18th June: This is Sunday night and I’ve already lost track of what day it is but I didn’t sleep as well as the first night on the first ferry. I was awake at 5 with stuff just running through my head but had breakfast with a croisant and a coffee which was hot and then packed up. They wanted everybody out of the cabins in good time before we docked so it’s enjoyable to sit on the sunny deck with most of the other passengers, watching Kristiansand come into view and eventually we rode off the boat.
It went very smoothly: up onto the E 18 motorway turning sharp right toward Oslo then I stopped for another coffee and bun and then stopped again to get petrol and then stopped a third time to change into some rain gear because it had started raining. There were traffic jams, slow moving traffic so I had lots of practising at filtering (which I don’t normally do) and eventually I launched my plan to find practically the only supermarket in the country open at Drammen railway station which was on the route. It was a little convenience store crammed full of stuff as well as people. I bought food and drink for dinner and then eventually, eventually after riding all day on the motorway got onto the small scenic roads that you come here for and I found a campsite just outside Honnefoss. It was drizzling when I got here and putting up the tent it started to rain. Added to this, swarms of mosquitoes must have heard about my recent arrival. So what with the rain and the mosquitoes I felt really stuck in this tent. I didn’t want to unzip it because of the mosquitoes buzzing just outside so luckily I had the smoked salmon that I bought, a carton of orange juice and some mushrooms so I just sat here in the tent huddled eating with my bare hands the smoked salmon and the raw mushrooms washed down with orange juice. I think this must have been the low point – of sorts – of the trip.
It’s a nice campsite and the person that works here is very friendly. It also seems super quiet. There are other people around, lots of mobile homes but it’s slightly down at heel so you don’t really get a sense that there’s people around. However, the shower and bathroom are very close to where I am and they’re individual with lots of room so that really doesn’t feel like it’s roughing it and awkward like those communal facilities often do. I have just had a shower and I’ve dried myself with paper towels because my towel is somewhere in a bag on the bike covered over the rain cover which I’m so pleased I’ve got it because the bike would just be soaking wet. My helmet and everything is under that cover so hopefully it’s going to be alright and hopefully it’ll be cloudy but dry in the morning. I put tomorrow’s route into the GPS (to Trondheim I think) and it’s going to be 6 1/2 hours riding, so I’ve got a feeling I will not get that far but the Norcamp app I’ve got with a huge number of campsites is really good and there’s campsites everywhere by the main roads here so I can just stop when I feel that I’ve done enough riding. Then another long day up to Mo I Rana and then the Arctic Circle and then I can stop and I can breathe a sign of relief I’ve done it and done what I said I’d do. Then I can be a bit more mindful on the way back. I’ll writing this on the 20th of June and it’s super light if my eye mask is deep in the luggage on the bike somewhere and the sun rises at some crazy time so I don’t know how much sleep I get maybe if it’s dry I can head off early. If it’s dry I will crack out my stove and make some coffee; if not maybe I’ll grab some at a petrol station. So this is my first day in Norway and true to form is it’s raining so let’s hope for better weather.