Bike Odyssey
Alaska 2006
| Home FAQ Maps Photos Subscribe Links | |
 | |
| Trip Journals | |
|---|---|
| Europe 2007 Alaska 2006 Australia 2004 Europe America New Zealand Australia 2003 | New Zealand '02 | Sydney to Darwin '01 | |
| |
| Travelogues | |
| Europe 2006 Alaska 2006 Around Australia 2003 Sydney to Darwin 01 Around Australia 99 | Great North Walk 98 Snowy Mountains 97 Tasmania 96 | |
| |
| About Us | |
| David Linda Bike Odyssey E-Mail: djf01@bikeodyssey.com.au | |
| |
| Bike Odysseypty ltd | |
| BODY - The PHP Symbolic Debugger TimesheetMagic For a range of cost effective industry standard solutions contact the Systems division of Bike Odyssey Pty Ltd | |
| |
| Journal for 7-Sep : Sayward Jtn |
|---|
|
Beautiful still sunny morning, but freezing cold. Wind held off right up until I reached the road. Not sure which way to go from Posio. Signs suggested I take the longest possible route. My planned route continued on the 947 then cut across to the 945. I suspected the cutoff to be dirt, so decided to ride the 81 (a major road) to the start of the 945. The first 5-10km of the 945 were OK, but then it turned to dirt, and badly degraded at times too. In the main, it was a real bastard of a road, with steep jump ups and lots of holes, corrugations (avoidable by riding down the centre), dust and everything else I hate about dirt roads. Slowed by a herd of reindeer blocking the road, like sheep in Oz Northern Exposure moment with an Elk in Jumisko wanting to use the same bit of road as me. He wasn't sure whether to charge me or run away. I Crocodile Dundee'd him and he cleared off. Bitumen resumed as I crossed the Arctic circle. Yes !!! Last 20ks into Kemijärvi quite a lot of fun. Supposedly 23C according to servo sign. Yeah, right. I guess my 3rd layer was unzipped a bit. Kept riding past these eateries named "poison grille". Tempting .... (I'm pretty sure it means BBQ fish). Kemijärvi dead as a doornail on Saturday afternoon. Oh Shit !!! It's Friday !!! I was intending to buy some Norwegian Money before I left on Monday morning, expecting to arrive here on a Saturday. Charged into town looking for an open bank, but missed closing time by 5min. I needn't have worried. Today is some sort of public holiday in Finland. Probably mosquito day. Everything was shut, which is why the place looked so dead. Had to make a meal out of all I could find at the service station: a tin of Finish meatballs. It didn't taste too bad (I *was* very hungry), even if it had the consistency of PAL coming out of the tin. Ferry got into Port Hardy just before midnight. I waited till an hour before dawn in the waiting room. Stole a few hours sleep. Set off as the full moon was setting and the first hint of morning light sneaked across the sky. Very slow going for the first half hour to hour, hard to identify the road at times. Terrible road surface to Port McNiel. Road then headed into the forests, which are heavily logged. Scenery still amazing. Lots of cuttings, hills/crests, blind corners and trucks. Today not so much a physical challenge as a mental one. Slept on picnic table for 90 min during my lunch break at Hoomak lake. More great scenery, even if this is forestry country. After lunch road had shoulder again. Narrow and gravelly. Spent two hours holding a straight course without seeing much. Harassed for food by Bluejay at rest area. Crashed asleep by ...zzzz Hi, << Prev - Next >> |