Leaving Stamsund and the Lofoten Islands for Sweden

July 20, 2008

I have finally reached the end of the Norwegian leg of my cycle ride from Bergen to Nordkapp and around Senja and the Vesterålen islands and the time has come to pack my bags for the next leg of my trip. This involves two of the long distance Sverigeleden cycle routes that join Stockholm to Strömstad on the west coast of Sweden, and a final ferry trip across to Sandefjord and a bit more cycling to Stavern in Norway where I plan to close out my summer trip in about one month’s time.

It is a gorgeous 22°C here this afternoon, the sunshine is twinkling on the waves in the harbour, and a whale was spotted in the bay this morning. It will be a wrench to leave, but I feel a strong pull towards roaming around Sweden and finding out how it is for cycling there rather than going over old routes again up here in the Lofoten Islands. I have reached the tipping point a bit more easily because the hostel is nearly empty but for the really long term residents like Marlene, who has found a permanent job in Leknes as a psychologist, and the heavy duty Polish fishermen.

I have just booked a flight tomorrow with SAS from Bodø to Stockholm, leaving at 12:40 - so I’m about to start shoving things back into bags in the otherwise empty dormitory (most of the others left this morning). I’ll be taking the hurtigruten to Bodø later this evening for a night at the old standby, Bodøsjoen Camping.

Interestingly, SAS call you back after telling you that their lines are busy. Of course they can’t confirm the bike on the plane immediately but I am pretty hopeful there won’t be a problem. The flight was cheaper than I was expecting, maybe because I am taking it tomorrow rather than booking it several months in advance.

I should probably borrow Roar’s fishing scales to see if I can get the weight of my checked in luggage below 30 kilos but I’ve got the overnight ferry journey to the mainland to use for some fine tuning there.