Sandnes – Stavanger Airport

11km

I was feeling quite fragile and emotional today. I’m not sure how I’ll cope trading my simple life of hunt for food and shelter for modern life.

Maybe I’ll have to take up a new sport. More likely I’ll just keep pedalling and Olive will want to keep adventuring.

Norway gave us a Scottish send off with a good sea fret so I couldn’t see anything through my glasses but it didn’t dampen my spirits.

It’s surreal being home. It feels like no time at all that I left, everything’s the same here except the fields are luscious greens and the hedgerows are full of flowers. How did I not notice before that Britain is so beautiful?

Frafjord – Sandnes

88km bike, 10km walk & dip in the sea!

When your morning trip to the loos gives you this view you know you’re going to be in for an epic day.

Just as the we’re getting used to Norway time is almost up. We mastered breakfast with midges today. That has to be a life achievement.

The cycle began with our monster tunnel and flowed seamlessly onto a wonderful bike path down the next valley. We were rewarded with views back up the valley we’d stayed in but from three different angles! (Owing to a couple of wrong turns)

The day turned into a bit of a feat of endurance. The hills just kept coming, even some of the tunnels were pretty steep, and I began to think maybe we’d bitten off more than we could chew. Mind you, we found a massive stack of reduces bakery items to spur us on…

Not content with cycling over mountains we thought we’d walk up one too. There was a sign at the bottom that said no high heels or sandals – it didn’t mention anything about crocs or cleats though…

Pulpit rock turned out to be a bit of a tourist trap which naturally awoke the competitive spirit in us – feeling the need to sprint past every man, woman and child. It turned into a bit of a race up (and down) the mountain.

We just about made it back to the mainland before collapsing in a heap. What a fantastic final day cycling!

Dalen – Nr. Urdvassheii

91.5km

We knew we were going to have the joy of one mountain today but didn’t realise we’d make it two. After putting on (relatively) clean clothes we were drenched in sweat within the first 5km. And it didn’t stop giving for at least another couple of hours.

The unexpected joy of the first mountain was a surprise cafe in a ski village at the top. Coffee has never tasted so good!

All along our route today it was picture perfect views. It was truly awe inspiring, the shear scale of it.

We spent a long time trying to find a wild camp spot and eventually found one with an incredible view (above) and some very inquisitive sheep interested in sampling our pasta water… and pasta and anything else with an interesting smell. We fell asleep to the tinkle of their bells as they wandered the hills.

Kilen – Dalen

77km

Friluftsliv is the Scandinavian philosophy of connectedness with nature. When nature is this kind and beautiful it’s meant to be.

I’m perfectly happy to get on board with friluftsliv now but I’m not sure I’d want as much involvement in winter. Today’s swim (they are basically a daily occurence) was in the coldest river I can recall. I’m not sure I’d fair to well here in winter. I was well up for calling it the coldest swim ever but actually it probably is only on par with where we swim in the north sea at home… I’ve just been spoilt by beautiful continental lakes and rivers.

Today was shorter but didn’t feel any less hilly. Joe’s hopes for an easy day were dashed by the hills. Nonetheless, it was incredible. We didn’t see cars for hours at a time on (mostly) perfectly tarmac-ed roads. Even the gravel roads here are awesome though.

The only drama today was when I was giving my clothes the sniff test and found my t-shirt a bit wiffy. When I was giving it a wash in the shower I noticed the problem: a semi congealed slug that had been squished in and had likely been there a good few days. I’m pretty resistant to squeamishness but that tested me.

Gon – Kilen

104km

The theory with Joe’s route planning was that we’d be following the valleys and therefore have flat rides. It turns out that’s not exactly how it works in Norway where cliffs come straight out of the water.

I don’t really mind the hills but Olive seems to have lost granny gear so the feel so much harder!

There are many things that are great about having Joe here. The most obvious one today was his ability to tolerate a bout of verbal diarrhoea without ducktaping my mouth shut. There were a few times where I was doing such an impressive monologue and I’d turn around for a response just to realise he was 50m away and not listening.

The worst thing about Joe being here is that he’s taken it upon himself to grow a moustache. I can’t look him in the face without laughing. He knows full well I’m going to attack it with a razor when we get home. What is it with men and wanting to grow facial hair?

We had a fantastic day mind. When the sun came out at lunch time it transformed from impressive to absolutely stunning. Norway, you are beautiful!

Every time I cross a border I get an almost nauseating wave of excitement at the next adventure. That level of excitement should normally be accompanied by raucous laughter or whoops of glee. Unfortunately when you land in the middle of a city you have to suppress them a bit so you don’t get sectioned or locked up.

Olive was all city-ed out after yesterday. It’s the cobbles that get to her. I managed to persuade her to have a look around to much squeaky protests (today’s problem seems to be the front brake). She did make a friend so I guess she’s happy.

As cities go, Stockholm’s not all that bad. It emerges straight out of the sea, is cloaked in trees and has cute little streets on every turn. It also has some incredible, imposing streets with grand buildings and magnificent statues.

The thing I wasn’t looking forward to was the trains…

I’ve spent every spare minute of the last week or so trying to figure out the trains. How can it be that a country that advertises itself as cycle friendly doesn’t build trains that can take bikes?

After all the angst I managed to get half way without any qualms by finding a Harry Potter-esque train that is so old it hasn’t realised there’s a war between trains and bikes in Sweden. I was all ready to have to defend Olive in a fight but the biggest drama was a woman who ranted and cried into her phone for about an hour non-stop. I didn’t realise it was possible to be so angry for so long – she exhausted herself though and slept the rest of the way.

I’ve made it to Karlstad. In a thunderstorm. And a midge storm. I hate midges.

Parnu – Seli 113.7km

Seli- Tallinn 45km

It’s been a bit grey and dreary these last couple of days. I’m definitely going to struggle with British weather on my return as I’m currently wearing all of my clothes and it’s 15degrees.

I guess my new cold intolerance might have something to do with the repeated soakings from Baltic clouds (colder than normal clouds) and perpetually wet socks.

Eesti (Estonia) has been trying it’s hardest to impress though. The roads I found yesterday were fantastic – so quiet I had to make friends with a stone man. And it is beautiful, I think it would be more so with out rain splattered glasses.

And the cycle paths are second to none!

Today I found Tallinn and had a good neb in as many nooks and crannies as I could find. Found one other cycle tourist to make friends with – he wasn’t bubbling with enthusiasm like we usually are – it sounds like he’s been rattled by Russian roads and drivers. Maybe it’s a good job I’m not going further east.

As much as I appreciate medieval architecture the highlight of the day was definitely the hot chocolate. Best hot chocolate of my life.

Oltūži – Parnü

103km

I’m starting to wonder at how difficult it might be to re-integrate into normal life. One of the things I’ve absolutely loved touring is getting up early and making the most of the beautiful mornings.

“Are you getting up now? It’s a bit early isn’t it?” was my greeting from Joe this morning. It felt like a wonderful time to get up to me.

The A1 was considerably more bearable today without rain. I thought spending half the day on it might falter my resolve, but I still attest that I prefer that to gravel tracks.

Olive and I beat Joe to the border but Estonia gave Olive a bit of a tough welcome. Whilst bus stop hopping (yes it rained, but nothing compared to yesterday) I noticed an unmistakable rattle, oh no! A broken spoke.

In my most successful display of mechanic skills to date I managed to remove the old spoke, replace it and gave truing the wheel a good shot. For a first ever spoke change I think I did a pretty good job. The only reason I had any idea what to do was because of the lesson I got from Adrian (local bike guru) a few months back. Thanks Adrian!

Joe acted as a fantastic support car for the rest of the day, providing chocolate every time I got grumpy and joining in the bus stop hopping. Not sure I’ve inspired him into cycle touring, I’ll have to work on that.