Norway July 2025

 Start mileage 24761, end mileage 27500, 2739 miles total

 Got home from a nightshift at 03:45, grabbed 4 and a half hours sleep, got the bike out of the garage and went to get fuel at a local Texaco, where I bumped into my wife getting some sandwiches for lunch at work.

   After we said our goodbyes, I set off for the Channel Tunnel, got there at 11:20, and although I was booked for the 13:05 crossing, I got loaded onto an earlier train. Rode to meet Jeremy in Antwerp, got to the pre-arranged campsite, City Camping Antwerp, found the gates were closed, and a sign saying they were full, then a girl came out and I told her I was waiting for a friend to turn up, and she told me she had room for both of us. Result!

   There was a bar on site, but we were hungry, so went to a restaurant in the nearby yacht club, Restaurant Belgica, who looked after us, with great beer and a delicious steak

Then it was back to the campsite for some very needed sleep

Next morning, we set off for Denmark, we went via Duisburg, Munster, Bremen, Hamburg, and got over the border to Rinkenaeshus Campground which took longer than expected due to lots of roadworks delays, and a bad crash that closed the road for a while. We got to the campsite at 19:05, it all looked ok, but as soon as the sun went down, we were invaded by dozens of slugs. Next morning, Jeremy's tent looked like the slugs had been partying all over it, he even had a slug on his mobile phone!

   Anyway, we set off for Kolding, turned right towards Copenhagen, then the Oresund tunnel and bridge towards Sweden, that Jeremy had never visited

the 512 miles later, we got to Utne Camping in Norway

Jeremy had a visitor to his tent

Next morning, we headed off in the direction of Lysebotn, we went through lots of tunnels and toll roads (which are mostly free to bikers) we stopped to have a look at a Stave church, (Heddal) which apparently smelled of creosote ( i didn't get too close) but it was interesting

After a spectacular ride towards Lysebotn, with unbelievable scenery...

we eventually came to the start of the Lysevegen road,

which has (I think) 23 zig zag's, 2 of which are underground, amazing engineering feat! I video'd from 3 cameras below

 we  soon arrived at the campsite at the bottom of the Lysevegen, where we met Jeremy's brother in law Jacob and family in a vw camper, and the tents were soon set up with a spectacular view of the fjord. photo's dont do it justice 

We had a storm in the night, and had to pack up in the rain and thick fog, and headed bach up the Lysevegen (there is only one road in and out, or the ferry) up to the cafe at the top of the fjord, but it was closed, so off to find a cafe elsewhere.

   Next, we headed towards Stavanger, then south towards the Fjords, went through loads of tunnels and bridges over the fjords, even saw a floating oil platform in one of them, next went through Kristiansand and ended up at Gon Camping near the ferry at Larvik, then next morning, we caught the 4 and a half hour ferry to Hirtshals in Denmark, then rode the length of Denmark into Germany, where we met a biker from the previous nights camp, who said there may be a ferry across the Elbe that would avoid all the traffic jams in Germany.

   He was right, and we found a couple of campsites across the river, the first one was in a housing estate that was just a bit of grass with no facilities, but the next one we found seemed deserted, but we then found a helpfull german who told us we would have to phone the owner. This was done, and we were soon in the "camping meadow"

 which had just enough room for 2 tents, but it was all good

   Next morning, we set off for Osnabruck, where we went our seperate ways, Jeremy to the South of France, and me towards Calais, and as I was riding through Germany,   my mobile started to smoke as the charging lead started to melt, fortunately I caught in time before the phone was wrecked, but I then had to resort to a physical map in my tank bag. Anyway, I was soon on the Calais - Dover ferry and homeward bound. Excellent trip, and thanks for the company, Jeremy