My ride is not actually yet complete today, but I have unexpected time on my hands. I am in the town on Stokmarkes, Norway with four hours till my Hurtigruten ferry. I had expected to be a tourist and tour the old Hurtigruten Museum, but it is closed for refurbishment. However, across the hall from the museum ticket office I found the library for Nord (North) University. The library is 100% deserted, but open. I checked for an open wifi, and found a school network which provided me a free user ID and password in exchange for my phone number. Thus I am online.

I am actually by myself. Molly wanted to take a different route to our lodging for this evening, and when we could find another couple with she could cycle (and help if the unexpected should arise), jackpot! My route is better as it promises less traffic which given some recent vision problems is a smart idea for me.

The tailwinds continue … as does the nice pavement. As Molly and I have moved further south in the Arctic, vehicle traffic has picked up a bit. There have been some tall bridges we have had to cycle across. We chose to walk the bridge entering into Sortland yesterday afternoon … narrow lanes and a decent cross wind. We felt safer walking on the very narrow sidewalk. Given how the small sidewalk is raised above the roadbed, it would not be a good option for cycling. You would be riding with your torso above the railing … a mistake would send one falling hundreds of feet to the water.

These islands have been great for cycling. Tomorrow we start bicycling the Lofoten Islands, which apparently are much more touristy. I am thinking I will like the area from Tromso down to Lofoten better … remote and majestic.

The bridge to Stokmarknes. Thankfully only two cars passed me in my direction during my ride across the bridge.

One of these bikes is an imposter!

Here are some recent birds … nothing dramatic, but still new for me.

• White Wagtail
• Mew Gull (immature)
• Hooded Crow

Mother always said there would be days like this:

• Tailwinds
• Flat terrain
• Smooth pavement
• Clear skies
• No traffic
• Lifer birds

Yup, it does not get much better. Our ride of 30 miles was easy with beautiful scenery always present … water on the right, mountains on the left. Even the Norwegian row boats were worthy of being photographed … not everyone gets to own a Viking Longboat.

My lifer was finding Whooper Swans in one stretch of beach. There was also a second huge shortbird eating cloud berries, but they spooked so easily I could never get a photograph.

If you want to follow my bicycle trip diary, I post that daily assuming a web connection on a bike touring portal named Crazy Guy on a Bike. Our trip diary (135 miles completed at this point)

Finally … today’s picnic spot. Molly is climbing up the lighthouse.

Molly and I cycled over 5 kilometers underground today. The tunnels saved us from even more climbing. In total we rode 28 miles and climbed 8,000 feet in elevation (about the equivalent of walking up the stairs of an 800 floor skyscraper). Most of the tunnels were flat, but one dark cavern was 2 kilometers long and uphill. After the tunnel we were treated to a 8% downhill grade which lasted for 4 kilometers. While the climbing was tiring, the views we achieved out over various fjords were amazing. Here is a photo of the two of us partway up one climb.

Here is Molly in one of the tunnels. It was actually much darker than indicated in the image. I pushed the shadows up in post processing such that one could understand the environment … dark, cold, damp but one sweats a ton.

For the night we are enscounced at a great Norwegian resort (Hamn, Norway) that is the final landfall before the ocean takes over and reaches across to the middle of Greenland. Here is a screenshot of our location. Look for the blue dot.

I did find some more of the Norwegian Tuxedo Birds as the sun grew lower in the sky yesterday evening. This Eurasian Oystercatcher posed nicely for me.