Category: Scandinavia 2011
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Day 4: The Darkness
The days are short, barely enough to tire me out after riding from sunrise to sunset. I could continue into the night if I needed to, with the energy I have. But — let’s face it — that would be pointless. Continue reading →
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Day 3: Why
Another full day of pedalling. More fresh snow, slow progress, slipping and sliding. Surely I’ve had enough of long-distance cycle-touring by now? Evidently not. There still exists something which has brought me here to Norway on a bike in the wintertime. Continue reading →
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Day 2: The Learning Curve
I am woken at some unknown hour of the night by the sound of flapping canvas. The wind has picked up, changed direction and is now blowing side-on at my tent. A poor pitch, admittedly, and now I’m being punished for it. I wedge my boots into the fabric of the awning in a bid […] Continue reading →
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Day 1: A Mostly-Forgiving Departure
In an instant, the fear and worry vanish. I’ve swung my leg over the bike and taken my first pedal stroke. In that moment, immeasurable familiarity takes over, earned during hundreds of long days in the saddle, and I am reminded of what I need to remember most: These journeys are taken one step at […] Continue reading →
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A Life Without Risk Is No Life At All
Imagine leaving your house. It’s another winter’s day, the sky a malevolent grey. Up to ‑1°C from ‑7°C last night. That’s warm, you think. The streets are frozen; slick ice and hardpack underfoot, great mounds of ageing snow shoved casually beside the pavements and alleys. Your breath condenses in front of your face, your body […] Continue reading →
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The Long Road To The Starting Line
Seven a.m. on a Sunday morning. Glass, neon and chrome drive silently up into the dawn sky. The engine’s monotone grumble dies out with a hiss, and the far-off squabbling of a rag-tag band of revellers gives away its position on the far side of a huge, empty thoroughfare. I’ve been on the bus for […] Continue reading →
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Packing for Norway
I don’t think I titled my previous announcement post very well, as lots of people are wondering why I keep tweeting about Norway. Well, in a few days’ time I’ll be in Oslo, preparing to leave the city for a month of ice-biking in rural Scandinavia. Continue reading →
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A Winter Cycle-Tour In Scandinavia
English seasons annoy me. None more so than winter. OK: So in December we had a couple of weeks of ‘real winter’ — sub-zero temperatures, snow, ice; something approaching the kind of kick-up-the-backside that this country needs to stir society from its mollycoddled torpor. But now it has succumbed to the all-too-inevitable British veil of […] Continue reading →