At least, the North Cape

Dear readers,

A week ago, on Thursday July 10th at 2.00 PM I reached the North Cape. But before I need to go back into time at least I last wrote to you. If you remember I was on the edge of the North Cape Island and I was to cross the tunnel with my new friend José on the next day.
After a good night of sleep in Olderfjord, we woke up pretty early to be able to cycle the whole day up to Honningsvag 100 km further. The first part of the trip was pretty easy as we where skirting the shore providing a flat relief. The originality of that day was the fact that we had to go under four tunnels ranging from 400 meters to 7 kilometres. The closer we got from the longest one and the harder it became. Fortunately I met some people on the way and we were thus 5 cyclists waiting at the entrance of the tunnel and getting our gear ready such as putting warm clothes and switching our lamps. This tunnel has been a legend for us all as we have heard a lot of stories about it. Most cyclists say it is very hard as half of it is getting 10% down and the other half 10% up. For most cyclist it is already quite hard and a lot of them end the tunnel pushing their bikes but for me with my arms it should be even more difficult and I can’t just stand on my legs and push my bike.
So here we are, all 5 of us ready to be swallowed by the mountain. Fortunately it starts with the downhill part and I reach an amazing speed of 50 km/h. At this speed everything goes really fast and I am quickly going slightly up. It begins slightly but it is increasing and at some point I can feel my muscles burning, my forearms getting electrical shocks every time I ask them too much and my lungs asking for more air. José stays with me but the others are far ahead and I have no chance to catch up with them. On the side of the road we can see how many kilometres are remaining and I am looking forward to see the end. Now it gets flatter, however, I have forcing so hard before that I have just enough power to reach the finish line and here it is as we can see the daylight again. After that tunnel we need to cycle 20 more kilometres and it will be hard and I have been almost on the edge of fainting, missing some sugar.
The next day we need to drive 30 kilometres from Honningsvag to North Cape. It is far from being the easiest day as we are on see level and need to up to 300 meters. We started the day with a 3km 9% uphill facing the wind. It was just terrible but fortunately I had José and a newly met Austrian friend: Daniel to cheer me up. After the wind stopped we had a slight rain and thick fog. Mentally the road was very challenging as every time, we thought we were close to arrive, there was a last challenge such as uphills. When we finally got to the northern point of Europe, I felt all the pressure suddenly releasing while all the physical effort just made me exhausted.
After 2200 kilometres and more than a month, I reached one of my goals and this has no price. The emotions I felt were pretty strong and the main one was relief…
Now the way back but before a couple of days of rest doing some sightseeing!

Getting close to the North Cap

Dear readers,

I have now reached the 2000 km, I am still doing good and I am getting closer to the North Cap.
Since I last wrote you I went fishing with Mats (Nina’s boyfriend). It was a very nice experience as his cottage was lost in the woods and I needed a quad to get there. He cooked some reindeer food for me and it was delicious. The negative aspect of this evening is that we did not get to catch any fishes. The river was too high and the stream too strong…
After this very pleasant evening he led me to the place I was going to spend the night. It was at first glance a very cosy cottage. Quickly I found out it was full of mosquitoes. When I could not protect myself under my sleeping bag because of the sun heating me up, I left for the day. It was 5 in the morning. This day the weather was cloudy and very heavy, I was harassed by hordes of mosquitoes.
Withhin the next two days I crossed the border from Sweden to Finland and then from Finland to Norway. Back in Norway, I noticed why I decided to avoid this country.  It definitely offers marvellous landscape but the relief is terrible. Getting to Alta offered me the best of Norway with a river going through the mountains and still downhill. The noise of the waterfalls echoed in the gorge and contrasted with the silence of the surroundings. The road was 8% down but I was lucky to ride it downhill but I could not speed up as I had to stop every 5 minutes to shoot a picture.
In Alta, I spent 3 days, first to rest. Secondly to get back on schedule as I am more than a week ahead. These last days I have been driving much more than expected despite all the pauses that I take. Alta is on the cost and for the first time I can see the sea and mountains climbing steep up above the water. The clouds covering the sky give a magical feeling that I can feel in my guts. The different landscapes are just impressive and leave me speechless. Even if we are in July, a lot of snow is topping the different mountains tops. There is snow and the temperature has also severely decreased and I am wearing my hat almost every day.
In the camping from Alta I met several people. Two Norwegians Brigitte and her daughter spent the whole week end in Alta and they kindly offered me a lift to the North Cap. Unfortunately enough, I could not accept but this would have been great. I also met a Belgian, José, who is biking, as well, to the North Cap. We agreed to bike together up there. I found at last some company and I will be able to share my experiences with somebody else than myself.
We are now just 100 km away from North Cap and we will be going tomorrow to the island were the famous Northern point in Europe stands.
Even though it has not been raining during those last few days, we very rarely have sun and the weather is thus mostly cloudy.