NORDKAPP 15/7/23

 2261 miles, 3640km

My flight from Gatwick was uneventfull, but the transfer from Oslo to a different plane for Alesund was a bit of a worry, as I wasn't sure if my luggage would make the transfer. As it happened, my luggage had  no problem, but one of the three guides on this trip lost his stuff.

   I went to the taxi rank outside of the airport in Alesund, and asked for a taxi to Hotel 1904, and the young couple getting into the taxi ahead of me said they were going to the same hotel, so we shared. They were there for a kayaking trip.

   When I got to my room, I found a welcome pack with a map and a t-shirt, which was nice. I watsapped Laura and Holly (my cat), then went downstairs to meet the others.

   We were given a welcome briefing by Stefan, Nico, and Trummy, and shown a nice hand drawn map

 then we were split into 2 groups, and went down to the basement to meet our trusty steeds.

mine was the smallest of the bikes there, a Suzuki v-strom 650, which was probably the best size bike for this trip. At this point, I would like to say thankyou to other members of this tour for the sharing of photo's. I decided to call my bike "The Wasp" 'cos I like wasps. There were many different bikes there, 2 Yamaha Tracers (750 and 900), lots of BMW's from 900 to 1250cc, 2 Harley 2 litre (horrible things), a Ducati and a KTM 1290 Adventure.

   Most of us had trouble opening and closing top boxes and panniers, not sure why. we then went back into the hotel for the evening meal, where I had a Norwegian cheese starter, then some meat and spuds for the main course, very nice.

    Sunday morning we had a late breakfast, as the kitchen didn't open untill 8am, then down to the bikes to load up with essentials, (our luggage was taken by van), Nico and Trummy did the daily briefing, then we set off for our first stop of the day at Gudbundsjuvet, when we got out of town, the roads were fairly quiet and great scenery. The stop was by a waterfall in the Valldalen valley

Next, we took the road  to the Trollstigen, we approached it from a different direction than I did on the GS500 three years ago, we did a sticker shop raid, then a photo shoot, then we went down the Trollstigen. Last time  I went up and down, which is more fun!

   There were quite a few camper vans, cycles etc, and as I was videoing Ed, we saw a vw camper almost tip over on one of the hairpin bends (one wheel about a foot off the ground!). Next, we stopped at the statue of a Troll on a motorcycle for some more photo's;

We next stopped at the Trollveggen which is Europes tallest overhanging rock face, and very impressive.The weather was hot, and the riding along the fjords was very nice and we eventually got to our Sunndalsora hotel, where "The Beatles", "The Who" and "The Stones" stayed,  and had a very nice meal at the Italian restaurant next door.

   Monday, set off at 08:40 after our briefing, and after about 15 minutes we stopped for some photo's, then Ed realised he had lost his phone, so me and Ed and his wife went back to the hotel, where the phone had been handed in by the cleaning staff! We were soon back with the rest of the group at Sunndalen Valley.

   We then stopped at a very inefficient restaurant for lunch, but as it was taking 50 minutes to get served, I decided to leave the group and go to Hell for some photo's, but as the road was diverted, I couldn't get the photo I wanted, so I did the best I could...

I also met another motorcyclist on the road to Hell, who had a roughly 80 litre bag on his rack, 2x 80 litre panniers, with 2x 30 litre bags either side on top, and 2x 20 litre bags slung underneath, I've never seen a bike so overloaded, he could have got an elephant in there if he chopped it up the right way! I next headed to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Trondheim to meet up with the rest of the group, I thought they would have beaten me by ages, but after my 50 km detour, I still arrived at the same time! Definately time better spent than waiting for a meal at the restaurant.

   I went for a walk around Trondheim, and went to the Cathedral, but didn't go in due to the usual problem of the holy water in the font starting to boil, and the Gargoyles getting upset. Next morning, we only had a short ride to the ferry, the girl taking the payment couldn't be bothered with us, so she didn' take any payment, which was a result. The rain had started,so the roads were wet, but we went through some lovely coastal scenery and alongside various fjords.

   The next ferry was from Flakk to Rorvik, we stopped for lunch, and eventually got to our old wooden hotel in Overhalla. Next day, the roads were dry, and it was sunny, and I was behind Trummy, the guide, who is also a bike racer, and as the roads were twisty and dry we started to go for it

the v strom handles very well, and we soon left the group behind. We had 3 ferries and some fantastic scenery, then stopped at an artists museum, but as I dont have any taste, it didn't do anything for me. On the way to the hotel, one of the group backed his bike into a 4x4 in a petrol station, amid a lot of shouting. !0 minutes later, he went to park his bike but forgot to put the side stand down, and dropped his bike onto one of the other bikes...

   We then got to our hotel, the Scandic Syr Sostre. Next morning, we set off at half eight, stopped off at a couple of places, then headed off to the Arctic Circle. The scenery there is like a moonscape, we had lunch there, lots of photo's, sent some postcards and got some more stickers.

      We set off again, towards Bodo, but before we got there we stopped off at the Saltstraumen, the biggest whirlpool in the world, which has been on my list for ages

It doesnt look too impressive in the photo, but check it out on youtube. Then, off to our hotel , The Clarion Collection, Bodo. The meal that evening was a three course affair, which was vegetable soup (yuk) then salad (yuk) then pork stew. I missed the first 2 courses, so I had the stew 4 times and 2 beers.

   Friday, we left the hotel at 09:30, as the ferry to the Lofoten Islands wasn't due to depart until11am, and it was only a short distance away. The Ferry takes three and a half hours, and when we got to Lofoten, we went to the town with the shortest name, "A" (there is a small circle above the A, but haven't got that key on my laptop.We had a look at a traditional fishing villiage, where all the houses are red. We next went to Reine, which is the most stunning villiage I have ever seen

The ride across the island to Svolvaer and our hotel the Anker Brygge was fantastic, it was a group of houses that we shared. The evening meal was dried fish and mustard as the main course, bit like old trainer and mustard and potatoes. The potatoes were nice.

   Next morning, Saturday 22nd, we set off to a ferry from Fiskenbol to Melba, we went to a viking museum, and we also had some rain. Next, it was a night at the Thon hotel in Harstad. In the evening, me, Stefan and Ed went to see if we could visit the Adolf gun on a military base. It was closed, but we tried to blag a visit, but 2 soldiers with guns saind NO!, so thats a no, then, I could only get a picture of a picture

the only way to get some idea of the scale of the thing, is the steps in the left bottom corner.

   Sunday, we set off for Sweden and stopped off at the Narvik war museum then crossed into Sweden

The roads were empty and after a spot of rain, we got to Camp Ripan which had a lovely restaurant with a very nice menu, I had Arctic shark starter, reindeer steak main and a very nice green pudding. Next morning, we headed North again, there were lots of speed cameras, the roads were straight and tree lined, with the odd reindeer to spot. We stopped at a service station for lunch, where it was a 40 minute wait for a burger, so I had chicken curry and rice, which may have been past its use-by date, Stefan was the only other person to try it, and was sick shortly after, but I was fine.

   We eventually got to the border with Finland, got stuck in a reindeer traffic jam. Next, it was a Sami silver jewellery shop, but to me, it looked just like someone had beeen careless with a soldering iron. The temperature was a bit more pleasant at 9 degrees c, as it has been hovering around 18 degrees for the last week. The roads in Finland were quite bumpy, then I saw a sign for "uneven road surface" they weren't fucking joking, I had to keep going back to pick up my eyeballs!

   We soon got to our hotel, the Jussan Tupo Oy, which seemed quite nice, although the meal was disappointing.

   Tuesday, we crossed back into Norway, went to an overpriced restaurant then rode for a bit until we got to our hotel in Lakselv,  Nordkapp tomorrow.

   We set off for the North Cape, and as we were quite a way North, there were no more mosquito's  to bother us, so the Reindeer took over the job of trying to splat themselves against our visors. We were coming across swarms of reindeer every 5 minutes, and they had as much road sense as the average teenager. The trees got smaller and smaller, until it was just rocks and lichen, the scenery was fantastic, as I love barren landscapes, and we made it to Nordkapp. We had been warned that some geezer would try to stop us at the entrance to charge us, but this is illegal, so we rode past him.

They also try to charge you to go in the restaurant, but this can be avoided by using the rear doors, bit like Lands End for rip off merchants

   

  

   Nico, Stefan and Trummy, our guides. After a few photo's we left Nordkapp and headed South (where else) for our hotel in Alta, the Thon Hotel. at the petrol station, one of our group dropped his bike, but didn't seem bothered. Next morning , I told the guides I wanted to do a solo detour to have a look at the fjord where the british mini subs (X Craft) sank the Tirpitz, 

as it happened, the rider behind me also went for a look, There was a Tirpitz museum but it was closed, but I was more interested in the fjord. They re-floated the Tirpitz after 6 months, but it was then sunk by british aircraft using "Tall Boy" bombs shortly after. We then headed to our next hotel, in Tromso (where the Tirpitz was finally sunk) along the E6 road, which is the same road that had the 3 days worth of road works last time I used it (still got road works even now) We had a very nice farewell dinner with the 3 guides and the 16 other riders (Canadians and Americans), next morning, I got a coach to Tromso airport, for my flight to Oslo then Gatwick. It was a brilliant trip, met some lovely people, made new friends, and I would like to say thankyou to the guides as well, as they were fantastic.

   When I got home, I had a lovely welcome from my 2 favourite girls,

   Excellent trip.

Too Snowy for The Orkneys Trip

 19/3/23  Rob and Charlie

Start mileage 12526, End mileage 13539, total 1013 miles

I was planing on a ride to the Orkneys, but there were several large storms on the way, and lots of snow due in Scotland, so Rob suggested somewhere further South, so we settled on Netherlands as a starting point, ending up in France a week later. 

   I met Rob at a McDonalds in Colchester, (I had a quarter pounder  with cheese while waiting), then we set off for the Castle Inn in Harwich, and camped in the beer garden. we then went into Harwich town for fish and chips at 6pm, but they were just closing. The pub had also stopped serving food, so we went to another McDonalds for another burger, then back to the campsite for some beers.

   Next morning, I could tell Rob was apprehensive about the 9 hour crossing to the Hook of Holland, but the crossing was ok.

After disembarking, we went to Strandpark Vlugtenburg, and the tents were soon set up, and we went looking for food. I wasn't hungry, but Rob was, and we ended up at New York Pizza in the rain. I told Rob I was still full up from 2 baguettes and a curry from the boat. He ordered a large pizza so I could tuck in anyway. We went back to the tents for an early night.

   Next morning we wenmt to a McDonalds for breakfast (no wonder I'm a fat git!) then 83 miles later we  visited the navy museum in Den Helder

and went on the

submarine Tonijn

Then we headed to the road across the inland sea, which was interesting

and stopped at the esso garage on an island, then headed to a campsite called Campingplatz Neuengland which was very nice, we didn't realise it at the time, but we had crossed into Germany!

Next morniong, we went back over the border to have a look at Fort Bourtange, that Rob had spotted on the map

It looks very impressive from the air, but from the ground it is difficult to get some idea of the scale of the place!

Next, we headed off to a McDonalds for breakfast, then headed to Cologne, and as there was a massive storm headed our way, Rob booked us into Premier Inn Koln City Sud, we dropped our gear at the hotel, and went for a walk. Rob went into the swiss Army knife shop and bought one, then we had a look at Koln Cathedral, which is very impressive

and then we went to the nearby "Padlock Bridge" over the Rhine, which has many tons of engraved padlocks on it.

The padlocks fill both sides of the bridge, and is very impressive. Next, I found a currywurst shop for my evening meal, and Rob had a strange meat and vegetable thing in a sort of cornet. After a couple of beers in the Hard Rock Cafe, it was back to the hotel.

   Next morning, we went to the Hurtgen Forest museum, after stopping at a kawasaki shop for some chain lube, The museum was closed when we arrived, but when it opened, the old geezer there wouldn't let us in, until someone else turned up and sorted it out. The museum was interesting enough, then we had a ride over to have a look at the Siegfried Line Dragons Teeth, which looked impressive, but Rob told me that in the second world war, the allies just bulldozed soil over them and drove over!

Next, we went to Niglo Burgers for food, then to a pretty town called Dinant

We went to a few campsites trying to find somewhere to stay, but no luck, so we went to a hotel called Le Richmond which was was a most peculiar set up, the owner agreed we could stay for 1 night, but due to the language barrier, we took ages to get sorted, Next morning, we couldn't find anyone to pay, so we left a note with our details, and headed off, Rob decided he needed the bog, so we headed back to the hotel, and I found someone who had just turned up to work there, so payment was made. Next, for a change, we headed to McDonalds for breakfast, then onto La Coupole, which is always interesting.

Then after a few hours at La Coupole, we went looking for a B&B, as it was forcast gale force winds, we ended up at Ferme de la Valley, which was a good plan, as the weather turned very nasty. The B&B had loads of niknak's everywhere, and it was run by a nice old lady. Rob went out for beers, so we had a relaxing evening. Next morning, we headed off to the ferry at Calais. It took ages to dock due to the very strong winds. Rob didn't enjoy the crossing, but he didn't loose his breakfast, A great fun trip, bike was perfect, and great company. Thanks, Rob.