My travels - Norway on Bike 1997 - 9.day

11.August 1997

Morning is beautiful again. Peter promised us excellent downhill run. First part of way we spend in car, next part on bikes. Gabika, Lucia and I decided to use our new crash helmets. But before we go down we must go up to top of the hill. We have enough time, and from my previous experience from Trollstiegen, I am biking slowly without problem and in good mood. From time to time we eat blackberries from near forest. There are thousands of them. On parking place near of top, I lost small part of my glasses. Only with effort of whole group and with help of Hela I finally found it. On the top of Mel we rest next time. Peter make photos of Gabika and Lucia for next year travel magazine. When I offer myself as model I was declined. I really don't know why :-). We eat some cakes, check our helmets and brakes, and we are going down. Fiiiiiiiiiii, this is biking for me, go down without effort. But in one turning I have a good luck. I started to brake so late, and I found out that there is also some sand on road and I finished on ground only a little bit from low wall, that separate round from deep gap. After this experience I was really scary. Also Lucia biking beyond me was scared when she see my fall down. From this time I go down more slowly. After going down we continue to Sognefjord. In cold air it smells sea water. Now I feel in my legs the way to top of Mel. On next uphills I use only light gearings. We group altogether in port.

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From there we use ferry to Vangsnes. Here some from us with enough energy, go to visit a giant sculpture of William the Conqueror. I prefer to stay in port and buy some ice cream. When others returned I eat some big yellow berries, that they gathered near of sculpture. Today it was our last biking day. We attach our bikes into bike holders and we continue by car to Flam. Main topic of our dialog turned to reindeers. We are on north, but we still didn't see one. But today it was our happy day. We find nomad reindeer's farm near of our way. And before this farm was attached an alive reindeer. We make some photos of course. It looks not very happy. Another reindeers feed in near fence. Inside the big tent before fence it was possible to buy everything related to reindeers. Furs, antlers, souvenirs and special meals, everything from reindeers. Here we realised that reindeers are here for meal and other products. Peter at last bought sausage from reindeer. We eat it on next parking even though our frustration from bad life of these animals.

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We are going to Flam with help of 12 km long tunnel. Our driver Jaro, always very communicative, is so quiet. We are discussing, how to help people with broken cars if they stay in tunnel. A little bit after tunnel our car make strange noise, engine stopped and our car is going slowly down to near camping without engine. Now Jaro confess that we are without gas. He was very happy that we didn't stop in tunnel. In camping we make necessary activities to improve our appearance after 3 days in wildlife. I showered myself in hot water, and it was fantastic feeling to feel like civilized person once again. I wanted also wash my clothes, but I give it up, and I help with preparing meal rather. In Slovak language flam means to spend time with drinking in pubs, and we decided to follow name of this place. We found some local restaurant in near port. But we didn't drink so much, because after studying drinking menu we recognized, that we can afford only one bottle of good red wine. We ordered also 7 glasses and we share our wine between us. We discussed about an expensive alcohol in this country. While we return to our camping Peter give us instructions to tomorrow. It is time to go sleep.

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