cycling where the sun refused to set

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I'd cycled through the Lofoten islands before, some years back. I KnEw I would encounter 480 hours of continuous daylight in the 20 days I planned to cycle and camp there. Still, I was baffled to watch, as it neared midnight, the sun refuse to set. It would head for the horizon only to boomerang its way back up, as if changing its mind. Though I could only watch this play out on the rare cloudless day...

...the clouds and the rain. The rain and my not!waterproof tent. These were my constant companions, my first three days in Lofoten. A recipe for a disastrous trip. Yet I found myself smiling and laughing as the rain splashed down on my gray helmet, down my yellow raincoat, down my speeding blue bike. Cycling on the bottom edge of mountains that dwarfed me, with only the flat endless sea on the other side, I was as far as I could possibly be from the concrete jungle of my current home, Shanghai. And rain or no rain, I cycled on, with the wind on my back rustling everything, Everything, in its path and around me - all the trees and fallen leaves and stubborn birds. Everything, that is, except me, as I was accomplice to the wind, and we flew, smooth as silk, kilometer after kilometer as if inch after inch.

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Photos

reflections
moskenes

flowers worshipping the sun
gimsoya

leaving henningsvaer
worth the detour

swimming clouds
b/w A and Moskenes

waves and their silent audience
past ramberg. reminds me of a story about a little wave frolicking under the sun, teasing the fish, surfing, until it looked up and saw the waves before it, all crashing onto the shore. A passing big wave saw the little wave's horror, and asked it what the matter was. You don't understand, the little wave said, we're all soon to crash!, we're all doomed! No, it is you who doesn't understand, the big wave said gently; we're not waves, but part of the ocean.

fredvang

reine

sand and snow
nearing fiskebol

parking lot
svolvaer

on top of the world
gimsoya

rebel mountain, nestling cloud
fredvang

worth the looong ride uphill
detour approaching leknes

midnight peace
end of the road: A.
Looking back, I remember the anxiety that kept me up the night before my flight to Lofoten. It was my first lone cycle tour, and I was scared that I'd lose my way, that I couldn't pull it off, that it would all end in tears. But b/c I was scared and b/c it was a first, I had to do it. And like all the firsts I've done that've initially terrified me, it has strengthened my belief that anything and everything's possible, one step at a time.

Comments

[Dan]

Wow
What a beautiful area. I have always wanted to go where the sun does not set in the summer.

[Rob_n_Lorenza]

Great photos! Good you are brave to travel alone. Lorenza

[Lexy925]

Gorgeous pictures!
What beautiful pictures-- sounds like wonderful time.