled in northern Poland to avoid arriving here on a weekend, I find that to be remarkably unfair! So I had to get money out of a bankomat, which doesn't give me a handle on the exchange rate. At least I have some Lithuanian litais, so I'm debating what to have to follow the coffee and apple pie.

My choice was a sheesh kebab – fine, except for the meat, which was like burnt leather. I discarded it and enjoyed the bread and salad.

Today was how cycling should be. There was a last, short, 8 km bit of Polish main road on the hard shoulder, then a bit more in Lithuania, then the main road divided off, sucking all the heavy traffic with it, and leaving the quiet old road for me to enjoy. The scenery continues very pleasant, though it has turned flat again, and there are not so many storks. The farming conditions look more peasant-like, with working horses standing around in the fields. But the shops in the towns are much smarter and more attractive than in Poland. There are also more places to sit in comfort and have a snack – in Poland it always seemed rather seedy.

Things went quietly until crossing a big bridge over the river on the way into Kaunas, where I noticed that my front tyre was going flat. Fortunately I could keep pumping it up until I came across a hotel on my way out of town. I got a 20% discount by starting to walk away because of the price. It's still rather expensive at Ltl 224 (Eur 70), but it is rather smart. Everything in the bathroom works! But all the electronics in the room send my bicycle computer crazy.

After mending the puncture and a disappointing bar meal (the food has a funny taste – horseradish, I think), I wandered into town, intending to take a bus back. But I had to walk back because it was late, and buses stop early on bank holidays. O me miserum!

Wednesday, 25^th June Photos

This was a hard day because of the wind and an aftermath of last night's puncture, but otherwise beautiful. It was a treat to have the digestive problems finally settled, but the right Achilles tendon tried to play up again. A short massage seems to have fixed it though.

I decided for a bit of a lie-in because of the time-zone change, which was a mistake. It's good to get out early and get some km under one's belt before morning coffee. Today it was made worse because I had trouble finding my way out of town. There was a river to cross and a big bridge to get onto. A 1:600'000 scale map is not really adequate for such jobs. I also wanted to find Route 222 and avoid the E67, the so-called "Via Baltica", which has too many trucks. There was quite a hill climb after the bridge, and that is probably what aggravated the tendon.

Route 222 was lovely and quiet once Kaunas had been left behind. At Vandziogala, there was the option of a loop on a white road via Labunava to Kédainiai rather than the E67. A local advised against it, but I thought I'd try it anyway. After 100 m of loose gravel, I took the local's advice and braved the E67. It wasn't too bad, though the cross-wind made it a bit unstable. I soon turned off onto Route 144 to get to Kédainiai. I was in a quandary as how best to proceed. The episode with the white road being loose gravel had upset my plans. Now there was a decision to go NNW towards Siauliau, or NNE towards Panevezys. The wind being from the NW, Panevezys won.

Whilst shopping for lunch, a delicious, huge piece of freshly barbecued chicken, it transpired that I had not done a thorough puncture repair – the front tyre was flat again. Bother! So I had to find a quiet place to eat lunch and fix the tyre, all of which took quite some time. It was 15:30 before getting under way again, with some 60 km to do before hope of finding a hotel – the price for the late start.

The whole area outside the towns is amazingly rural. There's just the odd hamlet or small village, otherwise just fields, trees, bits of forest, and lots of fresh air. Most houses in the country are small wooden affairs with vegetable gardens around them. Some, though, are very smart with new roofs and flower gardens, presumably owned by town people moving into the country. The towns are a mix of concrete, post-war buildings, usually in a sorry state, and some more modern shopping centres. The supermarkets are, in general, much more attractive than in Poland.

Enough, I'm writing this in a pizzeria with the Turkey-Germany match on TV at full volume. It's 1-1 and the noise from the customers is too much. Let's get the bill.

Thursday, 26^th June Photos

It was a delightfully easy day. The wind had dropped quite a bit and turned favourable, and the route I picked to Birzai was almost deserted. It's a bit further east than I would have liked, but that's a small price to pay for the peace and quiet.

Of course, the minor roads really are deserted – no filling stations, no shops, just the occasional hamlet, and every 30 km or so a small town with a shop or two. It was sardines and bread roll for lunch. The original plan was to continue over the border to Latvia today, just another 20 km. But that might have been tight with the bank opening hours, so I knocked off at 14:30, and found a nice guest house here in Birzai, a nice little town with beautiful lake, but not much in the gastronomic line – pizza again!

Friday, 27^th June Photos

The banking gods have clearly got it in for me but, despite that, it's been a delightful day. The guest house provided coffee making facilities in the room so, although there was no breakfast, at least there was a coffee to start the day. And local coffee is made with grains in the cup, so it's almost a meal in itself.

There were also two Dutch cyclists in the guest house on the same sort of escapist trip as myself. Both newly retired, they had flown with their bikes to Tallinn and were now in the process of cycling back to Holland. It was nice to find someone to talk to properly again. They had about 30 kg luggage each, all on the back wheel, and it was causing them problems. But it sounds as though they were being a bit more adventurous than I and tackling gravel roads. They were having breakfast on a park bench in front of the guest house as I left.

The km sailed by. The wind had dropped, but remained favourable. The border was soon reached and crossed over a rather pleasant river. Then it was a question of where the next bank would be. I expected it to be in Vedumnieki, some 25 km further on. When I got there it was only a bankomat, so I probably wouldn't have used it anyway. As it was, it was out of action. Robbers had ripped it out of the wall the previous night! The local TV crew were on the spot – maybe I was on Latvian TV today.

I had intended to give Riga a wide berth on minor roads to the east, but I was forced into the centre in the hunt for a bank. It's some 70 km from the border to the centre of Riga, that's a long way without a bank, at least by Swiss standards. Actually, it's not just banks that are missing, but everything. The population density seems to be less than Norway. The road was delightful for cycling, at least until Riga drew near. Then it was simply a question of hugging the edge of the road, or cycling on the hard shoulder, when there was one. It wasn't too bad, just a lot of km.

Anyway, it was a relief to get some Latvian money, but I had to try 4 banks before I could find one which would take my Polish money. Then I headed off out of town. There is so much daylight at this time of year so far north that, when the weather is fine and warm like today, there's no rush to find a hotel. Which is just as well, because they are few and far between. Some 30 km out of Riga, I stopped at a motel to ask the price. I thought that Lvl 31, without breakfast, was too much, so I decided to risk going on to the next one. It turned out to be another 17 km! Fortunately it was cheaper, Lvl 25 (Eur 38) including breakfast, and the room is so big that I can park my bike in it and not notice. The grilled salmon in the restaurant was also the best meal that I have had in 3 weeks.

Saturday, 28^th June Photos

This turned out to be quite a tough day, all things considered. It wasn't helped by it clouding over in the early afternoon and turning quite cold. There was a bad start as I missed the A3 turn-off. My excuse is that it was not indicated with its road number. When I discovered the error in Gauja, I first tried to cut across the corner on forest tracks until I got stuck in sand, and a local advised me to go back around. As it turned out, there would have been a big river in the way. The detour cost me 10 km and one hour.

Then, when I turned off the P9 to Limbazi, it was slow going due to the newly re-surfaced, and therefore rough, asphalt. The gentle hills didn't help either. However, I got to Limbazi for a late lunch (supermarket café, not fantastic) and felt like staying the night. But the girls in the tourist office reckoned that the hotels were full due to a school sports event in the town. They phoned ahead for me to Mik's Café cum Guest House in Mazsalaca, which reassured me that the place had somewhere to sleep, if I could get there. It was another 50 or so km on top of the 60 already behind me. The last stretch was going to be on "white" roads, which I had yet to try.

Progress was fine until the white road was reached at Puikule. The white road turned out to be sandy gravel. With practice, it was possible to just about stay on the bike and do between 10 and 15 kph. By the time that I got to Mik's Café, I was quite cold and really ready to stop. Fortunately, the guest house turned out to be real and to have a nice room for me (Lvl 10 = Eur 15). There's no breakfast, however, but beggars can't be choosers.

By the time that I got around to looking for a place to eat, the only place in town, Mik's Café, had closed at 21:00, even though it was Saturday. That's where having camping equipment with one turns out to be useful. I bought a nice cold bottle of beer at the local shop, and cooked up a packet curry brought from Switzerland. The closed restaurant turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Sunday, 29^th June Photos

With a bit of practice, one gets quite blasé about the gravel roads. I had a very pleasant, if a little cool, morning heading up the gravel road north from Mazsalaca to the Estonian border and then on to Kilinge-Nomme. There was hardly a car in sight, and I found a non-vandalised bankomat, which provided the necessary local currency.

There was a decision, viz. whether to go west or east to make progress towards Tallinn. Despite the likelihood of more traffic on the westerly route, it's quite a few km shorter and so that's the way I went. The asphalt first turned into 8 km of roadworks – much worse than the gravel roads encountered so far. I decided to stop in Pärnu and make it a short day. Progress against the head wind was a bit slow, but I made it in the end.

Pärnu seems to be quite a resort, with hotel prices to match. I'm therefore in a six-bed dormitory in a hostel (Eek 360 = Eur 24) tonight. Hopefully it will be all right. At least there's free Internet access.

Monday, 30^th June Photos

What amazing timing. I'm sitting under cover on the deck of the 21:00 ferry to Helsinki and, after it having been fine all day, it's just started to pour down.

It was simply a case of hacking away at the km and getting to Tallinn. The conditions for that were ideal – a good strong tail-wind, a smooth strip of asphalt between the white line and gravel hard shoulder, and no hills to speak of. If the speed was 20-25 kph, it was uphill, if it was 25-30 kph, it was downhill, but it needed a good eye to see the difference.

Otherwise it was not very interesting. The main road by-passed all the villages, and there were no cafés or petrol stations on the road itself. The frequency of storks has dropped considerably, and now there are elk warning signs. The general feel of Estonia is "Scandinavian".

In Tallinn, it was a question of whether to get a ferry straight away, or spend the night in a hotel. The discovery that one could say on board the 21:00 ferry and sleep in a cabin until 06:00 all for Eek 1126 (Eur 74) decided the issue. I had a quick dash back into town for a M^cDonald's, and then it was off to Helsinki. As already mentioned, the heavens opened as we left the harbour.

Tuesday, 1^st July Photos

Sleeping on the ferry was a good idea. It was a very quiet night. When I went down to the car deck at 05:40, there was just a Finnish couple with their motor bike waiting for the ramp to be let down. Otherwise the car deck was empty. But someone showed up at 06:00 to let us off. Then it was a case of getting one's bearings in the town, finding a Tourist Office, and waiting for it to open at 09:00.

I was thinking of buying a new camping stove, and Colin had sent me the address of the Primus importer to Finland. It turned out to be on my way out of town, so I set off to find it. Distances are huge in cities, and it takes ages to get anywhere. It was about 11:00 before I got to the shop, but they didn't have exactly the model that I wanted, so I decided not to buy one. In the meantime, it had started raining quite steadily. Fortunately, the shopping complex had a very adequate restaurant, which served a good soup and salad. The rain had eased off a bit, so I set off out of town. I had a cycle track map of the city, which helped enormously. I managed to find a library with Internet access, where I sat out the end of the rain.

I had also got a map of Finnish camp sites in Helsinki, and decided that the site at Järvenpää would make a nice easy day. Unfortunately, the Finnish cycle track signposting was at too much of a micro-level for my very macro (1:800'000) map. So I did about 10 km too much in finding it.

By the time the tent was up, just in time for a rain shower, the only restaurant in town which was still open was M^cD, my second today. I'm going to turn into a M^cD junky by the end of this holiday!

Wednesday, 2^nd July Photos

This was quite an easy day though, by the time that I had reached Lahti, I must admit that I had had enough. The day started late with a lie-in until 08:00, so it was 10:00 by the time that I had packed everything up and was ready to leave. I'd already decided the day's target of a camp site near Lahti.

The day's tour started well as I was able to find some decent maps (1:250'000), not cheap (3 maps at Eur 9 each), but it's a delight to really know where one is again. I sauntered up the 1456 as far as Mäntsälä, where it joined the 140 to Lahti. There was a perfect combination at Mäntsälä – a supermarket with a WC, a stall selling strawberries, and an ice cream stand. I therefore treated myself to a punnet of strawberries, washed them in the WC, and had a bowl of ice cream to accompany them.

The scenery and farm buildings are very reminiscent of Norway, especially the region around Risør. There are short, steep ups and downs, and curving roads with a mix of forest and cereals.

As I reached the camp site, it started to rain quite hard, so I used the camp site's laundry facilities whilst waiting for it to stop. Let's hope everything is reasonably dry for tomorrow. Then it was Hobson's choice for evening meal – a pizzeria. It was too far to go back into Lahti. Now we'll go and put up the tent. It's turned into a nice evening.

Thursday, 3^rd July Photos

There is not really very much to report. The hills have got bigger but still, on the whole, they are very moderate. To some extent, I had to pay today for the tail winds in Estonia, but again, the head wind wasn't too bad. The worst was that it rained just as I was thinking of packing up the tent. I went back to bed for a bit but it seemed set-in. It was 25 km until I found something reasonable for breakfast, but the cakes and coffee were good, and thus worth waiting for.

Again, I had decided my target camp site at the outset, and that makes it very easy and relaxing, especially when it's only a 70 km day. I chose to go up the east side of the big lake north of Lahti, Päijänne, a very good decision. The causeway across the lake turned out to be a glacial formation, a series of eskers joined by causeways or bridges, and it was all very beautiful. There were also lots of wild strawberries to pick.

Having arrived at the camp site in Sysmä, I put up the wet tent, and gave it lots of time to air. Then it was off to the local library to check emails and up-load some photos; then pizza; then phone home; then a two second swim in the lake to start the hardening process; shower and beer. Then bed!

Friday, 4^th July Photos

A glorious but hard day. Despite the advice from the camp guardian in Sysmä, I set my sights on Jyväskylä, the next camp site north in the guide book. I had a late start - I suppose that I should improve my packing system – but there's really no rush now that it's light more or less 24 hours per day.

The day was warm and sunny (bad weather is forecast for Sunday), there was no traffic until I got to the E63 after 84 km, and the scenery was spectacular as one repeatedly came down to a lake. But the hills were steep, if usually short, but it was up and down all the time, with a nasty climb somewhere after Luhanka. Altogether, it could have been over 500 m of height gain during the day. At one point I took the time for a short skinny dip.

Just before Jyväskylä there was a short downpour, but it fortunately stopped and didn't wet the camp site. During the downpour, I saw two elk by the wild-animal fence next to the road. The camp site was hard to find, as it wasn't as shown on my map, but I got there in the end. Now it's beer time, then shower and bed.

Saturday, 5^th July Photos

Today was not as hilly as yesterday, but harder because of the cold. During the morning I crossed a weather front, and the temperature dropped to about 12°C. In addition, the cycling was not quite so interesting – simply following the edge of the main E75. This could well be how it is going to be for the rest of the trip. The weather is forecast to stay cold for the next 7 days.

The highlights were first of all, before going to bed last night, I went into the camp site's sauna after it had officially closed. It was still hot enough for me, though. Then, this morning, there was breakfast available at the camp site, with porridge. There was then a flan and cheese-cake for a late morning coffee in Aänekoski. The only recognised special wildlife was a curlew. The rest was a grind to get the 100 km done as quickly as possible.

The camp site is about 5 km from the town, so evening meal was a walk to the burger restaurant across the road – not a McDonald's! The burger was exceptionally good. On getting back to the camp site, an open-air karaoke was in progress, despite the cool evening. I chatted to a Finnish couple over rather too many beers. They gave me a T-shirt as a souvenir.

Sunday, 6^th July Photos

There's not really very much to report. It was a simple slog up the E75 with long, relatively gentle, ups and downs. With sunshine, it would have been very beautiful. As it was, it was a cold and grey (maybe only 10°C) with occasional showers.

Breakfast at the camp site was excellent value (Eur 6) with freshly made porridge and two boiled eggs plus ham, cheese, bread and coffee. Otherwise, food in restaurants is getting very unexciting. You can have anything you want as long as it's pizza or hamburger. Or maybe I can't recognise up-market restaurants yet.

There was a British couple at the camp site on their way from Nordkapp to Athens on a tandem. They seemed to have only the same amount of gear as I have, despite there being two of them. They were cycling in shorts and with no gloves!

On the way, I saw a field full of snipes (or curlews?) and lapwings. There were also two big birds, bigger than herons or storks. My guess was cranes, but they could have been someone's tame emus for all that I know. Lunch was pizza; evening meal cheeseburger! And the evening has turned wet and grey. I must get off the E75 tomorrow.

Monday, 7^th July Photos

This was a really super day. It started off very slowly since I reluctantly decided to go round 2 sides of a 7 km triangle to get to Pyhäsalmi from the camp site in the hope of being able to buy the next map in the GT series, which I desperately needed, at a big store at a junction on the E75. I was in luck, and it was worth the detour.

The weather was cold, 9°C, and wet so, after coffee, sandwich and a bun, I spent an hour in the library catching up with emails. Then it was off in the direction of Pyhäntä, cross-country, to save extra kilometres. Once I turned off Route 27 to Kuusenmäki, it was dirt roads and a case of careful map reading to make sure that I made it through what looked like a wilderness on the map until asphalt would be reached again on Route 599. It wasn't actually that much of a wilderness, quite agricultural really, but it was important to keep the route finding exact. It made it very interesting, and an elk could have been lurking round every corner. In fact, it was just curlews, lapwings and fieldfares.

On the way, I passed a small hut with key in the door, so it was a good spot to brew up some coffee and have bread and sardines. The weather slowly improved, but there was always the threat of showers. I reached Pyhäntä in good style, found that the camp site, marked on the map, had closed down, and was forced to take a room in the village motel. My room turned out to be a palatial 4-bedded suite with kitchen and verandah. Sometimes one is lucky. There was a lake just outside too, with beautiful evening sun, but it was too cold for a dip, only 11°C.

Tuesday, 8^th July Photos

Despite the fact that it has rained nearly all day and stayed cold, this has been another very enjoyable day. It started with a gentle plod in spitting rain up a very quiet Route 822 to Kestilä, where it was time to eat and visit the library to send a report home via Internet. This time Hobson's choice was "hamburger".

Then I went some 13 km along Route 800 to Nuutila where I turned off on an asphalted minor road, more or less due north in the direction of Utajärvi. At Kylmälä, there was another chance to eat, this time pizza. The owner, Kyläkauppa Satumaa, found the telephone number of the hotel in Utajärvi for me, and called when my handy wouldn't work. Having a room reserved before setting off on the final 30 km in heavy rain is very comforting.

The wild flower variety has reduced greatly, the pale mauve cranesbills having more or less disappeared. I saw 5 more cranes and lots of snipes or curlews or whatever, some with long down-curving beaks and others with long straight beaks, but no elk or reindeer. I got to the hotel, a nice country lodge, just in time to tag on to the evening meal, and it was real food!! Chicken soup, salmon and potatoes, and cream strawberry cake – fantastic. I'm staying two nights.

Wednesday, 9^th July - rest day in Utajärvi Photos

Today was a rest day, which started badly. I decided to give the bicycle a clean and check-up, and found a broken spoke in the back wheel. With some effort, I managed to locate a spare in the town, and then struggled to fit it. Tomorrow will show if the repair was good or not.

The afternoon was spent at the library, up-loading photos after the obligatory hamburger for lunch. Evening meal back at the hotel was elk stew followed by molte (cloudberries) and ice cream. Then there was a bit of TV, a beer, and an early night. Tomorrow's goal in Pudasjärvi on quite a lot of minor roads.

Thursday, 10^th July Photos

This was another exhilarating cross-country day, but made a lot tougher, a) because it was much more remote, and b) because the going was hard because the days of rain made the dirt roads rather squidgy. But first of all, I must express a word of praise for the hotel. I intend to put in a Web link in the on-line version of this journal, but basically, anyone planning to travel in the Oulu area of Finland should arrange things so that they spend a few nights at the Merilän Kartano Hotel in Utajärvi.

Anyway, there's not really a lot to report about today's stretch. It involved over 50 km of either squidgy or stony dirt road, which required careful map reading.There was a stretch of about 15 km with no signposts and no houses, so it was very reassuring to have a compass with me. The vegetation is getting ever more stunted, and the hills are not very pronounced. On dry dirt roads, it would really be quite nice cycling country. It rained more or less for most of the day – it's time it stopped. At least it's a bit warmer, maybe 15°C this evening.

I stopped for an ice cream whilst cycling around the Pudasjärvi by-pass, and the waitress showed me an advert for a "summer hotel" just out of town on the Ranua road. There was also a camp site nearby. However, since it was pouring down when I got there, I opted for the hotel. After a shower, it was a case of returning to the town to buy some breakfast and to have my daily hamburger.

Friday, 11^th July Photos

What could be more romantic than sitting in one's tent listening to the patter of rain and trying to be sure that all the mozzies and knotts are on the outside rather than the inside of the tent. Rain has certainly been the main theme of the last few days, once the weather warmed up again.

But the first excitement of the day was a female elk with her calf (actually, I later realised that they were reindeer) on the road not many km from Pudasjärvi. Hopefully, one of my photos of them will be good. Thereupon a thunderstorm struck with a vengeance. Of course, there was no shelter, so I just got soaked. Whilst fighting the storm, I caught up with the Finn who had been sharing the kitchen and bathroom at the summer hotel last night. He was doing Helsinki to Norway on "skikes", a cross between in-line skates and roller skis. He just had one small rucksack, and he reckoned that he had a tent in it. He had been on the road for two weeks already. It certainly makes me look over-equipped. Because of the storm, I couldn't get a photo of him. He was quite cheerful. He said, "At least the rain keeps the insects away!"

Once the storm stopped, it was necessary to put on some dry pants. Some dry socks and plimsolls would have been nice too. The cycling sailed along on the quiet road, and it was still too early to stop when I got to Ranua at 13:30. So, after the usual food (pizza, this time), I decided to head off in the direction of Rovaniemi, still 80 km away, but hoping that this camp site, marked on the map, would really exist. It's rather an overpriced site for its amenities, so I'm half sorry that it did. There's probably a much better site in Rovaniemi, but that would have meant a 150 km day, which is really too much. Supper was just a packet of crisps and a bottle of beer – pretty grim. We've also reached serious insect country. I'm probably going to suffer in a day or two from all the mosquito and knott bites sustained whilst putting up the tent. That's life in the North. Anyway, tomorrow I shall cross the Arctic Circle.

Saturday, 12^th July Photos

An afterthought to yesterday: Just before I stopped, there were patches of white next to the road – hailstones. I had sheltered under a bridge at Portimo because it had looked as though a thunderstorm was about to strike, and I had been wet enough for one day. It didn't strike, it just rained, but it had obviously been more dramatic further north.

Anyway, last night it rained heavily after I stopped writing, but fortunately there was no hail and it stopped after a while. I was up at 07:00, since breakfast was likely to be in Rovaniemi, some 30 km away. The day started well with a reindeer with big antlers on the road. In retrospect, yesterday's elk were reindeer. Then, a bit further on, there was a female reindeer with calf. The road was quiet, and it was just about dry once the morning fog lifted, and I soon seemed to be in Rovaniemi. It's a big city and very beautiful too, especially once the sun came out and it got properly warm for the first time in 7 days. In the afternoon, I cycled in shorts and short-sleeved shirt.

In Rovaniemi, the first priority was to buy more maps, and then to have a sandwich and coffee, and then my last McDonald's of this trip, since it was the "Northest (sic) McDonald's in the World", according to a sign on its window.

Getting out of the town onto the minor Route 934 was a bit troublesome, but after that it was a quiet, warm cycle ride across the Arctic Circle, which wasn't marked on this minor road, so I have no definite photographic record to document the event. The targeted camp site in Marraskoski turned out to exist, and was very pleasant. The sun had disappeared, and it had started to rain, of course, just before I got to the site – that seems to happen so often. The insects are incredibly vicious, so now it's time to retire to the tent and kill all the mozzies in it before going to sleep. There is, by the way, no question of leaving the tent in the "night" for a leak and letting in more insects – it's a good idea to have a bottle to help.

Sunday, 13^th July Photos

I don't know if it's camp sites in the north of Finland, which have rather basic facilities, or camp sites, which are not in the camping guide. Anyway, tonight's site is really basic, even if the shower is combined with a sauna. There are no cooking facilities, and no place to shelter from the rain. However, it only costs Eur 10, and a room in the hotel in town would have cost Eur 60. For the difference, I can have a lavish evening meal, not hamburger and not pizza, but smoked salmon.

Anyway, it wasn't a very thrilling day, despite three sightings of reindeer: a mother and calf, then a group of three with magnificent antlers, and then another mother and calf. I just had to follow Route 79 for 110 km. Generally speaking, 110 km in a day is no big deal if one doesn't know it in advance, i.e. if one has to keep going to find a room. But knowing it in advance, and knowing that there's no alternative, makes it endless. My legs didn't really want to pedal today, but I've set my sights on reaching the Norwegian border via Inari for my birthday on Thursday, so they had no choice.

Actually, it's a difficult choice of which way to go. A German at the last camp site, who knows the area well, advised the westerly route. But I don't really trust people who only know motorised transport. I hope I can talk to someone at a Tourist Information Office tomorrow before I have to make the decision in Sirkka.

Monday, 14^th July Photos

It's strange how some days are easier than others. Today seemed ever so easy, despite the 58 km of dirt road, and the uncertainty of there being a camp site at Pokka. Maybe it's the dirt road that makes it interesting. There were no animals to see, and just the ski resort of Sirkka/Levi to go through, but it was still enjoyable.

The vegetation has returned to more what I expected: birch forests and bogs. Yesterday, the road followed the river Ounasjoki all the way. There was no evident river valley, but the countryside looked very cultivated with quite lush woodland. Now I suppose that I am in the headwater swamp area of the Ounasjoki, and we're back to stunted forest and bogs. It's nice to cycle through, and the dirt road keeps the motorised traffic away, though today's dirt road was relatively busy – maybe 30 vehicles in total.

I've caught up the receding region of 24-hour sunshine. I've actually had sunshine at midnight for a couple of days now as a result of daylight saving time. But now the sun doesn't set at all. I've set the tent door facing north. Maybe I'll experience midnight sun tonight, in case it's cloudy when I get to the Nordkapp.

At the supermarket in Rautuskylä, I had some apple cake, which was quite an experience. I was getting in need of a proper lunch, having only had two rather nice pastries and a cup of coffee for breakfast in Kittilä. It was looking like that was all that I was going to get for lunch as well, when I noticed that the coffee bar in the shop had a microwave. I then found that the shop had some home-made apple cakes for sale. By microwaving it in four goes, and adding milk meant for coffee, I had more apple cake than I should really have eaten. Perhaps that's why getting to Pokka was so easy. Let's see how it is getting to Inari tomorrow after a miserable heated-up frozen pizza and beer in the bar attached to the camp site. The camp site location is very pretty, though, even if it does only have one shower, and that's in the ladies' WC!

Tuesday, 15^th July Photos

This was another nice day made rather hard by lack of food. Pokka to Inari was 105 km with no café or shop along the way, and the camp site toilets were not open when I left, so I didn't have full water bottles. The first 50 km or so went well, but then the going got quite tough with some hills, and especially since it has now turned quite warm. I had to have a dip in a nice river that I crossed, but it was too cold to get in fully.

Anyway, I eventually made it to Inari and, as I suspected, met the hordes of tourists stopping on their way up and down the E75. I had 30 minutes on the Internet for Eur 4 in the Tourist Office - the library was being renovated. However, the town had a very nice little restaurant, so I treated myself to reindeer meat balls stuffed with mushrooms – very, very good. Then I decided to do another 25 km or so to get to a camp site listed in the camping guide. It was worth it. The facilities are better than I have had recently. It was 1.5 km up the road to a restaurant for a beer and plate of chips. In the meantime it has started raining. Now I have to cycle back to the camp site – perhaps I'm going to get wet as the price for the chips.

Reindeer, by the way, are two a penny around here. I've lost count of how many I've seen on the road today. Many of them are quite tame, and will come quite close before wandering on.

Inari is on the shores of a huge lake, maybe several hundred square km. You wouldn't know it when arriving from Pokka. At no point was there a view of a huge lake. Although the trees are small, they still manage to cut off the distant views most of the time. Even in the settlement itself, you're not really aware of the lake, except for the adverts for various boat and plane trips.

Wednesday, 16^th July Photos

Written on Thursday morning over breakfast at the Sápmi Centre in Karasjok. Yesterday was a seriously hilly and seriously wet day. But, after a dip in the river at the camp site, and a hot shower before going to bed at about 23:00, a good night's sleep, and an excellent breakfast in the Jokitörmä camp site (a 5-star camp site, in my opinion, which can only be recommended), it felt quite good. Some of the hills were labelled as 9%, but quite short. The kilometres crept by but, after about 30 km, the worst was over, and I was able to make good progress to the Norwegian border. The rain came down in torrents for most of the morning, but it cleared up in the afternoon.

I was hoping to find a final Finnish library with Internet access in the border settlement of Karigasniemi, but no such luck. So it was a case of going on to find accommodation in Karasjok. On discovering the price of hotel rooms, I settled for the tent again. But in the meantime, the heavens had opened again, and stayed open for a couple of hours. There were, however, many other cyclists at the camp site to chat to whilst waiting for it to stop. I got the tent up in a brief pause in the rain, but there was no question of getting all the bags into it.

The evening was spent cooking, at last, my spaghetti emergency dish with olive oil and basil dressing. It wasn't bad, even if 500 gm of spaghetti was too much. Then I sat with others around a camp fire in a Sami teepee until about 23:00, and finally talked with Alan (Hough) Smith, a university teacher from Maryland, into the early hours. It was still raining, even then, so it was a case of a quick shower, putting the minimum of equipment into the tent, and going to bed. The clouds were so thick that it was almost unnecessary to wear the eye patches to get to sleep. Fortunately, the morning was dry and warm.

Thursday, 17^th July Photos

But for a very heavy spell of rain at around 16:00, the weather today has been beautiful. The scenery was also fantastic. The day started slowly after the very late night, and packing was a long job because of the break in routine caused by the rain of the previous evening. Eventually I was packed and set off, after exchanging email addresses with Alan Smith, and immediately stopped again in the Sápmi (Lapp) Centre for some breakfast, where I was stung NOK 120 for a coffee, smoked salmon sandwich, and a small piece of carrot cake. Well, it is a tourist trap, I suppose.

The cycling started off reminding me of the climb from the Czech Republic to the Polish border. The E6 climbed and climbed for several km, not very steeply, fortunately. Eventually it levelled out and then, apart from a short, steep climb, the going was quite good, and the scenery with the sunshine splendid.

There were no watering holes, so I eventually stopped at a lake, Porsangermoen, for sardine sandwiches and a cup of coffee. This got me through to Lakselv. I would have had a dip in the lake, but I could see rain coming, so thought better of it. For once, I arrived in the town just before the rain started, rather than after I was already wet. The rain called for an email session in the library, followed by some shopping and a hamburger, before doing the last, easy 20 km to Stabbursdalen.

There are motor homes trailing past en route for the Nordkapp, and no shortage of cyclists, but on the whole the E6 is less busy than expected. The evening was spent leisurely doing camping chores – shower, wash some clothes, set up the tent, make a noodle soup for supper, and answer all the SMS birthday greetings. Time goes on – it is now 23:40. One doesn't realise it when the sun is still up.

Friday, 18^th July Photos

That was a wild, hard day, that brought me very close to collapsing through exhaustion. I started out with the idea that it would be good to get to Honningsvåg, if the cycling were easy enough to cover the 150 km or so in a day. In the end, I just about managed to get to Honningsvåg, despite the cycling conditions.

From Stabbursdalen to Olderfjord, the going was heavy – it was one of those days where the body just didn't want to wake up, despite a big breakfast of muesli. The weather was dry, the hills not so hard, but bad weather was lurking to the south. The rain enveloped me not far from Olderfjord, the turn-off from the E6 towards Nordkapp, where I expected to find a supermarket to stock-up for the rest of the day. There wasn't one, but at least there was a good restaurant, which served a very good set-lunch of steak, chips and salad. Afterwards, the kilometres just seemed to fly by. The road was level, good and quiet. The only problem was the rain.

The weather worsened as I travelled north, turning into a full-blooded gale driving the rain from the west. It was quite cold too, and there was no shelter anywhere, except for the time spent in tunnels, which weren't that bad, presumably because the weather prevented there being much traffic. I had a few crises where my eyes started burning, as though flooded with sweat, which I treated with doses of fudge. Finally I stood at the entrance to the dreaded Nordkapp Tunnel, 7 km, 10% slope down for 2 km, level for 3 km, then 10% slope up for 2 km. Because of the bad weather outside, it was actually quite pleasant in the tunnel, despite the unbelievable noise made by each vehicle, whatever its type, as it came by. The remaining 18 km to Honningsvåg were relatively easy with a tail wind, but I arrived at the camp site greatly relieved. By the way, I saw 5 whooper swans on the way, not far from the Nordkapp Tunnel.

After 2 or 3 hours of recuperation with shower and clean clothes, a British woman arrived at the camp site at midnight, just as I was going to bed. She, Millie, had cycled from Alta, some 20 km further than I did, in shorts!

By the way, the trees, which to my surprise had accompanied my tour all the way to Lakselv, finally stopped. The scenery has become like that on the tops of the mountains around Fosslia, i.e. bleak and barren, only at sea level, with a fjord on one side. The scenery today would have been fantastic, if I could have appreciated it.

Saturday, 19^th July Photos

The first priority of the day was to dry out. Fortunately, it was a nice day. Then it was a case of resting until evening, when the plan was to go to the Nordkapp for midnight. I started by treating myself to a buffet breakfast (NOK 135) at the adjacent hotel, where I tried hard to restore the deficiencies in my body caused by the previous day's epic. The afternoon was spent with a gentle stroll up to a view-point overlooking the camp site. Unfortunately there was a slight mist on the summit obscuring the view for most of the time. It was, however, a glorious day, especially compared to the one before.

As I prepared and ate my supper, it looked very much as though a storm was moving in. Was I to be disappointed at Nordkapp? Despite the ominous weather, I set off with a light load to cover the 26 km and countless metres of elevation gain (I estimate about 700 m) to my goal. It is a really punishing stretch of road for a cyclist. The weather was threatening all the way. But, as I climbed the last hill, the weather suddenly improved, and the 3 hours that I spent up there were really splendid. There were at least 20 coaches up there, and the car park was full, mainly with motor homes, but the mass of people at the Cape at midnight gave it a very warm atmosphere. I imagine it's like a midsummer druid festival at Stonehenge.

Of course, there were also quite a few cyclists there, including Millie, the woman who had arrived from Alta the night before, and Sonja Motz, whom I had met with Alan Smith back at Karasjok. She had been more sensible and camped at Olderfjord the day before. But she had cycled with all her gear to the Nordkapp, and was planning to spend the night there.

In the Visitor Centre, there was a splendid video to watch. Writing postcards also passed some time waiting for midnight, though I had forgotten my address book, which was a pain.

The ride back to Honningsvåg, with the sun behind and the long shadows, although hard just like in the other direction, was splendid. It was necessary to wait until the Visitor Centre at the Cape closed at 01:00 before setting off back, so that all the coaches and motor homes would be out of the way. On getting back to the tent at 02:20, I did one good thing in making myself a hot drink, but opted out of a shower. I would probably have slept better if I'd had one.

Sunday, 20^th July Photos

It was another splendid morning. The plan was to spend a restful morning washing clothes, and then to go on the "Bird Safari" at Gjesvær. After that, it was to be the hike to Knivskjellodden, and finally drop in at the normal Nordkapp to post some postcards, so that they would have a Nordkapp postmark.

An English chap from Yorkshire, Richard, who was cycling around the north with his wife, had given me the impression that the ride to Gjesvær was a simple hack up the first monster hill (4 km and some 300 m elevation gain) towards Nordkapp, then turn off at the top and sail down a valley to the village. The "sail down" turned out to be 21 km of very hilly, bad asphalt. The last bird safari of the day was at 15:00. My leaving the camp site at 12:50 turned out to be leaving it a bit tight. I had to force the pace more than I should have liked.

Anyway, I made it to the harbour at Gjesvær in time. The approach to the village, and the village itself, are very beautiful, but the safari was very disappointing, especially at a price of NOK 475 (Eur 39) per person. It was a trip out to, and a slow chug around, a group of islands out at sea a little way. Admittedly the white tailed eagles soaring around up high were very special, but the puffins, guillemots, etc. were not of the same "close encounter" style, which we had experienced off the Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland, and the information offered by the boat's captain was also rather limited.

On returning to land, I thought that I should get something "proper" to eat to go on top of the 250 gm of spaghetti that I had had for lunch. The fish soup and waffles were very good. Time was getting on by the time that I had had this, and I wasn't sure any more whether I was up to the hike to Knivskjellodden or not, so I decided to go directly to Nordkapp and do the postcard chore first. It wasn't looking too sunny, anyway. It really is hard cycling country. I needed coffee and waffles to revive me when I got there. The cape was deserted – no coaches and not that many cars. I heard later that I was still too early; they all turned up after I left.

The weather improved as I was leaving the Cape so that, on getting to the start of the hike to Knivskjellodden, some 6 km from the Cape, it was impossible to resist attempting the hike. The ground was mainly stony with boggy patches, typical Norwegian terrain, and it was not really suited to my cheap, Polish plimsolls. But when did I ever let something like that stop me. It was quite hard keeping to the trail, because the very low sun was dazzling me all the time. Fortunately the route was well marked with huge cairns so I made fast progress, covering the 8 km or so in just under 2 hours. There were 10 to 20 other souls at the Cape when I arrived shortly before midnight. Again, it was a very peaceful experience, but this time with only a few like minds to share it with.

We made the 2 hour hike back to the car park as a small group, which was nicer at that time of night than walking alone. Golden plovers accompanied us - I had hardly heard any before on this trip. Perhaps cycles are too fast for them to accompany.

Back at the car park, the others dispersed in their cars leaving me to cycle back to Honningsvåg on my own. To repeat myself, it really is tough cycling country, but the night sun on one's back helps enormously. A quick shower and into the tent at 05:00 were then the priority. I arrived at the camp site as Richard and his wife were getting up to catch the Hurtigruten south. That will be me tomorrow morning, but it looks at the moment (Monday afternoon) as though I shall be packing up a wet tent, rather than a nice sun-dried tent.

Monday, 21^st July Photos

It has been a dull, dreary day and been trying to rain most of the time. I had a late start due to the late night, and then just went into Honningsvåg to check on the time required, and to check on tickets for the Hurtigruten. Apparently one can buy tickets on board, so that's what I decided to do, in case I oversleep and miss the boat – it leaves at 06:16. I had a reasonable hamburger and ice cream in the town before returning to the camp site. The microwaved rømmegrøt, that I bought in the camp site's store, was very disappointing with only cinnamon and no sugar or melted butter to put on it. Then it was early to bed, after getting all the gear sorted out and packed as much as possible for tomorrow's early start.

Tuesday, 22^nd July Photos

The Hurtigruten leaves Honningsvåg heading south at 06:15, so it was a case of having to get up at 04:00 to pack and cycle the 9 km to the harbour. It was drizzling and cold with very low clouds, good weather to leave in, if not for packing up the tent. The trip to the harbour was cold and wet, but otherwise uneventful. The boat was on time, and boarding very straightforward. - 3 bicycles, a motorbike and 2 cars getting on, 2 cars getting off. Then it was off for 3 days of lazing around and snoozing in grey, wet weather, at least so far (18:00 after a stop at Øksfjord). The walk through Hammerfest at lunch time was very wet indeed. There are not many people on deck looking at the view; they are all inside trying to pass the time as best they can.

Later ... It rained all day, including during the short walk through Tromsø at midnight with Alex (motorcyclist from Bern) to enjoy quite a good hamburger. Sonja went ashore at Tromsø to meet her friend from home, and go climbing in the Lofoten Islands.

On getting back on board, the stewardess kindly let me stretch out my mattress and sleeping bag in one of the conference rooms for the night.

Wednesday, 23^rd July Photos

Grey but nice weather was a nice change in the morning, as a start to cruising through the Lofoten Islands to Bodø. It turned to drizzle later for a walk ashore in Stokmarknes (or was it Sortland?). At Stamsund I went ashore again with Alex to grab a pizza; quite a good pizza too, as it turned out. We had to doggy-bag it and finish it on deck on the ferry, to a liberal accompaniment of beer.

The weather has really been grim – grey and wet. Alex left the boat at Bodø, so I've got to find someone new to talk to, or just mope around the ship on my own. I bedded down on the sofas in the Deck 8 lounge this night. It was quite comfortable, especially after the boat emptied in Bodø at 01:30.

Thursday, 24^th July (Cycle Trip Day 51) Photos

It was still grey and overcast on getting up, but at least it was dry for a stroll through Sandnessjøen for ice cream in the early afternoon. The view is very misty, though. Towards evening, the weather changed, and turned sunny.

Friday, 25^th July (Fosslia Day 1) Photos

The ferry arrived in Trondheim in beautiful, sunny weather at 06:00. I took the bus to Ålen at 08:08 for NOK 170 (maximum price) to find that the library was shut for the summer, so no Internet access. The salmon were leaping at the Svølga waterfall.

On the way back from Ålen to Haltdalen, I stopped for a small load of shopping, then tackled the hill to Fosslia. It was tough. There's lots of human activity in Nordaune. Having opened up Fosslia and had something to eat, I returned to Haltdalen in the evening for a big load of shopping.

Notes:

Saturday, 26^th July (Fosslia Day 2) Photos

I just pottered around the cottage all day in lovely hot weather.

Sunday, 27^th July (Fosslia Day 3) Photos

I walked up Blåstøten in 67 mins, and had a swim in the pool on top. I saw 2 reindeer and lots of ptarmigans, but only 1 or 2 golden plovers. On returning, I visited Gunnar at Nordaune, and stayed for waffles. There are still no insects.

Monday, 28^th July (Fosslia Day 4) Photos

I went for a walk up to the Double Stone looking for molte, but didn't find many. Then I followed the stream, Store Tverråa all the way down to the river, where I had a swim. I returned to the cottage for lunch.

In the evening, I headed off up the Aunegrenda valley on the bike towards Raudhåmmeren Gruve with the intention of bagging one of the orienteering points on this year's Fjell Trim card, but I set off too late. On the way, I had a phone call from Gunnar to call in at Nordaune to meet Ole and Gerd-Margrit, so I abandoned the orienteering post and returned.

Down at the farm (Nordaune), the knotts were very troublesome, but the strawberries and alcohol-free beer were excellent. The farm is full of people – Gerd, Gunnar, Kari, Kari's boyfriend, and John.

Tuesday, 29^th July (Fosslia Day 5) Photos

I made a start on one of the Fosslia summer chores – cutting down the grass. After that, I cycled up Aunegrenda again to Holddalsvollen, and continued on foot to Raudhåmmåren Gruve to get my Fjell Trip orienteering clip. On the way through the heather, a scared a barn owl. There were also lots of fieldfares and golden plovers.

Wednesday, 30^th July (Fosslia Day 6) Photos

This was a shopping day. I washed out some clothes quickly before cycling to Haltdalen in time to catch the bus, with bicycle, to Rugldalen at 10:20 for NOK 111. From there, I walked up Ratvoldhøgda in about 90 mins to collect another clip and continued on to Kleppen, another 4.2 km, in about 2 hours. Then I returned to the bicycle via Ratvoldhøgda. It was beautiful weather with no insect troubles and lots of golden plovers. There were thunder storms all around later on.

The cycle ride back to Ålen was mainly down hill. Of course, I had to have a pizza at the gatekro (open-air food stall) in Ålen on my way through. I stopped in Haltdalen to buy a big load of shopping, with which I then had to cycle up to Fosslia. I got home at about 21:00, absolutely exhausted.

Thursday, 31^st July (Fosslia Day 7) Photos

The weather today was not quite so nice in the morning as it has been. It was cool with some clouds. It threatened a storm all day, but it stayed nice and fresh at the cottage.

I mounted a tarpaulin over the do, i.e. outside toilet, but otherwise had a lazy day. I found some worms to fish with, and trimmed off the bottom of the outside verandah door, so that it would shut more easily.

Gunnar has injured himself with a chainsaw.

Friday, 1^st August (Fosslia Day 8) Photos

It was a marvellous day. It started overcast, but gradually improved, and finally turned out very sunny. I had the intention of getting two more clips on the Fjell Trim card, Smørfjellet and Turen, both in the general direction of Bringen on the Selbu map. I set off by bicycle to the Kvammen bridge by road, then pushed through the rough stretch until one gets onto the toll road from Gåre to Bringen. It was a tough but enjoyable ride up to the cycle depôt not too far, maybe a kilometre, from the top of Bringen. From there, it was a short, simple walk to the top of Smørfjellet.

Then I cycled back down the road and up a new track to Langen/Grønsetvollen. The road was very sandy and not easy to cycle on. From Grønsetvollen it was about 4.5 km cross-country to Turen. The going underfoot was quite easy, but the lie of the land was unfavourable. There were ridges and gorges to cross, which were not easy to identify on the map. I'm afraid that I cheated and used the GPS to find the correct summit. The way back to the bicycle, as usual, seemed much easier than the other direction. The push through the rough back to the Kvammen bridge was tougher than in the outward direction. It warranted a well-earned swim in the river under the bridge.

Altogether, the trip took about 11 hours. Doing it all on foot would have taken much longer. Just hiking to Bringen and back took me about 10 hours a couple of years ago.

Saturday, 2^nd August (Fosslia Day 9) Photos

It's turned windy with scudding clouds. It looks as though the spell of good weather is ending. It was shopping day again. I returned from Haltdalen with more than 15 kg of luggage on the bike. This included about 1 kg for the panniers, and 1 kg for the bike tools.

Sunday, 3^rd August (Fosslia Day 10) Photos

There was rain all day. I went fishing and caught 2 small trout, which I let go again. I ran out of worms - I was feeding the fish.

Monday, 4^th August (Fosslia Day 11) Photos

I pottered around the hut all day. It was fair weather; cool and breezy. I cleared the path up to the do, and cut grass around the front of the cottage. I also had to repair a puncture in the front tyre.

Tuesday, 5^th August (Fosslia Day 12) Photos

This was another day of pottering. I started to clear away a fallen tree on the trail across the stream to the upper cottage, and to salvage it as firewood. I went fishing in the evening and caught a small trout, which I fried in butter, and made an omelette to go with it. Gunnar and John came up in the afternoon for coffee.

Wednesday, 6^th August (Fosslia Day 13) Photos

It was time for another shopping day, so I combined it with a bit more Fjell Trim clipping. I cycled over to Haltdalen and on up into Hessdalen to climb Grønåshøgda. Altogether, it was 86 km of cycling! I got drenched on the way back from Haltdalen, but wonderful rainbows compensated. I made a detour on the way back to Ålen for a pizza. The extra time spent doing that meant that I got drenched.

Thursday, 7^th August (Fosslia Day 14) Photos

I continued work on clearing the path through to the upper cottage and bathing place. I brought in the tree trunks ready for sawing up and chopping. I also re-routed the path above the stream to avoid the water pipe to the Karistua cottage.

I've decided that three big trees behind the cottage need to be felled before they, someday or other, get blown down. I started sawing off the branches of the first tree.

Friday, 8^th August (Fosslia Day 15) Photos

The weather forecast on the radio, if I understand it correctly, is for fine weather with showers. It looked better than that to me, so I skipped my Norwegian practice with the cassette course, and cutting off more branches from the tree, to clip my 7^th summit on the Fjell Trim card. It was Ålmannfjellet, between Grønfjellet and Ålen.

I decided that it was going to be easiest to cycle to Stensli station near Ålen and to go up from there. It was straightforward – only 60 minutes of walking, and the cycling from Haltdalen to Stensli is also not difficult. I went along the old road outside the Svølga tunnel on the way there – very beautiful, and with a deeply cut valley where the river from Hessdalen joins the Gaula.

Afterwards, I went to Ålen for a hamburger and quick email session in the Holtålen commune office. I left my clear cycling glasses there, which cost me a lot of extra effort trying to find them. I cycled all the way back up to Stensli, and then back to Ålen before I located them – they were on a table in the office, which was by then shut. Now I'll have to cycle to Ålen again to pick them up

On the way back, I had to dodge showers in Haltdalen and on the way up to Fosslia. I finished up with a bath in Litl Tverråa, despite it being only 12°C.

As an aside, there were a lot more molte on Ålmannfjellet than there are around here. The blåbær were also plentiful, but they are in Nordaune too. As a further remark, there is a very good view of Ålen on the way up from Stensli to Ålmannfjellet, but otherwise climbing Ålmannfjellet isn't particularly worth the effort. There's not much of a view from the top.

Saturday, 9^th August (Fosslia Day 16) Photos

I continued cutting off branches from the fir tree up to a height of 10.5 m. It was a lot of work.

Sunday, 10^th August (Fosslia Day 17) Photos

I spent the day gleaning wood from the branches of the fir tree, and started burning some of the small stuff. In the evening, I had supper down at the farm with the whole family: Gerd, Gunnar, Gun, Kari, John, Gru, Astrid, Oddmund, Ola, and Gerd-Margrit.

Monday, 11^th August (Fosslia Day 18) Photos

Most of the day was spent going to Ålen to retrieve my cycling glasses, and then working on the computer in the library uploading photographs to Switzerland. I then had lunch at about 14:15 in Ålen Centre, before making my way back to Fosslia. By that time, it was time for a bath in the stream.

In the evening, it was another party, this time at Astrid's and Oddmund's in Haltdalen. Gru, Ola and Gerd-Margrit were missing, but otherwise the whole Bjørngård family was there.

It was too windy to fell the tree.

Tuesday, 12^th August (Fosslia Day 19) Photos

I spent more time gleaning firewood from the tree's branches until John and Gunnar came by at about 12:00 to fell the tree. Pulling it with a rope to help its direction of fall worked beautifully. For the record, the rope was tied on at a height of about 10.5 m, and the tree was 16.5 m tall. I gave the trunk to Gunnar for timber. It seemed a shame to turn such good wood into firewood.

In the afternoon, I had an unsuccessful fish. I even lost the hook and float, so that makes it difficult to do any more fishing.

After supper, I worked on cleaning up the tree trunk, and chopping its top off. I had a bath in the stream afterwards, but I couldn't get in completely. It was 22:00 by this time, and the air had turned quite cool.

Wednesday, 13^th August (Fosslia Day 20) Photos

The weather was cool today, and I was feeling quite weary after all the work on the tree, so I decided to have a go at Buhogna, the last summit on the Fjell Trim card, despite the unsettled weather. This entailed cycling with tent and cooking equipment to Elgsjøenmoen on a toll road at the top end of Hessdalen, spending the night there, and tackling the mountain on the following day.

The cycle ride took 3½ hours for just short of 50 km. The farmer at the seter wasn't too happy about my camping nearby, but I hid myself away behind some shrubs, so I was relatively discreet. Nice drinking water was quite a way away, but otherwise it was fine, and the evening meal of pasta with pesto sauce followed by rømme grøt was OK. At least it stayed dry.

Thursday, 14^th August (Fosslia Day 21) Photos

It was damp in the morning when I got up, and it was a struggle to get the cooker going because the matches were damp, but I managed it eventually. It helped to have a hot drink, and to be able to take a thermos of hot coffee on the hike. I left the tent standing, and set off at about 09:15, having reconnoitred the start of the hike the previous evening.

At first there was a good path, which got me up to Dalbsjøen quite easily. Then the trouble started, trying to get around the upper (southern) end of the lake and onto the mountain proper. The stream flowing into the lake turned out to be a huge, deep, meandering channel, buried amongst chest-high willows. It cost a lot of energy to work my way upstream until I could cross. From there to the top was straightforward, just long – about another 3.5 km. I had already done about 8 km. It rained all the way from the lake to the top, and then nearly all the way back to the tent. At least the top (1212 m) was just below the cloud level. I got to the top at 12:50, and was back at the tent at 16:35. It was not a good day for mountain hikes.

Then it was a case of quickly packing up the tent (30 mins) and heading back around Øyungen to the top of Hessdalen and back to Fosslia. I stopped in Ålen again for a pizza, and finally got back to the cottage, totally exhausted, at 21:45.

Friday, 15^th August (Fosslia Day 22) Photos

The day was fine and cool. I did some washing, and gleaned some more firewood from tree branches, and had a bonfire to burn most of the rest. I tried to have a bath in the evening, but couldn't get in more than waist deep.

Saturday, 16^th August (Fosslia Day 23) Photos

It was a shopping day today. I also did more gleaning and burning. It was a lovely day, sunny and somewhat warmer, ~15°C. In the evening, Gunnar drove his tractor around the east side of the cottage – very dangerous! We pulled out the first section of the tree trunk – very, very dangerous!

There was an eclipse of the moon later on.

Sunday, 17^th August (Fosslia Day 24) Photos

It's grey weather again, but not much rain. I had a very sleepless night, probably too much adrenalin in my system after the adventures with the tractor, so it was a rather sleepy day. I picked some blåbær for Kari, Kathryn, and Gerd, and finished the gleaning and burning of the first tree's branches.

Monday, 18^th August (Fosslia Day 25) Photos

The weather was grey again with wet intervals. I started work on the second tree, and chopped off its branches up to a height of about 9 m, gleaning and burning them as well. I tried to have a bath after that, but, again, I couldn't get in completely because it was too cold.

Tuesday, 19^th August (Fosslia Day 26) Photos

The whole day was spent working my way further up the second tree, gleaning firewood from the branches, and burning the rest as I went along. It's now ready to cut down. I cleared about 4 m of tree trunk. In the evening I got soft, and had a strip wash in front of the cottage with a bucket of warm water.

Kari and Kathryn set off from Riniken this evening to travel here.

Wednesday, 20^th August (Fosslia Day 27) Photos

I let the bonfire burn out, having run out of stuff to burn. I started to saw up the big pile of branches that I had gleaned, and cleaned up the cottage in anticipation of the two new arrivals tomorrow. It was a cloudy day with one or two showers.

Thursday, 21^st August to Thursday, 28^st August (Fosslia Days 28 - 35) Photos

Kari and Kathryn are now here; it's nice to have company. Kathryn left last night (Wednesday) at 23:45 on the night bus to Oslo, and then home via Geneva. Kari and I leave tomorrow to get the ferry to Kiel on Saturday. We should get home on Sunday evening.

The first two days of their visit were bad weather, then there were 3 very good days, then so-so for 2 days, and finally a bad day today (Thursday). The main theme was to get the second tree felled, which we did with Gunnar's help on Saturday. It turned out to be rotten, so the trunk was cut up and left outside in chunks to dry out. Then we'll see if we'll store it or not.

We drove over to Elgsjøenmoen in nice weather on Sunday for setermat and a walk. It's about 1100 m of ascent, 800 m of descent, and 58 km distance to get to Elgsjøenmoen. It's no wonder it took 3½ hours by bicycle.

Last Friday, we visited Astrid and Oddmund in Trondheim for an evening meal, and on Tuesday we were down at the farm for coffee in the evening with Gerd, Gunnar, and Kari. It turned out, of course, to be quite a meal in itself.

On Wednesday, we started to tidy up, getting the new firewood stacked away. Today has been a cleaning day in preparation for leaving. Tomorrow, we're off home.

The End