Blog

Dates: 13 June 2019 – 19 June 2019
Distance: 370 miles
Elevation Gain: 21749 feet
Average Min Temp While Riding: 38.2F
0 Mile Days: 0
Nights Spent Indoors/Outdoors: 0/7

I was on my bike at 6:30pm with a renewed excitement to get moving. I needed to get to Nordkapp by the solstice so that I could be back in Tromsø in time to meet my friend for a sauna. This may sound silly but sweat bathing has been an important part of my life since college and when I was asked if I could help with a television series about sweat bathing around the world, I had to say yes.

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I almost didn’t ride this leg. I had had not great weather riding towards Tromsø and I was quite content taking the slow route to Tromsø, spending the ever sunnier days at the beach, and I was looking forward to a shower, sauna, and laundry in Tromsø. I had a few plans with friends that were a bit up in the air but they all centered around being in Tromsø. My slow ride from Andøya to Tromsø was my attempt at buying more time until I had to make a decision about what to do. Other cyclists had told me that the ride from Tromsø to Nordkapp was windy and desolate, not much to see or do and potentially a lot of trouble with the wind.

The land up north is anything but desolate. It is big and open and windy. I can’t begin to imagine how harsh the weather can be most of the year. Even on very calm days the wind is cold and bites at any exposed flesh. The sun may never set but it does dip behind mountains and hills casting huge cold shadows. Despite the harshness there are houses all along the main road. There are herds of reindeer everywhere. The birds flock around the fishermen’s nets in the water, and the dorsal fins of the porpoises slice through the calm surface of the ocean in the lee of a cliff. I felt like I had ridden to the end of the earth.

The rock formations reminded me of the basalt columns of Giant’s Causeway in how perfectly stacked they were. Some sections of rock looked almost like housing foundations because of how straight the edges were. I love looking at the rocks along the coast. These rocks are different from those I saw all along the road north of Trondheim. These have not been twisted by the forces of nature. They stand sharp and tall, defiant of Norway yet not boastful about their strength.

There is a tunnel that allows cars and cyclists to access the island of Magerøya. Nordkapp is on this island. The tunnel is 7km long and descends 212m under the sea. The descent is roughly 3km and the climb is roughly 4km. Descending and climbing in a tunnel is a very trippy experience. It is hard to tell how steep the road you are on is, or even if you are climbing or descending. Fortunately all the tunnels in Norway have the distances to each end marked on all the safety stops (a phone, fire extinguisher, AED, etc) so I had some idea of how much farther I had to go, but otherwise you’re just peddling and trusting that you’ll get out of there soon.

The road winds around near sea level for awhile before pointing up at a fairly steep grade. As I climbed I encountered more snow and more wind. Every camper van that passed I secretly cursed for having the foresight to bring an engine with them.

I struggle with the hour long climb, the second long steep climb of the afternoon. In true Norwegian fashion it starts to rain as I’m a half hour from the Cape. In true Norwegian fashion the rain stops fifteen minutes later and I ride to the end of the earth in full sunshine.

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The last hour of the ride I met two French cyclists. We all rode at different speeds but when we met up again at the Nordkapp visitor’s center we all expressed relief to be done with that climb. We were shocked at the number of bikes there though, given that none of us had seen any other cyclists along the way. There were roughly 30 bikes stashed around the visitor’s center, all lightly packed, and a large group of spandex clad cyclists drinking coffee. They didn’t seem to have enough gear with them to handle typical Norwegian weather but they had too much for this to be a supported tour or day ride. I learned that we had stumbled across the start line for the Nordkapp-Tarifa bike race, a 7368km self-supported race from the northernmost to the southernmost point in Europe. I was told that the winner completed it in 21 days last year. This was a very different style of riding than what the Frenchmen and I were undertaking. We wished them luck and watched them roll out at 12:01 am.

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I took the bus back from Nordkapp and I could see how one thinks that this land is boring and desolate. From the confines of a warm and wind free car all I could experience was the vast openness of this land. I couldn’t feel the changes in the wind, hear the animals, smell the kelp on the beaches. I couldn’t feel the strength of the wind, in my case the very weak wind, or the steep pitch of the climbs. I couldn’t see how much water pooled on the ground or hear the roar of a river picking up speed as the snow melts. I learned to savor the sunny and wind free moments. I became quite adept at finding rocks or other indentations in the earth to block the wind.

To be honest, I’m not sure why Nordkapp is so popular. For cyclists I can understand riding to the end of the road and looking out over the vast empty ocean. The landscape is experienced for the whole ride and after the climb up to Nordkapp one really feels like they finished something. In a car I’m not sure what the attraction is over any other cliff, or stopping any earlier on the road. As the sun dipped lower in the sky more tour buses parked and offloaded their visitors. Everyone came to the Cape to see the midnight sun. I may be a bit jaded having spent the last few weeks sleeping under the midnight sun but there is nothing different about a midnight sun versus a 5pm sun. At midnight, that far north, the sun looks like it would an hour or so before sun set; the difference is that it never dips below the horizon. I enjoy the experience of living under the midnight sun but I don’t see what the point of venturing out to see it for just one night is. Maybe I was just a little cranky after being around so many people when I had had the whole world to myself the week before and I was annoyed at being pushed out of the way so that people could get a better view of the midnight sun (what does that even mean?).

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I slept that last night in the parking area near the Nordkapp visitor’s center while I waited for the bus the next day. Instead of a nice secluded area with a beautiful view I was surrounded by camper vans and sleeping on gravel. I already missed the freedom of being on the road, of doing anything that I wanted to do. Yet I was ready. I wanted to get back into civilization. I missed the luxuries that one forgets about in daily life: refrigeration, a shower, a place to leave your stuff while you do something during the day. I gave up my freedom for a place in society. Fortunately, re-entering society in a town where the sun never sets is much easier for the vacationing vagabond than one might think.