Nordkapp, Norway 2023

This year I will fly to the most northern tip of Europe and the most northern town in the world to start my bike ride at Nordkapp, Norway. First I fly into Oslo on Icelandic Air and the next day I take a five hour flight with Nowegian Airlines to Tromso. From Tromso, I hop on Widerøes Air to an airstrip in the Norwegian Arctic where I will begin my journey.

Why Nordkapp you ask? Because I saw it on the map and it looked scary, remote, exciting, terrifying, hard, exhilarating and gorgeous. I then applied my doable checklist to drill down and decide if this is a good choice for me.

The checklist goes something like this (included in a past post)…

If it looks too scary and intimidating, and I have a knot in the pit of my stomach the size of a soft ball, then it’s a hard NO (at least for now). If it looks easy-peasy and fun then, yes, why not (I think they call this a vacation)? Finally, if it seems terrifying, but at the same time I get a little tingly feeling like a feather’s tickling my belly. This tickle is a nudge from the universe saying, “Go ahead, stretch yourself silly, be held in awe, get shaken to tears, and be amazed at what you’re capable of doing if only you try.”

Norwegian Coast:

I will be following the northern coastal route that is 4,500km or 2,800 miles following along the fjords. My travels through Norway will be somewhat less milage because I will be taking ferries now and then to bypass the long detours around the fjords. In addition to the ferries, I will also be cycling through a lot of tunnels. There are over 1,000 tunnels on this route. I am not a fan of the tunnel. Here is some information I found about the tunnel network in Norway:

Red – Forbidden to cyclist. Sometimes there is an alternative road, sometimes you have to hitch or take an expensive bus ride.

Yellow – Bikes are allowed but it is dangerous. Long and poorly lit tunnels that can be slippery, pitch black, and filled with carbon monoxide due to poor ventilation.

Green – Fine for cyclist. There may be a button outside the tunnel that alerts cars that a cyclist is riding through. Okay then, I will only be riding in green tunnels.

Accommodations:

Wild camping is allowed in all of Scandinavia. It’s called, “The Right to Roam.” It’s a philosophy held over from ancient times when people where wandering through the countryside. Kind of like me now, only wandering on a bike.

The only rules to wild camping are that you must keep 150 m. away from the nearest house. If you decide to stay a second night, you have to ask the owner for permission. Sounds fair. It’s forbidden to camp in all serviced public areas – basically places that have public toilets. There are official campgrounds also where I plan to stay as often as possible. I enjoy a little company and a shower at the end of a long day alone. I’ll most likely be doing a combination of wild and official camping. Norway is the most expensive country in Europe, so I doubt I’ll be staying in many hotels, but hopefully, a Warmshowers stay here or there will break up the camping.

Weather:

I read on a website that Norwegian summers are know for their inconsistency. The west coast (where I’ll be) receives rainfall year around and the average temperature is 68 degrees. As I watch YouTube videos of bikers riding to or from Nordkapp, all of them experience multiple days of heavy rain. When the rain finally tapers off and the sun comes out, those same YouTubers rejoice in sheer bliss. I’ve heard over and over from cyclist I’ve met throughout the years that Norway is “One of the most beautiful places in the world to cycle once the sun comes out.” Ha, not unlike what we say here in Seattle and western Washington State.

Nordkapp, Norway lies at latitude 71 north. Tuktoyaktuk, Canada, where I rode to in 2019, lies at 69 degrees north. So, although Nordkapp is farther north, due to the Gulf Stream current that runs over this area, it actually stays a little warmer than the north of Alaska or Canada, at least that’s what they say.

New Gear:

The rain is what shakes me most about this ride. Even though the terrain will be as challenging as the Continental Divide route, distances will be long between services, and I’ll be wild camping on my own, rain is what I most fear. Rain coupled with wind brings on another layer of terror. How do you put your tent up in the rain? Especially when you are riding through tundra and there are no trees for protection and the wind is ripping it out of your hands. How do you escape the elements when there is no town or standing structures in site? Who will save me from an ugly meltdown when I’m on the brink of completely losing my shit not unlike a five year old who has just dropped her ice-cream cone? These are the questions I’m grappling with as I enjoy a warm afternoon in the comforts of home.

To calm my anxiety, I decided to invest in some gear this year that will give me some sense of extra protection. My friend, Paul, lent me his tarp. This will come in handy but only after the first 500 miles or so when there are actually trees to tie it too. I also bought a yellow fluorescent water proof cover for my helmet, and a yellow fluorescent “People’s Poncho.” This spiffy poncho has hand elastic so you can hold on to the handlebars and be covered by the poncho plus there is a strap around your waist so it doesn’t fly up. At the very least, cars will see a humongous unidentified fluorescent object flying down the road.

Also, just to make life easier, I bought a tiny folding chair. Now I can sit outside when the grass is wet and keep my bum dry. Again, my friend Paul had his chair with him last summer when we rode together for a few days. Every morning when he sat in his chair sipping his morning coffee, I looked on in envy. It only weighs one pound. The problem is everything weighs one pound (or more).

Followers:

I used to say that the only thing more terrifying and intimidating than riding my bike over remote and foreign land, is to write a blog about it. Now, after seven years (yep!), I’m starting to get comfortable with writing something that people might actually read. I mostly write for myself. It helps me keep track of where I’ve been, who I’ve talked to and what I thought. Truth be told, I’ve learned that it’s also really fun and motivating to have followers. When I hear back from you through a comment, an email, or even the statistics page that shows 10 people looked at my blog today, or maybe 110, that inspires me to keep going.

So, feel free to share my posts, follow me by signing up for emails that go straight to your inbox, or tell a cyclist, adventurer, armchair traveler or a gal-pal that there’s a lone woman out there figuring it out, making it up, going rouge, breaking down barriers, crushing it, and occasionally having a hissy fit who could use a high-five or a fist pump now and then to keep her going. Thanks!

Also, if there is something special you would like to read about on this blog, or wish that I’d include more of this and less of that, please let me know. This is all a learning journey.

Until we meet again…

Cheers,

Denise