Riding the Fjords…

I rode back down to Skipsfjord. The wind, having decided that it could no longer get the better of me, seemed to have gone looking for someone else to bother… I was very thankful for this, as it gave me the opportunity to ride slower than I had before, and enjoy the spectacular scenery without having to worry too much about becoming a more permanent part of it…!!

Mark Knopfler in Nordkapp...!! Competing with the Dingleberries...or whatever they call themselves...!!!

I stopped in Nordkapp to have a cup of coffee at the service station and noticed that they sold CD’s and DVD’s as well… I wandered over to look through the titles on display, and was amazed to see Mark Knopfler’s new album, “Get Lucky”, on the shelf…!! Someone on this bleak and inhospitable island had great taste in music…!! Mark Knopfler in Nordkapp… Who would have thought…!!

That Gypsy Biker can be such a rebel...!!

Had things gone according to my original plan, I would have stayed in Hammerfest the night before, but that plan had been blown away on the cold and high winds of yesterday… I no longer needed to do the run to Hammerfest, so set my sights on Narvik instead. It would be a long ride to the shores of the Herjangsfjord, and if the weather didn’t play ball, there was a chance that I would have to stop sooner… I had come to accept that after ten or eleven hours on the road, I began “pushing the envelope” a bit…!! My focus dropped away and handling the Big Fella became a mission rather than a pleasure…

So why was I so relaxed and not at all eager to get on the road…? I stood out on the forecourt, gazing back up into the mountains, in the direction I knew that the Beacon at Nordkapp stood… I had left a tiny piece of myself up at that beacon, just as I had at many of the other special places I had visited so far… Going back up there this morning was one of the best decisions I had made, and I felt a strange kind of peacefulness settle over me on the way back down… The demons in my head had been stilled for the time being, the rebel in my soul had triumphed against some pretty big odds… I felt surrounded by an aura of confidence and well-being… No road would be too long or out of reach to me today…

I arrived at the toll gate leading off the island and into the Nordkapp tunnel, hoping that having paid to get onto the island, there would be no charge getting off it… After all, where the hell could you go once you were on Mageroya…? Hop on a fishing boat maybe…? With your bike or car…!!?

No such luck…. The price getting off was the same as getting on… NKr 70.00… Take it, or stay on the island…!! Talk about a captive market…!!

While the same guy who had taken my money coming in was swiping my card, I sat the bike, peering at the entrance of the tunnel ahead… My jaw dropped onto my tank-bag, as the three 50 year-old Vespas of my six Italian friends came chugging out of it and rolled up to the toll gate… I kicked the side-stand out, jumped off the bike and ran over to them, amazed at the co-incidence of meeting up with them again…!!

The Vespa Gang arrive at the Nordkapp Toll... Check out the yellow washing-up gloves on the chick on the back of the second scooter...!!

They were as delighted to see me, as I was to see them…!! We shook hands, grinning at each other, babbling all at once…!! I congratulated each one of them, offering them all the respect I had, because I would not have attempted a ride up here on a Vespa, not even if there was a 2010 model, let alone these old clunkers that they were on…!! And besides, I just don’t get the “cool” of riding a scooter…!!

There was one other car behind the group, coming onto the island, and the lady driver smiled at the jubilant scenes in front of her, patiently waiting for us to get out of the way, so she could pay her toll fee… We stood together at the exit of the little booth, laughing and joking… At this early hour, there were no cars coming off the island, so I had left the Big Fella standing right in the middle of the road next to the toll booth window, completely disregarding the mutters from Smiley, the toll booth operator…

“You are late!” I said, tapping my watch…”Where have you been? I waited at the beacon for you?”

“We came as fast as we could…!!” they cried… “But don’t go yet, come with us to the top…!!” one of the girls pleaded…!!

She and one of the other girls were wearing those yellow, dishwashing gloves for goodness sake…!! I pointed to her hands, gaping openly at what I was seeing… I went over and tapped her on the back of one hand…

“Do you have ANY feeling in your hands…?” I asked incredulously…

She just laughed and said, “Give me yours…!!”

And I nearly did…!!

Six to the North... My Italian friends make it onto the Island... Now all they had to do was ride the 35 kilometres to the beacon to realise their dreams...

I could see by the tired and drawn look on their faces that getting up here in the time that they did could not have been easy… In fact, I am still wondering how they managed to do it…!! I had met them in Bygdea, in the late afternoon of the 15^th of August, and checking my map program and calculating the fastest possible route to Nordkapp from there, I saw that it was over 1000 kilometres, and almost 13 hours of hard riding away…!! In a car that is, or, on a big powerful bike…!! But on these old scooters…?? They must have ridden well into the late evenings every day…

These guys deserved maximum respect, and if I had the time, would have loved to have accompanied them up to the beacon… It must have been a very proud moment for them…!! Well done, my friends, and if you’re reading this, drop me an email to explain how the hell you managed to get up to the tunnel in just three days on those little scooters…!! I hope your “summit” was as special for you as it was for me… Safe ride home… You Nutters…!!

We wished each other well, and after taking a few photos and promising to keep in touch, we went our separate ways, blowing our hooters loudly at each other as we did so…

The wind off the sea buffets us as we ride up against the cliff faces... Danger and beauty all rolled into one... Gotta love it...!!

Waterfalls cascade down the steep slopes...

On the mainland, the weather was its usual self…

Sun shining one minute, rain streaming down the next, but at least that crazy mother of a wind had calmed down, still gusting strongly over the high ground, but for the most part blowing at a steady pace that presented no problems, once you had got used to riding the bike at a slight angle to lean into it…

The road wound along the very edges of the Norskehavet, a huge fjord that cut deeply into the interior of Norway, right up to the town of Olderfjord. I rode the 75 kms of this stretch slowly, taking in the magnificent views, and the wildness of it all… The cold waters of the fjord crashing into the rocks on my left in places where the road reached right down to rocky edges where sea met mountain… In others, it lapped gently onto long curving beaches, where a few scattered houses and small wooden fishing boats spoke of a tough existence for the people living out here…

The sun bursts through a gap in the clouds and paints the waters of the Nordik Sea with silver...

"Yeah, Right...!! Like the wind will mysteriously disappear in the 74th kilometre... Pull my other one...!!"

It is hard enough riding here without having to contend with hostile Norwegians as well...!!

In the high winds and bitterly cold conditions of the day before, I had not had the inclination to pay too much attention to the scenery, as I was too busy trying to reach Nordkapp alive, and preferably in one piece…!!

But today, in the milder conditions, I drank it all in…

Smiling to myself often at some of the natural beauty surrounding me, and laughing out loud at some of the stranger things I saw…

Like the reindeer that ran off the road, tripped over something and went cart-wheeling down a steep slope… It leapt to its feet, looked around quickly to see who had seen its little mishap, then resumed grazing, pretending that nothing had happened…

This is one of those places on earth that you have to see for yourself… No written explanation or photograph can properly describe the wild and barren beauty of this landscape…

Reindeers signs are everywhere...

As are the critters themselves...!! This one seemed to be catching forty winks as I pulled up next to him...

At Olderfjord I hooked up with the E6, and road hard, due west through the interior, heading for the fjords and coastline of Norway’s western shores…

At Alta, on the shores of the Barents Sea, we stopped to refuel, and I bought another cup of coffee, still relaxed and not thinking too much about the long ride I had ahead of me…

I had chosen not to follows Rudi’s route across the islands, as this would have meant waiting for ferries at times and would have taken too long… I chose rather to ride along the shores of the mainland adjacent to the Barents Sea… I had a date with BMW in Helsinki on the 23^rd, and still had over 2000 kilometres to cover before I got there… With the weather warming up the further south I rode, I wanted to find a quiet place to spend a day or two to take a break in, before reaching Helsinki…

Yeah, after three hours on the road, we still had a VERY big day ahead of us...!!

Coffee in Alta... Label refers to the weather as well...!!

Snappy Dressers Crossing...

View out over the Alta Fjord, east of the town...

The ride along the fjords was breathtaking, but I wished at times that the E6 did not follow the shoreline so closely, and rather ran higher up the mountain slopes, so that I could get better photographs… Most of the ones I was able to take were from only a few metres above the waterline, and this does not give you a decent perspective of the spectacular scenery of the area…

When the sun is shining, the waters of the fjords take on many shades of blue...

Waterfalls cascaded down steep mountain slopes, at times crashing right down into massive drainage pipes right next to the road… For the most part, the sky was an impossible blue, and was reflected in the waters of the Barents Sea on my right, as I headed south…

Big Fella parked on the edge of the Oksfjord... Magnificent...!! The Fjord too...!!

But up on the mountains above me, clouds were gathering to spoil the party, and a short while later, it rained heavily, before easing up to let the sun shine through again… Weird weather up here…!! There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it…

Then, in an instant, it all changes...!!

Water runs off the road as we stop to take this picture...

What seemed like only minutes later, normal reception was restored...!!

The tide goes out on the Kafjord...

I crossed the bridge over the Badderfjorden, seeing all the open sea fish farms that dot the waterways all along the fjords…

Large circular “tanks” made from fishing nets and held afloat by rings of buoys, were lashed together and then anchored off the bottom of the fjord…

Small boats ferried food for the fish these tanks contained, as well as harvested those fish that had grown to a marketable size… I would have loved to go out to the “tanks” to see what was in them, but time was not on our side…

Fish farming on the Baddern Fjord...

Along the southern edge of the Kafjord, many waterfalls ran down the mountain slopes and into the waters of the fjord below...

Heading inland, we stopped to take a final look back out over this little bay, to the Fjords beyond...

Had it not been for these tunnels, we would be using ferries to get around the fjords...!!

The NAA (Norwegian Automobile Association) was dismayed to find that Moose and Reindeer were now working together to make riding conditions even more difficult...!!

I continued riding along the shoreline of the Kvaenangen Channel, which separates the mainland from the islands of Skorpa and Spildra, as well as many other smaller islands, then cut across to the beautiful Oksfjord and Raisafjord, before stopping at Straumfjordnes to take a short break…

Riding the twisting road was an energy sapping and time consuming exercise, and I began to wonder if I would reach Narvik, which was still 350 km away…

I rode faster after that, skirting the fjords, but concentrating more on riding quickly along the winding roads that ran along their edges, than the scenery surrounding me…

I crossed the Reisa River and passed Djupvik and then rode around the narrow Kafjord, which stabs into the interior like a dagger blade…

At the farthest tip of the fjord lies the little town of Kafjorden, and I slowed down as I passed through it, wondering if I shouldn’t begin looking for a place to sleep… I decided to push on, for one more hour, to see how far I could get…

The little village of Kafjorden... Pretty as a postcard...

The clouds hang over the mountain tops as we begin our search for a place to spend the night...

The light was beginning to fade, although this far north, it never gets properly dark… I came out onto the Lyngen Fjord into which many of the smaller fjords run, and then tore southwest, riding about 100 kms before stopping in Nordkjosbotn to refuel and seek shelter for the night… And so began a frustrating next few hours…

This farmer has taken "keeping things natural" to unprecedented heights...

"Dit klink soos 'n lekker plek...!!", said the Big Fella, breaking into Afrikaans...

It took four stops and 145 km to find a hotel that wasn’t full…

At Nordkjosbotn I was advised to try Hegellia,  65 km away…

There, the receptionist said I should ride on to Bardu, where I was sure to find a room…

Thirty kms later, at the Bardu Hotel, the guy apologetically suggested I ride on to Bjerkvik, 60 kilometres away on the eastern shores of the Herjangsfjord and try there…

It was now after 8.00pm, and I was beginning to fret a bit…

What the Sletts do when payment isn't forthcoming...

With open roads in front of us, we thundered through the forested landscape, and arrived in Bjerkvik half an hour later…

There, finally, after a very long day in the saddle, I got settled into the Viking Hotel, and brought the curtain down on a day filled with the most spectacular scenery and views that you can imagine…

Many of the higher peaks I had passed were blanketed in snow, and I was thankful that I had made it up to Nordkapp when I had… Further south where I now found myself, the seasons are more predictable, and here nature had begun getting out her autumn colours of yellow and orange…

Up at Nordkapp, nature tore up the rule book, and did whatever she wanted, when she wanted to… I had met a few bikers heading north when I had refueled, and they knew that they were cutting it fine to reach the Cape before sporadic snowfalls and the odd sheet of ice, made the last 100 kilometres even harder than it already was at this time of year…

Cemetaries in Norway are clearly marked...

The Viking Hotelli in Bjerkvik... Refuge at last...!!

But that was all behind us now, so we could tone it down a bit, and cruise down to Helsinki, where a few days rest and rehab would be in order…

GBWT 2010