ANC250A Adventure Northcape
All arrived well in the late afternoon. And after an informative Welcome-Briefing about group riding behavior, the route, how the Norwegians behave etc., we had a nice dinner to get good power for the oncoming days! We waited so long fot this trip to start and here we are! Unbelievable. Welcome to our blog! We are more than happy to share all our adventures with you! Stay tuned. See you tomorrow, when we finally start the engines! Good night!
We got to ride an empty Trollstigen!! Empty! No cars, no campervans. Just magical switchbacks and breathtaking waterfalls. ... but wait. Let´s start at the beginning. Our day started off with an informative welcome briefing about the daily route. We all looked forward to the sweet strawberries in Valldal Joy told us about. And - of course - Trollstigen, the most famous mountain road in Norway. Finished in 1936, after 11 years of construction this road is a piece of art! It was closed for more than a year due to rockfall prevention work and finally reopened last week, just in time for our tour! We thought. Then the shock. Just a few minutes after we started our first riding day we pass by the sign on the side of the road: "Trollstigen closed!". Due to construction work, as we figure out a few phone calls later. No one can tell when it will be reopened again. Maybe in the afternoon, maybe in the evening... maybe tomorrow. Besides... who is that ghost rider following us? Never the less we decide to ride up to at least have a view to this piece of art. Besides, we do not want to miss out on the sweetest strawberries in Valldal (you can not imagine how wonderful it smelled like strawberries, as we were riding through the valley) and the fluffy cinnamon buns at Gudbrandsjuvet cafe. Up at the top of Trollstigen we walk up the viewing plattform. Can you imagine they started building this road 100 years ago? Wow. There it is, all empty ad peaceful. As we get back to the bikes we hear the great news: The work has been finished. They are cleaning up the road already. It may take an hour or two. We choose to wait. After a while we hop on our bikes and "park" them right in front of the barrier :) That causes a little motorcycle chaos, as all other 20ish bikes decide to follow our idea. Uuuups. Sorry. About 40 minutes later (...some say the tourguide meanwhile had fallen asleep on her bike) the barrier finally opens up. And we really get to ride Trollstigen! Edelweiss Bike Travel takes the lead! What an unique adventure! As we roll down this masterpiece we are impressed by the construction of the road, enjoy fabulous switchbacks and the view of the stunning waterfalls! Breathtaking. After a successful first riding day we arrive at our hotel in Sunndalsøra in the afternoon and enjoy a lovely Chinese dinner. That´s another story. Some of us want to wake up very early tomorrow. Sleep well! A new great day is waiting for us!
Our second day leads us from Sunndalsøra to the lively city Trondheim. Some of us have been up very early as we wanted to the the Atlantic ocean road! After a relaxed breakfast and our morning prayer we start our engines. It´s a nice and easy, short riding day today, as we want to enjoy the afternoon in the lively wonderful city Trondheim! On our way we enjoy the wonderful surrounding! Have you seen all those houses with the grass and moss rooftops? Some houses even have little tree on their green roof! After a hot shower in the hotel we discover Trondheim. The colorful houses at the river look like they were taken right out of a ferry tale. And this church... fascinating. We try to identify as many figures on the decor as possible. Adam and Eve are the first two we recognize.
In the bright morning we left Tromsø behind to head to ferry, that brought from Flakk to Rørvik and to a wonderful motorcycle Ride along the coastline and the inner land. Fjord after Fjord, changing landscapes - sometimes smooth like silk, sometimes rough and sharp - an amazing change of view the whole day. And enough time to hop into the icecold fjords or cool down a bit at lake shores.
Three ferries are on our schedule today. But first some morning-sport for the ladies:-) to get ready for the day. First stop at the Folderbrua - the Bridge over the River Folder. Beautyful views over the fjord - and we saw the first moose nearly hidden in the woods!!! And we also tasted moose at our lunchstop at Hildurs Uterarium, a nice garden with an amazing amount of plants and herbs - needless to say, that the food there was delicious. Another ferry-hop brought us to the Sandnessjøen Region with the fascinating Peter Dass Museum and the georgeous Seven Sisters Mountainrange. This nice day ended with an amazing good dinner and a little trailer-electricitystuff-repair. Thank you, Jeff for a perfect work - and all the others for their motivating comments;-)))
Crossing the Northern Arctic Circle is our mission today! Via the impressive Helgelands-Bridge we ride nice sweeping roads cross the country and go through endless tunnels up to the northlands industry-center Mo I Rana. From there its not far to the Northern Arctic Circle and its worth to visit Tourist Center with masses of nice souvenirs like Reindeer Hides, Original Edelweiss Vikings and countless more. In the afternoon the smooth hilly road 812 led us to our days destination Bodø, where we are onenightguests of the Wood Hotel with its unique rooftop pool and a mindbreezing panorama.
Good morning! Another wonderful day is waiting for us! Today we set over to the Lofoten. A 3h ferry ride from Bodø is waiting for us. But stop! Breakfast first! And what a unique breakfast. As almost every morning you can bake fresh waffles. That´s a thing in Norway. But today we get to enjoy our waffles not only with jam, but with THE MOST AMAZING view over Bodø and the fjords. What a start in the day! We enjoy our time on the ferry meeting other motorcyclists and sharing stories and knowledge. Then we finally arrive at the Lofoten! Are we in heaven? We must be very close! The Lofoten ate unique! This beauty of crystal clear, blue water, fisherman villages, mountains and rocks, steep cliffs, sheep, cow, horses, white beaches, red houses.... Wherever you look you´ll find pure beauty of nature. We visit the city Å (pronounced "Oh") and enjoy some fresh fish buns and spicy shrimp at the water before we head up north. Of course we need to climb the rock at the white beach-foto-stop. We enjoy the wonderful curvy road, the fog lies on and between the mountains. It looks spectacular. A cloud has wrapped up a mountain like a blanket, another one seems to flow through a valley like water in a creek. We visit a little church standing right at the beach! And ... can´t stop our tough vikings to hopp in the water! "We have to swim above the arctic circle!", they mentioned from the very beginning! And they were not joking! As we arrive in our wonderful hotel in Svolvaer, a delicious dinner is waiting for us! Whale carpaccio and baked halibut. What a day!
In the morning we finally catch some rain! Oh lord, we did not travel to Norway and expact 30 degree celsius every day! Thanks for showing us some Norwegian summer. After a few minutes the rain stops again and we hop on a ferry. Julia get´s stuck in the elevator. Uuuups. After a wonderful 20 minute ride and getting Julia back from the crew we enjoy a lovely small curvy road along the sea leading us to Tiina´s Keramikk Kafe! As we arrive at her parking lot, she´s waiting at the door with her husband to greet us! What a warm welcome! We enjoy homemade fresh waffles, coffee, rhubarb- and cheesecake. Her pottery art is very unique and most of us find a piece to take back home as a memory. We head further to the HURTIGRUTEN MUSEUM. What an amazing place to be! They build a house around an old Hurtigruten ship and as you walk through the different rooms you loose track of place and time. It feels like traveling in time! Of course we also practice how to throw the ships rope at the harbor.
in the morning we left the "northern center of iron" Kiruna to ride through endless forests. Now everyone could imagine, how huge the distances are here. This is also the less populated area in Europe. Today is sunday and most few shops and cafes along the roads are closed, so it was a good idea to take some snacks, fruits, bread, ham and cheese with us - and we enjoyed all these directly by the river at the border to Finland. Next stop was Pallas in the Ylästunturi National Park with a wonderful Reindeer Herd up there. A unique, challenging darts tournament - well done, Jeff!!! - added an funny accent to this day!!
Another day in the woods - but today the Tundra! Completely different vegetation in comparison to the last day: low trees, formed by the strong winds and the freezing low temperatures during winter times. You feel, how far north you are already. Due to the weatherforecast we started early and crossed the border into Norway again. In Kautokainö we stopped at a grocery store to have a nice spontanous but pleasing breakfast. And after another one and a half hours ride we reached Karasjok the center of the native peoples of Lapland - the Sami - to learn more about their culture and style of living with reindeer breeding and the rough nature - very interesting impressions. After having lunch in the "Sami Underground"-Restaurant we headed off for taking the last couple of miles to Lakselv under our wheels - but: we rode directly in the eye of a storm! In the last possible second we decided to turn and ride back to Karasjok - good idea! A delicious ice cream shortened waiting until the end of the storm and in completely dry conditions - lucky we - we reached our destination of this day: Lakselv at Porsanger Fjorden.