A day of ups and downs

Saturday May 2, 2009

Daniela had the luxury of a lie in, whilst I rose early to try and get a replacement pannier rack from town. We were only about 40 km's out of town, but there was a hill inbetween, and I was already frustrated at getting behind schedule and spening more time in expensive Finland. So instead of riding back I once again tried to catch a lift in a car.

previously when my tyre had split I held out my broken wheel and quickly caught a lift. However with my bike in tact, I may have looked less like I was in trouble and more like trouble to pick up. eventually a nice couple in a pick up truck stopped. They said they had seen me last night, and had decided to help. They first took my bike down the road to a petrol station and then came back for me, with the wife waiting at the road side, as I took her seat.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the petrol station did not have any pannier racks, but at least I was 10 km closer to town. I tried desperatly to catch a lift but failed time and again. Despite being a main road it was very quiet, so I felt dissappointed whenever a car went passed.

At some point the whole situation became too much, not just the broken rack but the whole trip, my lack of funds and the thousnads of km's ahead. I cried for the first time in years. It seems sobbing made me look less like trouble and more like I was in trouble asthe very next car stopped, put my bike in their boot, bungeed it down and drove me into town.

i bought the only remaining rack left for 23 euro, I hope it is half descent, but doubt it, asit is only rated to 25 kg, like my last one. I enquired into front racks, to spread the load, but they had none.

I tried to hitch a lift back to Daniela, but found it impossible fro within the town. I rode out a little way and eventually got lucky. A Norwegian travelling south to pick up a canoe came to the rescue. he was entertaining and he cheered me up, and he didn't mind slowing down for a few km's so I could look for the place Daniela was camped behind.

I had no right to expect a lift, I could have cycled back to get the new rack. So I would like to thank those who helped me along the way, you were all extremely trusting and kind to let a dirty, smelly cyclist inside your car.

I returned around 1.30, I jokingly told Daniela I would like to get to the next town 130 km's away. We pedalled hard and Daniela impressed me by pedalling at the front for a good 20 km stint. Once we got within 50 km's of th town i was determined to reach it, but Daniela was not, so we compromised by agreeing to stop 10 km short of the town.

the final km's were painful and slow and eventually we both afreed to just stop at the next available spot. We stopped about 15 km from town, a good effort. By now it was 9.30. We asked a man in a house if we could camp in the nearby land which he owned, he said OK, but Daniela then convinced him to let us camp in his garden, I was a little embarressed, but we had a good nights sleep.

A broken pannier rack

Friday May 1, 2009

I really enjoyed staying with nina, her english was excellent and she was good company, although her German Sheppard dog was highly suspicious of me! We had breakfast, and as we said our goodbye's Nina handed me a map from her telephone directory.

I was now really enjoying the trip, the sun was out and it was getting warm. Although Nina had warned us to get a move on, as next week night-time temperatures are expected to drop back to -20! Even last night following a warm day my water bottle frosze solid when left outside.

We cycled on in the sun, stopping at a village to look for an ATM machine to finally get some euro's. I chatted to a very chilled out Finnish guy, who was on holiday visiting his parents. It was a very relaxed village, we bought some food and then hit the road.

We stopped at Inari where Daniela replaced her broken pannier rack. Mine had come loose yesterday, but I re-tightened it and hoped it would be OK. We rode out of town and over a rare finnish hill, with a ski resort on top. Then my pannier rack broke, the strut had snapped in two. It was around 6.45, I tried to catch a lift back to town in a car, but none stopped, not even a Police van i inadvertantly tried to wave down. We decided to make camp at the road side and sort our problems out tomorrow.

Entering Finland

Thursday April 30, 2009

we cycled 20 km's to the Finnish border, where we expected to find the Finnish town of Karigasniemi, where we could exchange money and get a Finnish map. All I saw were a few building which I assumed were to do with immigragtion or customs, so we cycled on, however those buildings must have been the Town.

I quickly noticed that the Finnish roads were in a poor state of repair compared to the norewgian ones. 15 metre sections of road had been badly tarmaced together, and were poorly aligned, putting great stress on the bike.

We cycled on about 60 - 70 km to a cross roads where we hoped to pick up a map, there was very little there, so we continued using a map I had printed off the internet (minus road names and wih fuzzy place names). we headed South (I hoped) on a second road. We reached a village with a petrol station/cae/shop and asked there for directions, i think they were a little surprised we didn't know where we were. The shop assistant was very hepful and assured us that id we followed the E75 South we would be going in the right direction.

We grew tired at the end of a second successive day of cycling and looked for somewhere to camp. I spotted a field next to a house, I knocked on the door and we were invited in to spend the night indoors! Nina first let us use her Sauna, which was exremely refreshing. Nina was good company, and spoke excelent English and I was really beginning to enjoy the trip now.  


Cranking out some km's

Wednesday April 29, 2009

Having reached the Nordkapp and with the weather improving my thought turned to getting to Cape Town within a year. I did some basic mental arithmatic and formulated a plan to cycle 500 miles a week, or 133 km's a day for 6 days a week (i think). I planned to set the tone by getting to Karasjok today. Daniela said it as impossible, but we made it, although the last 50 km's were very painful. The weather is imroving and I caught the sun a little today.

Today was the first day we had to pay to use a camp site, previously the sites had been closed and the owners didn't charge us as there was so much snow. From now on we intend to camp in the wild.


South

Tuesday April 28, 2009

We cycled back from Honnigsvan to Ruseness, following the coast. We made it through the nordkapp tunnel for a second time, and once again braved the wind, although it wasn't so fierce today. With about 20 km's to go it started to snow, it was wet snow and we were soaked by the time we arrived in Ruseness.

The campsite owner let us camp for free again and let us use the toilets. I was getting into a routine now and gettin a bit wet and cold was no longer a problem as I knew how to put the tent up quickly and how to get warm. Daniela pushed the boat and and asked the friendly campsite owner if there was any hot water, she was shown inside of the adjacent hotel, and spent the next 5 hours in there drinking tea.