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Published: September 2nd 2008
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Monday 1st September
Bergen may be the wettest city in Europe but not today, or yesterday for that matter. Had a bit of a wander round the city and it is a lovely city - as the pictures will illustrate. But cities are for couples, families or mates so having seen as much as I wanted I decided to go for a spin. Looking at the map I reckoned a good loop would be around the Osterfjorden from Bergen->Mo->Dale->Bergen, not one of the famous fjords but so what I was going to those tomorrow as part of my route staying at Ulvik. Famous or not it was a mega ride - once you got down to the fjord edge the road hugged the fjord edge. Once off the E39 onto the 569 the road was single track but still reasonable - well mostly. Google map of ride: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&saddr=Parkveien,+5007+Bergen,+Norway&daddr=Unknown+road+%!,(MISSING)+5.805830+to:E16+%!,(MISSING)+5.817610+to:Parkveien,+5007+Bergen,+Norway&hl=en&geocode=%!B(MISSING)0,60.816100,5.805830%!B(MISSING)0,60.588020,5.817610%!B(MISSING)&mra=ls&sll=60.563185,5.74894&sspn=0.034252,0.144196&ie=UTF8&z=8
I decided today I would try out the helmet cam. I think, as you can see for yourself, that Charlie and Ewan's production team won't be threatened by these appalling attempts but I have stuck them on for a laugh. It's all very well having a helmet cam - but
unless you ride into the f*cking fjord no-one is going to see the amazing scenery to the left and right of the road are they? No they are only going to see where your bonce is looking. And how do you tell which way is up and keep it level? After a couple of abortive attempts - yes even worse than the rubbish posted here, I tried riding with my head at an angle with my eyes in the corner of their sockets trying to see where I was going. Well safe! And still you couldn't see the damn scenery. I think the way to go is to mount the thing on the bike pointing off to the side, else the prophecy of a recording of a crash will be realised by using the thing.
What else today - oh yes tunnels. What's with the temperature drop in them - do they pump liquid nitrogen in them or something, anything over a kilometre was bloody freezing. And there are a lot of tunnels - I would say about half as much of the road is in a tunnel, and in places more than that. Typical lengths are 1-5 km,
but there is one monster 24km one - needless to say I will be avoiding the road that is on. Granted it is impressive that there are roads at all through the rocks but what did they dig them out with - spoons? The surface is basically more like a long cave, nearly as dark and dank and wet and cold. Basically not nice places. Euch.
One tunnel was being re-surfaced and the one side that was open I was warned was covered in oil and to be careful. Oil on the road and motorbikes do not mix, so this slowed my previously enjoyable flick-flacking through the bends down somewhat. Anyway by this stage oncoming traffic was having a reasonable stab at pushing me off the edge so I took it easy from then on.
Took the screen off today - it was better in some respects worse in others, I am undecided.
Tomorrow I leave the comfort of the hotel and its wireless internet to camp. Well in theory - it is absolutely hosing down outside now. Marvellous - I love getting off a bike soaking wet and camping. So I suspect the 27 bags of
camping equipment will remain as ballast a little longer. Sod that, I'll find a hotel. Still next dry day I will camp.
Bed beckons...
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Bruce
non-member comment
helmet cam
Gary Hope your helmet cam films improve in content. I'ld rather watch the view from the thing with it turned off. Have a great trip and ride safely. Bruce