108.6km
Distance
1161m
Elevation
We slept beautifully last night, after such an exhausting hill day. I fell asleep pretty much as soon as my head hit the “pillow” and forgot to put on my eye mask (eye masks are fairly essential here at this time of year, when there’s 24 hour daylight).
Today was a bit of a mission in logistics. We needed to do 100km, but also catch 3 ferries in between, roughly 30km apart. We knocked off our first 35km quickly and found that we’d arrived two hours before the next departure. So we went to the supermarket and bought a mystery food that we’ve seen a lot, “Leverpastei”, always in a yellow tin with a smiling boy’s face on (we also bought cheesey bread buns and custard pastries). The Leverpastei was one of the most vile things I’ve ever tasted (among the ranks of the potater bread we talked about a few days ago). Viki says it tastes just like normal pate. I’m not a fan.
The first ferry went from Ornes to Vassdalsvik. On arrival, we had 29km to the Halsa ferry. We somehow managed to keep up an average of 20km/h (compared to our typical estimate of 15km/h), meaning we just rolled on to an earlier than expected ferry, just as it was loading. We gave each other a big hug to celebrate. (And had a chocolate peanut butter granola bar!)
Next we had another 28km to the Jektvik ferry, with departures at 6pm and 8:20pm. We miraculously managed to sustain another 20km/h pace (including some rather hilly sections) and again, rolled onto the ferry with only a couple minutes to spare. We originally planned to make the 8:20pm ferry, so this meant that we’d get a much earlier night than expected.
We arrived in Kilboghavn at 7pm and had a final climb for our last 7km to reach 100km. Finally at 100km we couldn’t find a place to sleep, so it took another 5km, or 30 minutes, before finding somewhere reasonable. We starting setting up camp and some old lady on the farm above starting shouting at us in Norwegian and shooing us. Disheartened, we left. After another few hundred meters we found somewhere nice by the beach and had dinner in front of a spectacular view, including an otter!
After Viki wrote her limerick two days ago, we seemed to have inspired our readers. So with that, we’ve decided to include a guest submission here:
There are 2 people who have formed a “Pear”
Who are travelling on bikes every where.
Their energy they get daily from their oatmeal.
We may see them a lot on the newsreel.
And on their blogs we’ll be made daily aware.
– Limerick by Jack Baxendale (Andrew’s grandfather)