Day 5 – Entering Norway

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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.

Day 4 – A wet start

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This morning we were awoken to the plattering sound of heavy constant rain on tent fabric, I checked the time: 6:12. I decided to use the time sensefully and tried to sleep. After bouncing in and out of sleep for some hours, while wondering if the light gusts of wind will unearth the tent pegs (I only put in 4 last night and did not set up any guy lines due to fair weather). Around 8:30 the rain tapered off and Benni got up. The decision was made to not have breakfast now and instead to use the less precipitation heavy weather to pack and get going. When packing the wet makes everything more difficult, packsacks and their content don’t seem to fit each other, wet fabrics don’t slide across each other as easily, getting into the raingear is more cumbersome as well and most of all the dismounting of the tent is a painful experience, trying to wrestle the wet and big fabric into the bag with cold, wet and numb hands, that never seem to get a good hold of the slimy fabric. After we packed everything we rejoined the TET where we left off yesterday around 9:30. After a short gravel cruise we hit the first harder bits of the day, very hilly terrain with lots of puddles, washed out descents and the occasional tree root. We managed surprisingly well. At a short navigational stop I noticed my toolbag was missing. After some backtracking we found it unharmed on the trail. We both re-tightened our extra bags and set on again. From now the trail alternated wonderfully between larger gravel roads, occasional short single tracks and twisty tarmac roads. It rained almost constantly throughout the whole time and as my visor was completely wet and thus very easy to fog up I rode the whole time without a visor. It was around 12\degree~C and if it weren’t for the rain gear I would be freezing. The cross boots we bought before the trip offer excellent protection and very good grip on the pegs but come with a big caveat: They are not waterproof, so whenever we crossed a bigger puddle the feet got progressively more wet and we ended up feeling the water in our boots shift from front to back, depending on whether we were sitting or standing. At 12:30 we reached Hjö and bought some groceries in the supermarket. We had our impromptu breakfast on the bank in the entry of the supermarket, it consisted of Polarbröd (a flat soft-bread) and garlic cottage cheese with some KEX (a chocolate wafer snack, with its own controversy among Swedes whether to pronounce it Kex or Chex). Benni prposed changing our wet socks to the waterproof ones we brought for this occasion (until now neither of us actually rode the boots in rain) and we changed socks and filled up on gas at a departed self service gas station at the outer end of Hjö, desolated I call it because the tap of running water for cleaning your car windows (or for filling up on water in our case) was not working anymore.

Rainy start

The riding was nice, but nothing worth mentioning. Some easy fast stuff, some more technical, but nothing scary. There was no rain anymore and 100~km later we made a stop for coffee at a camping site at a lake. To Niklas and my surprise he had a quite long conversation in swedish with the guy at the kiosk. Usually swedish people switch to English as soon as they notice that it’s not someones mother tounge. The beash was quite messy and there was a big pile of trash. We felt quite sorry, since the place was nice after all. But we continued riding shortly after some cookies, a banana and the (rather small) coffee. It was a pleasant change to be back in the thin leather gloves, as the sun started shining and the temperatures rose. The best part was, to regain the direct feeling of the controls of the motorcycle. And it paid off instantly as a rather difficult section begun. But with perfect controls, heated grips on level 1 and some suger and coffee in the blood it came easily to us.
Single track action with some mud, lotf of grass and some big wet rocks in the ground with constant change of elevation. Very rewarding after all. This boost of confidence made me use the throttle and breaks more consciously. The result were some spinning tires, blocked rear breaks and a little drift on the gravel roads. It made me giggle about how easy and predictable these actions felt and I was happy about the choice of motorcycle.
The day ended at the second vindskydd, as the first was already taken with a vegetable noodle soup and chocolate sweets as dessert. There was a fireplace, but we did use our gas-cooker in the end.

Camping spot for the night