Norway, blew my mind but has it blown the budget

My luck with the weather has finally come good, after two months of rain I've just had a very good spell of fine weather, and in fact it's probably been when I needed it the most, way up in the far North of Norway. Initially I was aiming for a quick trip up to North Cape and return, actually with the shitty weather I almost didn't go, boy that would have been a mistake, Norway is pretty damn cool, almost as good as NZ I reckon. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

With the past week of riding being mainly flat highway I was happy to find some good scenery and roads

This is in the south of Norway near Lysboth

The road down to Lysboth is a good ride

It's still raining lots here in Southern Norway but enjoying some great mountain roads. This was an old road up over a saddle that has now been made obsolete by a new tunnel

Still a far bit of snow about up on the passes

Lots of ferry trips are necessary to link the roads out in the Fiords, fortunately they are subsided by the government and not too expensive

Norway is expensive, spuds, baked beans and sausages for dinner helped keep things reasonable. And the great thing about both Sweden and Norway is you can freedom camp in many places including private property. I spent a month in Sweden and Norway with only 3 of those nights costing anything. Fuel is a bit pricey at about 3 nz dollars a litre and is my major expense.

Feet looking a bit rough from days of damp boots!

One good thing about all the rain and snow melt is the waterfalls are pumping, and there's a shit load of waterfalls here!

Norway doesn't muck about with roading, this bridge was a biggy and was approached by tunnels on both sides with roundabouts within them!

Found some nice abandoned roads that have been bypassed with tunnels, every tunnel I would be scanning for old roads.

 

Lot's of sod roofs in Norway, I thought they were pretty neat

All set for  11 km of tunnel, my longest ride underground!

As the sign says this one is 24.5 km long!!! Tunnels aren't that much fun on the bike, I chose to ride over the mountain here. The amount of tunnelling in Norway is insane, I reckon I must have travelled over a total of 100km underground while in Norway

My favourite grocery store

 

It wasn't as cold up here as I look but with more rain threatening I was glad to get down to lower elevations and find the great rock Bivy shown below...

With so much rain this rock bivy was one of my most enjoyable campsites.

This was really nice, great view, and shelter from the rain

Even had covered parking for the moto!

Norway has an impressive amount of fiords

 

It's also well suited to hydro power plants

 

 

It's usually not to hard to find good camping in Norway

 

The ride at Trollstigen is a beauty

 

 

 

 

A well needed stretch of the legs, a good day hike with Trollstigen pass in the background

 

The Town of Andalsnes

 

 

I guess this is what you do when you see the sun for the first time in many days, spread your shit out as much as possible!

 

Missed the ferry by 10 min, was a good chance to get some dinner sorted. More baked beans!! and you can't beat a boiled egg or two!

 

Daniel from Slovakia travelling on KTM 950 

 

 

 

 

 

The mountain range of Lofoten situated off the main coast of Norway is impressive. This is the fishing village of Reine.

 

 

 

 

 

Dried Cod heads, fish is still dried in the traditional way on racks over the winter months

 

 

 

Another great  campsite near Henningsvar, Lofoten

 

 

 

 

My run of horrible weather had come to an end, Lofoten is stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

Passing through Narvik in Northern Norway had a coffee with some locals

 

Nice spot, shame my bike is stuck in deep beach gravel!!

 

Arriving in the Senja mountains on sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the adventure motorcyclist website Advrider I met up with Louise way up in the north of Norway near Alta. The website allows members to offer accommodation to other bikers and is a fantastic site for motorbike travellers.  We had a great weekend together.

 

It was great to have a day of R and R at Louise's beautiful little cabin at Burfjord

 

 

Not a bad view out the window

 

Another day with Louise on a fundraiser hike/run near Alta

 

 

At North Cape, visibility not so good

 

 

It's a far old way north is North Cape and I definitely had a good sense of achievement on arriving!

 

My northern most camp, being lake August I actually got some darkness!

 

The Germans had a built bunkers way up here in the second world war

 

The Bugs are bad in this park of the world

 

 

 

 

Crossing the Arctic circle on the long run south to Stockholm