Saturday April 18, 2009

Arrived into Tromso around 2pm local time. Everywhere is white. I met my travelling companion, Daniela, who has crazy luggage, the majority of which is attached by various bungee straps. We hit the road, made around 25-30 km's then camped in a camping site (whch being off season was not occupied by anyone).

The first day ended with a blizzard, which the tent stood up to (just). I am glad to be in Norway, but realising that even reaching the starting point at the Nordkapp, will be a massive challenge.

 



Sunday April 19, 2009

Snowed all day, so we stayed in the tent. I got bored, then questioned why I am doing this whole thing anyway? I didn't find an answer. Then I got depressed. The highlight was when the site owner arrived in his tractor to plough the site. He was very surspised to see we arrived on bikes, said we were 3 weeks too early for the Nordkapp, but wished us well.


 


Monday April 20, 2009

Another day of snow. Cleared about 20 cm off the tent in the morning. Again the site owner came in his tractor, we talked more, he once caugh a 20kg cod in an ice hole. The sea is still frozen over here, but getting risky to walk on. (some kids were still chancing it). He told me how to build an ice hole, if I needed to camp in the mountains, and suggested I bought a shovel. I told my mum I wouldn't need the shovel she kindly bought for me - how wrong I was.

Tuesday April 21, 2009

Got up around 6 am, packed up and rode while the weather was good. We took a short cut off the main road, but whilst the minor road had less traffic, it was also completely iced over. I crashed once, Daniela twice. I stopped whenever a car came by, and walked down hills. Daniela was more gung ho, even after a big fall.

We caught 2 ferries, and did about 70 km in total, it is good to me moving. It rained all afternoon, and whilst this will help melt the snow (which is about 60 cm deep and very hard to pitch tents on) it made us cold. Daniela was almost hypothermic when we put the tent up. I am worried about her and her equipment. Her sleeping bag was soaked.

Wednesday April 22, 2009

So far sunshine all day - wahooooo! Road all morning, then stopped at tourist centre (with free internet!). We are considering catching a bus part of the way to Norkapp, to get the cold part over and done with - Daniela is suffering with teh cold. The problem is that everything is so expensive in Norway. So we will continue riding for now. I just want to get to the proper start point.

On an aside I have decided I must change my underwear tonight, however cold it is, it has been almost a week!

Many thanks to Porlock Cycle Hire for offering me a bike for the expedition, but I have decided to go with a second hand Raleigh we originally bought for £60 for my Dad.  The Raleigh is more of a road bike and will hopefully eat up the paved roads of Europe, before I exchange it with a tougher bike to take on Africa.