Motorcycle tour through mountain passes in Norway | Trans Euro Trail on Norden 901 [Part 2 of 2]

Hold on, hold on, hold on, look at this. Guys, it is day two of Bukkeritte, and the event is actually officially over. Today is the day when everyone is traveling home, and so are we. Elvinge has already left. I had such a nice day yesterday, riding with the girls, hanging out with people, watching the race on the motocross track, barbecue and beers in the evening, it was just absolutely perfect, like a perfect motorcycle day in every way.

Today it is time to go home, not completely home, I'm going to spend two days traveling back to Stavanger, it's about 650 kilometers I think, and today I'm going to ride together with someone actually, Anita, from this, that I met here yesterday. We are going somewhat in the same direction, and we will be doing quite a bit of gravel roads today, and Glimsdalen, Jotunheimsveien, yeah, I'll mention it all once we're there. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that, that's going to be a great fun. I'm still curious to see the conditions on some of the roads, because it's still raining a little bit, and the area we're going into now is the part that has been mostly affected by the hunts, the extreme weather we had a few days ago in Norway, so that's going to be interesting to see. But yeah, I'm pretty much all packed up and ready to go, and that's the plan for today, so yeah, let's just continue.

All right, we are ready to go. Goodbye Grimsby! Now I need some heated grips, because I got my summer gloves on, great choice. It shouldn't be raining all day, so yeah, we'll just have to see. So the first gravel road we're taking today is Glimsdalen. I was there one time previously last year, because it's part of the Trans Euro Trail, and it is absolutely stunning. Glimsdalen is a beautiful valley that stretches from Dovre in west to Fordal in east.

The history of the road through this valley stretches all the way back to the 16th century. With Dovre National Park on one side, and Rondane National Park on the other, the valley offers great views all the way through. About halfway in, we made a little detour to Bergsengsete, a yard of seven restored loghouses and traditional standards with views towards Rondane, the oldest building being from 1793. We are definitely making a stop up here, because it's an epic viewpoint. Hold on, hold on, hold on, look at this! It's so nice to do this route the other way around, because the last time I was here, I did it the opposite way, and it feels like a whole different trip almost when you when you ride a road the opposite directions.

By the way, I know you probably would like to see more of or get to know Anita better, but not everyone wants to be on camera, and that's something I'll have to respect, and I don't mind it, and I hope you don't. All right, so we're on a road that we weren't really supposed to be on, but turns out we can ride this road, or it looks like, on the map at least, that we can ride this road to come down in the valley on the other side. So we'll try to do that, it should be just about 10-15 minutes to go down another side.

We'll just have to see. Worst case, we'll turn around. The road gets interesting in front of there. The road in front of us, like so many others in this area at this time, had slid out due to a landslide.

Luckily, it had already been fixed, but it's still enough to make you a little bit uncomfortable, because what if? You really do get respect for nature though, like when you see how easily it could be destroyed. It looks like the road is actually closed here in front, but it wasn't closed in the back. What the fuck? It's strange, there was no sign where we came from.

Now we think that. We are now on Jotunheimsveien, on our way over to Betustølen. Jotunheimsveien is a 45 kilometer long gravel road that takes you from Skåby to Bygdyn.

The road was constructed in the 1950s to replace a milk boat service collecting milk from farms in the area, because of the development of the lakes for hydroelectricity. The road is also a part of the Norwegian Trans-Euro Trail, and it's a great ride through stunning open landscapes. Holy smokes, this is nice. Thank you Anita for being so patient.

And that's it for Jotunheimsveien. Finishing Jotunheimsveien and going south, the weather got increasingly worse. But not to worry, the day was slowly coming towards an end, and we had already made an arrangement for the nights. A fellow motorcyclist, YouTuber and one of my subscribers from the early days, Jeremy Wilson reached out offering two houses for the nights. He also offered to meet up with us in Ryfos and guide us over the mountains towards Hemsedal, the place he calls home. The mountains had even more rain in store for us, but honestly, who cares? Weather can be so freaking beautiful, and makes it even more enjoyable when the sun decides to peek through the skies.

On our way down from the mountains, we made a special stop up in the hills to warm up a bit for the rain. This is Nørreli, Jeremy and his wife Kirsten's shielding. The oldest of these cabins are from the 1700s, built of local late-growth spruce logs by Kirsten's ancestors.

There's even archaeological findings from the Stone Age around this place. All right, this is Jeremy's støl. How do you say that in English? Shieling. Shieling. It's actually a Scottish word. Okay.

They have shielings in Scotland. Okay. So it's the summer mountain pastures where they take the animals. And the name of this one is? Nørreli. Nørreli støl.

Okay, nice. Supposedly, there's mountains. Yeah, the mountains are behind those clouds. Yeah.

So we're... We are surrounded by good views. You just can't see them right now. Look at the views. A very long but fantastic day has come to an end. What a day it's been.

Great views, great roads, great company. What more could you possibly want? I don't even know how to summarize it or what to say. I am honestly pretty tired.

I think we did about 400 kilometers on and off the gravel, mostly gravel, the whole way. A lot of Trans Eurotrail, Norwegian Trans Eurotrail. Ended up here in Hemsedal at the Hemveg with Jeremy and his wife. Super nice to be able to crash here just tonight.

Yeah, the plan for tomorrow is to continue going south. Tomorrow I'm going all the way home back to the Stavanger area where I live. I think Anita is going in a different direction tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure.

Anyway, thank you for watching this episode and I hope I'll see you again in the next. Good night. After a very relaxing Monday morning, being spoiled with breakfast, good views and a deep dive into Jeremy's knowledge of the local roads and boots, it's time to pack up and go home.

Jeremy and Anita has planned a route doing some gravel and mountain roads going west towards her home place, while I jump on the highway doing 450 kilometers south to Stavanger. With the rain being on and off like the whole weekend and my batteries being a bit low from a few long days, I put on a good podcast and quietly enjoyed the good views on my eight hour ride home. And just like that, with many new memories and friendships made, this trip is over. See you again for the next!

2024-04-07 08:16

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