itsmylife: Norway Ett

Sunday 2nd June. Hirtshals - Kristiansand. A little bit of time to spare for a more leisuerly breakfast and pack up, the ferry, an express boat, not starting to load until 1000, departure 1145, crossing time two hours.
It had been blowing a bit during the night and the sea was looking as lumpy as Norway would become!
A while later I was standing in a queue with a few other cyclists and a hoard of motor bikers, many of them older guys with some 'disposable income', big fancy bikes were the order of the day, A few Honda Goldwings, BMWs and Harleys, most of them worth as much if not more than my car!
Bike firmly stropped to rigging cables around the car deck I shamble up to the passenger seating area, all set out very aircraft like. Think I'll have a nose around, Duty Free shop, snack bar, and an upstairs! I'm peering up at a 'posh' food dispensary when a stewardess asked if I had a 'bog standard' or 'expensive' ticket. I don't think she understood when I said mine's steerage! Quick recovery, beaming smile "But I'd like to have a look if that's allowed"? A quick check on her radio and I'm allowed up to the 'expensive' ticket area. A smart young chap sporting a load of gold braid announced that he was the Purser and what would I like to see? Here we go with the flannel! "Well it's all general interest really, you see I'm writing on this web site in Scotland" (True!!). Anyway, I got the full run down of the benefits of having 'loads of money'. "Of course" he said "For a substantial amount Of Danish or Norwegian Kroner I can up grade you now". Backing out of the situation, "I think I need to speak to someone in duty free but thank you so much for the tour" and crept back down to the 'common folk'. In the end it wouldn't have made much of a difference, the sea was sufficiently lumpy to cause enough buffeting that you could barely stand.
The sea conditions caused a half hour delay getting into Kristiansand, but, here I was, Norway.

Hirtshals Ferry Terminal Check In

Bikes secured in the bowels of the ferry!

Depart Hirtshals 11:45

Looks like a touch of roughers out there!!

Down to the bowels of the boat, securing straps off the bike, shuffle forward with the other cyclists, the air almost unbreathable with exhaust fumes! Watch the guy in the blue and hi-vis yellow overalls, wait for the imperious wave, saddle up, watch the sticky up securing points in the deck, don't wipe out and look a prat in the middle of all this!
Safely off (I'd picked up a street map of the city on board) I aimed for a car park near by, what to do? Cheap B&B, there was no hostel and the map was for city centre shopping and didn't show camp sites. Some smart thinking person with an eye for the main chance had erected a box like building, en suite, clean basic rooms a plenty, no meals, towel and bedding handed over when you signed in and parted with your cash! There was a small kitchen to sort your own food out if so desired (Free Wi-Fi). That was it, end of day in Kristiansand.

First Norwegian Lighthouse

Norwegian coastlind

The Fjordline Express

Heading into town

Monday 3rd June. Woke 4 ish! Couldn't sleep so back online and clear some e-mails and messages before packing. Had spied a Bakeri on the map and knew that they were open early and frequently served coffee! A table out of the breeze and in the sun, a large coffee, a moderately large cake and two freshly baked bread rolls (already thinking about lunch!). I whiled away the best part of an hour before wandering along to the tourist info office, the guy there was on the ball, I was soon on my way clutching a pack of individual map sheets printed on plastic and designed to slot into handle bar map cases, covering Norway's section of the NSCR. I was also given a better city map showing the suburbs and camp site, a map of hostels and from a camping info brochure he opened the binding staples, took out the map and then tore out the pages giving site details for the different communes that I would be passing through! "No point in carrying all that" as the rest of it went into recycling!!
Off to the park to sift through what I'd got and was soon dozing off! Time to make a move; 1415, ten minutes to the closest camp site, tent up, gear sorted and a brew made, I was probably asleep again by 1530........Woke up, made cup-a-soup, drank it, went to bed!

Bronze statue...boy on bear

Nice vase!

Part of Kristiansand marina

Bronze deer

By the campsite at Kristiansand

Tuesday 4th June. Kristiansand - Aros, camp site near Sogne. Early kick off from Kristiansand to try to beat work traffic. Soon off route (which turned out to be a good thing in the end!). Must still be half asleep, I should be on a gravel trail. Get navigation head on and stop messing about!! Next left will take me to Nodeland. Confidence!!

Well...heaven is on an industrial estate just outside Kristiansand!
I wonder where the 'other' place is!?

Nice bit of tarmac,no one on it but me! Another three or four km road work signs, hummm? next sign, no cars/motor bikes! Oh Oh! De ja vu! Shades of a road nearing Edinburgh!! Round the next bend the road surface is well chewed up by big trucks and tracked machines, is this a big detour coming up? It would be another 15k or so added to the day! Now it's no road surface and major works underway! With my fat tyres I could ride the crushed stone without a a problem, still no one about and a bit more ominous, in the road making debris were shreds of Shock Tube, part of an explosive detonating system!! They can't be going to blast, there would be lookouts, more security. But this is the middle of nowhere, the back of beyond, would they need all that?? Yes, they would surely have to factor in plonkers like me appearing in the middle of major road building!?! Still, it made me wonder!
A little further and GOAP (Get Off And Push). Up ahead was a pick-up, amber roof light flashing and a guy poking at the innards of a huge earth mover. Oh well, keep going, see what he says! Get closer, "Hey". He looked up "Hey hey". "Can I get through to Nodeland or is it like this (pointing at the rocky road)? "Ja, 2-300mtrs and you'll be ok". "Great, it's not a problem"? "Ja, no problem". Well, onwards and upwards!! A bit of huffing, puffing and cussing and the surface gradually became more user friendly, just beyond the crest of the hill I could ride it and, a bonus, I could see tarmac ahead!!
Back on route 1 at Brenasen, on to Vollaberg and Sogne. Camping signs led to Aros and the site where a chilly evening gave way to a dismal, wet morning on the 5th.

Southern Norway....it is lumpy (photos might not depict how lumpy!)