Kristiansand, Norway

F.Y.I. - Photos are now clickable and much higher quality thanks to GOOGLE! I love those guys.

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Kristiansand where we arrived last night after a 101 km ride from Farsund. After 5 days of cycling Heather and I both needed a rest. So we are staying in a cheap motel (590 kr!) in the city for the next two nights. A little about our journey here and the last few nights in Bru...

So on Tuesday night we headed back to the family cabin on Bru and did indeed eat whale meat. It was excellent. Kind of like a cross between a really good cut of beef and maybe a little liver or something. Not fishy at all. Very good. We ended up eating, drinking and talking till about 3 in the morning with Per and Anne-Grethe. And, as with each previous night, we were invited and encouraged to stay another evening. This encouragement to stay kept us in Bru until Friday when we decided we absolutly must leave or we would not see the rest of Eurpoe! On Thursday night we had a large bonfire to celebrate Saint Hans day. Some of Anae-Grethes family came down to Bru for the evening. I do not think anyone cares too much about Saint Hans as this is the least religious country in Europe but it corresponds well with the solstice. The thing to do on Saint Hans day is have a big fire. So we did.

Saint Hans Day & my 30th Birthday fire!


We got up on Friday and made breakfast for the group which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, bread and a fruit salad. This was quite different from the usual bread with cheese and meat and possibly soft-boiled egg that we had been having. I think they enjoyed it. In any case, we caught a bus through the 6 km and -232 ft below sea level tunnel to Bru and spent the rest of the day cycling down the coast. We saw some beautiful scenery, crossed an old suspension bridge, went through some really dense forest (on the coast) and say lots and lots of sheep and cows.

A fun spot on the North Sea Cycle Route! But hard to cycle.


Some really densely managed trees on the coast.


Cycling along the coast. Why no houses? The beach is all car sized rocks.


On Friday night we ate dinner in a small cafe in Virgestad. While we were waiting for our food some locals invited us to site with them "if we were lonesome." We were not lonesome but jumped at the invitation. They invited us to camp in their garden which we turned down and we headed to the Brusand Campground. Should have camped in the garden. It cost us 150 kr (like $25) to stay in the campground. Their idea of camping over here is different too. You get showers, tv, kitchen, laundry, a store, and all sorts of other stuff that doesn't seem like camping to me. So no more campgrounds for us! We decided to make the most of the money and spent the morning showering and enjoying the lovely beach there.

Breakfast on the beach at Brusand.


The view of the coast from Brusand.


We cycled out of Brusand vowing never to camp in a Norweigan campground again. We cycled past some really interesting terrain on Saturday. It is like being in the Alpine Lakes but you can see the coastline. You are above treeline at only 200 meters!

The strange coastal alpine area.


So that night we decided to take advantage of the "any-man's right" and camp for free. We were headed down this road in Rekkefjord to see if we could find a place to make camp and ran into a local who directed us down an adjacent road to a nice place. We had it all to ourselves and ate crackers, fish and cheese for dinner.

Our free camp in Rekkefjord.


On Sunday we cycled past many small towns on the coast. These towns were usually at the end of a fjord and didn't even have a store or post office. Some looked to be vacation homes, others were permanent residences. Very beautiful place. Make me want a boat to explore the endless inlets. You could spend a lifetime and never see all of the coastline of Norway!

A typical small Norweigan fjord town called Sorlandset.


And then the hills started getting really steep. So steep that they had to make tunnels in the 1900's so that people could get from one fjord to the next. This of course makes for difficult cycling and with me carrying all of our stuff (minus the 2 water bottles and 2 sleeping bags on Heather's bike) it was tiring.

An old tunnel through Jossinfjord. A new wider one is now in use but you can still cycle through the old one.


So Norway has this thing about taxes, oil and tunnels. On Sunday we saw more construction projects than you can imagine. Think of a place with a population the size of Washington (~4.5 million) spending money on the following: 3 Narrows Bridges, a dozen or so Viaduct replacement tunnels and maybe 4 12 mile long floating bridges all in the same year. This seems to be about what the Norweigan Government is doing. I don't know where they get all the money. It's crazy.

A new tunnel that leads to a suspension bridge, like 8 more tunnels and a few more bridges. Must cost at least a few hundred billion US dollars.


We arrived very tired in the town on Flekkefjord and looked for a grocery to re-fuel. As it was Sunday nothing was open and we ended up eating some really shitty hamburgers. It did the trick though and we made it out of town a ways to a old logging landing where we decided to camp. We had a lovely view from the camp but there were quite a few midges. We are always hoping for a little wind in camp to keep the bugs away.

The town of Flekkefjord. All the houses and shops were white. They did this in the 1800's I guess. Trendy thing at the time because white paint was 70 times more expensive than the traditional oranges and reds.


Our camp outside of Flekkefjord. I had to collect some grass and make a soft spot since the ground was so hard.


We cycled out of camp on Monday hoping the hills would not be as bad as the previous days but... they were. We went through some really beautiful areas but short-cut the cycle route a bit by sticking to some more direct but busy routes. It was a wise choice as the lady in the tourist information office told us. We made it into Farsund and enquired at some hotels about staying there but they were like $150. This place is too damn expensive! So we headed towards the beach and found what we now think is a nature preserve. Not too sure if we were allowed to camp there but I can't read Norweigan. So we did our best to leave no trace.

View from camp in Farsund.


Breakfast in Farsund. Had to try the baked goods. Yummy.


On Tuesday we had hoped to make it halfway to Kristiansand. Given the previous days relatively short distances (like 50 km) and big hills (over 3400 ft total ascent previous two days) we thought two days would be enough. Not sure if it was the thought of a cold beer, a shower or that we strayed from the cycle path but we made it over 100 km to Kristiansand! In that 3 day stretch we did over 10,000 ft vertical ascent. We now have some hope for Switzerland but must get stronger.

Eating lunch in the main square in Kristiansand.


We are spending today catching up on work, email, blog and other things. We were just at the photo shop to get our digital photos put on CD because none of the internet cafes or libraries allow CD burning. Copyright issuesI guess. At the photo store we were invited to go on a boat trip to Grimstad with the guy who was helping us. So tomorrow night we will check out Grimstad. Heading to Oslo via train on Friday as it's getting expensive in this country. We were planning on cycling all the way there but now we are thinking it might be nice to move on. I think we have gotten a good taste of the Norweigan people and geography.

Hope all is well wherever you are! We will write more when we can...