Back from Norway

Back from Norway after a deeply satisfying but more challenging journey than we'd anticipated - the diary entries are being written up at blissonwheels.com/kystriksveien . Everything ran smoothly once we were outside the airport, but we again got parked in Oslo for a day courtesy of SAS (who are not a very joined up company) and whinge whinge BAA took two hours to return our bags to us at Heathrow on our return (all the handlers were tied up searching bags leaving the country in the wake of the security threats of mid-August).

The journey was more challenging than Google Earth indicated it would be, and we didn't get a good idea of topography from the available maps for Northern Norway. I think the Google Earth problem is because the terrain rendering for the region we were riding in is more basic than for elsewhere (more cloud cover? Less people wanting high quality coverage of this region?) but we were soon reducing our daily distances to accommodate the climbing we were doing each day. The tough cycling was more than compensated for by excellent huts and by making lots of new friends - my Norwegian lessons seem to be paying off.

I'm now taken with the idea of finding out what happens if you go further North in July and August (to Finnmark), but I think we'll be returning with a BoB Trailer and a lavvo tent next year!