Norway 2020

a solo trip towards lofoten and north cape

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Latest News

After three days with perfect weather the rain will arrive tomorrow. Hopefully only for a day. So with a picture of a platform 650 meter above the city of Aurlandsvangen and the fjord, the good weather is a reminder of …

The trip has started!

Copenhagen was left behind a fem minuts later than scheduled. But what a way to start the trip. 20 degrees celsius, blue skies and no wind. Even though it was all freeway, the ride to the ferry in Hirtshals was …

Objectives

Mail objectives:

– North Cape
– Lofoten
– Ride the entire lenght of Norway

Secondary objectives:

Route

Stage 0 - The road to the starting point

From Copenhagen (DK), day 1 will be freeway all the way to the ferry in Hirtshals (DK).
The ferry will dock in Kristiansand (N) and from there it’s a 30 min. drive to the end of the first day. A homestay in Lillesand.

Day 2 will take us to the official starting point of the trip, following the southern coast from Kristiansand. Although it is not on the map, Lindesnes Lighthouse is the most southern point on the norwegian mainland and a good place to start out.

Stage 1 - The known road

Still on day 2, the route will follow the southern coastline for a bit before going inland and continuing towards Stavanger.

Day 3 will take us to the first 2 of the 10 most beautiful public toilets in Norway.
From Låtefossen we’ll be back on familiar ground as we go further north through the city of Odda and the fruit plantages along Sørfjorden. This part of the stage was also done in 2017 although is was in the opposite direction. In fact, it will be familiar roads all the way to the Atlantic Road and Kristiansund (day 5) where the route will continue on new  territory. Until then the route will take us past the engineeried marble of Hardanger Bridge (day 3) where a tunnel with a built-in roundabout continues directly out on to a huge suspention bridge, only to go in to another tunnel, also with a roundabout. We’ll go through the worlds longest car tunnelroad (day 3), pass another couple of beautiful toilets (day 3) and we’ll pass the three infamous stretches of road; Geiranger (day 4), Trollstigen (day 4 or 5) and the Atlantic Road (day 5).

The route:
Black = Route
Red = Ferries

 

Stage 2 - Lots of ferries

Now, on unfamiliar ground, the route follows the coastline and the endless amount of short ferry crossings for the next 3 days.
Apart from toilet no. 5, the cities of Bodø and Narvik, the landscape, the Atlatic Ocean and the mountains will be the things to enjoy. But the most memorable will be crossing into the arctic circle.

Stage 3 - Lofoten

From Narvik we’ll follow the main road all the way to the town of Reine. The scenery will be breathtaking as every corner reveals a new even more beautiful view than the one just seen. A short detour to toilet no. 6 and we are back on the main Road for the rest of the way. Shortly before arrival in Reine, toilet no. 7 is on our left hand side of the road. The plan is to stay a full day in Reine (two nights, no motorcycling), climb Reinebringen (1500+ huge steps and 448 meters above sea level) and spend a few hours in an ocean kayak. Based on the weather on arrival and the weather forecast for the following day, it will be decided whether Reinebringen should be climbed that day or the next.

After two nights it’s time to hit the road again. The route is the same as on the way out. But after 2/3 of the way we’ll make a larger detour towards Andøya to pay a visit to toilet no. 8. Back on the main road it won’t be long before we divert away from it for good. From there it’s a short ride along the northern coastline to the end of the stage.

Stage 4 - To North Cape

Following the roads in and out of the fjords, we’ll pay a visit to yet another toilet before heading towards Tromsø. There, we’ll visit the site where the German battleship Tirpitz was sunk.
Continuing northeast along the coastline, we’ll head north to the last toilet before backtracking in order to make the final push to North Cape.

This stage will take 3 days to complete. But if the weather forecast is against us, we can eighter compress it into two days or expand it to four.

norway, globe, north cape
scandinavia, norway, sweden
Stage 5 - Norway or Finland & Sweden?

The plan was Finland and it still is. But Corona might change that. Finland will close their boarders for danes at midnight between sunday august 23rd and monday august 24th. Therefore it will not be possible to continue the trip that way if we stick to the plan. There are now three options:

– Compress three days into two. That will give us the extra day necessary to reach the finnish boarder.
– Stay in Norway and ride back towards Kristiansand and take the ferry to Denmark.
– Cross into Sweden and stay there all the way to Malmö and cross the Øresundsbridge to Denmark. Once in Sweden it will not be possible to go back into Norway.

Stage 6 - A three day ride with friends and the trip back home
The ride with friends has been cancelled.

Due to a new outbreak of Corona in Denmark, the Norwegian government have closed their boarders for People from three danish regions. The organizer of the ride had therefore no other option than to cancel the ride.