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This morning we woke up to nice sunshine and fair weather around 7:20. I decided to take a short dip into the lake, water was not too cold but the entrance was riddled with mud and sharp stones. We cooked some very sweet porridge laced with a banana for breakfast. After dry packing of seemingly ever smaller luggage we hit the TET again. Roads and weather were nice but uneventful and after I reached the reserve of my gas tank we decided to fuel up. The gas-station was located inside a bigger supermarket so we did today’s shopping there. The short stop turned into our lunch, we had some salad. The following ride was still nice but uneventful except for a short term road blockage due to crossing cows. They seemed to be happy, as they were playing and jumping around. One of them did not really want to move, so the woman tried to motivate her by pushing a bit, but the flowers in the middle of the road appeared to me more appealing. At a roadside cafe we stopped for some waffles and coffee. It was a nice coffee break, the waffles were surprisingly different then expected. They were somewhat crunchy.
Shortly after we crossed the border to Norway, today the TET mostly consisted of wide and well prepared gravel roads. In Norway the terrain got hillier and we decided to call it a day around 5 reaching our daily goal of 300 km. The spot for the night was quickly found, as there was a fireplace close to the road located in a former small sand quarry. After unpacking we played around a bit on the wide loose surface. Trying to do the very cool looking and quite practical ‘elephant turn’, which consists of a drift into the turn and a power slide out. This maneuver should allow us to turn around, without the forward backward movement of the motorcycle in narrow paths. Unfortunately the tires hat so much grip in the sand, that sliding appeared impossible and we just dug holes. Getting on an off the motorcycle while moving (like on a bicycle) was easy and did not occupy us very long. While doing so I discovered that my ABS button (disabling the ABS-handy when you try to lock up the rear tire) was not working anymore. So our endeavor of trying to fix this began. The switch was removed in a quick manner and after fiddly disassembly (of the button itself) the culprit was found: corroded contacts which we filed down. Reattaching the switch to the wiring harness proved more difficult as we did not bring a soldering iron. We tried to make do by soldering the sockets (by holding them into the cooker flame) of the switch to pluggable connectors and succeeded but while connecting these to the cables the connectors for the warning indicator broke of partly. Also a few screws fell into the radiator shroud and one of the taps of the switch plate almost stripped. Concluding: this fixing session damaged more than it fixed. Also the dinner: mashed potatoes with peas and carrots needs to be cooked in the large pot to work as intended and it is a shame we lost our nutmeg somewhere. Besides the slightly frustrating today was very calm and nice. Probably the best imaginable weather for riding as well as scenic roads of good quality allowing for fast but still enjoyable riding.