I went North

[Hovmod_imp]

Day Six: Senja!
Lyngen - Senja (168 km)

Yes, the ride on day six was a short one, and I was TOTALLY OK with that.
I have friends on Senja, one of Norways largest islands. I had never been there, and I was very much looking forward to staying the afternoon and night with them.

The ride was, relatively speaking, uneventful until I got to Finnsnes, a town connected to Senja with a very tall bridge. I stopped for gas, and had an incident:







Here's what happened. I parked next to the pumps, close enough to stay seated while I did my business. I thought the pump felt different, and looked up to verify that it was really pumping slowly. Visualize it: I'm still in full gear, helmet (and ear plugs) and all, and I'm pumping a highly flammable liquid into a large tank sitting more or less as an extension to my testicles, while looking up to my left to see the numbers flipping over slower than normal. I had already filled the tank earlier in the day, the gauge still showed three bars of fuel, so when the pump claimed I was taking eight, nine, TEN litres of gas, I got confused. But not for very long, because I wasn't wearing a nose plug, and my olfactory system was trying to signal my brain. It kind of smells like gas here, man! I look down, and of course gasoline is overflowing. Everywhere. I'm pumping gas into my lap, it flows over the entire tank, and its flowing down onto (almost) red hot exhaust pipes, of which the CB has a lot, just so that we can imagine we're riding a UJM... The pump nozzle had failed to shut off when it encountered the gasoline already in the tank, and I had failed to notice because a whole bunch of reasons, including ear plugs and leather pants.

I got the side stand out, tossed the pump, and I think I literally flew off the bike and into the gas station, where I fairly calmly told the guy behind the counter that there's an incident outside right now that probably takes priority over the burger you're preparing. To his credit, this did not require repetition or clarification, and seconds later the ground was strewn with some form of gasoline soaker-upper and he was hosing down the CB.

I thanked them for their help, they closed the faulty pump, and I left. Through the town and across the bridge, where I stopped to check my phone for instructions. Failing to decipher the address of my destination, I realised I left my glasses at the station, so I had to go back. They were right there on the ground, nobody had run them over or nothing. Lucky! No fireball between my legs, no loss of eye sight, I'm good.

Done with drama, I got to my friend's house, where I am again very welcome. Both of them have a long history of working in the restaurant business, and one of my proudest moments was last year when I made them a bouillabaisse and they liked it!
We ate very good food and we went for a very nice walk with their two young huskies, it was such a treat!
Senja is large enough to be a small scale version of everything surrounding it. The western side is one of the most storm thrashed places in Norway, and the middle part is a lovely plateau with cloud berries and little fishing waters and from there you see Lyngen style mountains everywhere.

Look at their stove. Just... LOOK!




Walking huskies is not like walking other dogs.


Yup, those mountains in the distance are on the same island.


An electrical storm had made toothpicks of a telephone pole the day before I came, this was just a couple of minutes from their house:


This is what the entire visit felt like for me, except I'm not on a leash.


Every day six has to come to an end, and my hosts both had work the next day, plus I am now looking to gain as many kilometres as I can on day seven, because day eight is going to be a treat!

Lessons learned on day six:
-Never again sit on the vehicle as you are fuelling it.
-Don't get huskies unless you really mean it.

Day seven, even though it goes through the world famous Lofoten, is only for transportation, and I have a feeling the long ride will be a short post.