A ride across the mountains called for good weather. The Norse weather gods had other ideas 😂 Heading from Kongsberg to Alversund. All in Norway today.
The morning started with rain. And some attention to the Pinlock visor insert which is meant to provide a type of double glazing so that your visor didn’t fog up. It had fogged up. Twenty minutes later, and following some accurate careful trimming the insert was back on.
Helpfully there’s an app (Vegvesen trafikk) which shows the Norwegian roads and the traffic camera feeds, along with other useful info. I could see what lay ahead for the route.
With that in mind the dress code had to be changed from shorts and t-shirt under the bike gear. Plastic bags inside the boots, to keep my feet dry. Thermal trousers, then quick drying trousers, then biker trousers, and waterproof trousers on the outside. Thermal base layer long-sleeve top, t-shirt, raincoat, then bike jacket. Oh, and black nitrile gloves in my non-waterproof-should-be-waterproof gloves 😂 Keeping warm and dry would be key.
After twenty minutes the weather looked like this. I am smiling…honest 😂
Snow. I was expecting it, but not so soon! The tarmac clearly had some sort of surface treatment as the snow stayed wet rather than building up too much. The clothes layering system was working. Woohoo! 🎉
The weather brightened after a while and the sun came out. Time for a fuel and food stop.
The grillpølse hotdog was just the job, and the hot chocolate was very welcome! I set off at 2.30pm.
Half an hour later…and this was the scene.
Snow-topped mountains. It looked stunning. Again, the roads were clear so it was a treat to ride through this landscape.
An hour later and I was greeted by Låtefossen waterfall.
I was genuinely really lucky to have the dry weather to see this.
I need to investigate the significance of the large metal plaque by the river at the base of the falls.
A little way down the road was Odda. In the middle of the fjord was some sort of Mad Max style plant of some kind. Something else I need to research. It made a stunning photo though!
Onwards to the Jondal to Tørvikbygd ferry. The crossings are at twenty past the hour…each hour. Amazingly I arrived at 5.10pm…so immediately joined the queue and within a couple of minutes I was onboard! Brilliantly accidental timing! The crossing was super smooth and took about twenty minutes.
At about 6.30pm the Bjørnfjorden appeared on the right hand side of the road.
So I had a quick look!
Such water features by the side of the road have been so common and awesome today ☺️
Today was around 400km (250 miles). Oh, and I think I’ve spent about half an hour or more in tunnels today. One was 10km long!
The scenery has been absolutely amazing today. Snowy mountains, autumnal hillsides, glass-still fjords, grey sheer rock faces; such a stunning place.
Thank you for reading Day 6! ☺️☺️
Oh, I forgot to mention….Songs from the Helmet 😂 Some people sing in the shower, or the car. I do on the bike 😂 Highlights so far have been Love Shack by the B-52s and You Could Be Mine by Guns n Roses 😂
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