Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

Lofoten Islands and Vesterålen are probably among the most beautiful areas in Norway. We haven’t spent enough time by far there, so Wife and I decided to go there this summer with the kids on our bikes.

Magnus decided to stay at home with Granny on this 2 week trip, as he’s no fan of motorcycle trips, so the setup was Wife on her Breva 750, acting as the pack mule (the Breva that is), myself riding and Oda as pillion on the Tenere. The Guzzi Quota had suffered a major ignition fault just before the trip, so it was - needless to say - the perfect timing for buying the cool thumper (Guzzi doesn’t offer these kind of bikes - if they did, I’d buy one from them of course...).

Vis større kart

The route we took, nearly 4000 km's in total.

We headed out with no particular plan, other than us being at the Rally Norway in Vesterålen on 11  July and to spend some days at my sister’s in Bodø. I wanted to ride along the RV17 Coastal Route southwards, but Wifey said that it was only an option if the weather was fair. Fair enough, I said.

Our first stayover at Rena i Østerdalen valley. Cheap accomodation, but a godforsaken place. All photos: HP 2008 (mobile phone camera)

We chose to start our tour amidst downpours of near-Biblical scale on Monday 7 July in the afternoon. Wife had checked all online weather forecasters and decided that we might be able to dodge the worst. So we actually did, and had our first night at the godforsaken place Rena in the Østerdalen valley. Cheap “hytte” though. Not much to report from a place that is godforsaken, other than you really need to visit the China restaurant in the center, which probably is an all time low with regard to food experience and moody surroundings...

Oda and Sølvi in front of the Rena Church, which is built with logs. Pretty nice, being in a godforsaken place like this...

On Tuesday 8^th we proceeded all the way to Trondheim. We decided to pitch our tent at a camping site in the outskirts of Trondheim, the Sanmoen motel & camping at Heimdal. Fair enough place. Bus to the centre once an hour, which the staff didn’t know of so we ended up with grabbing a cab to the centre to spend the day. We didn’t want to walk around in our motorcycle gear, besides we adults wanted to have a beer with the food while there.

A guy holding a basket containing three heads was Oda's favourite statue on the Nidarosdomen Cathedral in Trondheim.

We did visit the Nidarosdomen Cathedral, which is a mighty site - unless you’ve seen the Grand Cathedral in Milano or St. Peter’s at the Vatican. It has a nice story to it, though, and Oda found it to be great. Especially the crypt. She’d read quite a bit about it, so it was good for her to see the Cathedral. We also attended a pop concert gala at the centre of Trondheim where Oda could have a closer look at some of the hotter Norwegian pop princes. All in all a great stay in Trondheim.

Oda at the Pop Concert Gala downtown Trondheim. 

After a couple of days we decided to head on to Bodø along the E6. The Nord-Trøndelag county is extremely boring, but just as you pass the gate to Northern Norway all changes. The nature turns more wild, more interesting, more - northernlike, if you will. Underway to Bodø we decided to take the whole trip in one go (some 700 km’s) which was tough on us all but double so on young Oda. She was the one pushing on to reach Bodø and Auntie Kari, though, and so we did.

Oda salutes the marque of the Polar Circle on our way to Bodø. North of here the sun doesn't set in the summer.

Kari & co was so kind as to let Oda stay in Bodø for the weekend, which was what Oda wanted, while Wife and I left for Rally Norway in Sortland, Vesterålen. So we left for the Rally on Friday 11 July, some 7 hrs riding including ferry from Bodø. When riding from Fauske towards Bognes from where the ferry leaves, you suddenly realise why some of this country’s greatest poets are from this area. The area is stunning in its beauty, with towering mountains and the glittering sea...

Wife on boad the ferry from Bogenes to Løddingen on our way to the Rally Norway in Sortland, Vesterålen.

The Rally Norway gathered some 2000 participants, which it usually does, making it the largest motorcycle rally in Norway. Not too crowded, but Wife and I decided that this was our last Rally Norway, unless something really spectacular should happen. We’ve probably grown too old for the rather party-minded participants, concluding with us preferring smaller rallies like the Guzzi Rally, with one tenth the number of attendees. It was fun, though, and we even met some guys from my old home town Vadsø in the north. Vidar and his crew greeted us at the rally, and so did my niece Hege. I know we had one hell of a party because there are some holes here and there in my memory...  Wife went on the Ride Out on Saturday to this small fishing village Nyksund. People live quite fine here in this small village, proving that it IS possible to exist without Starbuck’s at every corner.

Always at rallies, Wife and I go Guzzi spotting. Not too many up in the north though. This V11 Scura was among the three or four that was at the rally among 1600 bikes.

The Tenere was also alone amongst all the others bikes at the rally, thus standing out from the crowd... ;-)

We went back from the Rally on Sunday 12^th, and spent a few days in Bodø with my sister and her family. We decided to get back home within Sunday 19^th, so we headed out from Bodø at Wednesday the 15^th. We had also decided to send back the tent and some of the excessive bags we had as to make the bikes lighter. We’d stay in hotels hereafter anyway. The weather had deteriorated further south so we decided to head East to Sweden and Bay of Bothnia. We stayed a night in Arjeplog, which is a small Sami community in steep depopulation. Sweden has not been so good in its regional policy with regard to retaining settlement all over the country as opposed to Norway. Anyway - an odd experience. But good pizza at the “Ristorante Milano”...

Fisher women at Jävre. They did quite a catch, these two!

We then stayed a couple of days at a fish camp south of Piteå, in a place called Jävre. Great stay! Oda caught a trout of 4.5 kilos, as did Wife. You can just imagine Oda’s sense of accomplishment when she pulled that huge fish into the landing net!

2 x 4,5 kilos worth of rainbow trout. Oda's and Wifey's catch.

We then left for Hudiksvall, where we stayed from Saturday to Sunday, experiencing the great Swedish past-time activity of Cruising: The Swedes take their old American car or rebuilt VW or whatever and cruises up and down the main street while onlookers and passengers alike drink their senses out. A strange, strange phenomenon. We participated as onlookers. Quite sober ones, even.

Cruise and burn. An odd Swedish cultural phenomenon...

We arrived back home on Sunday evening, tired after a long ride where we met the first rain showers on all our trip just before Mora. It was The Mother of all rain showers, though, soaking us in a matter of minutes. The cold, wet trip made us tired and we were all somewhat exhausted when arriving at home late on Sunday evening.

In total we rode nearly 4000 km’s. We might do that again only then Oda will be in the sidecar. It was tiring for her to spend so much time on the back of the Tenere with too little room to move about on. It would’ve been better with the Quota, and even better with the T5 sidecar.

But it had been a magnificent 14 days. They only went past too quickly.