End of the Road

I propose a candidate to challenge Barrow-in-Furness for the title of being ‘At the end of the longest cul-de-sac in the world’. My recommendation is The North Cape! A minimum 146 miles, that’s what needs to be ridden each way to reach the end of the most northerly road in Europe. It includes several tunnels ranging from the short, to a four miles long one under the Barents Sea. Three hundred miles of the same road was just the icing on the cake of a day (?) which started at 11.30am on Saturday and finished 26 hours later, after a total of over 800 miles. It was my aim to ride through the night, and with that now done it’s the end of crazy rides and I will absorb the best of Norway on my return south.

At 1.30pm today I managed to find a hotel in the small coastal village of Sørkjosen, the hotel receptionist went from “Yes we have a room, but it’s not ready for check in yet” to “Here’s the key, you can check in now”. Before you start jumping to any conclusions, the only extra included is breakfast, she obviously took pity on seeing this insect splattered disheveled biker!

After quickly relieving Reg of his heavy burden, the panniers, not me, I hit the sack as soon as I could. I’d only just snuggled down when I thought ‘bloody hell, this is more comfortable than lying on a road surface, this bed idea could catch on’! 

I’ve never felt like falling asleep holding handlebars before, but then I’ve never ridden like this before. I had to grab myself two 15 minute power naps, one at 5.30am amongst some rocks in a hollow just off the road, and a second about 9.30am in a lay-by. I would’ve slept longer both times but for some loud grunt that woke me! Strange because there were no animals around, just a ‘Big Bird’. 

The day started back in Storfossen, Sweden, it was sixty miles to the Arctic Circle followed by another 190 to Finland. A temperature in the high twenties combined with all the trees and lakes made a perfect recipe for the wee beasties to engulf me every time I stopped for more than 15 seconds. Either they loved the extra heat rising from Reg’s motor, or they were trying to get revenge for Reg and me murdering their relatives? It made me reluctant to stop other than for fuel, no issues in that department this time, just call it an expert strategy!

The towns I travelled through in northern Sweden and Finland were a bit ‘different’, maybe because it was Saturday that they were ghost towns? Many buildings were bleak and stark, almost as if influenced by the old Soviet Union. Generally the people seemed to be standoffish, not warm or welcoming, but I’d experienced this back in the old Yugoslavia in the 80s, and think it’s more curiosity than unfriendliness.

In Finland I refuelled Reg (bought extra mozzie repellant) and also needed a break myself, so had an ice cream in the small cafe area of the garage, this was a huge mistake! By the next fuel stop in Norway I topped off the ice cream with a coffee and local sausage delicacy, boom! The ice cream was the fuel, the Norwegian fare the blue touch paper! Bloody brilliant, this is all I need, baking hot insect infested countries and me having the….. !🤦🏻‍♂️ Before leaving the garage in Norway I gave their facilities a good seeing to, twice! I’ll spare you the details, but the next two hours were very uncomfortable and painful! Suffice to say that Norway’s excellent ‘long drop’ toilets were a life saver!

Midnight was approaching when I was about a hundred miles south of the North Cape, it would take me another three hours to do that 100 miles but this was the moment I’d come over 2,500 miles to experience. The following photos cover from 11.30pm to 4.30am.

The following photos are from 4.30am until 12.30pm

I have quite a bit of video footage to wade through and the short clips will be contained in a Relive app when I get around to doing it!