BikerThomas.com

Around Mandalselva in Vest-Agder, Southern Norway

I had my first trip yesterday, nothing major, just 120KM inland in Southern Norway. It feels great to be back on the road! I do quite a few of these smaller Sunday-trips through the year so I don’t think I’ll add them to the trip reports-page as it would fill up to quickly and be cluttered, but I’ll still write a couple of lines about them and add a photo or two.

If you’re about to do your first ride of the season, remember to check your tire pressure. Air will magically disappear over Winter. The recommended tire pressure for both front and rear wheels should be in your manual, at least for the wheels that came with the bike when it was new. You could do a Google search for this sort of information, but different websites will tell you different things. I’ll do some more research on tire pressure for the Vulcan 900 Classic and write an article about it one of these days. The manual says 28/32PSI (front/back-wheel), but if your load on the bike is quite heavy you would obviously jack that up quite a bit. Different people will tell you different things here, so check your manual. Any thoughts on this? Please do comment on this post.

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Thursday 29th of July 2010

 
Vøringfossen

Allright, so I wake up in the morning, I step outside of my tent and GAAAAHH, all the German mobile home travelers could hear my jaw drop, what a spectacular view! From my tent I can see the 38km long Sørfjorden and the 3rd largest glacier in the mainland of Norway, Folgefonna just sort of hanging there looking like it’s going to fall into the fjord any minute – amazing!

A friendly German couple offer me tea in the morning and tells me how beautiful the area is and how much better it would be if it wasn’t raining all the time! The western parts of Norway are known for their rain. There had been quite a bit of rain during the night but this morning was looking great! I get on my bike and move on a few kilometers north to a tiny, yet incredible popular, place called Kinsarvik. The view from Kinsarvik is one of the most memorable things from the entire trip. While eating breakfast on the quay I’m situated at the end of the fjord and I’m surrounded by majestic mountains and a few kilometers behind and above me is Hardangervidda, the largest mountain plateau in Europe with a cold climate all year around. Probably the best place I’ve ever had breakfast – so far.

 
Kinsarvik

Lofthus camping (left), Kinsarvik (right)

My uncle told me there was a waterfall called Tveitafossen not far from where I was. I headed over and you can see a photo of this below. There’s a sign just before you arrive which says Warning! 2km long narrow road to Tveitafossen. The road has neither barriers nor meeting points. You are driving here at your own responsibility. There’s a parking lot near the sign for those who wish to walk the 2kms there, but the adventurer in me told me to ride my bike. One good advice from one biker to another: DO NOT ride on this road if it has been raining recently! It’s a dirt track and unless you’re riding an off-road bike you could get stuck or worse, fall off the edge of the road. Luckily the dirt track was fairly dry when I was riding so it was all good.

Tveitafossen (left), Sign before Tveitafossen (middle), Wood sculpture at Lofthus camping (right).

The waterfall I had just been visiting was OK, but now it was on to one of the most famous waterfalls in Norway, Vøringfossen! The last petrol station before Vøringfossen was out of petrol… that kinda sucked as I didn’t know if I would have enough petrol to ride to Vøringfossen and back and then find another petrol station several miles away to fill up my tank, but heck if I was going to drive several miles back to where I was the day before just to fill petrol so off I was to Vøringfossen gambling that the petrol station would have petrol delivered for when I got back! I had no idea what to expect but I knew there was a fairly steep incline at 8%. The tourist busses where going really slow up these hills. Quite a bit of the road up here are inside badly lit tunnels, which doesn’t make this a very pleasant drive if you’re driving a heavy vehicle or a low power car. The Vulcan, however, loved it all the way to the top! :)

There are at least 4 viewpoints to Vøringfossen worth exploring; from the top, two from the side and one from the very bottom. As you can see from my photos I saw the waterfall from the top and from the sides. Next time I’ll definitely have a go at taking a hike down to the bottom. I saw some brave souls doing this and it just looked like something really worth doing.

On my way back from Vøringfossen I had very little petrol left, but I was in luck, the petrol station that was all sold out of petrol earlier in the day now had a fresh load of petrol eager to come riding with me. Next stop: Ulvik!

To get to Ulvik I had to take a ferry from Brimnes to Bruravik. In 2-3 years time there will be a bridge over the fjord called “Hardanger bridge”. They already started building it and I could see it from the ferry. A shirt ride further and I arrived in Ulvik, a small town with an amazing view from the quay with tall mountains on both sides making Osafjord, another one of the minor fjords making up the large Hardangerfjord. Recently there has been talks of building huge electric power lines across parts of the area which would be a shame as you don’t find places like this anywhere else in the world but in Norway. The government are looking into an option where they use sea cables instead, even though these are expected to be more expensive at least the nature remains fairly untouched and the people living in this area can still focus on tourism.

Utne (left), Lothe (right).

By now, I’m not far from Bergen. I’ve never been to Bergen, and if I had another day or two in the area I would definitely visit this city. This time though, I focused on finding a camping site close to where I was as I had a very long ride back home ahead of me the day after. I took another ferry from Kvanndal to Utne. A few kilometres south west from Utne lies Lothe Camping, a small camping place with a small beach and the compulsory kiosk where they sell waffles and simple meals. 1 night in a tent with a motorcycle cost 90 Norwegian kroners, approximately US $15.

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Wednesday 28th of July 2010

Kinsarvik in Hardangerfjord.

Hardangerfjord is 179 kilometres long and thus Norway’s second longest fjord and the third longest on the planet. The fjord is a staggering 800 meters at its’ deepest point. On top of the fjord is the Folgefonna glacier which covers 220km, this was a “must see” this summer; this was what was going to save this motorcycle season!

To prepare for the trip, I went out and got myself a decent pair of motorcycle trousers, waterproof and all which turned out to be a great investment! I also brought an extra pair of gloves that were a bit thicker than the ones I normally use as they keep my hands warmer during night time riding and they take a bit longer to get soaking wet (“waterproof” my ass!) during those rainy days. So why all this waterproof wear you ask? Isn’t it summer in Europe now? Western Norway is known for its’ rain, not sure why, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the tall mountains keeping the clouds from moving on to their next destination or something like that, and eventually the clouds get too heavy and it starts to rain. I’m no scientist so don’t take my word for it, but it really does rain a lot in that part of Norway.

I tried packing light for this trip. I filled my sidebags and one extra bag that I strapped to the sissybar rack. Here’s a quick table that can be helpful if you’re ever travelling the same route. It shows what I brought, what I used and didn’t use and what I really should have brought instead. I’m learning something on every trip.

See, you can travel pretty light. You don’t need to bring heaps of stuff for a 3 day trip. Keep it simple!

I clocked 403 kilometres the first day. I went from my hometown, Kristiansand in the afternoon and arrived in Lofthus Camping later the same day. See the GoogleMap below to see this clearer. The road that goes through Setesdalen, Hovden and Haukeligrend and all the way to Odda in Sørfjord is pretty decent compared to many of the other roads inland. There are some long and dark tunnels though, with turns and some even go uphill or downhill. Take it easy in these tunnels. After I got home I heard that sheep sometimes go inside these tunnels in summer because it’s cold and nice inside the tunnels. So unless you got a sheep-bar attached to the front of your iron horse (oooooh, dry humor!), go easy in the tunnels.

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On my way to the camping place I passed one of Norway’s most famous waterfalls called Låtefoss which is actually two waterfalls or a so-called twin-waterfall which joins at the bottom. It’s 165m high. I didn’t stop to see the waterfall on my first day as I knew I was going to pass it again on my way back home. You’ll see the waterfall just before you come to a small city named Odda. I’ll post photos of this waterfall on the trip report of day 3 of the trip.

On the left side, a few minutes before I entered Sørfjord I could see the Folgegonna glacier. I’ve never seen a glacier before so even just seeing a glimpse of it in the distance was quite cool. My trip had begun!

Part of Folgefonna glacier, and yes, those are houses at the bottom.

Lofthus Camping on the east side of Sørfjord is a small camping ground with fruit trees and an amazing vie of Sørfjord itself and you can also see parts of Folgefonna. What an amazing view to have just outside your tent! One night for one person and a motorcycle set me back 75kr (approx. $US 12), which I think is a bargain! There is a hotel a few hundred meters from the camping site with a similar view, but that’ll set you back about 1.200kr (US$200) per night.

Stay tuned for day 2 of the trip! That’s when it all really begins! And remember that I also have an RSS-feed up so that you can subscribe to all my updates and even get them straight into your e-mail inbox! RSS-feed.

Lofthus Camping in Sørfjord. What an amazing view!

A map of Hardangerfjord in Western Norway.

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Me in front of Preikestolen with my tiny Kawasaki Vulcan 750!

Preikestolen is said to be the result of icebergs melting about 10.000 years ago. It’s a famous Norwegian tourist attraction and more than 130.000 tourists visit this cliff every year.

Me and my girlfriend took the trip, for the first time,  last Friday. I didn’t ride my motorcycle this time, so it’s a bit unusual to blog about a car trip (cage- trip), but this is such a famous attraction that not mention it here on this blog would be letting you out on something spectacular.

You can’t drive/ride all the way to Preikestolen. You have to park 334 metres below and walk 1-2 hours uphill to reach it. It’s quite a tough climb, but we saw Italian and Russian tourists taking on the hike in their thongs (as in sandals, not as in something you would wear in Brazil) and some even in clogs(!). Please, if you’re going to Prekestolen, bring good footwear! There will be steep hills, rocks, mud, water – oh and not to mention a 604 meters above sea-level cliff on your trip.

I’m told that the view from the top of the cliff is absolutely amazing, but we climbed the hill on a rainy day with a lot of haze, so we didn’t see the view from the top, but we did see the amazing cliff itself which was well worth the trip – it really is hard to explain the feeling of seeing this cliff in real life (and you thought it looked amazing in the photos, hah!). Definitely a “must-do” in anyone’s book.

Preikestolen (left), My über awesome Vulcan 750 die-cast  – the only MC on top of Preikestolen! (right)

Crazy tourists sitting on the edge (left), The horizon on the way down (right)

 
Nice view! (left), The rocky trail on the way down (right)

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Me next to Per Morten’s Honda CBR 600F, boy is that different to mine! :)

The weather was perfect last Sunday, not taking the bike out for a spin would be a shame! I was called up by an old friend from school and we hit the road together. He’s a proud owner of a Honda CBR 600F, quite a beauty! We switched bikes for a few kilometers and boy was it a different feeling riding that sort of a bike after riding a cruiser for 3 years. You can’t really say that riding one or the other is a better feeling as the experiences of riding these two bikes are totally different. One is built for speed and the other is built for cruising. Each for their own particular use I guess, but we rode 209 kilometres together and it was a lot of fun. Definitely something to repeat sometime soon.

We ended up stopping at a small town called Evje. If you’re ever up there be sure to grab a burger at the local fast food joint! It’s a small town, you’ll find the one I’m talking about :)

 
Per Morten on my bike (left), My Kawasaki VN900 Classic next to a Honda CBR 600F (right)

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My good friend, and former colleague, Dagfinn invited me to stay at his place for the weekend and catch up, talk nerdy-tech-talk ;) and drink heaps of cheap and excellent beer in Aalborg, Denmark. Us Norwegians just loooove to travel to our neighboring countries. Our tax system is such that tobacco, alcohol and meat are very expensive, and some of these goods are wayyyyy cheaper in Sweden and Denmark, so a lot of people are willing to travel abroad and bring these goods home. And others, like me, prefer to indulge in over-eating and sometimes over-drinking in excellent – but cheap! restaurants in Denmark. Writing this paragraph makes me realize that those of you who are not Norwegian must think that we are crazy for doing these things but I guess we just like a bargain just like everyone else :)

To get to Denmark from my home town, Kristiansand in Norway, your best alternative is to take a ferry to Hirtshals in Northern Denmark. Currently there are 2 ferry companies sailing these waters, Fjord Line and Color Line. Fjord Line’s ferry does the trip in 2hrs 15min and Color Line’s ferry takes 3hrs 15min. Fjord Line is usually cheaper and much faster, but smaller than Color Line’s ferry. Departing times are very different though, so that’ll usually be a big weigh-in on which ferry you’ll choose. At this particular trip, I had to travel with Color Line as the other ferry was chock-a-block with passengers and there were no tickets left.

The road to Aalborg from Hirtshals is, for us bikers, boring, VERY boring. It’s a wide and straight, flat road. I was in a hurry so I took this road both ways. next time I’ll definitely be planning my trip a little better so that I can take the scenic route, which I’ve heard is actually quite nice. But whatever route you take be prepared for a massive amount of bugs flying towards you – let’s just say it’s a good idea to wear a full-helmet! Denmark is flat, incredibly flat; actually it is said that the name Denmark once meant “flat land”. A long time ago the entire country rose up from the ocean, and since the ocean bed was flat, Denmark is flat as well. Denmark’s highest point (you can’t call it a mountain because it’s probably just dirt) is 170m above sea level.

Aalborg is a fantastic city, full of life and happenings all the time. Many big artists come here to perform. AC/DC had just been in town and next up was Kiss. Restaurant prices are fair and the quality of the food is usually very good. A highly recommended stop-over if you’re travelling around Europe!

Old houses in the city centre (left), BikerThomas, on the left, with friends drinking Guinness! (right)

Harley Davidson V-Rod inside a glass cage in the pub! (left), “Beer is healthy, a lot of beer is very healthy” (right)

Tourist information: www.visitaalborg.com
Fjord Line: www.fjordline.com
Color Line: www.colorline.com

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A bridge over Kilefjorden.

I’ve started my 4th motorcycle season! :) I got my bike out about a month ago and have been doing a few local trips just to warm up for a longer ride this summer (Maybe I should go see the fjords in Western Norway?).

The local trip today went to Oggevann and Kilefjorden. Oggevann is a popular place for canoeing and kayaking. Tourists also enjoy the Elk safaris up there. Kilefjorden wasn’t exactly a “biggie” but there was a nice café there and a great opportunity for a break half-way. Oh, and there are small cabins next to the café that you cant rent if you want to stay there overnight or longer (you can go fishing!).

There was the usual gravel and the occasional plank-in-the-f**king-middle-of-the-road, but that’s normal this time of year after the snow melts. Make sure you take note of that if you’re ever to ride in Norway. Agriculture is popular in-land and dirt, sand, gravel, firewood, horseshit! (slippery…) and the likes can pop up anywhere, especially in a turn with an intersection leading to a farm (some of the farmers don’t secure their tractor loads very well, so stuff falls all over the roads). So drive safely – and enjoy! :)

Oh, by the way, the map below includes a short trip to my family in Lillesand :) The most beautiful little town in Norway which you should include in any visit to Norway :) (thank you mayor, I’ll take my $100 now thanks!).

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Wednesday 6th of August 2008

I didn’t see any thieves last night, and the weather was great! Time to visit the little mermaid! The little mermaid is a statue very popular with tourists. I didn’t bother with paying for parking this time, I just parked at a random place close to the statue, I mean c’mon the bike takes about half the space of a baby carriage!

It was time to start on my long journey back home to Norway. I rode to Odden and waited for a ferry to Århus. The ferry company was Mols Linien and the ferry was named Mie Mols, a nice fast ferry that did the trip in 65 minutes.

I remember that my mobile phone stopped working (I punched the wrong PIN three times – and being out of cash – not a good situation to be in! Thank God for Visa :) Always bring a debit/credit card when travelling!

When disembarking the boat in Århus the straps that I had to put on my bike to keep it from falling over and sliding all over the place didn’t want to come off – once again the knife I brought was really helpful! I figured the ferry company didn’t mind losing a strap as it’s a hell of a lot more expensive to burn an extra 5 minutes of fuel waiting for me to get off (I used to work for a ferry company and fuel is darn expensive!).

Århus to Hirtshals is only 187 KM. From here I took the same boat home as I did on the first day of my trip. Color Line’s SuperSpeed does the stretch in 3,5 hours.

I’m home and a whole lot wiser and my head full of experiences and stories. Riding through Europe is awesome! I’m already planning my next trip and fantasizing about where to go and what to experience. Maybe I should ride over the Alps to Italy, then to Spain and France or maybe all the way to Athens in Greece? I’ve heard Scotland is awesome! What about you, where are you going? The world is full of opportunities – have a good journey! :)

Copenhagen (left), The little mermaid (right)

 
On ,my way to Odden (left), Mie Mols fast ferry (right)

  
A crap attempt at a panorama picture, oh well, it’ll be better next time!

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