I woke again with a start, and knowing the ship was going to stop at 8 am at Harstad, I decided to have a lie in and not even look out the window. I did get up eventually and had another good breakfast (I nearly caused an international incident when trying to peel a hardboiled egg, that turned out to be softboiled, but nobody was hurt). After breakfast and a few more hours of wasting time it was time to get off the MS Lofoten at Sortland, which is in the Vesteralen Islands. The ship docked at 12:00 and I had already identified the nearest supermarket as I had no food. It was a big Coop Prix store and it was shut, I assumed for lunch. As I waited outside it gradually dawned on me that it was Sunday, and I had no chance of getting food. There was a MIX shop (like in Mehamn) so it was biscuits, sweets and a bottle of water to keep me going. The road followed the coast and the Hurtigruten was in sight sailing along for most of the afternoon. The road was on a very wide coastal plain with big mountains behind, it was incredibly green and fertile compared with the north and it was nice weather with a bit of a headwind. The main thing I noticed was the abundance of birds, everywhere and flying along with the bike.

I was heading to Stokmarknes and the road was completely flat until the bridge into town. The gradient over the bridge wasn’t too bad, and a couple of passing trucks gave me loads of room.

I stopped at the top for a good view and could see the MS Lofoten just pulling out of the harbour, so I hadn’t made bad time. The Stokmarknes campsite was a little out of town, at the foot of some big cliffs. It was deserted except for a Czech hiker who asked me to help fold his tent up, he had been hiking and fishing but the weather had not been kind, so was packing up to catch a bus.
With no shops open, I did a quick Google to find my food options, a restaurant/bar or kebab shop, both had good recommendations, so the kebab shop won, and cycled down for the biggest burger they had.

Back on the site chatted to a Norwegian couple who had cycled up from the Lofoten Islands and recommended a couple of routes and a campsite. They were from Harstad (this morning’s port where I didn’t even get up) and were doing a weekend tour. Th campsite man came around at 10:00pm and I paid the fees (120 NOK) on a card machine standing at my tent – there were only two tents on the whole site.

Sunday 22 June 2015, Distance Cycled 36 km, Total Distance 763 km