August 5, 2024
Day 35: Arctic Fjord to Talvik
Half Rest Day to Shelter by the fjord
“Hiya, hiya!” the man walking back to his van with a hard hat and a chain saw shouts. “Hiya, hiya,” Rachel shouts back. This is a rare occasion that people acknowledge us riding by and say hello, and it is nice to have a little interaction with the locals. On the road early, there’s not much along the way today. We leave the camp continuing on the unsealed road to the main road rather than backtracking. “The first 10kms are the hilliest,” Patrick says. There’s a possibility for coffee, at about 15km at Bognelv but as we pass by, the store isn’t open yet, we are way too early for that to happen.
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. We are at the end of the fjord and the road turns northeast following coastline and this section is relatively flat for a while but we have a light headwind. There are beautiful reflections of mountains and tiny buildings across the fjord on the water. The road does have a few rolling hills until we reach the 4.5km tunnel. We don’t see the “no pedestrians/cyclists sign, but RWGPS has us routed around anyways. Since the tunnel seems to go uphill we turn off toward Storsandnes.
While the tunnel goes through the peninsula, we ride around and rejoin the main road at the other end of the tunnel at Langenes. We see two reindeer just before the main road. And from this side we do not see a sign either that indicated “no cyclists”. We had a much better ride outside the tunnel, better views and quieter.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 3 | Link |
The tunnel you bypassed is called Ailegastunnelen, is 3400 metres long, but is in fact open to cyclists. (But I agree, I would take the scenic route around the coast too.)
The next tunnel in front of you is Talviktunnelen which is banned to cyclists, and there should be warning signs, and an alternative route around the coast.
Cheers.
3 months ago
This gets you to a map of all the tunnels. Then you have to zoom in to the one you are thinking of riding through (or not!)
J
3 months ago
3 months ago
The last bit the road has a few more hills. We reach the Fornesvika picnic area at noon. Just as we are coming down the hill and see the shelters, empty, but there are two campers just turning on the side road down to the water. We follow and while they are parking we quickly claim the one shelter still unclaimed. Later the campers moved on and all afternoon new people park, go for a swim or fish.
This day is considered a “half rest day”, we eat lunch just when we arrive, hang a clothesline to air out our riding clothes, filter water from the river nearby, stretch out on the benches in the shelter and read. Even though the temperature is only in the low seventies, the sun is strong and being out in it all day wears you out. The shelters are nicely situated to give us a view of the fjord and shade from the sun. We pitch the tent beside it and will be able to use the table to cook a real meal for once.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,741 km (1,081 miles)
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