Vesterålen (Andøya)
The ferry dropped me off at the start of the Vesterålen archipelago, but the rest of the afternoon was pretty bleak. Heavy rain showers, and damp spirits. A small day in terms of distance, 60km or so, but trying to get myself into a more positive frame of mind again. In the end I stopped early, found a fishing shelter to sleep for the night, and took the rest of the day off. An evening relaxing by a lake, berry picking and cooking. The only thing to disturb the peace was when two fishermen turned up at midnight, surprised to find that their shelter was occupied by a vintage French bike and a sleeping Scotsman: they poked their heads in, but then left without a word – Norwegians can be shy sometimes.

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of heavy rain once more. Another soggy day in the saddle, the knee seeming to have reached a bit of a plateau in terms of pain. Keeping up the routine of 10km chunks, then resting made things manageable. This day I eked out another 70km, before setting up the tarp and calling it a day. I’d been scoping out various abandoned buildings and huts en-route to try and find somewhere indoors to hide from the rain again. In the end I opted to just camp and embrace it.

I also found the time to pick some wild mushrooms in the nearby area. Sadly no magical healing, nor any hallucinations, but a relaxed way to spend an evening, and the base of a pretty good camping meal. Mushroom picking is definitely a hobby that requires caution (usual warnings of risks of death), but can be really rewarding, and in this case a nice distraction from cycling and sore legs.



The last stage on Andøya was by far the most impressive: the rugged and imposing mountains here remind me a lot of the isle of Skye back in Scotland. Andøya is also host to Norway’s main space centre and rocket launch facility, a bit of a surprise in such a remote and beautiful part of the world, but a tour of the facility was a nice way to escape from the rain for a couple of hours.

The last of the cycle to the ferry terminal started easy and flat, with a quick resupply on the way, before the bike ran into some serious problems about a mile from the terminal: the chain stuck badly between the cassette cogs and the spokes. The only way to solve it was to remove the wheel and the chain, then wrench the chain out. But this would take a fair bit of time, and with 15 minutes to go before the last ferry of the day departed, I had to just run with the bike, trying to haul, carry or drag it there as fast as possible. Arriving just in time, in a sweaty mess, I paid the fare for the boat and ran aboard to find a sink to scrub the oily filth from my hands. Old bikes mean lots of old sketchy parts, and these always seem to break at the worst possible moment.
Up next – Part 3: Senja
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