We finnaly got out of Alta on Monday with some food for the road. Immediately we met Rachel and George who had sold their house 2 years ago and have been bike touring ever since. They were rolling south to Alta looking for a bit of work. The area is mountainous and the scenery spectacular.......
We caught up to a couple French guys who were kinda scetchy. They showed us the best roads for when we ride south, Jen already had them highlighted, living up to the name "oracle Jen". The Italian guys we met in Alta, Robert and Andrea, seem super cool and we saw them again several times. Robert smokes cigarettes but can still bust out 150+km days fully loaded. We also met a German guy touring who is halarious.
Yesterday we turned off the E6 onto the E69 that winds along the coastline. We've ridden thru 3 big tunnels between 4 and 7k long. Cold and wet inside them. The long one went under the ocean, we flew down a 9% grade at 60kph in dim light and then climbed out of it on a 7 to 10% grade. The E69 had some raindeer in the road going in our direction and we rode with them for a bit, their antlers looked kinda floppy. I tried to motorpace one but they are kinda small. The weather has been mostly sunny and warm, even hot sometimes, until just a few hours ago.
20k before Nordkapp the rain got us followed by crazy thick fog and crosswinds on mountain descents that were tough on the steering with my panniers. The BOB is easier to control in big winds and faster on descents but the panniers seem to be in style here in Europe (Jen has the only BOB so far). We've seen about 30 riders touring in the area. Nordkapp is a popular tourist destination because it is the farthest northern point in Europe. Important buisness was mailed to Orchard Hill Breadworks from the Nordkapp post office.
We have many pictures and hope to download them for you. For now we now plan to take a bus to back to Alta tomorrow and then start riding south from there.....
HAHAHA! Motorpacing a reindeer, dude, I almost just died laughing :D
It's uncanny to me, to read about your trip to Nordkapp. A year ago, I googled the highway to the tip of Europe, and dreamed about how fun it would be to ride that road. I wish I was pedalling along with you. Keep a good map and a good list of equipment, so I can retrace this historic journey in my next life. Thanks for the blog. I'll be looking over your shoulder, the entire trip.
Photos? Photos. Photos.