July 2025

Sunday, July 6th. I had a good sleep and the tent got dry again. I had to change the brake pads due to terrain for the past 1000 km or so. The weather was very nice on this day: sunshine, 21 °C and little to no wind. The roads were great but also full of hills – had to push my bike quite few times uphill.

I’ve visited Tønsberg and Sandefjord, both very nice places.

My bike computer showed some life signs during sunshine (heats up, releases some moisture) but it was still rebooting intermittenly. I will try to dry it with a pocket oven. The pocket oven is filled with Zippo lighter gasoline and the gasoline is burnt slowly by a catalyst material over few hours. It releases enough heat to keep things like hands warm at cozy 40-50 °C.

Today’s shelter was hidden near Nevlungshaven. Amazing place near a bay where one could take a bath. I really liked this place and after having a dinner, I went to swim a bit. Perfect ending for a long day.

~90 km today, 12-13 km/h

The day started at 6am with some low-intensity rain which built up steadily. I packed my stuff inside of the tent and prepared myself for the rainy weather. As soon as I stepped outside, my rain clothes were fine and dealt with rain very well. However, the tent got wet and I had no  chance to pack it in a dry place. I left the camp site at 9am and had to navigate to the cycling route while it was raining. Luckily it was mostly cycling downhill so I was able to be on route in about 30 min without difficulties.

The next 4 hours were “OK” for cycling – heavy rain but no wind and not to steep terrain. I couldn’t take photos becsuse everything would get wet in few seconds. At a certain point I was wet outside due to rain and also wet inside due to sweat. That’s no problem as long one stays warm. My feet are my weak point 😅 Once they are soaked and cold – game over. But luckily not this time.

I visited the city of Drammen where I was able to set up the wet tent in a park and remove the water as best as possible. This is extremely important on bike tours – wet tents can be a showstopper. The moisture needs to be removed, otherwise the tent will get “moldy” 2-3 days later. Sleeping in a wet tent is also very uncomfortable. Every time you encounter this situation, stop at a dry place (under a bridge for example) and clean the tent.

The journey on Route 1 continued until it “ended” abrupt near Kjeldås. My way to the city of  Horten was mostly via country roads and I had to use smartphone navigation a lot. The weather got better by the evening and I reached Horten without problems.

I cycled about 12 km more to a hidden shelter just outside Åsgardstrand. It was located inside of a forest. The shelter place had a hut where I could stay alone for a night. I set up the tent once again, dried it and slept inside (to fend off pesky mosquitoes).

My bike computer got wet and it stopped working. Probably some moisture got inside and messed up the electronics. It keeps “rebooting” so no accurate kilometer estimate is possible right now. RIP

I cycled around 100 km according to the map measuring tool.

Friday, July 4th. Free day to hang out in Oslo. Weather was superb – sunshine, some 20ish °C, mild breeze. After leaving the camping place and swearing never to visit them again*, I looked for a quiet place in a park to choose some few places to visit. I was carrying a lot of stuff with me so climbing the hills of Oslo was not an option.

I’ve visited the central station, the opera house, the city hall, the parliament, the cathedral, the Royal Palace and the German embassy. Along the route, I’ve seen the harbor where ships commute between Oslo and Kiel.

In the evening, I thought I’d give another camping site a try. After driving up the hills for 30 minutes, I arrived at another Top Camp site in Oslo. Oh, the horrors – not again… Anyways, paid 50 EUR and I was shocked by the construction site I saw behind the entrance 😅 Luckily, everything was fine: quiet place, well maintained service house – no problems whatsoever. They were very kind to charge my batteries over night.

I talked to nearby campers about my journey and they gave me some useful advices for my future travels to eastern/northern Norway! Great day with some rainy clouds on the horizon. 

Not many kilometers today… 24.9 km, 7.8 km/h (mostly walking through the city and climbing the hills)

Thursday, July 3rd. Day started with pissing rain at 16 °C. I felt no hurry to rush things and had some coffee and snacks. The sleep in the shelter was excellent besides mosquitoes waking me up during the night.

The tour started a bit late at 10:30am. It was raining on and off for an hour but the weather got better by noon. The first 10 km on the roads were nice and quiet until I approached larger cities where traffic noise dominated the background noise.

Reaching Moss was pretty much straight-forward, however, I got slowed down significantly by construction sites spread over multiple towns. Some parts of the route were closed, so finding alternative routes cost me some additional time getting back on route. Navigating through cities in a zig-zag manner was hell. I lost the way many times and finding back on route was very time-consuming.

Anyways, at a certain point I ignored everything around me and just wanted to get to Oslo as fast as possible in order to escape the “Göteborg fiasco” as described few days ago…

I approached Oslo around 8pm. I had a view from the hills descending towards Ljan. The evening sun was shining and it was beautiful. Every 100 meters I had to take new pictures because more details appeared.

The descend showed some issues with Oslo: lots of traffic, little parking space, many private properties, small sidewalks (barely enough space for a pedestrian). I visited the central station Oslo S prior to moving to a camping site in Ekeberg.

I decided to stay at Top Camp in Ekeberg. The price tag was high for a cyclist with tent: I paid 600 NOK for one night stay (approx. 50 EUR) which is almost double the price from Swedish camps. The quality of the camp site service house was disappointing: jammed toilet doors, clogged drain, prepaid card charging machine out of service. I couldn’t charge up my batteries. However, the tent area was large and spacy and the views on the cityline from the hill were awesome. I would not camp there again except in an emergency case like this.

I will stay tomorrow (Friday) in Oslo and do some sightseeing. I don’t like the traffic and high price tags. Staying there will deciminate my travel budget very quickly. Therefore, moving on by evening may be a possible conclusion of my short visit…

100.2 km, 7h57m, average speed 12.58 km/h, 42.91 km/h max.

Wednesday, July 2nd. Woke up early in the morning to get some extra kilometers done. I was 10-15 km too short according to my plans. I was on the road quickly and the weather was OK for cycling: 18 °C overcast, no wind, a bit of rain clouds.

The cycle route was mostly on the regular road. The car drivers in Sweden and Norway were very nice so far and really friendly! I had no trouble and felt always safe on the roads. Thank you car drivers!

The route was challenging but I had to walk rarely due to steep hills. The walks were short, just few tens of meters to maybe 300 meters. I could maintain a good speed and progressed without large dificulties. I listened to music to mitigate the loud sounds of bypassing traffic and to get some variety.

I reached Halden by noon and continued to Isebakke, just 3 km away from Swedish border. At this place, my old friend “Route 1” – The North Sea Cycling Route. From there, I continued cycling to Fredrikstad.

On my was to Fredrikstad I was close to the birthplace of Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian Explorer who reached the South Pole some 100 years ago. In Fredrikstad I took the ferry over the river and kept cycling 15 more kilometers. I found a very nice shelter near Elingård along the Route 1. Very unique and exciting day. Will hopefully reach Oslo tomorrow!

126.3 km, 9h10m, avg 13.78 km/h, max speed 51.84 km/h 😎

Tuesday, July 1st. After camping at Bengtsfors and charging up my batteries, the day started with sunshine and awesome weather forecast. I left the camp at 9:30am. The landscape changed to more forest and hills. My cycling route was mostly on the asphalt roads, which were great. 

Cycling was challenging going uphill but I had to pull the bike just a couple of times. The gear range was sufficient for most hills. Racing downhill was the most fun part: fresh wind and high-speed feeling. This “up and down” repeated for the next 70 km or so until 11 km prior to Töcksfors.

I kept following the Route 4 but the terrain changed suddenly to gravel/forest walkpaths and steep terrain. The roads were rather made for mountainbikers than for regular travel bikes. I had to push my bike a lot and the mosquitoes started to bite me 😅

At some point and struggling ~1.5  hours, I reached Töcksfors. The morale was low so I had to eat something. I shopped some food before moving on to the border, which was only few kilometers away.

Everything went well until some 2 km prior to the border. The route changed from regular road to the well-known steep forest gravel thingy. So I had to literally push my bike and hike to the border.

At this point, it was just annoying. Will I ever be able to ride my bike again? After 45 minutes of pushing uphill, I finally reached the Swedish/Nirwegian border. It was very rewarding and I was proud of achieving this.

After walking a bit out of the forest and returning back to the regular roads, I cycled downhill to the next place called Ørje. I found a small camping spot at a local parking lot/rest area with toilets and set up my tent. There was another guy from France who also set up his tent. We talked a bit and got ready to get some sleep. The french guy told me he was hich-hiking from France to anywhere he wants and has already been in Vietnam… I was mind-blown by his story, bonne voyage!

99.8 km, 8h19m, average speed 11.98 km/h, 51.7 km/h max.