Cycling the Kystriksveien - Day 15 home cycling Kystriksveien, 2006 Day 15 Updated 30 May 2006.

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12/08/06

So this is it, our last day of cycling on the tour. We are now about 22 km from Bodø, the weather is fine and hot again.

Breakfast of oats, grapes, and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo on TV - who is in danger of being shot and skinned by a wealthy but very spoilt honeymooner who wants to wear him as a fur coat. We watch open-mouthed as the speeding motorcruiser (with Sonny locked into its cabin) heads at full speed towards the rocky shore while Skippy tries to unbolt the door to let him out!

Busy traffic on the final stretch

We have our own moment of drama after pedalling away from the campsite an hour later. The road is far busier this morning and without warning a speeding Volvo comes around a corner on the wrong side of the road, heading straight for the three of us while its young driver tries to get it back under control. With squealing tires, the car just misses us. At this point, I lose interest in riding into the city on a Saturday morning.

At the junction of the RV17 and the E80 we find a bus stop with a bus due in five minutes, so we catch a ride into Bodø from Lodingen. There is a cyclepath along the E80 but it suffers from the usual problem of having a road junction every hundred metres or so, and they are busy roads today. For the record, the bus takes our bikes and us to Bodø Centrum for 120 Kr.

In the Centrum we reassemble the bikes and bags, and pedal up to Bodosjoen Camping for a final commemorative picture and a cup of tea in Hut 23, which is as fly-infested as last year.

We made it!

I spend the penultimate afternoon shopping for maps and guides for Troms in the city centre. By good fortune, I also bump into a German cyclist who has just arrived by plane and is waiting at a petrol station to fill his fuel bottle - I happily empty my fuel bottle into his bottle and wish him well.

Back at the campsite, we retire to the beach for a swim and an impromptu fancy dress competition. P. comes as a troll... need I say more!

Rarrrghh!!

home cyclingKystriksveien, 2006

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