August 8, 2023
Utne, Norway to Norheimsund, Norway (August 8, 2023)
A Seriously Trying Day
We knew when we went to bed that the forecast was for atrocious weather, moderate to hard rain all day with no predicted breaks anywhere, and a high in the low 50’s. The first thing I noticed upon awakening was that I was still stuffed from last night's dinner. The next thing was that the weather forecast hadn't improved much, save for a minor potential reduction in the rain around noon. It still looked bleak. We decided to get on the road and get this day over with as soon as we could. We had a wonderful breakfast. The table was full of delicious treats including caviar to go with the salmon! There was a generous mixture of proteins along with a variety of pickled fishes. Since I was still full from the previous dinner, I hardly ate anything. Dave whipped up an excellent sandwich for us to take on the road.
From Reuters:
"STOCKHOLM, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Norwegian emergency services evacuated hundreds of people in various locations on Tuesday, the second day that heavy rains caused landslides, with the risk of more, as a storm sweeps over the Nordics.
Strong winds, intense rain and landslides hit parts of the Nordic region, knocking out power lines, flooding villages and bringing public transport to a standstill in the worst-affected areas.
The storm, which has been called "Hans," hit Sweden late on Sunday and reached Norway on Monday, with parts of Denmark and Finland also affected."
Otherwise, we were looking forward to a lovely day on our bikes!
The ride between Utne and Jondal would have been awesome, if we hadn’t been doing it in a strong rain. The road was narrow with great pavement and little traffic, charming little villages all along the way, the fjord always in sight, numerous apple orchards providing all that cider we drank for dinner, and lots of ups and downs. But….. it was pouring. It let up a little bit for our big climb coming into the town of Herand which was nice as the climb was a serious slog, but it started to rain hard on the downhill. I find this pariticularly nerve-wracking, as Dave invariably bombs down the descent. Maybe that wouldn't have unnerved me as much had we not just watch a bunch of professional bike riders crash out on wet slippery roads in the world road racing championships.
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We were seriously wet and cold coming into Jondal, and the next ferry departed in 20 minutes. Once again we parked in front of the cars and scooted on first, along with two women on motorcycles. They were from Denmark and were riding around Norway camping- which honestly sounded terrible at that moment in time! We went inside and Dave sprang for a coffee to share and a bag of popcorn. I was so cold and wet I couldn’t even sit down and I was afraid to take my gloves off for fear I couldn’t get them back on, as they were soaked. As we lined up to depart 20 minutes later, my bike tipped over and I fell over on my right side trying to grab it. I wrenched the same part of my right side that I did in Myrdal a few days earlier. The worst part is a slight strain in my calf. It doesn’t hurt to cycle but walking is a pain (and I am now gimping around the hotel a day later).
After departing from the ferry at Torvikbygd, we still had a 12 km ride north to Norheimsund. I was seriously on my limit, both from my fall, and just being tired and wet and cold. It didn’t help that we were on the highway. It really wasn’t bad (bike trails would pop up periodically and the traffic was civilized) but I was pretty stressed. As we arrived into Norheimsund we had some bad wind gusts. We were extremely relieved to arrive at the Thon Hotel Sandven in one piece. We dripped into the lobby looking like drowned rats, and the staff were amazed when they learned we had ridden all the way from Utne. Happily our room was ready and we were never so relieved to open the door into a cozy warm hotel room. We had wonderful long showers and curled up in our room for the rest of the afternoon, with Dave drinking a $15 US IPA and eating our sandwich in bed. We enjoyed watching - in Norwegian - the mixed team time trial going on at the cycling World Championships in Glasgow. It took me all afternoon to warm up and my toes and fingers were still tingling three hours later when we went to dinner. To counterbalance the extravagant dinner of last night we opted for the Chinese place next to our hotel and enjoyed a pretty serviceable meal with Jasmine tea.
We’re here two nights and the plan for a hike on our free day was out the window due to rain. Besides, I was gimping around nursing my sore calf. So, it turned out to be a low key dar.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 1,394 km (866 miles)
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