We are cycling the EuroVelo 7 from the Nordkapp, Europe’s northernmost point, as the start of our 6 month long honeymoon. Our goal is to make it to Gothenburg, but we’ll see how it goes. So far we’ve cycled about 300km from Nordkapp to Alta in Norway.
How it Started
Tuesday: flight to oslo. Stayed at Comfort RunWay Hotel at the airport. Wednesday: flight to Alta. Met two young german brothers who had just cycled from Stuttgart to Nordkapp in 6 weeks. We are not them. But they told us the bus does not go to Nordkapp. Stayed Canyon Hotel. Ran errands around Alta, like getting gas, food, and pumping up the tires. We found out more from the tourist office about the bus to Nordkapp. It doesn’t really go there. There is a bus from Honningsvåg which is round trip the same price as alta to HV with no guarantee that they take bikes.
We had a picnic dinner in the hotel and looked again at the bus app Snelandia. Indeed the bus to Nordkapp is just to Honningsvåg, 40 km from Nordkapp. What to do?
Day 1 – 60km
The next morning we got the bus with another cyclist and two more bikes, because their luggage didn’t arrive, so one will stay back and wait for it while the other takes the bikes on the early bus. Luckily there is space for 4 bikes. We share our multitool so he can turn the handlebars to fit under the bus and they lend us a bungeecord so that our bikes dont move around in the bigger compartment.
I slept a little along the way but mostly was too excited about looking at the landscape. I really enjoyed all the sea birds. I even saw several oyster catchers and gänsesäger. While I was intently looking at sea birds, C began vigorously slapping my leg, which annoyed me. But then he said Reindeer!! And I whipped my head around just in time to glimpse two furry bodies on the side of the road. From that moment we were hooked on looking for them. We spotted another two groups before we got to Honningsvåg at 10:30
Cycling begins: Honningsvåg to Nordkapp
From Honningsvåg we decide to bike 10km to our intended campground, drop the luggage, and then cycle the 25km and 800m to Nordkapp. The 10km to camp would be relatively flat and managable for our first day on loaded bikes this year. The camp attendant gave us good advice about not paying to go in to Nordkapp, neither the general “parking” fee nor the expensive entry to the Nordkapphalle. We pitched our tent and were off by noon.
It was two enormous (for us) climbs of 300m plus “little” ups and downs along the way. We stopped often to catch my breath. I said over and over again how happy I was that our luggage was at camp. The bikes feel extra heavy this year because we packed for so much unknown, cold, and time. Mostly motorcycles and motorhomes passed us, but also tour busses and cars all headed to the Nordkapp. They all gave us a wide berth for passing or waited behind us to let traffic in the opposite direction pass first before going around.
The views were really great. On the first hill we had a view over the campsite in Skipsfjord and two reservoirs. The higher we climbed, the more we left the sea behind, as we cut across the island of Magerøya. Down was as scary as going up was hard. My arms got tired from all the braking.
The next hill was even steeper and we took a break in a ditch on the side to get away from the road. Here we began to see other cyclists heading up, fully loaded. It amazed me because I was struggling so hard on an empty bike. C reminded me that this is their last day, so they’ve been doing this all summer or all year. But I still dont think I will be that fit on our last day. I’m not sure which is crazier – that people can do it, or that I can’t but am trying to!!
Nordkapp!
We did finally make it up to the top. We skipped the parking lot and went right to the front of the hall to park. We walked around the back of the hall to a momument for the visit of King Oscar in 1842(?) and to the globe. After some pictures we sat to eat the rest of the bread, cheese, and humus from last night with the blueberry jam from our to-go breakfasts from the hotel. After a good snack, we walked to the art from the Children of the World Project. We walked further a bit because our camping attendant had told us that you could see Kirkeporten rock arch from here, but we didn’t feel like going so far.
Back down to Skipsfjord
Back at our bikes, someone offered us their tickets to the hall. We popped in to use the toilets and see the panorama movie. On the way out we looked for something surgary, depsite being ungodly overpriced because we would desperately need the quick sugar boost on the way back. Even though it would be about 700m down and “only” 400m up. We bought Bilar for 59NOK, which are Swedish gummy bears shaped like cars. On the way back I must have pushed my bike for 300 of the 400 vertical meters, I was so tired. C waited for me at every pull out to offer me more Bilar. At one pull off for a hike to a look out point, there were reindeer close by. Eventually they came even closer to cross the road. It was so cool to see them!! At the top of the biggest hill, we took a break at a picnic area and enjoyed the view of the fjord and more Bilar. Then it really was just downhill back to camp.
It was already 8pm and tomorrow’s promised wind was getting a headstart. We cooked dinner in the fully equipped kitchen while several parties did their washing up. The bathroom is so nice and warm! It was 10NOK for 6 minutes of water. Enough to get the sweat off, depsite the high being 10 degrees today.
Day 2 – Skipsfjord to Repvåg – 59km
The sun really shines all night!! When it came out from behind a cloud, we would have to get out of our sleeping bags because it got so warm. In and out all “night.” At 7am it was like noon. We cooked water in the kitchen and ate breakfast outside because there was no wind and the sun was so warm.
We cycled quikcly past Honningsvåg and on to the tunnels. The first one was 4.4km long and went up slightly in the middle and then back down slightly. Easy peasy. It was surprisingly cold inside, especially after sweating a little on the uphill and then speeding downhill. The next tunnel was just 190m long and we could see the light at the other end before entering.
The big tunnel
Before the big tunnel which is 6.8km and connects the island Magerøya with the mainland, we took a nice long rest at the rest area right outside the tunnel. C used the toilet and said a stand was getting set up with king crab soup. I reminisced about king crab legs being a specialty we could have on a birthday when I was a kid. We decided to try some if it wasnt over 200NOK because where else would we get some, and prob for more expensive. I went over to check it out and the lady immediately offered me a small cup with a bite of garlic bread to try. When I asked how much it was, she said 200NOK. I came back to C at the picnic bench with a big cup of crab soup and two slices of garlic bread to share. Heaven!!
Then hell started when we got into the tunnel. It wasnt bad at first…or the first 3.5 km because it was all down hill. It got colder and I was happy we suited up before going into the tunnel – I had put on leggings over my bike shorts and added a fleece under my windbreaker plus a pair of gloves. My arms were getting sore from braking and I wondered if there would be a flat section, but its basically 10% down for halfway and then 10% up for the other half. We stopped at the bottom to check in with one another before beginning the ascent. There are occasional pull offs for snow plows and emergencies. Every 250m or so is an SOS telephone.
I barely made it 10m uphill. We had decided to switch from the road to the 20-50cm wide sidewalk which was about 10cm higher than the road. I couldn’t manage to begin pedaling and keep the front wheel straight on this narrow strip. My front wheel veered towards the edge and I tried to catch myself with my foot but was too high up on my seat to reach anything. The wheel went onto the road, I lost my balance and the bike fell on top of me into the road. I yelled Cs name several times but he couldnt hear me over the drowning echo of cars in the tunnel. I struggled to pick up the bike and get it back onto the sidewalk. Luckily no vehicles had come in my direction the whole time.
I pushed my bike to the next SOS phone where C was waiting for me. He asked what happened and I said I would push my bike up and not take any more chances. I was too scared to bike through the tunnel going uphill. With the 10% grade, pushing would not take me much longer than pedaling anyways. C pedaled to the next pull offs and waited for me, we continued like this 500m at a time until we reached the end of the tunnel.
Out of the tunnel
C was chatting to a cyclist from Switzerland who was on his way to Nordkapp (from Zurich!) when I got out of the tunnel, so all of the tears came tumbling out at the top of the next mini hill. The tunnel had stressed and scared me. I was exhausted from pushing the bike over three kilometers and couldnt bear the thought of going uphill anymore. Why am I not built like the cyclists who can bike up a whole hill, not only without stopping or pushing all the way, but they can just keep going! My legs feel incapable of pedaling any further at times. The enormity of this journey has felt overwhelming the last two days, and at each hill I don’t know if I will make it.
Weinen, wasser, und schokolade – crying, water and chocolate and everything felt much better. None of the hills the rest of the day were as immense as the tunnel had been. I could cycle up most of them without even taking a rest- no more pushing the whole day. C slowed down a ton to stay with me on the ups – I could cry at just how much he loves me.
Not camping
When we got to the campsite, turns out it is not for tents. Just campervans, mobile homes, and cabins and apartments for rent. We asked about a tent to be sure, but were turned down. In the end we rented a cabin for 800NOK for the night. It is very clean, simple, and has a great view of the sea. We took long hot showers and hung our sweaty clothes on the porch railing of our cabin. We took a walk to the water and skipped stones and checked out the tide pools.
Then we walked a bit further to the church where two ladies were tending the graveyard. Further on was the fishing village of Repvåg with a good dozen red and blue homes plus the town hotel in red on the water. Walking there and back was a sole reindeer on the side of the road, just munching the grass as if it were as normal as a grazing cow.
Day 3 – Repvåg to Skaidi
We woke up to a drizzle and I was happy to be in the cabin. It only continued for about 10 minutes of cycling, so I got warm quickly in my rain gear. There were another 3 tunnels today and magnificent views. The first tunnel was so short there was no mention of the length. We could see through to the other side before we even went in. The next tunnel was 394m. The final tunnel was the longest. We cycled steeply uphill to get to it and there was a beautiful waterfall. We parked our bikes to catch our breath and have a closer look at the falls.
The tunnel was really nice for bikes. There was a separate lane protected by a concrete barrier. The path was 2-3m wide, enough space for bikes in both directions. We could luckily cycle downhill for the whole 3.4km but the incline seemed to be friendlier than the Magerøya tunnel.
Almost the whole morning we cycled along the coast, slight ups and downs. There were more homes here than on the island. Sometimes the homes in the villages were closer together and other times more strewn about. We stopped at a Sami silver shop to have a look. There were jewelry and knives in bronze, silver, and pewter. I really liked the reindeer designs. There were fish hanging up to dry inside the shop and a small exhibit with a fishing boat outside.
Reindeer
Just after the shop, we passed more reindeer grazing directly next to the road. Then we passed two herds with baby reindeer! That was a first for us. They were so cute but we didnt stop as they were close to the road and there was no space to pull over. I always think of reindeer as a forest animal so it is really interesting to see them at the beach. Yesterday there was a lone reindeer at the beach by our camp for a couple of hours. Just sitting in the sand and watching the water. I thought it may be dying, but it eventually left. Maybe it just needed a beach day!
Near the silver shop, we leap-frogged a few times with a pair of guys we had met our first night in Skipsfjord. They were cycling until they could get transit to go home, somehow through Finnland. Just before Olderfjord, we went through a beautiful village along the coast with a zillion wildflowers. There was a peninsula into the bay with some red and blue houses on it and a paddock of horses. It was idyllic Norway.
Olderfjord
We had a small climb to Olderfjord and then took a big long rest at the bus station. We watched the tourists get off their busses and stare at us curiously. A few other bike packers came through as well.
After Olderfjord we began the big climb over the mountain to Skaidi. C stopped and waited for me at every pull off and we celebrated every meter of altitude. No tears today and no pushing the bike, though I often considered it. We saw a lot of cyclists on this part of the trail and everyone waved and said hej!
The landscape was really different from Olderfjord onwards. No more coast, instead we cycled up the mountain to a plateau, a creek following the road the whole way. There were scraggily birch trees, lakes, and meadows. We didn’t notice any reindeer for the rest of the day.
From the top of the mountain we had a good view of both sides. In front of us, the landscape seemed to have more snow than before. What had been hours coming up was gone in less than 15 minutes. We let our bikes roll down towards Skaidi, though we occasionally still had to fight the headwind which had fought us all the way up.
Skaidi
In Skaidi, we stopped at the gas station which included a tiny but thorough supermarket. I got a soda and C got ice cream. We also bought pasta for dinner and topped up some breakfast ingredients. We enjoyed our refreshments at a picnic bench not quite in the sun and talked to two motorcyclists from Hanover who shared the table with us.
Rested, we continued another 5km downhill to the campground. I watched in horror as our precious altitude declined because we would need to go back up this stretch the next day. The camp was cheap, just 140 NOK for both of us. We pitched the tent and showered and checked out the waterfall trail behind the camp. The short hike takes not even 10 minutes and goes to 2 absolutely gorgeous falls, with tons of water tumbling out of them.
Then dinner and our Scottish bike friends from the bus arrived.
Day 4 – Skaidi to Alta 80km
It was windy at camp in the morning, but the tailwind I had hoped for back to Skaidi finished just after breakfast. The way back up wasn’t as bad as I had expected. But once we turned on the 6 towards Alta, the sun disappeared and we had a headwind for most of the day. We had 55km to the highest point and it was steadily inclined with rolling hills along the way. All the way up we followed the river, Repparfjordelva. It was as beautiful as the headwinds were bad.
We saw many cars parked on the side of the road outfitted with fishing gear holders, but we didn’t see any fishermen in the water. C always waited for me at various pull outs so we could catch one another and a break. We took a brief stop at a picnic spot and the Scottish couple caught up to us then. We leap frogged with them most of the day.
This was then the easiest section of the day. The road curved and all of a sudden we had tail wind! The next 15 km absolutely flew by like nothing. The next time we took a break, I couldn’t believe how far we had come.
We stopped at a pull off to walk to a cable bridge with wooden planks across the river. We walked to the other side and back, enjoying the view directly over the river. Just afterwards, two rabbits hopped over the road.
Wind
Eventually the road curved back and we struggled against the headwind again. The trail wasn’t horribly steep, but the wind made even downhill a battle. The higher we climbed, the less vegetation and wind protection there was. The trees gave way to meadows, wildflowers, and low shrubbery. Beautiful, but I’m holding back tears here from the exhaustion. There was a stretch several kilometers long that was very straight, very open and ever so slightly uphill. The wind here was horrific and every centimeter felt like a kilometer.
The Scots passed me as C was waiting for me at a pull off. It was on the opposite side of the road and there was a lot of gravel. Of course my bike fell over at making a sharp turn off of the asphalt. Luckily I could feel it coming and managed to avoid being under the bike as it fell. It needed both of us to lift it back up. We walked into the grass and hat a seat to eat something and rest. Quickly we needed to get moving again. The wind was unbearably cold. I was too tired to bike, but too cold not to. C took the Wurst (the big fat bag on top of my bike) and we got moving. Just one more push to the top. I began singing out loud like my students do on expedition to make it feel better. It helped a surprising amount!
Lunchtime
Reaching what felt like the top, we pulled into a drive way next to a rushing creek that joined the river. We got out our seat cushions and sat as close to the creek as we could on its downturned banks to get away from the noise of the cars and the wind. It worked for a while as we snacked away the remains of last night’s pasta. Rejuvenated we began the descent.
As soon as we crested the hill, the landscape changed. There were trees and the green was much darker than before. We were now on curvy roads between rock faces. A creek ran on the other side of the road but was so much deeper that we often could not see it. We went down, down, down. At first I had to pedal a little and brake a little – the wind was still so strong that I wasn’t going downhill that fast. Eventually that changed and we rolled down for a good 15km. This side was much steeper than the one we had come up, but would have at least had tailwind
We reached a lake at the bottom and followed the road over a bridge. Now it was another climb up before we could reach the sea on the other side. The climb was manageable. At the top was a Sami shop with reindeer pelts hanging up outside. We were too cold, tired, and hungry to have a look. But now it was downhill again until Alta. It couldnt get close enough fast enough for me. I just wanted to be done!! We stopped at the Coop supermarket on the way to stock up on a few things for dinner and breakfast and then continued along the coast to Solvang camping.
It was 340 NOK for the night but they have a giant warm kitchen and common room where we cooked and warmed up. We were able to get some veggies at the shop and were happy to have onion, cauliflower, and pepper in our curry tonight.
Day 4.5 Solvang Camping to Alta River Camping – about 20km
The camp is directly on the water with beautiful views of the tide coming in and out. You can hear the sea birds all night long, whether thats a good thing or not is up to you (: We woke up a bit later with no rush to get going for our “near-o” day. Despite the good weather, we ate in the kitchen to sit at a table. We planned out the day at breakfast, looking up supermarkets and the museum.
Komsatoppen
First stop was Komsatoppen, a viewpoint over Alta, but to get there we still had a few hills along the coast. I am still too tired for these and it is agony to pedal any bit uphill. We passed a bakery on the way and I insisted that we stop. We bought a knotted cinnamon bun. Later I would regret telling C that he could share it with me.
When we made it to the parking lot, we locked up the bikes, and began hiking. I felt so light in comparison to the bike. The trail was well marked and easy to follow to the top. The view over the bay, Alta, and mountains was beautiful. It was sunny and warm, a perfect day for being outside. We followed the panorama trail around to a relax bench. This was heaven. Sitting on the bench in the sun with my feet up eating the cinnamon bun with an incredible view of the water. I could have stayed all day! But we had other stops to make.
Back at the bikes C noticed that the cable for his lights was cut. We wanted to stop at the bike store in Alta anyway to pump up the tires, so this would be the chance to get it fixed. Luckily the doors were open when we got there and we could get some help, because they’re not actually open on Mondays.
From there, we went to the post office and then traveled towards the museum to find a different supermarket than last time. Turns out the Rema 1000 was better than the Xtra because we couldn’t find much of what we wanted. Rice only came in 2kgs and there were no dried lentils, just heavy ones with water. Also, tomato paste only came in cans or glass. Simple things, but they add up and make a big difference on the bike, even if C is going to carry all of it. We were both getting a bit hangry and lacked decision power. At the museum we ate chocolate spread on bread before going inside. Though I was still hungry, after that I was in a manageable state.
Alta Museum – UNESCO
The museum was great! We directly walked the two loops outside which are about 3km. The Alta museum has stone carvings which are 2000-7000 years old. Some are painted red to make them more visible, though they don’t do this anymore and are trying to remove the paint. The carvings are on the rocks directly outside of the museum. There are boardwalk paths to different stations and you get an info book which describes each rock. Also, the view here of the sea is so picturesque. Inside the museum is lots of information about the carvings, but also local history and people. We could have stayed longer to see the temporary exhibits, but it was getting late.
We cycled to a different camp, one that gets us a bit farther along on our trail. We have decided to take a full rest day tomorrow because I am still to tired for another day with 800m of altitude. The first camp turned us down (this is only the second time ever that this has happened to me), but there are 2 more camps 300m down the road. We are staying directly on the river and will do our laundry tomorrow while fully resting. I feel so happy that the weather is so good and that there are very few mosquitos so far.