Richards Random Ramblings

So I have some bad news if there is actually anybody out there following this, I have decided to cancel my trip to Norway this year for two main reasons... The first is that I've just got back from a 3 week jaunt around Europe covering 5000km in that time, a lot of motorway/autobahn time, hotel hoping, a bit of camping and plenty of not moving days and frankly I'm knackered and fed up of living out of a suitcase and the back of a car for all that time. I managed to do one day of proper sight seeing on the road in Scotland, stopping where the fancy took me and taking some lovely photographs (even if I do say so myself) it was a nice day and I quite enjoyed the freedom to do pretty much whatever I wanted. Of course the penalty is that a 2 hour journey turned into over 3 hours, even with some occasional spirited driving as traffic conditions allowed, so using that as the benchmark I now realise that I have quite simply set the bar too high for myself in terms of the riding tim

Ok so I have been struggling with a couple of things about this trip, the first is the length which currently stands at 21 days and the second issue is one of timing. I really want to go to Norway for the personal challenge aspects but I also really want to do the Sealed Knot 50th Anniversary Battle at Claydon House on the UK Bank Holiday weekend..but the dates I currently have clash. I'm afraid its another one of those "random" flashes of inspiration, this one visited on me while cleaning my toilet and listening to Taylor Swift. I don't think either of those things were particularly influential, but I also spent the morning learning about the Secret Mirror (which I guess is really a kind of Neuro-Linguistic Programming tool) that allows you to work out whats stopping you (internally) from getting to your goals so maybe that gets the credit. Neither the SK Battle or going to Norway was the goal I had set up in my mind but maybe its one of those "universe will

Its been a while since I've written anything on here but in my defence I've had a busy month which included a last minute trip to Norway on business. The trip to Norway took me to Bardufoss which you might remember is on my list of places to visit because of my work interests there. All I can say is WOW....Norway is stunningly beautiful and was perhaps at its best in bright sunshine and covered snow. So by pure happenstance I've ticked off 2 things on my bucket list; go to Norway and go to the Arctic Circle. Going to the Arctic Circle was not as I had imagined, flying there you just don't get the same sense of occasion so I'm still looking forward to actually crossing the line and standing on the Arctic Circle. The other thing I didn't get to see is the Northern Light, the first night was snowy and cloud covered, the second day was promising as the skies were clear and the forecast for the lights was good but I missed them. I waited for it to get properl

191 days to go. The route is now plotted and I've managed to string together 13 of the 18 scenic routes - if everything goes according to plan its going to take 21 days. The thing that I have noticed is that while Norway seems to do a good job of selling itself, Sweden, and Finland don't seem to have a Tourist agenda to the same degree. Norway brings its fjords and mountains, Finland has Lapland, Santa and a gazillion lakes but Sweden is a bit different it seems unremarkable geologically preferring to trade on some its more famous gifts to the world like Saab, Volvo, Ikea, "Smogasbord" and of course Abba. Sweden and to a lesser extent Finland are the sleepers on this journey...I really don't know quite what to expect but that's all part of the adventure. More videos I found a new set of videos covering motorcycle touring in Norway. I like watching other peoples adventures so that I can pick up ideas of places to visit, campsites that look good and eve

Its a BASIC problem! Too many sights to see in too little time so after 24 hours of thinking on it, I've decided to redo the entire route so that I can spend more time in Norway. I've crunched the numbers and sketched another map of the route using myrouteapp that includes many of Norways National Tourist Routes. The main changes are that this route meanders a little more slowly through the south of Norway while still hitting the Fonna Glacier, Gerainger Fjord, Trollsteigen and the Atlantic Road. The northern leg hasn't changed much but now allows for a little more time in Lofoten. The return is still routed via Inari and Lapland in Finland but now after passing Rovaniemi (and Santas Village!) heads for the northwest coast and Tornio rather than heading south on the 78 towards Helsinki. Back in Sweden, I'm left with a long haul back along the Gulf of Bothnia to Stockholm and then home via Malmo. It turns out to be roughly the same sort of distance that I started w

I've been watching a number of videos on YouTube over the weekend, mostly for inspiration but also for some guidance on what to take and some of the issues that I might need to deal with. The Arctic Rider  who went from Newcastle to Nordkapp in 2014 and Uneasy Rider  who went from Stravanger to Lofoten in 2017 in particular grabbed my attention as both were solo rides. It seems that for the Arctic Rider at least one of the biggest things he had to deal with was loneliness but as far as I could tell from the video he didn't seem to spend that much alone what with having riders join him for parts of the journey and being put up by various bike clubs along the way (of course that could be just the way the video is cut). So is it going to be an issue for me .... well maybe. I've spent a fair bit of time on my own recently so I think I should be able to hack it, I'm comfortable in my (somewhat ample) skin but not confident enough to say that it definitely won't affe

Hang on a minute what happened to Days 5,6 & 7 you might ask. These are the days that I'll be doing the Pan Gathering, typically there will be a run out on each of the days, sometimes guided, sometimes not, its varied over the last few Pan Gathering but usually range from 150 to 400km. Some people also choose to do their own thing on these days. The point is I don't really know what I'm going to be doing, its way too early for the route plans to be published by the Pan Gathering organisers so I will just have to wait and see. Day 8 Vradal to Bergen Day 8 is a shortish hop from Vradal to Bergen (almost). There is only one planned stop along this route and thats because I fancy doing some skiing. Summer skiing is possible on the  FONNA Glacier which is reached by a small road from a town called Jondal.  Its going to feel a bit surreal skiing in summer and while I am not a great fan of T-bar lifts, I am determined to give it a go. Bergen appears to be a bit expensive

From Kungalv I'm going North on the E6 again for about 100km, then once again with inspiration coming from bestbikingroads, I intend turning off the main drag to follow route 165 to the Swedish/Norweigan border at Vassbotten. From there I'll follow route 22 to Halden and rejoin E6. This is going to test my resolve a bit as it looks to be about 60km of good road with a speed limit of 70kph outside of the towns. The GPS speed alert is going to be doing my head in ... Missing out the city of Oslo itself, I will cross the cross the Oslofjord in the 7km long tunnel, aptly named Oslofjordtunnelen. Once on the other side of the Oslofjord its 200km run mostly on the E134 which despite its E status appears to be just a normal 2-lane A road. Ending in Vradal  the home of the Pan European Gathering for 2018 after 470km and nearly 7 hours in the saddle. I'll be looking forward to checking in to my first Hotel which will be home for the next 4 nights. Update 21 Jan 2018: I'v

Leaving Copenhagen and heading across the Oresund to Sweden, the first stop will be to capture a picture of the bridge. It spans the 10 mile gap between Denmark and Sweden and involved building a manmade island called Pebelholm about 1/2 way across. A massive construction project jointly funded by Sweden and Denmark specifically to bring Copehagen and Malmo closer together. From there on to Helsingborg to get a view across the narrowest point between the 2 countries and then north on the E6 for about 150km. At this point I've decided that I will probably have done enough motorway miles so intend to head off into the back country to the east of Gothenburg. I'm using bestbikingroads for inspiration here, following a mixture of red and blue routes that will eventually get me to Kungalv.  A visit to the medieval Bohus Fortress takes my fancy here and there is a convenient campsite nearby. Totals for day 3 will be a shade over 430km and 6 hours riding time.

A relatively easy day at just under 370km with a couple of stops planned along the way for photo opportunities more than anything else. No fuel specific fuel stops planned I'll just pick some up somewhere along the way...its not like I'm going to the edge of the world after all. This should get me into Copenhagen mid-afternoon which will give me time to find somewhere to camp and a bit of time to explore the city itself. On the list of things to do either this day or the next is a visit to see the castle at Helsingor where Shakespears' Hamlet was set and obviously the Little Mermaid in the Harbour.

I ’m going to have to work out how long this trip is really going to take so need to refine the route and add some realism over the next couple of weeks. If it turns out to be too long I can take some short cuts and trim time off the journey later. Better to do it now than find I have left myself three or more 1000km+ days to get from Nordkapp back to Germany. Sylt My first thought was to head to Copenhagen  - doable if I treat my 6hr/600km limit as more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule, however that gets me the the Pan Gathering too early so I  might as well take a bit of a detour. So the plan for day 1 is to visit Sylt. Loads of cars around where I live have a sticker on the back that looks like a ballet dancer and it took me a while to work out that it wasn't in fact some local ballet school logo but a kind of status symbol that says I've been to Sylt so I'm going to see what its all about. Day 1 will therefore be 527km and 7:15 in the saddle if Myroute app i

Speed  With self induced pressure from a lot of kms to cover in a limited amount of time the question of speed and more accurately speed limits naturally popped into my mind especially as I’m expecting to encounter some wonderful open roads with good surfaces. In Norway I found (on this site ) that speed is a 4 letter word (it isn’t really 4 letters its actually 9 letters “Hastighet” which I really hope sounds like “Hasty get” because that would be perfect) what I mean is that if you speed even a little bit and you get caught you are f$%&#d. Fines start at about €80 for a small transgression (under +5kph)  and rise rapidly to the point of a  €930 fine at +25kph.  If you are being stupid or forgetful and go above that you will be looking at loosing your licence with a fine that will depend on your income, community service or a mandatory stay in prison. With knowledge that speed limits seem to be lower in Norway than other European countries this is all starting to weigh heavily

I found the Ride Norway blog today. It has a lot of useful information about motorcycling in Norway, so rather than repeat it all in my blog I'm going to try to link to it at appropriate points from now on.

Routing Decisions  Destination Creep.. I set out with the vague intention of getting far enough north to see the Northern Lights, a kind of a bucket list thing I suppose. Limited knowledge and research meant that I would probably need to get inside the Arctic Circle which (temporarily) set the northern most point on the route. However, as I have a business contact in Bardufoss which is quite a bit (440km) further North, I thought that would be a good aiming point. Once I had looked at (a rather deceptive) Google Map I decided that if I'm already going to go that far I might as well go all the way to Nordkapp.  It doesnt look that far on the map but turns out to be another 622km (what!). Nordkapp is often referred to the most Northerly point in Europe but as it turns out it isn't quite. If the fancy takes you (it wont take me!), you can take a 25km walk to get the actual most northerly point. So Nordkapp is in fact the most northerly point you can reach in Europe in (on) a n

As far as blogging goes my experience is summed up by Manuel in Fawlty Towers who used to say "I know nothing..."  To be honest I struggle with Facebook so its not surprising that my first effort (guesswork) suggested that I should use "Pages" but it didn't seem to do what I wanted and so I turned to the internet for help. I found this YouTube video to be helpful and would recommend it to anyone starting out... 

Ok, be gentle.. this is my first ever blog so it may not be professional or punchy of even work properly; it is just as the title suggests... Richards Random Ramblings. The first thing I want to document is my somewhat random decision to do Motorcycle Trip around Norway. It's not truly random in that part of the reason for the trip is to attend the  2018 Pan European Gathering  in Vradal, Norway in August but it is random in the the sense that it has grown into something much more than a shortish hop across the Skagerrak. The route currently stands at a shade over 8700km (5400 miles). Its my first solo trip of any real distance since my wife, pillion and ultimate voice of reason passed away in February 2017. I'm still planning the detail of the route but broadly I'm expecting to start in Germany (where I live) and go to Norway via Denmark and Sweden. Once in Norway I'm aiming to travel up the west coast taking in Bergen, the Trollstiegen, then heading North into the A