I started early on the 157 miles to Skaidi which took ~4 hours. Today was more hardcore, 10C with a biting gusting wind.
After crossing one mountain pass where it was 4C, I stopped when back at a lower warmer (relative) altitude to put on a second top layer and thermal trousers. Heated grips were also turned on for most of the time.
As the roads follow the fjords or valleys the wind direction alternates from behind (OK), to a headwind (not too bad), and then a cross wind (bad), which when it's gusty is hard work as you get blown all over the place, especially when crossing the open plateaus with the high crowned roads.
At one point I went through a tunnel which wasn't on the sat nav (even though I updated the maps prior to the trip), which cut several km off the route.
No signs of any reindeer, despite there being lots of warning road signs, did see some sheep today and the traffic all slowed in case they decided to cross the road. Surprisingly seen virtually no wild life on the trip, all I can think of is a stoat like animal that rushed across the road at one point..
Arrived at my hotel relatively early, like some other riders having a shorter day and keen to get out of the cold; I went to open one of the panniers and noticed a large, stunned bee in the handle well, luckily prior to putting my bare hands on the handle. Turns out hotel key cards are useful for extracting bees.
Almost all the other motorbikes are Adventure bikes (rather than my sports tourer), mainly BMW, and all large capacity engines (1000 cc or more, mine is 1000 cc). Only seen the two British bikes all trip, mainly German, some Austrian and Polish. Saw a couple of Russian bikes the other day but you then realise the Russian border is only ~250 miles away.
Tomorrow the final round trip to Nordkapp which is only ~100 miles away (~4.5 hour ride).
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