Last day, had to get up early again. Flight departed 07:35. The Taxi driver I ordered last night didn’t really get the big box with a bike thing, but the car was large enough for everything to fit inside. At the airport, I put a bunch of post cards into the mailbox, which I wrote last night.

I then checked in my luggage including the bike. At the airport, I borrowed a marker from the counter to highlight the directions and handling grips of the box.

Time to hand over my bike into the airline’s custody. Let’s hope for the best.

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Now that my primary mission is accomplished, I need to get back home somehow.

When I started the trip, I only had some rough ideas ranging from air plane to riding some more stages or taking a bus to the next railway station. From there I would then take a train back to e. g. Helsinki or Stockholm and then a ferry back to Germany. Then bike or train again through Germany.

Due to the unpredictability of this trip, and my lack of planning anything beyond equipment, booking anything in advance was no option.

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Mission accomplished. Today was the day, and what a day. Definitely one of the best in my life. But let’s start from the beginning.

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Tough day weather-wise.

Despite the bad forecast with rain and cold, I woke up in a sun heated tent. Outside, there were over 20 degree Celsius, but very dark clouds all around, only a small window allowing the sun to shine on the camp site. I dressed lightly, but the temperatures dropped quickly. The camp site was a few kilometres outside Alta. When I passed through the town temperatures were already below 16 degree Celsius, and the north wind made it feel much colder again.

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Today it was dark, windy and a little rainy. I didn’t sleep very well. It got late last night when I caught up with the blog entries and when I tried stuff to recover the lost Garmin track. Moreover, some animal was rustling on, around, and under the tent for the whole night. Every time I looked, there was nothing to see, but the noises never stopped. In the morning when I put down the tent, a little lemming was running from under it to the next bush. This little suicidal bastard also shat on one of my bags.

The last night and today, I used the tent’s guy lines for the first time, in order to make it more wind stable. The days before, I didn’t even put in all tent pegs.

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The Garmin screwed up the data when it auto powered down. The GPS track is from the OruxMaps app. so only the sensors’ data (pulse, cadence) is really lost. Here’s what I remember from the Garmin before it powered off while I checked in. It is supposed to do that, and it’s usually no problem to turn it on and off during rides.

158 km
6:38 h moving time
23.8 km/h average

I started at 10:30 after repacking my bags. I moved the cooking equipment to the back and all the cold and rain gear to the front for easy access on the road. Actually, it was 11:30, since Finland is in another time zone, as it turned out. The bike computer and the phone automatically update their times, but not simultaneously – very confusing. It is also rather strange to cross another time zone while heading north.

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The sunny fun part is over. I’m in the real north now. I got up late and did the daily morning routine at a relaxed pace, knowing there’s only around 106 kilometres today.

That’s what the insects here do to your legs.

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A day of regeneration works wonders. Through the first kilometres, I thought my legs don’t feel recovered at all, but this changed quickly. In the end, I did 25 km/h on average over 165 km with that heavily packed travel bike. With 1000 height meters, it wasn’t a flat stage either.

Riding 25 instead of 20 km/h makes an hour difference in moving time for 100 km.

A last view of the Baltic Sea’s coast at the camp site before heading inland. The stage started around 11:20.

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The day after major bike failure…

I googled, read forums, checked the manuals, got some ideas via mail from a colleague, but nothing would help.

Yesterday, I got a phone number of a local bike guy from the nice lady in whose garden I currently camp.

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After breakfast around 08:00, my hosts and their friends left for a Sunday boat trip. I packed my stuff and performed some bike maintenance before leaving myself. It was already too late when I noticed that I forgot my fleece jacket in the bathroom of the now locked house. Well, I still have my bike jackets and will eventually get it back. So that’s not a real problem.

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