Norway day 13 

Laerdal tunnel 

218 miles  


Norway day 13






I woke up in my hut to the sound of rain. This was bad as I'd parked the bike on grass and the road to the site was just an earth farm track.  

I got up late after lying in bed hoping that the rain would stop and headed out at around 9.30, managing to forget my plug socket adaptor in the process.  
I got out of the campsite without any drama and headed off into the heavy rain.  

I could see a lot of great scenery but didn't stop for it as it was raining so heavily. 

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After one ferry I got to the longest road tunnel in the world, the Laerdal tunnel traveling 24.5km underground.  

There are laybys 5 km from each entrance and one in the middle, all lit up blue. I stopped in the middle one to take some pictures, it was quite nice as it was dry and 20c, instead of wet and 11c outside.  

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Finding the usual lack of places to stop for lunch I decided to risk another garage hotdog. This turned out to be a mistake and I binned the "meat" before eating some of the bun. The hotdogs seem to be really popular but are really nasty.

I rode further through even more elaborate tunnels, two of them had roundabouts in them. This caused some confusion as the nav didn't have a signal and I hadn't paid attention previously.  
One of the tunnels finished and I found myself on a bridge high above the fjord before plunging into another tunnel on the opposite cliff face. I was starting to think the tunnelers are getting bored.  

The rain continued all day and after stopping in Odda but not liking the look of the hotels there I eventually found a hotel in Hara at around 6pm.  It had a lovely view and the bed was up a ladder above the living area. The food in the hotel restaurant was pretty good too.
They let me park the bike in the garage so at least it was be dry by morning.   
I'd learned by this point that if I wanted more than one drink with dinner it was easier to order them up front, so I confused the woman at the bar by ordering ciders but only one glass.

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During the day I thought my motorbike gear was leaking, it turned out that I was mostly dry underneath apart from some water wicking down from the neck area. It was just so cold it felt wet.  
The heated vest helped a lot, well worth the cash. I had the heated grips on high for most of the day with my hands in the non-waterproof side of my gloves as you get better feel and more heat that way. I ended up with steamed hands though.


Once I got myself into the room and stood in a boiling shower for as long as I could stand I had to spead out all my gear so it would dry by morning. This is where camping really falls down as there is no-where to dry anything.

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