I was hoping for an easy day today with a relativity short ride to Tana-bru, and the route following the river downstream. After packing up I had a coffee in the campsite bar and set off on my way. I’d decided to stay on the Finnish side of the river as the 970 road looked a lot quieter than the E75/E6 on the Norwegian side. The route was rolling but with some short climbs as the road followed the river. There was a sign that suggested (in a number of languages) that the border may only be open at certain times, so I pinged a photo off for translation to a friend. The result was inconclusive, but it was thought that it was something to do with freight, so I went for it.
The river became immensely wide in places, but was very shallow with rapids and quite a lot of fishermen. I passed a very nice cafe on the side at the river, unfortunately they had just sold out of doughnuts, so I had to wait for fresh warm ones to be cooked!
Eventually I reached Nuorgam on the border. I did some shopping to use up my euros and to buy things I thought would be cheaper in Finland. I came out with 4 cans of beer, three chocolate bars and a big bag of nuts/rasins. There was no physical presence at the border at all, just a sign saying National border and a cctv camera. The landscape changed dramatically in Norway, suddenly from bogs and forest, to green fields and cows.
However for the first few miles the roads were really poor, very uneven and potholes. I then came to a road resurfacing team, with convoy traffic flow. This was across new tarmac, it was like I was stuck to the road, and the tyres were being unpeeled at each turn. I arrived at Tana-bru (bru means bridge) and checked into the camp site which was attached to a hotel. The toilet facilities were new and good, but the site it’s self was a bit tatty with pallets and was almost scrub land. I hadn’t seen a cash machine or bank since crossing the border to change money, but luckily I had bought some Norwegian Krone with me expecting this situation. The campsite was 170 NOK but needed 20 NOK for the showers.
After the roads today I looked at my tyres and I was alarmed to find the rear had worn badly on the dirt roads. I decided to even up the wear so I switched them around. I have got a spare but it is quite a light slick tyre and I don’t think it wouldn’t last too long on the back wheel. I brought it in case a tyre failed completely (split or wearing out the side wall) as I’m pretty sure I won’t get 24″ tyres here easily. I hadn’t really considered wearing the tyres out in only 700 kilometres, but the un-surfaced roads and big load won’t have helped. I was too late to do any shopping so I opted for pizza at an Italian restaurant on the business park next to the campsite.
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