Introduction

Introduction

This is the third part of a series which chronicles progress in cycling around the North Sea, mostly by following the North Sea Cycle Route. The first part of this challenge was ridden in September 2014 when we undertook the ride from Den Helder in the Netherlands to Hamburg. Part two was the ride in June 2015 when we cycled from Hamburg to Frederikshavn in Denmark. This final part was ridden in June 2016 when we returned to Frederikshavn by road to connect with the ferry to Gothenburg where we started our ride to Bergen.

This final part was challenging on several fronts. The first challenge was that Ricky’s bike has pedal assist so no airline would fly his bike. This meant that we had to go by ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam and then drive through Holland, Germany and Denmark to get back to Frederikshavn before we could start. Similarly, it meant the return journey from Bergen involved overland travel to get back to Frederikshavn before we could retrace our footsteps back to the UK.

The second challenge was in the route planning. We were able to obtain guides to our previous forays but we could find very little printed material about the route in Sweden and Norway. We relied mostly on the mapping available through the North Sea Cycle Route website. This proved to be reliable in the main but may be out of date in some respects. Information about ferries is not embedded in the NSCR mapping. We had rather assumed ferries would be freely available and they are in some places, but not all. We also assumed that the ferries shown within the mapping were running and this proved incorrect, particularly around Stavanger. We had several conversations with other cyclists who were finding it hard to work their way northwards out of Stavanger.

The third challenge for a couple of Yorkshire Lads was expense. Everyone seemed to be of the view that Scandinavia is expensive, and it is. That said, we found that by eating out of supermarkets (where available) and by mainly using camping cabins (we did not carry camping equipment) we could keep cost down to a reasonable level.

Finally, we were concerned about weather and the simple remoteness. This being the case we took along lots of layers and warm clothing together with a tarp to provide outdoors cover if needed. We were rewarded with almost two weeks of unbroken sunshine (most unusual according to local opinion) but we almost had to use the tarp as we were left stranded one night.

An Overview

Our plan was to cycle 800+ miles at the rate of 45/50 miles a day. We reckoned on 18/19 days of riding. In fact, we cycled about 600 miles over 15 days. We were slightly under the 45 miles a day mark in the first few days so we opted to take the ferry from Stromstadt to Sandefjord rather than the Moss – Horten ferry. This saved about 100 miles of cycling and we did this so we had greater flexibility towards the end of the ride if we were behind schedule. In hindsight, we would have not done this had we known the difficulties in progressing past Stavanger as, in the event, we used a ferry to take us from Stavanger to Bergen and we could have ridden another 2 or 3 days with ease.

We were also unsure of accommodation. In the leg from Hamburg to Frederikshavn we had used Youth Hostels extensively but research told us that hostels were not that common in Sweden and Norway. This proved to be correct although there are some hostel type places to stay.

In both Sweden and Norway, we found cycle provision to be excellent; most busy roads having cycle paths. We also found drivers to be more than considerate. Signage for the NSCR in Sweden was hard to find (we used a Garmin Tour sat nav so this was not a problem) but in Norway signage was excellent throughout for where we rode. What happened after Stavanger I cannot say.

Getting out there.

29^th, 30^th, 31^st May

We departed Leeds for Newcastle on the 29^th May to catch the overnight ferry to Ijmuiden. It was a calm crossing and the van was well positioned so we were first off the ferry and away on the long drive. This I was not looking forwards to but it wasn’t as bad as I expected by a long way. I had invested in a new sat nav with full European mapping and this advised which lane to be in at junctions. This helped considerably. We left Ijmuiden before 10:00 am but heavy traffic in Hamburg and around the Kiel canal slowed progress so we didn’t make it through to Fredrikshavn as planned. As the light faded we were passing Aarhus so we pulled into one of the small parks at the side of the road and got a few hours sleep in the van. It was quite a busy night with fairly constant comings and goings, including a recovery truck picking a car up, so we were up and off again at 5:30. This got us in to Frederikshavn not too long after 8:00.

On arriving we went straight to the Stena building to arrange the ferry to Gothenburg and, joy of joys, they said we could leave the van in their car park, free of charge for as long as we wanted! Brought a smile to the face of a Yorkshireman that did! So, we park the van up, sort out panniers for the final time and leave the van tidy for our return. That left us with a couple of hours to kill in Frederikshavn before we boarded the ferry for the three and a half hour crossing. As always, we met another cyclist (a German chap from Stuttgart) who was also riding north from Gothenburg but this time heading for North Cape.

The ferry to Gothenburg berthed about 5:00pm so we went straight to the hostel and booked in for the night before walking into the city centre for a look around. Then, it’s an early night to get maximum rest for whatever lies in store as we start the ride proper.