Bicycle Touring 101: Erling's bicycle tour to Norway's North Cape

One the coolest thing about this web site is meeting some of the people who have experienced wonderful bicycle touring adventures all around the world. Although I typically contact people about being interviewed for this web site I am more then happy to receive interview invitations from people who bicycle tour. Indeed there are many shy people out there who have experienced truly amazing tours that I would never know about without them contacting me (and in fact I encourage you to consider doing so).

Erling Ringen Elvsrud is one such individual. Until he approached me I was unaware of his recent tour to the North Cape in Norway. I haven't been there myself so until he contacted me and told me about his wonderful touring adventure I would have had no knowledge of what I was missing! Thankfully the interview has been completed and along with some marvelous pictures it does an excellent job telling the story of his recent bicycle touring adventure to the North Cape. Read on to learn more.....

Dinner time close to Tjeldsund bridge in Troms county.
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Stealth camping in Djupvik along Kystriksveien.
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I started touring in 2000 after many years of shorter day trips. The following years I bicycled some shorter tours in the southern part of Norway. In 2003 I bicycled about 420 kilometers in Telemark county. We had originally planned a longer tour, but a totally broken rear wheel ended that tour forcing us to accept an offer for transport back home.

I understand that your first long tour involved a foray into the far northern part of Norway. Can you tell us a bit more about this tour including some of the highlights and lessons learned?

The first part of the tour was from Gudbrandsdalen in the southern part of Norway, via Østerdalen to Røros, Steinkjer and Snåsa. After a couple of days I got pretty bad inflammations in my ankles and one knee because of too little exercise before we started. I bought a gel to reduce inflammations, and it helped so I managed to continue and I was not bothered for the rest of the tour.

We decided to avoid the large road (E6) in the inland, and instead ride most of the tour along the coast. The coastal road (17) is well known for the great scenery and is friendly for bicyclists. It involves quite a lot of bridges, tunnels and also ferries. It is free to bring a bicycle on the ferry so you only have to pay a passenger fee. The coastal road ends close to Bodø. From Bodø we traveled by boat to Moskenes, at the outmost part of the Lofoten islands. Lofoten is the most important fishery in Norway, and well known for the steep mountains and pretty scenery.

Kongsmoen by Kystriksveien on coastal highway #17.
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Lofoten.
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After Lofoten we bicycled via Vesterålen (Islands north of Lofoten) to Gullesfjordbotn and to Moen. In Moen a spoke broke in my rear wheel, and we did not have a spare spoke. Luckily we found a helpful bike mechanic in Moen that helped us even if it was on a Sunday. We bicycled further north to Lyngseidet which is located close to the very nice mountain range "Lyngsalpene". We continued over "Kvænangsfjellet" a pretty steep mountain pass, and reached Alta after 21 days. We bicycled further north via Skaidi, along the fjord "Porsangerfjorden" to "Magerøya", the island where the North Cape is located. To reach Magerøya we had to bicycle trough about 9 kilometers of tunnels, one of them is about 6 kilometers long and is submerged about 200 meters under the seabed on its deepest which causes a steep down/uphill. To avoid traffic we bicycled trough very early in the morning.

We reached the North cape after 23 days of bicycling, the final 30 kilometers was pretty exhausting, a lot of up and down. The weather was very nice when we reached the North cape, but unfortunately it got worse later at night when we waited to see the midnight sun so we did not actually get to see it.

The few problems we had was totally forgotten when we reached our goal, and is now just a part of the adventure.

Meal outside a gas station in Røros.
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View from the top of Kvænangsfjellet (Kvænang mountain). The Øksford glacier is in the upper left of the picture.
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We used basic hardtail mountain bikes with cheap front and rear racks, shorter and steeper stems to get a more upright riding position, and 26" wheels with slicks. After some experiences with non waterproof panniers on earlier tours we bought Ortlieb front, rear, and a handlebar panniers. We used a Trangia stove, a 3 person tent, and basic sleeping pads/bags.

Did you have to carry anything special to assist you with the northern portions of your tour?

During the summer months the temperature is usually quite nice also in the northern parts (at least by norwegian standards), so we did not bring too much special clothing. After a few days with rain we bought waterproof gloves and I bought a cap to wear under my helmet (my brother already had one). During some early mornings and late at night it was sometimes comfortable to wear a cap under the helmet, particularly through tunnels. We also bought waterproof socks after a while as it rained quite a lot and it was hard to dry the shoes completely. My conclusion is that waterproof clothing is very important.

In Norway there is a law called "Allemannsretten" which says that it is legal to camp everywhere except farmland that is within fences like pastures and fields. It is also required that you camp away from houses and not leave garbage etc behind.

Sky at night in Foldvik where we camped in the bushes by the road.
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From Magerøya, the island where the North Cape is located.
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As we are both students and prefer to travel cheaply we stealth camped most of the time. When we wanted to take a shower or had to stay in more densely populated areas we stayed at campgrounds.

Any words of advice for someone else who decides to follow in your wheel tracks?

In the more isolated areas it is important be aware that opening hours of the few grocery stores can be short. Make sure that you have some food that is easily stored for several days, like rice or pasta, and be prepared to cook your own food. There are quite a lot of tunnels along the coast, most of them have good lighting and in the northern hemisphere the summer nights are also very light (we bicycled until 2 AM once) so you don't need much light to see. On the other hand it is a good idea to at have reflective material + LED lights for the tunnels or fog. Be aware of the mosquitoes and other bugs, particularly in Finnmark county. If you want a pleasant journey back home and have the time, consider using the Hurtigruta boats. If you travel on a tight budget like we did, it is possible to have a cabin for only parts of the journey.

Do you recall any particularly special, humorous or unique moments that you shared with your brother during this tour?

Inside the Sila tunnel (about 3 kilometers long).
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From Magerøya, the island where the North Cape is located.
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I got attacked on two separate occasions by seagulls probably defending their nest, they dived like a bomber and released their load when they were a few meters above my head and they managed to hit me both times!

The night before we bicycled trough the long tunnel to Magerøya where the North cape is situated, we realized that we had slept very close to a den with fox cubs, we saw one of them early in the morning before we left.

Both the start and end of the tour was very special, finally seeing the road sign with "Nordcapp" (North Cape) and realizing that the "project" we had worked on for several weeks was suddenly over was odd.

It was a relief when we found a helpful bicycle repairman very close to where one spoke in my rear wheel broke.

During the travel back south, we met two french tourers in "Hammerfest" when the boat had a 1 hour stop. We met at a local grocery store in the same errand buying cheap food. They did not know much english, but we still managed to get a glimpse of their tour from France to the North Cape, about 4500 Kilometers!

Also the soft chairs and bed on the boat was a nice experience after 23 days on a bicycle saddle and 10mm thick sleeping pad!

Lots of mosquitoes on Repparfjordfjellet, a mountain plateau in Finnmark.
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After this tour I'm even more certain that travel by bicycle is the ultimate holiday for me. Such a journey lasts many months after it is completed. I still get happy thinking about it!