I thought I'd chronicle a few days of snowboarding here in Bonnie Scotland for posterity in years to come. It's not every year we get snow like we just had in the last few weeks, and who knows what the following years will bring,,, the demise of skiing in scotland, or a shift in gulf stream and a new beginning? So we had about a foot of snow just at the back of Edinburgh, in the Pentland hills, usually the home of ramblers and mountain bikers, but for 2 weeks boarders and ski mountaineers were to be seen in the mix. [View Full Entry]

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No I've not started another trip it's ok. Am still mired in a new job. I recently discovered that Travelblog is very good for getting pictures picked up by Google. So here goes,,, the best pics I've got to offer. For any random people out there who surf on down these pictures, please leave a nice comment, and some money in the coffers if you want to buy any! Pics vary from approx 5M-7Mpixels. Sorry I only have jpegs so the best quality ones can get blown up to about A2 size. The panorama photos unfortunately are of lower resolution. They [View Full Entry]

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Well the trip is now over. I'm back in Dundee and procastinating over preparations for a move to Edinburgh and the start of a new job on monday. My trip back home with coach, train and plane was incredibly hitch-free. I woke up on time from my hostel in Kabelvag (hard not to with my alarm set to Fight for Your Right to Party by Beastie Boys - it gives me heart palpitations when it goes off). I didn't fall back to sleep. I ate a nice breakfast. I got the bike ready for the 5km into Svolvaer. My bike didn't [View Full Entry]

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Photos from the previous blog are up. I've made it to my end destination... well I'm at the hostel tonight 5km from Svolvær where I neet to be at 9.30am tomorrow to catch my bus to Narvik. Lofoten has of course been amazing despite a cruel northerly wind. Full report to come, here's some photos... Right here goes: So I eventually got to Lofoten from Bodo at 6am after the 1.45am ferry was delayed and delayed until about 3am. The ticket collector at Bodo was looking a bit stressed - apparently the ship was refueling - we could see it across [View Full Entry]

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Well okay I'm not quite in Bodø just yet. Got about 120km to go - so I'll be there tonight. From there, it's a 4 hour ferry to Moskenes in Lofoten and conveniently there are ferries leaving at midnight so I'll catch the overnighter (except of course there is no night up here as I've already crossed the Arctic Circle) and have my last two days cycling on Lofoten. I've already worked out that if I get to Svolvær there's a bus to Narvik on the morning of the 8th which makes my train connection to Stockholm with an hour and [View Full Entry]

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I pushed on from Trollstigen via Andalsnes. There I got my wheel fixed (170 kroner) and had the good (or bad) luck to notice a slow puncture at the shop. We found the culprit, a little thorn stuck in the tyre. Lucky I guess that we had the wheel apart anyway - but now I've lost my no puncture record. I think I made about 2000 miles puncture-free though - must be some kind of record! That night I pushed on (i had some vague hope about making Trondheim the next day, but gauging distances is hard). Despite coming out of [View Full Entry]

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Onto Geiranger, and I had no idea from my map that I'd be making another snowbound climb up to just over 1000m (from about 500m this time). The previous night I had a lovely campsite next to Pollfoss, a huge gushing section of rapids, in a nice fir tree forest (my last midge-free night! but more on that later...) The road up and over to Geiranger was really spectacular with an amazing first view straight down 1000m to the fjord below chockablock with cruise ships. A had a bit of a rest in the town (touristy as hell, but nonetheless a [View Full Entry]

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Jotunheimen is the national park that contains all of Norway's high mountains over 2400m and highway 5 runs right by to 1434m over 20km from sea level, an obvious attraction for me on my panniered up bike. I was lucky. I started the climb late in the day (queue 3rd spoke breakage!!), so there was no way I was going to make the top. It wouldn't have been practical to camp up there in any case. After chatting with a friendly guy at the tourist info at the base town, I decided to try for Turtagrø 1000m up the pass. The [View Full Entry]

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I've arrived safe, but road-weary in Trondheim. I'm going to have a rest day here tomorrow (so I can watch the football final!!!) and then we'll see. I'm thinking about taking a train just a bit to catch up on a couple of lost days. In that way I can enjoy the end more rather than having to race to get there. I should say I have now got a flight booked back home,, from Stockholm to Edinburgh! May sound crazy - but there is method to my madness... you'll see in a bit! Anyway I'm about to get kicked out [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday disaster struck. I'd just descended off my first big pass (650m up to the snow line just) in the freezing rain and wind - no probs. I didn't even take a break going up. On the way down my hands got so numb I could barely brake but I got down to the comparatively flat lake at the bottom just a few km from Voss when I somehow managed to crash in most bizarre fashion. I remember a car coming by me on the single lane road, and after that I looked around to see if there was anything else. [View Full Entry]

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