Skip to main content

Hairpins I have met

By

And today I met enough to keep a hair salon going forever. Big hairpin bends ,small ones,tight ones 360 degree one, hairpins inside tunnels and so the list goes on 

The day started well with three varieties of pickled herring for breakfast. Heaven!  However I did notice that one of the varieties of herring had a funny colour. Then the penny( Kroner!) dropped. It was of course a red herring! 

But let's start properly  at the beginning. Thru a slight navigational miscalculation it was a 500 km day which, given the twisty roads made it a big day and a long 10 hour day. We start off and head up a delightful drive to a town called Oddda. Yes, it does get  Odda and Odda !  The rain came down for the last half hour so it was a case if stopping and putting on the rain jackets which is normally guaranteed to make it stop raining. And they worked a treat. The rain promptly stopped. 

 

Even the sheep on the side of the road get colour blindness as we go past. However we will scare off the elk/ moose  ! 

 


Delightful views up valleys 


And tunnels. And tunnels . And tunnels! Big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones, long one ,short ones, black ones, light ones. Curly ones. In fact I think some were knotted! We estimate we did up towards 60 km in tunnels today. 

This is a dark one ( in case you did not guess !)


 

And narrow ones

 


Then there were some with roundabouts in the middle of them


 

I half expected to see a McDonald's at one of the tunnel intersections! Nothing in a Norwegian tunnel would surprise me anymore. 

And here are the Norwegian cross country skiing team practicing with their summer practice. There was a squad of them and they looked deadly serious 

 

Ther were nice country vistas and one had to remind oneself that one was in Norway and not Switzerland 



 


And is this Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Switzerland or somewhere in Norway?

 


But the answer is obvious I cried. Look at the next photo and see if you can work out - as I did with considerable thought - why this is not Switzerland 


 

Yes, it is the tiny town of Flam and a hot destination for cruise boats doing the Norwegian coast. 

And finally we get to the turn off to the hotel. 2km to go the GPS said. Well let me tell you about that 2km little sting in the tail. It was a very narrow one way only type of road.  It was the steepest bit of hill I have ever ridden on. The bends were the toughest I had ever done. It was narrow. The bike even struggled a little in bottom gear. We get to the hotel. Knees are shaking. We check in. "Oh" says the receptionist , her eyes wide open "You came up the downhill only road! And you mean to say you did it on a motorbike? ."  We all I can see is that Diana gulped down a gin and tonic very quickly after we arrived at the hotel. Laundry night has also been bought forward!  

The hotel we are staying in was apparently a Nazi baby factory in the Second World War. Nordic genes were considered desirable.  With the stunning views from the hotel I would have been more interested in looking out the window than making babies! Or is that just my age talking? 

On that note  we are in for some more eye candy fjord hopping tomorrow as we twist and turn up to Geiranger fjord. 

Before I close off a special note. Some of you might have worked out that photos taken over my shoulder whilst driving were not taken by myself. So this is to acknowledge that quite a lot ( but not all ) of the photos  in this blog are  taken by Diana. Mine are usually taken off the bike ( for obvious reasons! ) 

Comments

Stuart of Blyth said…
Have you considered a helmet cam?

http://www.mc-ams.co.uk/blog/helmet-cams-need-one/
27 June 2016 at 18:47
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The last post!

By
How do you summarise a motorbike trip around the world from Tokyo to Los Angeles?. With difficulty!   Well we are not into record setting. But we believe we are the oldest couple in the world to ride a motorbike “ two up” ie with pillion passenger, right round the world on one season  Let’s start  off with the statistics for the little trip  -                                                                    Total mileage.        34,416 km *                                                        No of days travelling        165                           ...
2 comments
Read more

Chapters 1 and 2

By
WHY MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURES ? I have always been interested in adventure. Over the years I have climbed mountains, parachuted, had my private pilots licence, dived, sailed and done various adventurous pursuits (with various degrees of success I might add!). Motorcycling has been one of the later activities. Why motorcycles?  Firstly it is all a bit easier on the body as one gets a little bit older. This is of course on the assumption that one does not inadvertently part company suddenly with said machine!  Secondly, it does also require a bit of brain power - intellect you might say if that does not sound snobby. There is also, to me, an element of "man and machine" about motorcycling. Then if that is not enough justification in itself there is  the scenery and the absorption into the landscape you are passing through. On a bike you see much much more than in a car, bus or train. You are aware of nuances in the landscape, you smell the smells and you become more than ...
3 comments
Read more

And a volcano stopped us!

By
What a day. First thing this morning it was off to check the rear tyre of the bike. Oh the relief !  The tyre was rock solid and the same pressure as after fixing yesterday.  So it is a pack up and first day on the road today. We get on the way with a just a little bit of nervous excitement.  On to the  Japanese motorway system we go. And what a delight. The traffic is orderly, calm not going to fast and not too thick. We track right in towards Tokyo itself before bearing West. Yes, there were lots of spaghetti junctions - It looks like The Los Angeles motorway system but it is so much easier (and slower). Japanese politeness really shows thru’. However there were lots of toll booths - we had chopped thru  about NZ$50 in the first hour and a half  Then we are on to the slow bit and off the motorways.  It was about a four hour stop and start crawl thru the urban sprawl of greater Tokyo. However I did find time for some serious reflection - I also saw a...
3 comments
Read more