Hi there,

The night boat from Denmark to the Norwegian Egersund gives me plenty of opportunity to meet my ‘fellow-travellers’. There’s this woman from Copenhagen, for instance, who recounts her adventures from all over the world and this student, ready to have a go in the cycling classic Trondheim-Oslo. He’s so over the moon about it that he is trying to talk me into participating myself (more about this later on).

After an ‘unsteady’ night aboard the Fjord Line Ferry I set foot ashore in Norway accompanied by a friendly Norwegian man who happens to live in the vicinity of my picnic spot. He invites me in to share a delicious and wholesome meal in his cosy house. A few photos have to immortalise our meeting and we take leave with the promising words "one day we will cycle together to Santiago de Compostela – but from Belgium, please!"

All by myself again I increase the pace. Uphill, standing on my pedals and once on the top I throw my weight on them and speed downhill leaning forward on my steering wheel.
Racing rapidly along the descent I pass a sporty young lady and have to restrict myself to a swift "Hellooo ....!" Luckily downhill I have to wait for my ferry or I would never have met the charming German-Irish Anni. To be accurate I have to tell you that Anni is German but feels 90% Irish after spending a year in Cork.

3 hours later and 25 kilometres further on we arrive together in Jorpeland where we make camp for the night at the foot of the well-known Preikestolen. This perpendicular cliff towers above the Lysefjort at a dangling height of 607 m. In the morning we set off for a rainy climb to the top. Poor visibility owing to fog gives it a mysterious touch which we like a lot. Once on top we stare down but have to contend ourselves with a very restricted view. Back on the camping-site we indulge ourselves in Norwegian Fiskebollen. This proofs that Norwegian is not hard to understand. Yes, these are "balls of fish". Delicious!

The next morning we say goodbye but make a promise to meet each other in Bergen.
Happy as always I head for the fjords, something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Time passes, the distances grow longer but I don’t think about stopping. For this is the birth of my first Scandinavian midsummer night ride. And it won’t be the last one. To be continued!