Tired, hungry for real food, and slightly stressed about the time. This was further exacerbated by the hoards of cars and camper-van tourists cramming into Dombås to use as a stopping off and refuelling point. The local cafes and supermarkets were overcrowded with people. We had to find food, eat, quickly, rest and move on within 20-30 mins. All I wanted was to relax with a cup of tea and unwind for 10 mins. Instead I was stressing in a supermarket queue as the family in-front argued over how much candy the kids were allowed. By the time we’d picked up food and had hastily eaten It, It was nearly 4:00pm. Three hours behind our planned schedule.
Time plans rarely go like clockwork on a bike ride and the weather was not something we could truly calculate in. Therefore, we push on, reminding ourselves that 24 hours was our original aim and that was still attainable. Moreover, most of the hard climbing had been done and we now had a long gentle descent to the coast. Morale picked up, and we agreed to remove the last stop break at Åndalsnes to make up time. We had this ride under-control and the legs and mind were still strong.
It’s 109km from Dombås to Åndalsnes down one of Norway’s most beautiful old glacier valleys called Romsdalen. It weaves into a narrow valley with only room for one road; the E136. As expected it was busy with July tourist traffic. Nevertheless, we were pleasantly surprised to find the first 50km had some roughly patched together cycle path. It wasn’t great but beats camper vans flying past you. Unfortunately the wind that we had battled over Grimsdalen was funnelling down the valley straight at us making the road another slow and tiring affair. To add insult to injury we could see more and more dark clouds forming ahead of us. Rain, a lot of it, was approaching.
Near the end of the valley lies the tallest vertical rock wall in Europe. Known as Trollveggen or in English the Troll Wall. This unique natural wonder is pure eye candy. However, by the time we reached it the heavens had opened and the temperature had dropped. We were 330km into the ride but there was no time for photos we had to push on to Åndalsnes. The wether did not ease off and as we hit the coast we realised a storm was coming in off the sea and right in the direction we were cycling.