I went North

[the Ferret]

indeed, thanks for the ride along. Like you said, it was AWESOME!

[GoldOxide_imp]

Day eight: "Rødøy? Then you're on the wrong ferry."
Fauske - Trondheim (747 km)

All through this ride I have been waking up really early in the mornings, significantly earlier than I usually do. Fauske hotel was no exception, I'm ready for breakfast at about 8. But my friend has asked me to bring some wine, and the wine shop opens at 10. I need something from the pharmacy that opens at 10 as well, so I just wait. Nothing happened in Fauske on a Friday night in the middle of tourist season, and absolutely nothing happened on Saturday morning. But it's not raining, at least, and the rain last night got the temperatures down to very acceptable. I'm going to Flatøy, and it is going to be awesome!

To get to Flatøy, I have to get to Jektvik and take a ferry to Rødøy, where I'll park the Honda. There is no infrastructure on Flatøy, my friend will pick me up in a small boat.

This is the northern end of FV17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_..._Road_17), and I'm pretty excited. This is a premium motorcycle road in a landscape you have to see to believe.
My tolerance for camper vans has lowered, though, so I try not to stop at the spots with the highest camper van density, which obviously means I'm missing out on the best photo opportunities. Here, for instance, is my picture of Svartisen, one of our largest remaining glaciers.



A few hundred meters further along the road, I could have gotten a MUCH BETTER PICTURE, but there were a million camper vans there, so you don't get to see.

What do the mountains look like if the glaciers that used to be there melt, I hear you ask.



The first ferry of the day takes me from Halsa to Ågskardet. I had to wait about two hours, one of several reasons why FV17 takes so much more time than E6, but it is SO worth it! Talked to a couple of Swedes on the quay, one was on a brand new Multistrada V4, the other one on a completely beat up HD. They had stopped many times a day to repair the Harley. For instance, earlier in the day, it had dropped one of the (loud) pipes. Just off. Plop. This wasn't a 100% bike, I'd hesitate to give it 50%. Loved to see the two of them, a perfectly unmatched pair, tolerating each other's equipment choices and going on a ridiculously long ride together.

Apparently, and I say this because I really don't know, but apparently, there are some ferries where they don't let bikers cut the line and get on first, but this one wasn't one of those:



The view from upper deck:



There's a leg of about 30km between Ågskardet and Jektvik, and I had a fever, and the only cure was more cowbell. I grabbed all the throttle I could find and left everybody behind, bikes and camper vans and all. Well, except this one Spaniard on a Pan American, he kept up.

Fantastic riding! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Anyway, that piece of self-incriminating information is included to help you understand how what went wrong could go wrong: I was in a certain state of mind, see, and my think didn't work like normal.

I get to the Jektvik ferry quay, and there's a boat there with its bow wide open. There are no cars on the quay, so I go all the way to the boat and gesture a little. The gate goes up again! I roll on board, and as I'm strapping the CB down, the ferry leaves Jektvik.

"I'm just going to Rødøy", I said, "to spend the night with good friends".

Ferry guy: "Rødøy? This ferry doesn't go there". :o

I now have a full hour to figure out what to do, so I make some calls and check all the maps and the conclusion is clear:
There are no alternatives!

If I want to get to Flatøy, I have to take the same ferry back, and then get on the right one.

So I talk to the crew and get the OK to just stay onboard, they even let me know I won't be charged for the return. So I tell my friend, but in the meantime they have found out that I'm not going to make the last ferry to Rødøy.

Unlike the rest of this tale, I am now going to make a long story short: I made the decision to go home.

I think maybe one of those mountains is on Rødøy, the famous Rødøy Lion, but I'm not sure. For the sake of this narrative, you're looking at the death of my plan, this is (maybe) Flatøy in the rear view.




I disembark, and now I have new choices: get back on E6 or continue on FV17?
I made a compromise. FV17 from Kilboghavn to Nesna, then from Levang I can take the 78 to Mosjøen, where I rejoin the E6.

If 78 to Mosjøen looks suspiciously straight on the map, it's because it is a tunnel. All of it, pretty much, is a hole through the mountain. So I'm in Mosjøen just like that!

Mosjøen is 390 kms from home. I get gas, a gas station burger, and leave at about eight o'clock. E6 from Mosjøen? I did this bit already, in the very fist post. I'm *almost* on home turf. Some form of inner cruise control sets in, and I just ride. I'm almost alone, apparently the camper vans have gone to sleep.
When I got to Namsskogan, I had the first feeling of "damn, I'm gonna make it all the way!", and when I got gas, coffee, and a shot of the first sunset of the whole trip (midnight sun, remember?) in Steinkjer, I knew I wasn't stopping unless it felt unsafe to ride. It didn't. I felt alert and focused, even though rain and wind and dusk made a caleidoscope of everything.

This is me, letting my girlfriend know I'm just two hours from home:


And that's the report. I know it feels a bit anti-climactic, but writing this feels a bit like the ride itself did, it's over, I just have to not screw up and park this thing in the right spot now.

I never expected to make it all the way home from Fauske. If I had planned to go all the way home from Fauske, I wouldn't have gone on FV17 at all, and I still wouldn't have expected to make it. But once I left Mosjøen, I was in the zone and I made it all the way home from Fauske in one day.
747 km, including one right and one wrong ferry, and many kilometres on FV17.
This entire ride has been amazing, and I would go again tomorrow, but it was a truly wonderful feeling to walk in my own door to find Marita waiting up.

Exhale.

Thanks for reading and commenting, it has been fun!

I went north, and it was AWESOME!

What a nice way (closing image) to finish a great experience Hovmod.

[pdedse]

I'm on my own trip as I read yours. It's great to have down-time to enjoy the photos and narration. I like the ferry stories...that feeling of riding past all the parked campers and cars to the very front, first on / first off...feels like you are royalty. Very happy to read that your gas station incident didn't explode into anything more troublesome.
: )

[Cormanus]

I’ve had a petrol station operator refuse to activate a pump unless I got off the bike. A few days later I saw a video of a bloke whose bike caught fire while he was filling it from the seat. It’s not something I’m willing to try.

[peterbaron]

Day eight: "Rødøy? Then you're on the wrong ferry."
Fauske - Trondheim (747 km)

All through this ride I have been waking up really early in the mornings, significantly earlier than I usually do. Fauske hotel was no exception, I'm ready for breakfast at about 8. But my friend has asked me to bring some wine, and the wine shop opens at 10. I need something from the pharmacy that opens at 10 as well, so I just wait. Nothing happened in Fauske on a Friday night in the middle of tourist season, and absolutely nothing happened on Saturday morning. But it's not raining, at least, and the rain last night got the temperatures down to very acceptable. I'm going to Flatøy, and it is going to be awesome!

To get to Flatøy, I have to get to Jektvik and take a ferry to Rødøy, where I'll park the Honda. There is no infrastructure on Flatøy, my friend will pick me up in a small boat.

This is the northern end of FV17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_..._Road_17), and I'm pretty excited. This is a premium motorcycle road in a landscape you have to see to believe.
My tolerance for camper vans has lowered, though, so I try not to stop at the spots with the highest camper van density, which obviously means I'm missing out on the best photo opportunities. Here, for instance, is my picture of Svartisen, one of our largest remaining glaciers.



A few hundred meters further along the road, I could have gotten a MUCH BETTER PICTURE, but there were a million camper vans there, so you don't get to see.

What do the mountains look like if the glaciers that used to be there melt, I hear you ask.



The first ferry of the day takes me from Halsa to Ågskardet. I had to wait about two hours, one of several reasons why FV17 takes so much more time than E6, but it is SO worth it! Talked to a couple of Swedes on the quay, one was on a brand new Multistrada V4, the other one on a completely beat up HD. They had stopped many times a day to repair the Harley. For instance, earlier in the day, it had dropped one of the (loud) pipes. Just off. Plop. This wasn't a 100% bike, I'd hesitate to give it 50%. Loved to see the two of them, a perfectly unmatched pair, tolerating each other's equipment choices and going on a ridiculously long ride together.

Apparently, and I say this because I really don't know, but apparently, there are some ferries where they don't let bikers cut the line and get on first, but this one wasn't one of those:



The view from upper deck:



There's a leg of about 30km between Ågskardet and Jektvik, and I had a fever, and the only cure was more cowbell. I grabbed all the throttle I could find and left everybody behind, bikes and camper vans and all. Well, except this one Spaniard on a Pan American, he kept up.

Fantastic riding! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Anyway, that piece of self-incriminating information is included to help you understand how what went wrong could go wrong: I was in a certain state of mind, see, and my think didn't work like normal.

I get to the Jektvik ferry quay, and there's a boat there with its bow wide open. There are no cars on the quay, so I go all the way to the boat and gesture a little. The gate goes up again! I roll on board, and as I'm strapping the CB down, the ferry leaves Jektvik.

"I'm just going to Rødøy", I said, "to spend the night with good friends".

Ferry guy: "Rødøy? This ferry doesn't go there". :o

I now have a full hour to figure out what to do, so I make some calls and check all the maps and the conclusion is clear:
There are no alternatives!

If I want to get to Flatøy, I have to take the same ferry back, and then get on the right one.

So I talk to the crew and get the OK to just stay onboard, they even let me know I won't be charged for the return. So I tell my friend, but in the meantime they have found out that I'm not going to make the last ferry to Rødøy.

Unlike the rest of this tale, I am now going to make a long story short: I made the decision to go home.

I think maybe one of those mountains is on Rødøy, the famous Rødøy Lion, but I'm not sure. For the sake of this narrative, you're looking at the death of my plan, this is (maybe) Flatøy in the rear view.




I disembark, and now I have new choices: get back on E6 or continue on FV17?
I made a compromise. FV17 from Kilboghavn to Nesna, then from Levang I can take the 78 to Mosjøen, where I rejoin the E6.

If 78 to Mosjøen looks suspiciously straight on the map, it's because it is a tunnel. All of it, pretty much, is a hole through the mountain. So I'm in Mosjøen just like that!

Mosjøen is 390 kms from home. I get gas, a gas station burger, and leave at about eight o'clock. E6 from Mosjøen? I did this bit already, in the very fist post. I'm *almost* on home turf. Some form of inner cruise control sets in, and I just ride. I'm almost alone, apparently the camper vans have gone to sleep.
When I got to Namsskogan, I had the first feeling of "damn, I'm gonna make it all the way!", and when I got gas, coffee, and a shot of the first sunset of the whole trip (midnight sun, remember?) in Steinkjer, I knew I wasn't stopping unless it felt unsafe to ride. It didn't. I felt alert and focused, even though rain and wind and dusk made a caleidoscope of everything.

This is me, letting my girlfriend know I'm just two hours from home:


And that's the report. I know it feels a bit anti-climactic, but writing this feels a bit like the ride itself did, it's over, I just have to not screw up and park this thing in the right spot now.

I never expected to make it all the way home from Fauske. If I had planned to go all the way home from Fauske, I wouldn't have gone on FV17 at all, and I still wouldn't have expected to make it. But once I left Mosjøen, I was in the zone and I made it all the way home from Fauske in one day.
747 km, including one right and one wrong ferry, and many kilometres on FV17.
This entire ride has been amazing, and I would go again tomorrow, but it was a truly wonderful feeling to walk in my own door to find Marita waiting up.

Exhale.

Thanks for reading and commenting, it has been fun!

I went north, and it was AWESOME!

Hovmod, what is this big blue dish... a language or ???

[GoldOxide_imp]

I’ve had a petrol station operator refuse to activate a pump unless I got off the bike. A few days later I saw a video of a bloke whose bike caught fire while he was filling it from the seat. It’s not something I’m willing to try.

Agreed.

Beside for me, it is an opportunity to stretch the legs, and so forth.

[Hovmod_imp]

Day eight: "Rødøy? Then you're on the wrong ferry."
Fauske - Trondheim (747 km)

All through this ride I have been waking up really early in the mornings, significantly earlier than I usually do. Fauske hotel was no exception, I'm ready for breakfast at about 8. But my friend has asked me to bring some wine, and the wine shop opens at 10. I need something from the pharmacy that opens at 10 as well, so I just wait. Nothing happened in Fauske on a Friday night in the middle of tourist season, and absolutely nothing happened on Saturday morning. But it's not raining, at least, and the rain last night got the temperatures down to very acceptable. I'm going to Flatøy, and it is going to be awesome!

To get to Flatøy, I have to get to Jektvik and take a ferry to Rødøy, where I'll park the Honda. There is no infrastructure on Flatøy, my friend will pick me up in a small boat.

This is the northern end of FV17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_..._Road_17), and I'm pretty excited. This is a premium motorcycle road in a landscape you have to see to believe.
My tolerance for camper vans has lowered, though, so I try not to stop at the spots with the highest camper van density, which obviously means I'm missing out on the best photo opportunities. Here, for instance, is my picture of Svartisen, one of our largest remaining glaciers.



A few hundred meters further along the road, I could have gotten a MUCH BETTER PICTURE, but there were a million camper vans there, so you don't get to see.

What do the mountains look like if the glaciers that used to be there melt, I hear you ask.



The first ferry of the day takes me from Halsa to Ågskardet. I had to wait about two hours, one of several reasons why FV17 takes so much more time than E6, but it is SO worth it! Talked to a couple of Swedes on the quay, one was on a brand new Multistrada V4, the other one on a completely beat up HD. They had stopped many times a day to repair the Harley. For instance, earlier in the day, it had dropped one of the (loud) pipes. Just off. Plop. This wasn't a 100% bike, I'd hesitate to give it 50%. Loved to see the two of them, a perfectly unmatched pair, tolerating each other's equipment choices and going on a ridiculously long ride together.

Apparently, and I say this because I really don't know, but apparently, there are some ferries where they don't let bikers cut the line and get on first, but this one wasn't one of those:



The view from upper deck:



There's a leg of about 30km between Ågskardet and Jektvik, and I had a fever, and the only cure was more cowbell. I grabbed all the throttle I could find and left everybody behind, bikes and camper vans and all. Well, except this one Spaniard on a Pan American, he kept up.

Fantastic riding! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Anyway, that piece of self-incriminating information is included to help you understand how what went wrong could go wrong: I was in a certain state of mind, see, and my think didn't work like normal.

I get to the Jektvik ferry quay, and there's a boat there with its bow wide open. There are no cars on the quay, so I go all the way to the boat and gesture a little. The gate goes up again! I roll on board, and as I'm strapping the CB down, the ferry leaves Jektvik.

"I'm just going to Rødøy", I said, "to spend the night with good friends".

Ferry guy: "Rødøy? This ferry doesn't go there". :o

I now have a full hour to figure out what to do, so I make some calls and check all the maps and the conclusion is clear:
There are no alternatives!

If I want to get to Flatøy, I have to take the same ferry back, and then get on the right one.

So I talk to the crew and get the OK to just stay onboard, they even let me know I won't be charged for the return. So I tell my friend, but in the meantime they have found out that I'm not going to make the last ferry to Rødøy.

Unlike the rest of this tale, I am now going to make a long story short: I made the decision to go home.

I think maybe one of those mountains is on Rødøy, the famous Rødøy Lion, but I'm not sure. For the sake of this narrative, you're looking at the death of my plan, this is (maybe) Flatøy in the rear view.




I disembark, and now I have new choices: get back on E6 or continue on FV17?
I made a compromise. FV17 from Kilboghavn to Nesna, then from Levang I can take the 78 to Mosjøen, where I rejoin the E6.

If 78 to Mosjøen looks suspiciously straight on the map, it's because it is a tunnel. All of it, pretty much, is a hole through the mountain. So I'm in Mosjøen just like that!

Mosjøen is 390 kms from home. I get gas, a gas station burger, and leave at about eight o'clock. E6 from Mosjøen? I did this bit already, in the very fist post. I'm *almost* on home turf. Some form of inner cruise control sets in, and I just ride. I'm almost alone, apparently the camper vans have gone to sleep.
When I got to Namsskogan, I had the first feeling of "damn, I'm gonna make it all the way!", and when I got gas, coffee, and a shot of the first sunset of the whole trip (midnight sun, remember?) in Steinkjer, I knew I wasn't stopping unless it felt unsafe to ride. It didn't. I felt alert and focused, even though rain and wind and dusk made a caleidoscope of everything.

This is me, letting my girlfriend know I'm just two hours from home:


And that's the report. I know it feels a bit anti-climactic, but writing this feels a bit like the ride itself did, it's over, I just have to not screw up and park this thing in the right spot now.

I never expected to make it all the way home from Fauske. If I had planned to go all the way home from Fauske, I wouldn't have gone on FV17 at all, and I still wouldn't have expected to make it. But once I left Mosjøen, I was in the zone and I made it all the way home from Fauske in one day.
747 km, including one right and one wrong ferry, and many kilometres on FV17.
This entire ride has been amazing, and I would go again tomorrow, but it was a truly wonderful feeling to walk in my own door to find Marita waiting up.

Exhale.

Thanks for reading and commenting, it has been fun!

I went north, and it was AWESOME!

Hovmod, what is this big blue dish... a language or ???

Haha, that is a tent!
It’s one of those springy, figure-of-eight jobs that you just let go snd it phwap! becomes a tent. He liked the zero effort part, but not the huge blue disc aspect.

[peterbaron]

Day eight: "Rødøy? Then you're on the wrong ferry."
Fauske - Trondheim (747 km)

All through this ride I have been waking up really early in the mornings, significantly earlier than I usually do. Fauske hotel was no exception, I'm ready for breakfast at about 8. But my friend has asked me to bring some wine, and the wine shop opens at 10. I need something from the pharmacy that opens at 10 as well, so I just wait. Nothing happened in Fauske on a Friday night in the middle of tourist season, and absolutely nothing happened on Saturday morning. But it's not raining, at least, and the rain last night got the temperatures down to very acceptable. I'm going to Flatøy, and it is going to be awesome!

To get to Flatøy, I have to get to Jektvik and take a ferry to Rødøy, where I'll park the Honda. There is no infrastructure on Flatøy, my friend will pick me up in a small boat.

This is the northern end of FV17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_..._Road_17), and I'm pretty excited. This is a premium motorcycle road in a landscape you have to see to believe.
My tolerance for camper vans has lowered, though, so I try not to stop at the spots with the highest camper van density, which obviously means I'm missing out on the best photo opportunities. Here, for instance, is my picture of Svartisen, one of our largest remaining glaciers.



A few hundred meters further along the road, I could have gotten a MUCH BETTER PICTURE, but there were a million camper vans there, so you don't get to see.

What do the mountains look like if the glaciers that used to be there melt, I hear you ask.



The first ferry of the day takes me from Halsa to Ågskardet. I had to wait about two hours, one of several reasons why FV17 takes so much more time than E6, but it is SO worth it! Talked to a couple of Swedes on the quay, one was on a brand new Multistrada V4, the other one on a completely beat up HD. They had stopped many times a day to repair the Harley. For instance, earlier in the day, it had dropped one of the (loud) pipes. Just off. Plop. This wasn't a 100% bike, I'd hesitate to give it 50%. Loved to see the two of them, a perfectly unmatched pair, tolerating each other's equipment choices and going on a ridiculously long ride together.

Apparently, and I say this because I really don't know, but apparently, there are some ferries where they don't let bikers cut the line and get on first, but this one wasn't one of those:



The view from upper deck:



There's a leg of about 30km between Ågskardet and Jektvik, and I had a fever, and the only cure was more cowbell. I grabbed all the throttle I could find and left everybody behind, bikes and camper vans and all. Well, except this one Spaniard on a Pan American, he kept up.

Fantastic riding! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Anyway, that piece of self-incriminating information is included to help you understand how what went wrong could go wrong: I was in a certain state of mind, see, and my think didn't work like normal.

I get to the Jektvik ferry quay, and there's a boat there with its bow wide open. There are no cars on the quay, so I go all the way to the boat and gesture a little. The gate goes up again! I roll on board, and as I'm strapping the CB down, the ferry leaves Jektvik.

"I'm just going to Rødøy", I said, "to spend the night with good friends".

Ferry guy: "Rødøy? This ferry doesn't go there". :o

I now have a full hour to figure out what to do, so I make some calls and check all the maps and the conclusion is clear:
There are no alternatives!

If I want to get to Flatøy, I have to take the same ferry back, and then get on the right one.

So I talk to the crew and get the OK to just stay onboard, they even let me know I won't be charged for the return. So I tell my friend, but in the meantime they have found out that I'm not going to make the last ferry to Rødøy.

Unlike the rest of this tale, I am now going to make a long story short: I made the decision to go home.

I think maybe one of those mountains is on Rødøy, the famous Rødøy Lion, but I'm not sure. For the sake of this narrative, you're looking at the death of my plan, this is (maybe) Flatøy in the rear view.




I disembark, and now I have new choices: get back on E6 or continue on FV17?
I made a compromise. FV17 from Kilboghavn to Nesna, then from Levang I can take the 78 to Mosjøen, where I rejoin the E6.

If 78 to Mosjøen looks suspiciously straight on the map, it's because it is a tunnel. All of it, pretty much, is a hole through the mountain. So I'm in Mosjøen just like that!

Mosjøen is 390 kms from home. I get gas, a gas station burger, and leave at about eight o'clock. E6 from Mosjøen? I did this bit already, in the very fist post. I'm *almost* on home turf. Some form of inner cruise control sets in, and I just ride. I'm almost alone, apparently the camper vans have gone to sleep.
When I got to Namsskogan, I had the first feeling of "damn, I'm gonna make it all the way!", and when I got gas, coffee, and a shot of the first sunset of the whole trip (midnight sun, remember?) in Steinkjer, I knew I wasn't stopping unless it felt unsafe to ride. It didn't. I felt alert and focused, even though rain and wind and dusk made a caleidoscope of everything.

This is me, letting my girlfriend know I'm just two hours from home:


And that's the report. I know it feels a bit anti-climactic, but writing this feels a bit like the ride itself did, it's over, I just have to not screw up and park this thing in the right spot now.

I never expected to make it all the way home from Fauske. If I had planned to go all the way home from Fauske, I wouldn't have gone on FV17 at all, and I still wouldn't have expected to make it. But once I left Mosjøen, I was in the zone and I made it all the way home from Fauske in one day.
747 km, including one right and one wrong ferry, and many kilometres on FV17.
This entire ride has been amazing, and I would go again tomorrow, but it was a truly wonderful feeling to walk in my own door to find Marita waiting up.

Exhale.

Thanks for reading and commenting, it has been fun!

I went north, and it was AWESOME!

Hovmod, what is this big blue dish... a language or ???

Haha, that is a tent!
It’s one of those springy, figure-of-eight jobs that you just let go snd it phwap! becomes a tent. He liked the zero effort part, but not the huge blue disc aspect.

Haha, that is a tent!
It’s one of those springy, figure-of-eight jobs that you just let go snd it phwap! becomes a tent. He liked the zero effort part, but not the huge blue disc aspect.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Day eight: "Rødøy? Then you're on the wrong ferry."
Fauske - Trondheim (747 km)

All through this ride I have been waking up really early in the mornings, significantly earlier than I usually do. Fauske hotel was no exception, I'm ready for breakfast at about 8. But my friend has asked me to bring some wine, and the wine shop opens at 10. I need something from the pharmacy that opens at 10 as well, so I just wait. Nothing happened in Fauske on a Friday night in the middle of tourist season, and absolutely nothing happened on Saturday morning. But it's not raining, at least, and the rain last night got the temperatures down to very acceptable. I'm going to Flatøy, and it is going to be awesome!

To get to Flatøy, I have to get to Jektvik and take a ferry to Rødøy, where I'll park the Honda. There is no infrastructure on Flatøy, my friend will pick me up in a small boat.

This is the northern end of FV17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_..._Road_17), and I'm pretty excited. This is a premium motorcycle road in a landscape you have to see to believe.
My tolerance for camper vans has lowered, though, so I try not to stop at the spots with the highest camper van density, which obviously means I'm missing out on the best photo opportunities. Here, for instance, is my picture of Svartisen, one of our largest remaining glaciers.



A few hundred meters further along the road, I could have gotten a MUCH BETTER PICTURE, but there were a million camper vans there, so you don't get to see.

What do the mountains look like if the glaciers that used to be there melt, I hear you ask.



The first ferry of the day takes me from Halsa to Ågskardet. I had to wait about two hours, one of several reasons why FV17 takes so much more time than E6, but it is SO worth it! Talked to a couple of Swedes on the quay, one was on a brand new Multistrada V4, the other one on a completely beat up HD. They had stopped many times a day to repair the Harley. For instance, earlier in the day, it had dropped one of the (loud) pipes. Just off. Plop. This wasn't a 100% bike, I'd hesitate to give it 50%. Loved to see the two of them, a perfectly unmatched pair, tolerating each other's equipment choices and going on a ridiculously long ride together.

Apparently, and I say this because I really don't know, but apparently, there are some ferries where they don't let bikers cut the line and get on first, but this one wasn't one of those:



The view from upper deck:



There's a leg of about 30km between Ågskardet and Jektvik, and I had a fever, and the only cure was more cowbell. I grabbed all the throttle I could find and left everybody behind, bikes and camper vans and all. Well, except this one Spaniard on a Pan American, he kept up.

Fantastic riding! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Anyway, that piece of self-incriminating information is included to help you understand how what went wrong could go wrong: I was in a certain state of mind, see, and my think didn't work like normal.

I get to the Jektvik ferry quay, and there's a boat there with its bow wide open. There are no cars on the quay, so I go all the way to the boat and gesture a little. The gate goes up again! I roll on board, and as I'm strapping the CB down, the ferry leaves Jektvik.

"I'm just going to Rødøy", I said, "to spend the night with good friends".

Ferry guy: "Rødøy? This ferry doesn't go there". :o

I now have a full hour to figure out what to do, so I make some calls and check all the maps and the conclusion is clear:
There are no alternatives!

If I want to get to Flatøy, I have to take the same ferry back, and then get on the right one.

So I talk to the crew and get the OK to just stay onboard, they even let me know I won't be charged for the return. So I tell my friend, but in the meantime they have found out that I'm not going to make the last ferry to Rødøy.

Unlike the rest of this tale, I am now going to make a long story short: I made the decision to go home.

I think maybe one of those mountains is on Rødøy, the famous Rødøy Lion, but I'm not sure. For the sake of this narrative, you're looking at the death of my plan, this is (maybe) Flatøy in the rear view.




I disembark, and now I have new choices: get back on E6 or continue on FV17?
I made a compromise. FV17 from Kilboghavn to Nesna, then from Levang I can take the 78 to Mosjøen, where I rejoin the E6.

If 78 to Mosjøen looks suspiciously straight on the map, it's because it is a tunnel. All of it, pretty much, is a hole through the mountain. So I'm in Mosjøen just like that!

Mosjøen is 390 kms from home. I get gas, a gas station burger, and leave at about eight o'clock. E6 from Mosjøen? I did this bit already, in the very fist post. I'm *almost* on home turf. Some form of inner cruise control sets in, and I just ride. I'm almost alone, apparently the camper vans have gone to sleep.
When I got to Namsskogan, I had the first feeling of "damn, I'm gonna make it all the way!", and when I got gas, coffee, and a shot of the first sunset of the whole trip (midnight sun, remember?) in Steinkjer, I knew I wasn't stopping unless it felt unsafe to ride. It didn't. I felt alert and focused, even though rain and wind and dusk made a caleidoscope of everything.

This is me, letting my girlfriend know I'm just two hours from home:


And that's the report. I know it feels a bit anti-climactic, but writing this feels a bit like the ride itself did, it's over, I just have to not screw up and park this thing in the right spot now.

I never expected to make it all the way home from Fauske. If I had planned to go all the way home from Fauske, I wouldn't have gone on FV17 at all, and I still wouldn't have expected to make it. But once I left Mosjøen, I was in the zone and I made it all the way home from Fauske in one day.
747 km, including one right and one wrong ferry, and many kilometres on FV17.
This entire ride has been amazing, and I would go again tomorrow, but it was a truly wonderful feeling to walk in my own door to find Marita waiting up.

Exhale.

Thanks for reading and commenting, it has been fun!

I went north, and it was AWESOME!

Hovmod, what is this big blue dish... a language or ???

Haha, that is a tent!
It’s one of those springy, figure-of-eight jobs that you just let go snd it phwap! becomes a tent. He liked the zero effort part, but not the huge blue disc aspect.

I wonder how highway wind gusts affect the ride quality?

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

Awesome only barely describes it.