Long post this, in terms of pictures anyway, as I catch up on the past 3 days travelling down the north west coast along one of the national tourist routes - route 17 the Hegelandskysten.
I thoroughly recommend this route, it has lots of variety, some great roads, 6 ferries, several tunnels from 500m up to 7km, a few great bridges of varying types. Once again, a fair portion of my days were rainy which damped the enjoyment a little (sorry!) but it was still worth the three days it took. If you visited all of the sights on route (eg actually went to see the glacier) it would probably take a week.
So the trip started with an early ferry from Solvaer in the Lofoten Islands to Skutvik on the mainland - it was raining when I left.
This ferry makes a brief (4 minute) stop en-route at the small island of Skova, a pretty little place.
Once onto the mainland the fun began, the rain had stopped, but there was plenty more ahead.
A very interesting shaped mountain thrust upwards in the east - looks like something out of Jurassic Park!
The road then made one of a number of climbs through the mountains.
The black cloud ahead contained some pretty horrendous rain which stayed with me until I stopped for the night.
Tonights stop was a campsite not long after Saltstraumen, a small strait famous for having one of the strongest tidal currents in the world
As the rain abated I wandered along the river bank taking in the views.
The mixture of colours in the wet evening light was beautiful.
I returned at midnight to take a few snaps under the midnight sun - I was still north of the Arctic circle at this point. The tide had started to come in, providing some nice reflections.
The midnight sun ... as you can see the clouds have gone!
The following day started sunny - whay!!
The road headed on towards the next range of peaks - a glorious day to be riding.
The deep fjords and clear water present a wonderful blue
I stopped opposite the Svartisen glacier for a while.
Svartisen is Norway’s second largest glacier and at just 20m above sea level is the lowest glacier in mainland Europe. They were running boat trips to see it at close range, unfortunately I didn't have time today.
The road continues to provide great views, punching through tunnels or striding over bridges ...
... until it just stops and its then time to get on a ferry to continue the journey on the other side.
These are not ferry’s you book, they are effectively just a continuation of the road and run fairly regularly - the schedule can be easily found on the internet to help with trip planning. This was one of the longer ones at about an hour as I recall.
Once on the other side the road continued for a while and then it was time for another ferry - a shorter crossing this time.
The Helgelandsbrau bridge just before reaching Sandnessjoen, is something else! It was also a little difficult to ride along with quite strong cross winds, rain and its own sloping angles. impressive engineering though.
Rather than pitch a tent in the pouring rain (and more importantly have to pack it up in the wet again the following morning) I took a Hytte for the night. These little huts are all over Norway and are a reasonable value mid-way between camping and a B&B. Some have showers and toilets, others are basically just a painted shed but warm and dry.
This one facing the river had some added decoration on the outside!
The following mor ing its a quick zip down the road to catch the early morning Ferry from Tjotta - the first of 3 needed today.
It rained on the way to the ferry and rained on the boat and judging by the clouds ahead, I guessed it would be like that on the other side. The water was like a mill pond though.
Once on the other side it was a quick 20 minute dash to the next ferry - they are timed so if you keep driving you can pretty much go straight on - if you stop to look at something however you may have to wait an hour as you get out of sequence.
The second ferry out of the way it was then a 50 minute ride to the next one, I pressed on as I had a couple of hours to ride after that and it was still raining anyway. However, a few tunnels, bridges and half an hour later the cloud broke and sun came out. By the time I hit the third ferry port of the day it was positively gorgeous weather.
This was just a 20 minute crossing to the other side and then it was a lovely tun through the hills and mountains in the sunshine.
With roadside waterfalls a plenty
And stunning views ...
... Interesting bridges ...
... distant waterfalls ...
.... and a tunnel leading straight onto a suspension bridge with temporary traffic lights as there were roadworks on the bridge.
Finally I reached my stop for the night by a river, almost at the end of route 17. A really nice 3 days riding.
An hour later it was raining again!
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