Pre-Ringmeet Roadtrip 2024 - .no other option

[93Flareside]

Hey ho, lets have a road trip photo thread again! This years trip was in Norway and we crossed into the arctic circle this trip. It was a smaller group with just myself, @schad68, @DanRoM, @TobiasG, and for the second week, @Adrian!

Started at Casa @93Flareside, and checking to make sure i had the WAGENHEBER packed.

Then we set off and Hank assumed his position as Hank joined me through this trip.

I learned ATV‘s can be driven on the autobahn.

And as i got to Hamburg, Traffic!

And Hello Denmark at like midnight.

I stopped for some fuel and wanted to check oil. Volvo said „Nej.“

So i made a note to stop at a Biltema the following morning for some pliers and some oil. But not before i stopped to sleep. You join me again the next morning.

Woke up with a sore neck, but not the worst sleep ive had. I got out and walked hank, who left liquid evidence he visited Denmark.

Once entering Sweden, i stopped at Biltema, the closest store ill get to a combination Home Depot/Autozone in europe. For reasons they have a Cafe and sell hot dogs and cinnamon rolls. But thats not important. After checking oil and adding some, i continued on but later stopped for fuel and a lunch. Which i had the nicest fast food fish tacos i have ever had, incredible.

As i got closer to Gothenburg, i saw more classic cars.

I gor close to the Norwegian boarder and stopped at drop zone a friend was at and also visted the town it was near.

The HMS Saab still lives!

After a fun evening, I continued onward further into norway to meet up with the group, something like 1200kms in one day.

My fart was checked

I saw a chrome moose and stopped because wtf.

later on i got to The Great North.

And finally i managed to get to the overnight stop in Mo i Rana.

The next morning i was offered to try Braunost with strawberry sauce, quite good.

Soon part 2!

 

[93Flareside]

Less comments this time.

Something i learned on this trip, you can get hotdogs in more places in Norway than anywhere ive seen in the United States.

Also, just a scooper for crustaceans? This was just in a chain grocery store, not a specialty fish store.

ULTRA MEGA LIGHTS. Im told the ligjt bars are normal, but the ratio of these bucket lights to the cars headlights looked funny to me.

Ferry crossing stop.

I made sure Hank got to see the view.

 

[DanRoM]

Thanks for beginning the thread, @93Flareside!

For me, the trip was slightly shorter because @shad_68 and I took a ferry from Kiel to Oslo. My bike was in good company on the car vehicle deck.

We passed some interesting ships...

some sailors out practicing....

the entry to the Kiel Canal...

some monument...

and the Marina at Laboe where I was reminded of some earlier vacations that began and ended there.

As you see, the weather was not great on that day. In fact, I had a 450 km motorway ride in the rain behind me. Yay, good start. Anyway, after a few hours we passed the Storebæltsbroen (Great Belt Bridge). According to the ship's announcement recording the towers are the highest peaks in Denmark (cheeky Norwegians ), at an impressive 254 metres. Not that we saw that:

After that, it was time to sleep, as the next day would be very long (about 500 km). In the morning, we were greeted by better weather, but on the approach to Oslo I soon saw ominous clouds. The day would prove to be the worst of the trip as far as weather goes.

Coming into the Oslofjord, I was impressed by how close the ships came to land as it is indeed very narrow. Here we pass the Oscarsborg, conveniently located at the narrowest point to shoot up any invading - or customs-dodging - ship in the old times...

Other islands (and ferries) were cuter:

After disembarking the ferry, we met @Adrian at the port and went to meet up with @TobiasG for the trip at a motorway fuel station north of the city. When we arrived there, it began to rain cats and dogs, so I donned my rain gear and mentally prepared for a really un-fun day of riding. Luckily, the rain got less as we went north. Sadly, @Adrian stayed behind.

I found out that my phone could take somewhat usable pictures while being mounted on the bike:

When we arrived at our first overnight stop, the weather had cleared up. Acceptable view:

The accomodation was a half-house in this ensemble near Trondheim:

After freshing up and settling in, we got into @shad_68's Mustang and went grocery shopping and for dinner:

Wait, what? A roundabout in a tunnel?

Past 10 pm, sunset.... sort of.

The next day was another long day with again about 500 km. On the way I discovered that my phone cameras collected moisture because of the phone being mounted outside in wet weather for a prolonged time. So, my pictures looked like this:

I first tried to dry the device by putting it into a bag of rice overnight, but that proved to be only a temporary solution. After a few days, I had the idea to cover the cameras with a business card while riding. That worked well, but made taking pictures a bit of a hassle so I took not nearly as many as the others.

Anyway, at the end of this day we arrived at a nice little cabin near Mo i Rana and waited for @93Flareside who arrived late that evening.

To be continued....

 

[DanRoM]

I totally forgot, on that day we entered Northern Norway and @TobiasG will feed everyone who doesn't have his picture taken there to the moose. So:

Now. After @93Flareside had joined us, we were now four people and a dog, ready to go even further north. Because Norway is very inconveniently formed: looooooooooooong and narrow.

First stop, of course, the next must-take-pictures point of our route: Crossing the polar circle.

Of course they had lots of tacky things in the shop there, so being luggage-restricted was very handy for not buying anything.

Onwards towards mountains, and we also encountered the first of many ferries on this trip.

We also encountered the first ferry on this trip, not counting the one from Germany.

Ferries have the effect of compressing traffic, so if you are not lucky enough to get off the ferry among the very first cars, you're stuck in slow(er than we'd like) moving traffic. So at some point I played the motorbike card and fucked off ahead. After passing Narvik - that's such a big town it even has traffic lights, I think the first ones we've seen - traffic got lighter, and after leaving the E 6 for the final approach to our destination, the road was properly fun. Sweeping curves and virtually no traffic.

The day ended in Sjøvegan at Salangen Fjord, where we had a cabin at a beautifully calm little port. One of the small ones.

We went for some Kebab in the town nearby to celebrate finally reaching the official start point of the Roadtrip according to what @Adrian had planned. That's right, I started counting at Day -3 and this concluded Day 0.

Which meant, from now on, shorter distances per day. Starting with a short(ish) drive to Gryllefjord, where we boarded the ferry to Andenes on the island Andøya (no, that's not part of the Lofoten as I learned). Somewhere on the way we passed the most northern point of our route, but my phone cameras were still out of commission.

We got some rooms on a campground in Bleik and walked around a bit.

Beach. A bit cold for a swim.

Is this art or can it be thrown away?

There were also some other motorbikers from Germany there. They had more challenging bikes than I had, mechanically speaking at least:

According to their roadbook, their trip was clockwise around Norway (including Nordkapp), Finland, the Baltics and Poland, totalling over 8,000 km. Mad respect!

Also, we found the exit.

That's it for now. My next post will lead us back south via Lofoten and back to the mainland.

 

[DanRoM]

What, almost a whole week and no one else posts pictures? Oh well, then I continue my story.

The last post left us at the Northern shore of the Vesterålen archipelago. Logically, our trip continued south, crossing Andøya first. Somehow we didn't do much photo stops, until @TobiasG found us a convenient public vehicle scale with four segments. Of course, we couldn't resist:

Shortly after, we did stop at a parking spot a bit hidden next to the main road, and before I was properly off the bike, the others had vanished into the woods to take awesome pictures. Well to be fair, they were just too fast for me climbing through the woods, and I gave up. But at least I guarded our fleet:

Continuing on, a familiar name caught my eye in the middle of Austvågøya:

@Dr_Grip, you know where to go. Happy fuel spending.

At the next stop, admiring the beautiful landscape of the Lofoten got interrupted by approaching rain, so I abandoned the sights to don some more gear.

Sadly, the rain stayed with us for the rest of the day, which meant that we spent the evening at the most remote accomodation of the trip completely holed up inside. This would have been a real blast with good weather. The cabin was at the end of a few hundred metres of gravel road (driveway?) literally at a corner of the island. Apart from us there was nobody there. View from the window:

It was still a nice evening (thanks for making dinner, @shad_68!), of course.

The next day, weather soon cleared up, and @TobiasG took us on a sidequest to the beach of his youth. Remember, we are still north of the Arctic circle:

Sailboat for scale:

The view back inland was equally good:

Testing the water (proofness of my boots):

Onwards towards our ferry appointment to go back to the mainland, we saw one of the stereotypical sights of the Atlantic road. I think I've see this exact background in some advertisements...

"Group picture with landscape, colour, 2024":

Towards Moskenes, the roads got more busy and really, really small through villages. But we made it to the ferry terminal with a good 90 minutes to spare and queued up. When the ferry finally arrived, loading began... and after the line next to us had disappeared into the ship, I got waved forward by the port staff, and drove on board. And secured my bike and stored my gear while more and more cars followed into the belly of the ship. And the I walked up to the aft deck to hopefully meet the others. Then I checked the group chat.... and read they didn't manage to get on the ferry. Full. Four hours wait time for the next one. So... they were probably somewhere in there:

(I think I see the Mustang and the Volvo behind it, but I'm not sure.)

Bye bye:

Well, I made sure to get the check-in details for the night's hostel from Tobias, and then made a plan for the four hours to kill until my friends caught up to me. And of course, enjoyed the ferry ride and talks with a few other motorcyclists. We recognize each other easily due to the clothing.
After arrival at Bodø, I had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant and then went on to our destination for the night. On the way, I stopped at the Saltstraumen Maelstrom, the fastest tidal stream of the world, which can reach 40 kph. Unfortunately, of course it doesn't show on pictures, so have a YouTube video instead:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8cKrgm80pQ
It also seemed I was the only one the not fishing:

The others arrived at like 11 pm or so, and we had a few drinks to wind down.

Next up: The last day in the North, the long ride back to the South, and the arrival of the black sheep.

 

[DanRoM]

Let's open this chapter with a group picture of our trusted steeds, this time from the front:

Weather looked a bit shaky, but nothing too bad.

We continued south, but well, not that far south. Have a glacier. If I recall correctly, that water is a fjord, so at sea level.

But soon, we reached a small village with the curious name of Jektvik and there it was time for another ferry, with opportunity for the standard "look aft, there's beautiful mountains there" photo:

On this relatively long ferry ride - an hour or so - we crossed the Arctic Circle again. Look closely and you'll see a marker in form of a globe.

And well, after that I took a long pause from taking pictures. The end of the day had us at a town we've already been to on the way up - Mo i Rana. We had a good dinner and then let the evening wind down on the hotel terrace. The next day was then the longest so far, going back to Trondheim and beyond on the E 6. It's fascinating how different the road and the area looked in good weather. But I didn't take any pictures.
In the evening we opted to get dinner before arriving at our cabin, to save on going back to town. We had enough driving for the day.

So, after arriving, we could immediately enjoy the customary drinks and enjoy our really beautiful farm house and the rural landscape:

The next day brought us along the coast, with two ferries, and to finally meet the person who had the idea for this trip in the first place - @Adrian. Fittingly, he had us booked a cabin at a campground right next to a Tesla Supercharger for that night. But despite the coastal landscape, I managed to only take a handful of pictures, and none of them are worth posting. Might have something to do with the weather - it was rainy once again.

My next post will conclude my report. I will try to post it before another week passes.

 

[narf]

On this relatively long ferry ride - an hour or so - we crossed the Arctic Circle again. Look closely and you'll see a marker in form of a globe.

ENHANCE!

I took that ferry in 2018

 

[Perc]

Is this art or can it be thrown away?

I believe this is what's known as "a art"

 

[DanRoM]

We are finally approaching the end of the trip. The bad weather of the previous day had cleared up, and we had pretty sunshine and a nice mountain landscape. Not too spectacular at the beginning, but that was abiout to change.

Because soon, we get to Geiranger, a fairly well-known port of call even for cruise ships. One of them had just arrived...

... which meant that the little village was temporarily overrun with hundreds of tourists disembarking, going to souvenir shops, getting into buses to take them up the mountain or in rental Renault Twizys (greetings, @lip!) that there was a whole fleet of there. We decided not to stop and go on towards our sightseeing point. In heavy traffic, because that was where everyone else was also going. I was a little impatient and pulled ahead. The 63 road was already very spectacular and I'm very surprised that the Norwegians haven't built a long-ass tunnel under the mountain to replace it. And on the dead-end toll-road up to Dalsnibba, there was then barely any traffic. Proper hillclimbing material, finally.
And the view from the top was very acceptable:

You can see the road leading up the mountain from the fjord quite clearly. Have some panorama:

After a long break up there to take in the view and take lots of pictures (@Adrian has the official group picture, hint hint), we continued further south. Down in the valleys, one could also take nice pictures:

But as if Dalsnibba wasn't enough, the day treated us to another spectacular mountain spot at Fantesteinsvatnet lake. We weven wandered around a bit.

Yes, we parked back there. Probably the farthest I've been away from my bike the whole trip, not counting being driven to dinner in one of the cars.

The day ended at a small campground at the bank of the Utla river which had a very nice colour:

The next day - day 9 by official counting - had us diverting from the pre-planned route, because going over a mountain pass if clearly superior to taking a 24 km long tunnel.
On top of that mountain, we quickly stopped for pictures, but seeing a whole horde of pensioners getting ready to leave (on the left in my picture) and be in our way, I promptly took off.

We all met up at the Stegastein view point overlooking the Aurlandsfjord. Everyone except @shad_68, who took one look at the very full parking lot and decided to stop for pictures a bit further down.

Even the restroom had a view.

And... that was it, really. At least picture-wise from me. That last evening of the trip proper we had booked some accomodation at a campsite, and since it was raining heavily, we mostly stayed in. @TobiasG and @Adrian made pizza (thanks! ), and then @Adrian decided to turn the evening into a cider tasting. How sweet.
Despite that, the next morning we were all fit to drive, so off we went to Stavanger. Half the day was very rainy, so I held back on taking pictures. And the second half of the day was, while very nice riding, a bit of a speedrun to Stavanger. So, to cap off this report, have the customary look aft from the ferry:

It was a bit of a hassle getting onto the ferry because our booking was not completely in the system, so that had to be sorted out at the check-in. I pity the young clerk who looked like he had started the job only a few weeks prior.
Anyway, on this overnight ferry to Denmark, we had a Danish-priced dinner buffet, but the drinks were included, so I made sure to get my money's worth in wine. The next morning, I had the advantage of being on a bike again, because the vehicle deck layout meant that the bikes were the very first to leave.
I had a very long way home ahead of me, so my plan was to perhaps make another stop somewhere in the middle if necessary. But as the weather was very, very good and by the time I began to feel a bit tired I was already less than two hours from home, I just pulled through and arrived home after about 10 hours on the road, but with I think 5 stops on the way. Funny thing, despite not coordinating, @Adrian, @shad_68 and me used the same service station to charge/fuel up our vehicles after entering Germany - and it was not an abvious one.

To finish my story: Thanks @Adrian and @TobiasG for organising the trip and playing tourist guide, thanks @shad_68 for the hotdogs, and most of all, thanks all of you and @93Flareside for the company! It was a very, very good trip.

Spoiler

....Next time I'll come visit with a campervan.