Increase 10 %
Kaamanen - Karasjok ~90 km
What a day! In the morning I hardly got up because of beeing dark and cold... Nevertheless I started at 10.15. The stage was exhausting: hills, sheerer hills, sheerest hills. 8%, 10%. It was this the day that I HAD to get off my bike on the top of the hills just for breathing a little air - and for complaining about the hills ;o)
But the landscape! It would be this landscape that I would start calling tundra. Woods are getting sparse, at the swampy plains there were more brushes (Gestrüpp) than trees. Landscape had changed a lot since when I started at Helsinki. It is not more "flower richly coloured" but "green richly coloured" (nicht mehr blumenfarbenfroh, sondern grünfarbenfroh): Moss-Green, Grass-Green, Swamp-Green, Leaf-Green. And some red Grasses as well. I would love to stay here for hiking - if there weren't all those moskitos...
After going through Finnland arriving at Norway was quite a cultural choque: You are rolling down from the finnish highlands to Karigasniemi, and across the border a field and some cows welcome you... things I didn't see in finnland for quite a long time now...
At Karasjok at the camping site I met another german biketraveler. 68 years old, every summer going for four weeks through scandinavia. It was quite a nice conversation. But at the same time he feared me: "You want to go to northcape from here in two days? impossible! the stage from Karasjok in direction Olderfjord is just too exhausting. I know a very beautiful camping site, here at Skoganvarre (n.b.: that would be 50 km to go). Going to Lakselv? (n.b.: that would be 70 km to go) Impossible! As there isn't a camping as well! No, you have to stop at Skoganvarre" .......... (i just want to make some more points for expressing my disappointment: i won't reach northcape within two days... *cry*)
Will I reach the northcape within two days......? At the same moment my ambition appeared... Will I? Why not? 130 km a day? maybe? let's hope so...
And with all that thoughts of tomorrow beeing a horrible stage I went to bed. For tonight they announced a temperature of 4°C... So for the first time I used my Mummy-Sleeping bag how it was intended: With only a small whole open to breath through. Today it was only 15°, and in the evening for the first time i wore my "cushion" (my fleece jacket... ;o)
Click: For the first time a sign right to "Nordkapp"
Click: And right before taking this picture I had to go that up...
Just behind the border in Norway
What a day! In the morning I hardly got up because of beeing dark and cold... Nevertheless I started at 10.15. The stage was exhausting: hills, sheerer hills, sheerest hills. 8%, 10%. It was this the day that I HAD to get off my bike on the top of the hills just for breathing a little air - and for complaining about the hills ;o)
But the landscape! It would be this landscape that I would start calling tundra. Woods are getting sparse, at the swampy plains there were more brushes (Gestrüpp) than trees. Landscape had changed a lot since when I started at Helsinki. It is not more "flower richly coloured" but "green richly coloured" (nicht mehr blumenfarbenfroh, sondern grünfarbenfroh): Moss-Green, Grass-Green, Swamp-Green, Leaf-Green. And some red Grasses as well. I would love to stay here for hiking - if there weren't all those moskitos...
After going through Finnland arriving at Norway was quite a cultural choque: You are rolling down from the finnish highlands to Karigasniemi, and across the border a field and some cows welcome you... things I didn't see in finnland for quite a long time now...
At Karasjok at the camping site I met another german biketraveler. 68 years old, every summer going for four weeks through scandinavia. It was quite a nice conversation. But at the same time he feared me: "You want to go to northcape from here in two days? impossible! the stage from Karasjok in direction Olderfjord is just too exhausting. I know a very beautiful camping site, here at Skoganvarre (n.b.: that would be 50 km to go). Going to Lakselv? (n.b.: that would be 70 km to go) Impossible! As there isn't a camping as well! No, you have to stop at Skoganvarre" .......... (i just want to make some more points for expressing my disappointment: i won't reach northcape within two days... *cry*)
Will I reach the northcape within two days......? At the same moment my ambition appeared... Will I? Why not? 130 km a day? maybe? let's hope so...
And with all that thoughts of tomorrow beeing a horrible stage I went to bed. For tonight they announced a temperature of 4°C... So for the first time I used my Mummy-Sleeping bag how it was intended: With only a small whole open to breath through. Today it was only 15°, and in the evening for the first time i wore my "cushion" (my fleece jacket... ;o)
Click: For the first time a sign right to "Nordkapp"
Click: And right before taking this picture I had to go that up...
Just behind the border in Norway
koerndl - 29. Jul, 00:00
