Day 11 – Follafoss to Oysund – Safe Return Doubtful

77 miles (124 km) – Total so far: 693 miles (1,115 km)

7 am and the tent was an oven. It was a fine morning, but was to go downhill, weatherwise, after that.

This had been a great camping spot. An old guy came over and chatted as he prepared his boat to take some tourists out fishing. In small villages it seems locals are really proud of their facilities.

The 720 road is a great road to ride also, extending for about 70 kilometres. For the first 40 of them it is along the side of the fjord, plenty of ups and downs, thereafter it climbs into farming country. At the junction with the 715 I became confused. I guess there must be a new road, and both my map and the GPS had the old one. It is a slightly shorter route, but a climb up to 200 metres at a gradient of 7% to begin with. All the way until the ferry (the last being a 6 or 7 kilometre downhill) it had been one of the hilliest days so far.

The day had clouded over, and a few kilometres short of the ferry it was clear there was a storm coming. I made it just in time to get some cover, skipping the huge Bruce Springsteen queues of traffic. From then on (about 3:30 pm) it has rained quite heavily until late evening – probably just about the time Bruce will be starting, but the crowd already will be wet.

The ride from the ferry is fast after an initial climb. The campsite I was aiming for was about 25 km away, but for the first time on this course, I made two routefinding errors. Most unlike me.

Arriving in wet isn’t tremendous fun, especially to this site, where the kitchen is tiny and useless, and there is no shelter for those without cars. Cooking was a trial also. Such a contrast, from last night’s tremendous free facility to this, and miserable desk assistants to add in, I guess because pretty much everyone is part of the Springsteen 40,000 crowd.

For those who remember why Trondheim is famous, other than Springsteen’s performance last night…

“Our apologies to all those who bought this record thinking it was by that humorous comedy programme Monty Python’s Flying Circus. That was due to an error in the printing stage of the album’s cover. This record is in fact Pleasures of the Dance, a collection of Norwegian Carpenters’ Songs, compiled by Oscar Tritt.

(Silly singing and morris-dancing sound)

‘Fulda-rulda runga runga nit nit nit, Fulda-rulda runga runga nit nit nit’

Voice-over by Oscar Tritt: “Zis is ze Trondheim Hammer Dance, vitch takes place every 25 minutes in ze town of Trondheim, in vitch ze old ladies are struck about ze head, viz round sticks or knurdl…”

Distance 77.0 miles Left at 9:20 am Arrived at 6:45 pm Time riding 8 hours 13 minutes Height gained 14,019 feet