Europe India Trip: Day 20-21: Kristiansund - Molde - Ringebu (Norway) [May 2-3, 2023]
Visited Atlantic Ocean Road (again) & 2nd trip to the bike mechanic due to headlight failure. But much better experience than what I had in Forde.
This is part of my Europe India solo motorbike trip . Please read the post for more context.
I was pretty relaxed from the tire replacement thing (details in the previous blog) as the issue nagged me from the time I had bought the bike because I was told I need to replace the front tire soon & earlier I had plan to ride through Spain & Portugal. Vibeke’s place as super cosy & I guess I just got spoilt & lazy & slept for long I guess.
I was up by like 8 & Vibeke very nicely (well, it has become usual now) offered me coffee & I agreed (taking favours had also become usual for me now I guess). Vibeke had to leave to her work at 10 & while leaving, she generously offered a parting gift. Some eggs from her farm & a small scarf around neck which is worn by bikers when it gets cold.
I loaded the stuff & left by like 12 PM. I remember Olav was working from home & he checked with me a few times if I need anything.
My plan was to ride towards Atlantic Ocean Road & then head towards Stockholm. I had identified Lillehammer as the right place to stop after having discussion with Olav the previous night.
There is a tunnel through the water from Kristiansund to Atlantic Ocean Road . Sometime before entering the tunnel, I figured my headlight had stopped working. I stopped next to the tunnel & thought of going back to Kristiansund & asking Olav for some pointers of mechanics. But I also remembered how this has happened before & how my lights had come up automatically the next day (read my post Hardanger - Bergen one). So I decided to keep riding hoping the lights would fix itself.
Inside the tunnel, a few car folks flashed me as my headlights was of. I also remember reading an article which said headlights need to be kept on mandatorily in Norway by law.
Soon I reached the Best petrol bunk where I had stopped for coffee & food on my way to Kristiansund from Atlantic Ocean Road the previous day. I emailed Vibeke asking for Olav’s contact & then eventually asked them about pointer to a mechanic. I also called the only Kristiansund mechanic - Berge Motors. But they said they dont have capacity & suggested that I should check with Farstads folks in Molde. I decided to defer the decision making after I visited Atlantic Ocean Road. One thing at a time - is what I thought in my head :).
I reached Atlantic Ocean Road & stopped at parking bay at the center. It had sidewalks so I decided to click pictures from there.
I then felt that I should also do a video. So I did one.
Post the shooting, I came back to my parked bike. It was time to decide which mechanic to visit. I ended up asking help through a post on Bunk A Biker Norway facebook group & people sent over names of mechanic shops in Molde. I decided to ride towards Farstads Motoservice AS mainly because of the recommendation from the Berge Motors guys that I spoke with in Kristiansund.
I reached Farstads Motoservice, parked my bike on the sidewalk & walked in. I met Ausrun at the reception & she asked me to speak to Mognus, who is also the (part) owner of the place. Mognus readily agreed to have a look at the bike & soon we were out fiddling with the wires. Mognus said he can fix it but later in the day & it would be like an hour of time. He quoted 1000 NOKs for an hour (around 90 Euros) & I said ok.
I took off all the boxes, put them in the shop & decided to walk to a coffee shop to ring the European breakdown people so that I can get a free overnight stay in Molde (the city I was in).
It was 4 PM. I opened Google Map & looked for ‘cheap coffee’. I got recommended Espresso House & I walked there. The coffee wasnt cheap as the place was like Norwegian version of Starbucks. I decided to have something of yoghurt instead.
I got a nice place to sit so I started to call the European breakdown cover. I have taken cover from Britannia Rescue & so far, I dont think I have liked them. My car breakdown cover was with The AA & they were much better in handling my requests. I told the breakdown people I dont need a rescue as I could bring the motorbike to a mechanic & just need overnight stay but they insisted to follow the process & said somebody from rescue team will be with me in an hour. I just gave up & said ok & decided to go back to eating my yoghurt.
I came out of the place & realized the place is actually Molde’s center (Molde Sentrum) & I walked around a bit.
Soon I realized I need a coffee so I then walked to Den Gode Smak AS which was top rated & listed with single ‘pound’ sign which meant it is cheap. It was a bit hard to find the place as it was located on the first floor & I guess mostly locals come there but it was a very nice cafe with the view.
I then headed back to Farstads. I have passed my phone number to Mognus who had said that he would call/message me before he would start to work on the bike. At around 6 PM when I reached, he had actually taken the bike inside & had started to work on it already. Mognus was ok with me hanging around & I did learn a bit about wire connectors on my bike. I had read that connectors behind radiators are usually an issue & Mognus had also located problem somewhere around there. We cleaned connectors & checked again. It seemed all good. Mognus was very thorough with his diagnosis & fixes.
It was 8 PM by the time we got done. Mognus went inside to get me the bill while I loitered around the shop & took some pictures.
I do remember buying a better version of WD-40 & I remember it was reasonably priced at 200 NOKs (around 18 Euros).
Mognus had mentioned that if I suspect any connectors failing & they are not reachable easily, I should spray WD-40 & hope for it to do its job of removing rust that has lead to broken connection. I guess that was an important & useful tip.
I now need to look for an accommodation & Britannia folks (the breakdown cover guys) were ok reimbursing an amount till 60 Euros which translated to around 800 NOKs. It was a small amount compared to the prices in Norway but Molde had a few cheap place listed. One of them was Molde Vandrejhem (Vandrejhem stands for Hostel in Norwegian language). I remember riding to the place only to be met by some school kids who told me that people from admin had left for the day (it was 9 PM). I remember meeting a girl & a guy. The girl did all the talking. She reminded me of Emma Watson (person who played Hermione Granger in Harry Potter movie). They suggested I should probably try looking for another place. I thanked them & started to look in Booking.com for another place. I do remember feeling like talking to her more once she has left. But well, she was gone anyway :).
I saw Kviltorp camping listed for around 695 NOKs. I called them by locating them on Google Map & spoke to a person who said that if I come within 20 min, they can host me. So I rode to the place. It was a nice camping place with huts & I was assigned hut number 2.
I remember cooking the usual soup & bread in the night (after a lot of dilly dallying as the kitchen was located in a different building & it was cold outside). I skipped taking bath. The kitchen wasnt that well equipped & somehow I was able to scramble eggs & had them with bread.
I decided to skip the blog writing on the day as I was fairly tired & had to sort out my stay the next day (I cant stay at this place as it was expensive & I was only covered for one night by the breakdown folks). I remember looking up places in Lillehammer & placed a request for a cheap stay for 20 Euros but the host declined saying she had contacted with Covid. I dropped a message to another host in Ringebu but she did not respond. I saw a few hosts on Bunk A Biker map but I dont think any of those responded either. So I decided to sort it the next day itself & decided to go to sleep.
The next day I was up late (around 8 AM) & spent time writing the pending blog post.
I was done by 10 AM, packed my stuff, handed over the key at reception & started to ride towards Lillehammer. My right indicator light stopped working & I remember that while fixing lights with Mognus, we had found a loose connection under the fairing on the indicator side. I stopped to tweak it & was able to do that fine. I decided to put a tape so that the connection stays.
I then remembered that I have not seen my passport for a few days now. I decided to check my laptop bag & did not find it. I panicked & offloaded all my luggage to check. I did not find it. I then tried thinking the last time when I had seen it & then I remember that in the Montana hostel in Bergen, I had put it in the locker & possibly forgot to take it. I called the hostel & they confirmed that there is a locked locker in the room I stayed. They agreed to break the lock & take the purse out & keep with them in reception.
I called my biker friend Lucas but he was out of Bergen for work. I then asked the hostel if they can ship but they said I need to sort it out myself. I was stressed but also happy that I have located the purse. This also changed things a bit for me. I was planning to ride towards Stockholm & border crossing without passport could be a problem. I was earlier thinking to ship it to Stockholm but then spoke with Lucas who suggested that I should get it in Norway itself. So I decided to head to Oslo instead. I decided to ‘ride’ over it before deciding the next steps for shipping.
I reached the ferry out of Molde towards Aldasnes (I dont remember the town the other side). I also remember not having to wait long.
The ride to Andalsnes was a pretty ride with view of freshly snowed mountains. I also remember stopping at a village next to the road for the scenaries.
I had put coffee stop at Andalsnes & stopped there to have one. The Espresso shot was much cheaper there & they did not charge me for a double shot & milk. The place was Vollan Cafe
Andalsnes city center also looked pretty nice & it did remind me of Gieranger to a certain extent.
I continued my ride. I have not decided a place to stop yet. I spent more time trying to figure out how to get my passport shipped to me. Lucas was unreachable & I tried looking up courier websites myself - posten.no (Norwegian postal service) - you could only register with Norwegian number. DHL website showed no options for delivery inside Norway. So I kind of gave up & started to ride ahead.
I stopped by at a place where the views were very nice. The place was Trollvegen. It looked like fresh snow on the mountains.
It was pretty late by then. Somewhere around 3:30 PM. I started to ride & my next stop was Dombas, around 150 kms ahead. I realized it was getting late & I should look for a place for the overnight stay. I figured I would not be able to reach Lillehammer before it gets dark so I started to look for a place around Ringebu area, around 50 kms before Lillehammer.
I opened Google Map & then looked at hotels around Ringebu area. I found Frya Leir which showed around 500+ NOKs price for one person. I called & asked them if they can do something cheaper & the person agreed for 400 NOKs. So my place of stay was decided.
About passport, Lucas had called & told me that he is out of town. So I reached to another of my friend Georgi whom I had met during my ride from Trolltunga to Hardangervidde. I told Georgi about the situation & Georgi was quick to reach to the hostel & collect my purse from the hostel.
Georgi also quickly acted & dispatched my purse via Norwegian courier company ( posten.no ) in an hour itself. I remember stopping on the way to respond to Georgi when he was sending me updates. I also remember thanking him immensely for acting quickly :).
By the time I reached Frya Lier, it was 10:15 PM. I had stopped at a Rema store to buy some groceries before that as I knew the place does not have a restaurant. The owner Woiciech (he is Polish) was waiting for me & then he showed me my room. It was an old army barrack but it was pretty warm & there was just one more person in there. The kitchen was pretty good (I cooked food in the night for myself) & there was free washing machine for use (I also ended up washing some of my clothes).
The only weird thing was the showers which did not have much privacy but since I was the only one in there, I did not care much. There were separate men & women showers though :-D
I was again pretty tired with a long ride, figuring the passport delivery etc & ended up cooking & showering .. finally ended up sleeping. The good thing was - the next day had sun prediction. So the days of riding in cold & snow were probably over for me :). I also had come reasonably south I guess.
I had my passport dispatched to Oslo Youth Hostel & that was the destination for next day. Oslo was not too far & the road was pretty good. I remember seeing 90 kmph stretches in Norway for the first time (I had only seen 80 kmph limits) so I knew I would reach fairly quickly. The next day plan was to write a blog post & then head to Oslo.