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. There wasn't. I turned back around to face the road to find myself not in the centre but hurtling unavoidably towards a ditch. The bike flew, time froze. My face mashed into a spongy mossy ... read more

I'm just back from Preikestolen. This is Norway's number 1 tourist draw. An amazing bit of rock that sticks out above the Lysefjorden, just over an hour cycle (plus 20 mins on a ferry) from Stavanger. Yesterday, after a lazy morning, and the first rain whilst cycling since Germany (I waited it out in a bus shelter which there are loads of) I hoicked myself up the 300m climb to the end of the road at Preikestolhytte and was greeted by a huge car park with a mix of campervans and cars and a long queue to get out as the barriers didn't seem to be working. Haha. Well I had intended camping wild again, but a) they have special no camping rules for this area, b) I saw the lovely hostel overlooking a lake at ... read more

A big hello from Norway - after 3 weeks I finally reached what was to be the start of my cycle trip!!! I just caught two ferries in the last 3 days. One from Gothenburg, Sweden to Denmark and the other from Denmark to Kristiansand, Norway. But just in case you were thinking that's a bit of a cheat seeing as I'm supposed to be cycling all the way, well I took in a couple of detours one to the very tip of Denmark and the other to an huge sand dune which has literally swallowed a lighthouse. Both impressive sights... more below. So it was with a bit of a heavy heart that I finally left Sweden. My last evening in Gothenburg at the lovely clean hostel I got chatting with a Portuguese guy living ... read more

I've now just arrived Gothenburg having spent 3 lovely sundrenched days cycling up here. That'll be in my next blog entry to come... Ok, so back to Copenhagen. Well my first day there in fact I ended up going to visit my friend Alexandra, a Swedish girl I knew from Oxford. She's now studying (well kind of so it seems!) in Lund, the Swedish version of Oxford. I got the train across and had a nice day, first wandering around Lund and the university then down to the beach at Lomma. This was my first of many Swedish beach experiences, and on the hottest day of the trip it was amazing to get in the cool water. I didn't realise at the time, but the water isn't salty at all! It's just like swimming in a ... read more

Photos from the previous blog are now up too! Well I've now arrived in Lubeck, a beautiful city indeed (thanks lonely planet) on a warm and sunny and yes windy day! The wind if anything is getting stronger, and today I had a gentle (?!) 30 miler in the morning to get here. Actually most of the way was a very nice ride following the route of an old railway line through gently undulating countryside (note even gently undulating is tough on a fully loaded tourer) with deer and rabbits frolicking in the grass either side and huge wheat fields everywhere, and almost as huge farmhouses at all the villages on the way. Well it may sound like everything has gone completely smoothly since yesterday, but not quite! Firstly having left Gluckstadt with the ambition to ... read more