Today was always going to be the hardest day of the whole tour, a long ride with two big climbs towards the end of the day. However the weather made it harder than expected as despite having to get out of my tent due to it being so hot in the sun, ten minutes after I left the site it started to rain, and cold wind from the north holding me back all day. I must have anticpated the rain, as I treated myself to an expensive egg and bacon breakfast at the campsite before leaving.
Anyway, the first part of the ride was pleasantly along the coast with some interesting villages. I stopped at an interesting church by chance, and had a good conversation with a tourist information guy (office set up in a church). He said the season didn’t start until the next day but he opened up day early as so many camper vans had been passing. I had only seen a handful, so there is a different view of busy this far north! We chatted about the easiest way to get the the Nordkin (the most northerly point), but he said it was a hard multi-day hike there and back over difficult terrain and tricky navigation. I’ll probably give it a miss. The first climb was quite challenging, but the worst was knowing I’d have to go right down to sea level and do it all again. In fact, the barren plateau on the top was the biggest challenge, many kilometres of rolling landscape still very interesting to look at it, but the wind and occasional rain shower took the edge off it.
While it was very remote, there were quite a few people around. I saw a few bird watchers (or rather bird photographers stalking prey) and also a few cars parked near lakes, which I did suspect as people fishing. I now know these lakes are rich with trout, but I’m don’t know how the fish ever got there in the first place. There are still lots of reindeer about with babies (highly technical term) who seemed to prefer sitting on the snow than else where. The final downhill into Mehamn was quite nice, and the profile from Google maps was wrong, with no evidence of the final three kicks of the day, which was a nice bonus. The town welcomed me with the best picnic bench yet, decorated with flowers. I lent my bike on it briefly but I really just needed to find somewhere to sleep.
The Mehamn hostel and campsite were in the same place, and the camping pitches right next to the car park looked uninviting, so I opted for the hostel, pretty dear at over 600 NOK, but I got a single room and money off from my YHA membership.
I walked into the town, past the fish drying racks and fish factories looking for a shop. The co-op was shut, leaving the MIX shop (which is essentially a sweet shop) to buy my dinner. I came out with a packet of cookies and a bar of chocolate, not the perfect meal to end a long day. Back at the hostel I had to break into my emergency rations and open my pasta and pesto carried all the way from the UK, and had a reasonable meal. In the warm and with ample electricity for browsing I started to look at my next part of the journey. I was planning on taking the Hurtigruten coastal steamer south and it leaves Mehamn at 1 am everyday, which allowed plenty of time to get to Slettnes fyr (lighthouse) and back. A look at the Hurtigruten website showed the journey to be half the price for two days time than at any other time, so I booked it. While online I checked out the lighthouse, which had rooms cheaper than the hostel I was in, including breakfast so I booked that as well, it was really falling into place.
matt's travel & cycling blog 