Scandinavia
21 Sep 2011
I was sad to wave goodbye to Österreich as I started my trip north, which took me breifly through Deutschland, hitting 265 km/hr on the autobahn. For those of you who haven't travelled at these kind of speeds before, it probably sounds far too obvious for me to qualify this experience by informing you that "265 is really bloody quick!", but strangely enough, that's the advice I have to offer. The noise and feeling of travelling that fast is simply amazing, however one must concentrate and be aware of the entire environment at those speeds, as a wrong move will surely spell disaster.
I raced through Eastern Europe after leaving Deutschland, starting with the Czech Republic, my destination was the port of Tallinn to take the ferry to Helsinki. I'd heard nothing very positive about the east, so my plan was to cover as much ground as I possibly could each day. And sure enough, my entry into the east started off with two of the closest shaves I've had in my life, people simply not looking and just pulling out in front of you, typical cager activity. The next day I sprinted through the rain, covering Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, making the boat in time to put some kilometres on once reaching Finland. It was a huge day, over 1200 km, and considering the state of Polish roads and traffic, it was amazing that I made it in one piece.
Polish roads have been smashed to pieces by seemingly endless processions of trucks (proper trucks, not what North Americans consider trucks), articulated vehicles, tour busses, earth moving equipment, tractors and other associated heavy machinery. I have never seen so many trucks in my life! Most major carriageways are under construction too, so 4 lanes suddenly become 1 lane in either direction, and sometimes the tarmac simply runs out, transitioning directly to mud and dirt which no warning, which at 170 km/hr on a sports bike is quite scary. Road and weather conditions became a lot better the further north I rode, and by Estonia the rain had eased to such a point that life was almost bearable again. That night I was very kindly put up by a bloke I met on the boat at his house in Villåhde, and the next day I was fresh, dry and fit to properly start the Scandinavian leg of my tour.
Finland introduced me to the Scandinavian way of doing things; speed cameras (forward facing only), silly speed limits, lakes everywhere, amazingly agressive mosquitos, beautiful tarmac, gorgeous forests, great people. I headed for Nurmes and on to Pudasjärvi the following day where I enjoyed camping in the Finnish forest kilometres from anywhere. By this time my rear Michelin Pilot Power 2CT was starting to look quite nasty, and was starting to square off as I hadn't seen a corner since Austria. The front tyre was also showing a bit of wear now, and so I started planning where to get the R6 serviced.
The next day I crossed the border into Sweden, riding to Luleå where it became to clear to me that my rear tyre was so completely shagged and that I must have it replaced immediately. The laminate was starting to show and I was reticent to push on at all. A friendly local biker took me around to the local tyre stores as I looked for a replacement set, finally settling on the local Yamaha dealer who would be able to service the bike whilst we waited for a new set of Pirelli Diablo Corsa II's to arrive. I'd never tried this tyre before, but the Michelins had really left me cold, so I thought it might be time to try something new. The weather was clear and sunny in my time in Luleå, but naturally, as I loaded the bike up to leave the following day, it rained in biblical proportions.
I made slow progress the following day, riding through the driving rain after four days of 27 degrees and clear skies, only to realise when I stopped that the boffins at Yamaha had only fitted a new rear tyre, and not a complete set as requested. This wasn't a huge issue as there was still quite a bit of tread left on the front tyre, however in most countries in this part of the world you are legally required to have tyres from a matching set on your bike, not a Michelin on the front, and a Pirelli on the back. I was hugely impressed with the level of grip on the Diablo Corsa on the rear of the bike in the dry, however the Michelins are still vastly superior in the wet. I was hoping for some dry weather so I could try this tyre out a bit more, so the next morning I rode through more awful weather across the border into Norway.
The city of Trondheim was my first stop in Norway, and yet again it was raining. I spent a day walking about the city (which was nowhere near as large as I expected) before turning in to head towards Nystoya the following morning. Rain prevented me from enjoying much of the landscape and roads in Norway, so I tried my best to continue to push on in harsh conditions. By the time I made it to Bergen, the sun had returned where I needed a couple of days relaxing as my body was sore from the massive distances I was putting in each day. I was now racing the clock, I needed to cover huge kilometres each day in order to make the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix in time. My family originally comes from Bergen, so I enjoyed being able to look around the city and get a real feel for it in the 2 days I spent there.
Stavanager was next on the menu, the gorgeous port city far to the south. This was a very easy ride, fortunately I made both ferries with around 15 minutes to spare, so I wasted no time waiting about. I noticed that the Pirelli was already starting to square off, which did not please me at all. I spent the afternoon in Stavanger sitting in the sun, listening to music, and trying as many of the local beers as I could.
The following day I hit the road again, bumping into two Swedish riders on massive BMW adventure tourer bikes. We consulted my map, and the decision was made that the route I had chosen was not a good one, and that I should follow them instead. We had a great day riding through fjords and surrounding mountains, before camping at Rjukan. It was cold that night, damn cold, colder even than my visit to the Arctic circle in Finland, so cold in fact that even though I was wearing thermals, I had to make my leathers into blankets, and was woken up by the cold several times during the night. Frost and ice was everywhere in the morning, and I was happy to have packed the R6 away under the motorcycle cover I'd been using. The Swedes, two Stockholm locals, looked after me, cooking meals and coffee from the supplies they were carrying, and the following morning after the morning fog cleared we packed our bikes up and headed east, where I peeled off and made for Oslo.
I found Norwegian traffic a bit cautious and tentative, ergo, dangerous. I'm not sure whether this was the case due to their constrictive speed limits, or the reputation of the Police, however I do believe an amount of confidence is required to drive competently in traffic.
The mood in Oslo was sombre which was not suprise at all considering what had only recently happened in that city before I had arrived, so I spent some time wandering about looking at architecture and getting a feel for the streets. I visited the Munch Museum which for some unknown reason didn't open until 1100 on a Saturday, yet the adjoining cafe opened it's doors at 0900. Schedule mismatch or clever marketing ploy? Definitely the latter for me. That night I had jambalaya at the New Orleans Cafe and consulted my maps for the following day's ride: to Stockholm. I spent two days in Stockholm where the terrible weather really prevented me from doing much at all, however I did get to meet the members of the Swedish band Brother Ape.
I'm a big fan of music from Sweden. Brother Ape, Opeth, and the Flower Kings just to name a few Swedish bands that take pride of place in my music collection. In fact, the Flower Kings song 'Love Supreme' from their brilliant album 'Adam and Eve' has been my alarm clock tone for the last 6 years or so, not that waking up to this song every day has diminshed my love for it one iota. Those of you who have been in a band will know what an immense struggle it can be to keep a band together long enough to record an album, let alone a quality album, so with that in mind one can really gauge how much of an amazing achievment it has been for Brother Ape to record as many fantastic albums as Brothe Ape have. Meeting them was a real thrill for me, especially as I was handed shiny new copies of a few of their albums, musical goodness to feast upon nom nom nom!
You can find Brother Ape at these locations:
From Stockholm I planned to make Copenhagen, however after putting in a 750 km day through rain, many Police checkpoints, wind and traffic, I decided that it would be better for me to make camp for the night, get up early in the morning, and have a nice easy ride to Denmark the following day. Which is exactly what I did.
I enjoyed my time in Copenhagen, relaxing, drinking beers, hanging out, and generally being on holiday, which was a lovely change from the few weeks of riding stupid amounts of kilometres each day. From Copenhagen, I pointed the bike south, and headed for Germany, with mixed feelings that my 22'000 km adventure of a liftime was now at an end. The question still remained: what to do next?
Copyright © 2024 carlbelle.com