Day 18: Evenes to Tennevoll

Distance: 73km

Elevation: 1.200m

This camping site was the most beautiful I have seen so far. It was located directly at a large fjord with a stunning scenery. You could see both snow-covered mountains and the blue and green sea. I was lost for words when I woke up to bright sunshine. I could just sit there and stare onto the water and and watch the reflections of the mountains in it. See the video to see for yourself.

Also, I would like you to meet my new best friend. He is called “ThermaCell” and is the wonder weapon against all kinds of bugs. It was originally developed for the snipers of the US Army which makes it even more mysterious. You start it and after some minutes you have a bubble of clean air around you. I love it.

After a calm and bug-free breakfast, I spend two hours re-engineering my luggage. Since I wanted my new rear wheel to last, I tried to reduce weight and also move more weight to the front wheel.

I was able to reduce about 5kg of luggage including one full bag. Unfortunately, the most slack was in the food compartment. I was carrying e.g. 500g of “Schwartenmagen” (a German kind of sausage) with me that Swen had given me as a gift. So I reduced all security stock, redundancies, buffers and other extras and left all of it in the car.

Rosinante looks a lot slicker now, don’t you think?

Fortunately, the owner of the camping site allowed me to leave my car at his farm until I return from the North Cape. This is now officially “base camp 2” (Evenesvaien 82).

My neighbors on the tent ground by the sea were a young British couple who happened to both work at the Natural History Museum in Tromsø. We chatted about the Norwegian way of dealing with COVID and the impact on society. While the daily life in Norway had been relatively unaffected in the past year, the total shutdown of the borders fostered a somewhat nationalistic climate with absolutely no foreigners in the country not even for business reasons. They confirmed that up until last week the borders where totally closed for all non-Norwegian residents. So, I am one of the first foreigners to travel the country since almost a year or so.

After my bike was ready and the car was parked away, I started cycling around 11:15am.

First, I had to cycle 45km back alongside this beautiful fjord to Bjerkvik to get onto my route. From there you can see the toll-bridge to Narvik in the distance.

Then I got onto the E6 which leads all the way through the coastal mountains of the Arctic Sea to Kirkenes at the Russian border.

It feels, smells and looks like alpine environments but the proximity to the sea is unique and really special. I think I love Norway (more than Sweden).

Indeed, I only saw Norwegian cars and no cyclists at all. That feels a little strange.

I found a camping ground in the mountains next to the E6 with a restaurant and stopped around 6pm.

Learning of the day: Too much safety makes you heavy.