Heading to the Midnight Sun (Day 20)

Heading to the Midnight Sun. A Velomobile Trip with Brigitte and Fritz.

Germany > Denmark > Norway > North Cape (Nordkapp) > Finland > Germany

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Discover HERE All the Days from "Heading to the Midnight Sun" Trip

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Day 20 | Skjåk - Eidsdal | 97 KM | 1.412 HM

We have parked our A7 dry in the recreation room during the night. There we were able to pack everything up dry except for the wet tent.

Unspectacularly we had to continue on the road N15 towards Geiranger. We found the BRouter deviations to the right and left nonsensical and deliberately disregarded them.

Noticeably, there are more original wooden houses here.

Somehow it is always uphill. More than we thought. Slowly it dawned on me that this was going to be a pass. The high mountains in the distance don't show any gap either. The river flows towards us and is still quite mighty. So it must still be a long way. Steadily uphill. Down 18 m by noon and up hundreds.

These guys keep coming towards us with bike packing on their bikes. At first I thought, wow, very economical equipment. Then they kept coming. An organised tour?

The first barrier is open with a sign. So it's a pass. At noon we stop at the road maintenance depot - Vegvesen. Sheltered from the wind and the sun comes out for a while. Then we continue to the big rock face. Then it finally comes and our turnoff to Geiranger.

Now only a few kilometres and it's done. Down into the clouds at about 10%. More and more of the bike packers meet us.

At the viewpoint above Geiranger we are attacked by a busload from Dresden. We had to leave, because the second bus from Osnabrück was about to spit out its load.

Scones in Geiranger provide the calories for the last, but fierce climb of the day.

After the refreshment in the café, I did some shopping. There I asked one of the backpackers what kind of event it was. He told me it was a race over 1000 km from Sweden and back with 16,000 metres of altitude. He himself wore the number 195, which is right in the middle in Geiranger.

Supplied, we now went to Mølisbygda and up. Up to 10% and that in thick cloud soup. Always accompanied by countless camper vans and buses.

Here on the trip I developed a new technique for using the foam lid. Uphill, you hold it over you with one hand like an umbrella and in this way you have rain protection, for the most part, and ventilate well at the same time. The only annoyance is that you have to change hands every now and then.

After yesterday's climb, I felt my legs quite a bit at the start in the morning. Over-acidified, I think. Then at some point it was gone. Both the first pass and the serpentine ascent from Geiranger were a surprise. (Already described with the missing altitude data from BRouter.) A bit strange to drive like that, but sometimes you don't need to know everything so precisely. So far we are still well on schedule. 10 days to Trondheim. Every day there has to be a smaller number at the front. After that, we've got rid of the big things.

There is room in the smallest cabin. Everything is fully booked. The camp hostess didn't call our hostel a "hut", but a "box". That's more like it. A bit musty, but better than in a wet tent.

And what is it like to drive in this weather? I'm plagued by mosquito bites. They clearly prefer me or my body releases more histamines. It's really hard for me not to scratch or rub.

On my legs I look like a leper. There are open patches on my heels. I can't get a grip on them. If it's still damp, like the last few days, it doesn't heal well.

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