Norway – Summary – Part 1

Date:


06.12.2020 until 12.12.200


Day: 126 – 132



Country:


Norway / Denmark / Germany


Location:


Schwaig near Nuremberg


Kilometers:


2228 km


Total kilometers to home


11986 km


Soil condition:


Asphalt


Ferry from Kristiansand to Denmark


1


Bridge crossings from Lillehammer to Kristiansand


225


Tunnel crossings from Lillehammer to Kristiansand


69

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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“Shall I prepare salmon, roast potatoes and salad for you on one of the last evenings in this country? Served with one of the delicious Danish beers?” asks Tanja with a grin. “Yes, I’d love to,” I reply. “You can take Ajaci for a walk in the meantime,” she suggests, whereupon I grab the dog lead and leave the Terra with him. We trudge through wet snow on the shore of the lake. From the other side of the river, the countless lights of houses and cars flash across to us. “Wooouuuuuiii!” Ajaci suddenly howls. “Yes, my friend, now it’s time to go home again. The trip will be over in a few days. It was great here, wasn’t it?” “Wooouuuuuiii!” he confirms loudly. We both stand motionless and watch the clouds, soaked in snow and rain, reflecting the colors of the illuminated city of Lillehammer. I think a little wistfully about everything we have experienced, how and why we are here at all, because we should actually be in Asia right now for at least three years to continue the long-planned longest e-bike expedition in the world where we ended it last time.

The idea was to ride our e-bikes with the Terra Love over a distance of 30,000 km to Asia. It was to go from Germany via the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos to Thailand. This would have been a risky route simply because of the political situation in one country or another. It was also extremely difficult to obtain all the necessary permits and visas during the preparation phase. If we had managed to overcome the madness of the authorities, we wanted to cycle from one national park to another on our bikes for at least two years to live with the elephants. Because the survival of the Asian elephants is severely threatened, we wanted to write about it and inform the world about the situation. We had the funding for the project in our pockets and had just completed our preparations when Corona arrived. As if it had only happened yesterday, I can still remember exactly how it feels when a long-cherished plan disappears into thin air. We sat there petrified for the first few days until the shock lifted and we mentally played through the alternatives. Just don’t give up and bury your head in the sand, but carry on and find new paths. That has always been one of our key survival strategies. We toyed with the idea of traveling to Iceland with our Terra Love for a few months, but found out that Ajaci had been quarantined for a month. “Let’s go to Norway and explore the country properly” was a thought we ultimately pursued. The problem was that the country’s borders were closed due to coronavirus. “When the borders open, we’ll set off,” Tanja and I agreed. No sooner said than done. We spontaneously traveled to Norway and are still here almost six months later. Phew, who would have thought that we would experience so much in this country? Who would have thought that we would learn to appreciate and love this country? That we would find it so difficult to leave it again? Especially that the trip to the north would be a serious alternative to our plans? I am still as fascinated as I was on the first day. A breeze blows towards Ajaci and me. “What a country and what fantastic experiences we had here. What do you think, my dear?” I say, scratching his head. “Wooouuuuuiii!” he replies affirmatively. Can you remember when we went on the ferry in Rostock and you were allowed to run around on the big ship?” “Wooouuuuuiii!”, I cry next to him, which gives my thoughts even more wings. They fly to the first day in Norway, where we just happened to marvel at rock paintings from the Bronze Age, the Jellhaugen burial mound and the sensational discovery of a Viking ship that was only discovered in 2018 using ground penetrating radar. I think of the bear hunter Per Jørgen, who lives in an old farmhouse on Lake Vansjø and gave us a large frozen moose loin as a gift and invited us to stay. I think of the German teacher Rolf, who gave us chanterelles that he and his wife had collected themselves, of sun-drenched Oslo and the oldest ski jump in the world, from which we plunged down a zip wire. “What fun that was,” I say quietly, to which Ajaci also whimpers softly. “And how did you like the channel strangler? It was a great creature, wasn’t it? Martin, his brother Arvis and Guido and his friend Janis were kind of weird birds. They actually took this snake for a ride in Oslo. What a funny encounter that was,” I tell them and get another whimper. My thoughts fly to the Kon-Tiki Museum of Norway’s most famous explorer, Thor Heyerdahl. As soon as we entered, we were captivated by the fantastic atmosphere that had been created there. We marveled at the raft made of balsa wood with which Thor Heyerdahl and his crew of five men crossed the Pacific from South America to Polynesia, proving that the pre-Columbian Indians of South America were able to cover the enormous distance of 8,000 km in simple rafts with the help of the southeast winds and the current. “What an extraordinary achievement Thor Heyerdahl accomplished with his expeditions,” it goes through my mind, because expeditions like this were and still are my thing. And yet I don’t want to be dissatisfied with being able to travel more comfortably this time. “You could almost get used to it,” I say, to which Ajaci looks at me with wide eyes, opens his mouth and yawns heartbreakingly. “Yes, yes, you don’t care how we get around as long as you get your food.” “Wooouuuuuiii!”, he howls, whereupon my memories lead me to our first little e-bike tour to the end of the world (Verden’s end)…