Pearls On Wheels

Geiranger is a tiny port.  With very steep access and narrow streets.  Each season many thousands of cruise ship passengers will arrive and go on excursions. Whichever direction will involve buses driving them up steep narrow roads with hairpin bends.  Unwittingly we timed it well... We arrived late yesterday and departed early this morning before the buses were on the road. Geiranger is a tourist Mecca.  It is a bit like Milford Sound in New Zealand which is a similarly crowded place when tour buses arrive and guests go out on the sightseeing boats.  I have selected some photos that show the road, the farms, the scenery.  You can see what I see from the back of the bike. Come, ride with us...     Farming high above the fjord on steep slopes.   N   Over the saddle and into farmland. Sheep, some cattle.         Down the mountains to the ferry...   Up we go to the Trollstegin highway.   Another splendid Nation...

 Two days of sensory overload. Mountains, rivers, waterfalls... Fjords, snowy mountain tops... It's  the mind that imagined and the hand that created all this.... Good roads.. Each day has several major ascents and descents on switch back roads. Yesterday we saw the most amazing lookout point at the summit of a zigzag. Beautiful design which made us feel like we were flying like birds over the road we had just ridden. By chance we met the architect and the contractor who were on site. It's the people who imagine and create... Tunnels galore... 100km of tunnels Monday 80km tunnels yesterday... 20% of each day in tunnels. Some new tunnels with technicolor lighting,  Some tunnels with spirals - a continuous left turn for several km had me puzzled for a moment. My brother is a tunnelling engineer and I have been thinking of him and the tunnellers around the world. It's the people who imagine and create... We ride through farm land. Small fields on hillsides with freshly mown ...

  It has been lovely to be back at the Sea Front Hirtshals Hotel in a familiar place. Not for long.  Time to do some laundry and to listen to a storm crashing around through the night. All calm in the morning.   Fuelled on herrings for breakfast Dick took me down to wait to board the Colorline ferry. A crowd of men on little motorbikes collects behind big girl Orlanda and Henry on his Honda. Young Vidrar is quietly excited as he perches on Orlanda and is inducted as a junior Team Kiwi member. The four hour Super Speed Colorline ferry trip is comfortable for us and there is more space for the bikes on this ship. The crew put on live singing and dancing performances for the children. Much shrieking with delight. We see lots of people doing duty free shopping. Not an ounce of envy. The only spending we do is for fuel, accommodation and food. Life is very simple on the road.  I realised toward the end of our time in Iceland that I had begun to compose songs again. First ...