Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Another day, another threat of rain. This was the view from our campsite, it looked like something from Alien!



We left our lovely campground after a coffee and were heading towards Namsos.



This was our track for the day.
The weather was a bit damp but nothing to worry about. We had a few more ferries today but not before we crossed this fantastic bridge. My photos don't do it justice, I'd need a drone or something to make it look cool.



Have I mentioned the awesome scenery yet? The place is just fantastic. One of the best places I have ever been.





Queueing for yet another ferry. You only ever wait for 10 mins or so. Also we had seen other bikes, but not UK registered ones on our trip so far.



We did meet and Paul ended up chatting to these Germans, 2 bikes with sidecars too with the kids in them. A nice bunch. Sidecars aren't my cup of tea for the road but nontheless pretty cool.






Nice Ambulance.



Paul never gave me the Horn. I had to do it myself



Gotta love those odd Swedes Bet this car smelled lovely inside.



Anyhow, the riding was nice and relaxing for the day but I don't' appear to have taken many photos. We found a small campsite to sleep and plan the next day's route. Paul also shouted at some German motorhomers at the campsite

PLanning the Route:



The campsite also had wireless with the best SSID ever

We woke up the following morning, which turned out to be a Sunday, had something to eat and got on our way. The weather forecast was dire!



Apart from the weather forecast, somehow my phone receives severe weather warnings, and we had this come through.



There's nothing you can do about this, so we geared up, Paul put on his waterproofs, I zipped up my Klim vents, and we headed off. I wonder if these people have to mow their roof?



It may be wet, and that brings alive another part of the beautiful scenery.



Although wet, the roads were mostly fine, they must use a different mixture over here because of the extreme climates in winter. My Givi screen was doing its' job and keeping me mostly dry too.





We has the Trollstigen planned for today. By the time we arrived at the base of it, it was well and truly pouring it down. Not to be deterred though, we snapped a few photos at the base and had a nice chat with a retired American couple who had just sold up their businesses over there and come to Europe for 6 months with a camper they bought in Germany. Good on them.

Spot the Troll!



None of my photos do it justice from the bottom, but you'll have to take my word for it. I didn't stop much either too as it was hammering it down and actually pretty cold.



We headed up to the top and to a visitor centre. They have a lookout spot that you can walk along and admire the scenery. This was one of those times that I didn't mind having bike gear on. Paul and I didn't even take off our helmets, they kept us warm and dry.



We hung around for about 30 mins, by that time my hands had frozen and I wasn't aware of it until we were just about to leave an a group of bikers on tour came up. About 10 of them I'd say, almost all of them on UK bikes from a UK tour company. I can't remember the name of the tour group now and the organisers seemed ok, but a reminder that I'll not go on a tour like that, not my cup of tea.

We headed down the other side and towards Geringer. Paul had done Trollstigen and Geringer a few years ago and told me it'd be nice. He wasn't joking. Geringer is a spectacular Fjord, often with a cruise ship docked in it. No cruise ships today and it was amazing. We didn't stop in the town though as it was a bit touristy (read: expensive) but it was very pretty.







We left Geringer and headed towards our destination for the day in Lillehammer, we were going to cut short some of the coast road as the weather looked dismal for the next few days.

There was a fork in the road. Paul had read about the 258 and said it was unpaved and we decided to split up, I'd take the unpaved road and Paul the main road and we'd meet up further down the road about 30km away.

Did I mention it was cold, this is about 5 foot of snow.



The road was like a hard, slippery clay surface and I daren't go more than about 15mph for most of it, That was fine though as the scenery was worth it.





Paul and I eventually managed to catch up with each other after some slight miscommunication. In fact I seem to recall we met at a McDonalds in Lillehammer and then headed up to our hotel about 10km up the road. The hotel was very, very odd. It used to be a upmarket hotel, photos with Hillary Clinton were on the wall from when she stayed there back in 1994 for the Winter Olympics. It's now converted into apartments and calls itself an "Apart Hotel" The only employee was a very elderly gentleman who was educated in America and still had a strong accent. He had Paul and I in stitches as every sentence started with "In regards to ...." It was grand inside and immaculate, but straight out of the 90's. We got the feeling that the owner just kept it ticking along and didn't have any money to invest in it. It was a little sad, a little quirky but all good. I'd recommend staying there.

Paul and I had a chat about what to do next. It was Sunday night and I still had a further week off work. The weather however was miserable and I wanted to do a Parkrun in Copenhagen but that was 6 days away but only a few hundred km. Making that stretch over 6 days would be a chore and expensive. We decided to start heading home and basically see how long it'd take us. This is what we'd done today.

Well I guess eventually I can round this up now.

Paul and I had decided to start making our way back home, unfortunately this is very boring so there's not much to say. Paul was happy to take three days to get home, but I wanted to get home in two. Paul would stay the night around Copenhagen, and I'd try and make it into Germany. We sort of said our goodbye's and headed off. The going was ok, nothing too exciting and a bit bland, until I crossed the bridge/tunnel between Malmo and Copenhagen, quite an epic bridge.

I heard from Paul in the late afternoon, he'd not been able to find accommodation and so was only an hour and a half behind me. Eventually we sorted out an Ibis in Flensburg. A 608 mile day that was just boring. The same the next day too, I booked my Euro Tunnel and headed off at 6:30 the next morning, the first few hours through Germany were lovely, mostly empty autobahn so 120mph for the majority of it, arriving at the tunnel at about 3pm and they popped me on the next train which was nice of them. Home by about 8pm I think after covering 740 miles (Straight to Morrisons for a frozen pizza)

No photos, as I was just riding/fuel/riding/fuel all day. It was quite nice getting home a few days early too as I had the week to catch up on work before officially being back at work the following week after the bank holiday Monday. Paul was a few hours behind me, in fact I arrived home (near Leicester) and he was eating soup in Calais or something

The 1200 is amazing for this type of trip, two up, mostly motorway with some gravel in it, rain protection and comfort too. Next trip I want to be back on the X-Country though and dirt!