A Day On The Road – Cycling Through Norway

A rundown of what a typical day is like for me when I’m cycling and living out of my panniers.
At the moment I’m in Norway, heading slowly north through some truly epic scenery.

It’s um it’s Wednesday and I thought by whatever change after little Dan the life one day on the road type video today so it’s just after seven I think and I’m bracing myself to get up into quite a cold morning I don’t always get up at the same time and sometimes I

Think until like 8:30 9:00 o’clock but I got an early night last night and it is quite cold as well I think I’m down by the lake and it was quite windy last night so today is a relatively early one about 7:30 I think the first thing I’m

Going to do it put some legs on because it is really briskly fresh it’s not really practical to have anything in the tent with you when you use the tree 10 so on notes when I in that I have to keep everything on the bike which is it’s not a bad thing it

Does encourage you to be a bit more tidy means everything’s close to hand in the morning first order of the day is definitely coffee I got into coffee pretty late in life and the first time I ever went touring I just took those little sachets and kind of instant cappuccino

That did not cut the mustard at all and so I stopped on that tour and a little village in the sort of lifestyle boutique and bought this maca pot which I’ve had ever since it’s not particularly light it’s not particularly practical there are much more lightweight camping sort of options now

But it does make very nice coffee and sitting with the first coffee of the day and just contemplate in the morning is in my opinion one of the great pleasures of camping if not one of the great pleasures of life once the cough is doing its thing the

Next thing on the list is porridge definitely my breakfast of choice when I’m out and about lots of seeds lots of fruit whatever you can get you can forage something that’s brilliant but at this time of the year I’m just using dried apricots which are very very nice indeed

Normally I like to sit savor breakfast especially in a spot as lovely as this one but today it is really really really cold finger numbing ly cold so I’m gonna rush through a bit and just try and get on the road and get the old blood pumping again once breakfast is all out

Of the way all that’s left to do is pack up camp and get everything loaded back onto the bike and this is something that I keep thinking I’ll get better at and become really efficient because it’s the same every day but no matter what it just always seems to take loads longer

Than I think it’s going to and loads longer than it should and I forget things and I leave stuff hanging in trees and I put stuff in the wrong bags and blah blah blah and so by the time I finally get going it’s always late and I

Meant but that’s fine because we’re not on any kind of schedule here and there’s nothing at all to be late for [Applause] in some ways a day peddling is a lot like a little lifetime yeah you’re born from your horrible sweaty sleeping bag and for the first few moments you’re pretty useless you just kind of sit there staring at stuff then you set off and your Bloods full of porridge and

Caffeine and you’ve got infinite time to do anything you want and after a while you know in the middle of the day you start to take it a bit easy think about a long leisurely lunch somewhere maybe and then you get to the end of the day

And you’re cold and you’re tired and your legs hurt and all you want to do is succumb to the sweet oblivion of your sleeping bag again and so the circle continues circle of life the circle of cycle touring at the moment I’m still in Phase two I guess I’m feeling good my

Legs are still good the day is warming up and scenery is stunning really really nice Snack stops have pretty much dictated by geography and I passed a little spot pleasant as this seems disrespectful not to stop them [Applause] lunch also just kind of happens when the hunger takes me really but it’s usually quite a formal and exotic affair today I’ve had an amuse-bouche of cashew nuts

The main course will be some bread that I think is made of the stuff that you get in the middle of black holes it’s incredibly dense and weighs about quarter of a ton that is a liberally smeared with some Brie that’s been ripening stuffed into the bottom of one

Of my pan ears for a couple of days and a spring onion and for pudding I’ll probably have a banana just don’t like to break with tradition too much It’s about half-past three now and I’m starting to glance around for some kind of fabulous camping spot for the evening now I’ve checked the weather and apparently the wind is swinging round we’re going to be coming in from the south sometime this evening and all through tomorrow

Which means it will be behind me tomorrow it’s as nice but it’s also bringing in a load of rain overnight and tomorrow morning so what I’m looking for is a nice sheltered spot that’s gonna be out of the wind during the night and possibly a bit sheltered from the weather if I

Decide to have a lion tomorrow morning and try and skip the rain I’ve got my eye on a little kind of island the peninsula bit that sticks out into the fjord about seven miles up it’s hard to see from the maps but I reckon there might be a little beach on the sheltered

North side which could make a very good spot so I’m gonna aim for that if that all falls through then I’ll just pitch on the side of the road Not a bad spot at all I think I’ve stumbled on rather a nice one here so anything left to do now then is to try and find three trees that will do the tree ten get all that set up get some dinner on and watch the rest of the day So 10 is up all looking good I’ve done a bit of a lower titer pitch and I paid much more attention to the guylines and stuff so if the wind does come in and the rain comes in hopefully I’ll be a bit more protected and get a better night’s sleep

I did last night they make my bed up now I’ve got my therm-a-rest camper sv mat which I have done a video review about in the past is really really good and I’ve got me Rob neutrino 400 sleeping bag which I’ve also done a video about

In the past if you want to have a look I’m gonna put these all together now so you’re gonna get out of the way I’m afraid and weigh tents set up bed set up stuff stashed mouths away next up is dinner tonight we’re having another Road

Classic of mine we got some veg and peppers and spring onions in water stock cube black pepper boil it all up it’s kind of already cooked but not roar anymore and I’m bashing a load of couscous top it all off with a lovely 10 of finish and that’s dinner done not the fanciest

Of dinners but very satisfying after a long day’s riding and now all that remains to be done is wash the dishes and sit and take in the last of the day until the bugs come out and drive me into my 10:00 it’s very very cool spot

To just sit and do some staring some clouds coming in so maybe they were right about the rain in the night and it’s always the case we will just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings so that’s that that’s my day on the road and it’s pretty standard really they are

Mostly some variation on that theme I don’t know some people I guess might think it looks like a pretty boring and pointless existence but it’s it’s amazing so quiet lapping of the waves tired legs a lot of comfy bed just over there I don’t know it’s not much I think

You’ll be hard-pressed to ask for more