Destination Nordkapp – Day 6

Day 6: Camp Lofoten to Malangen 463.4km

Morning arrived with no discernible change from night, the general hubbub and smell of breakfast wafting down to the beach the only giveaways. Back on the road, anyone who’s ridden the best that the Alps has to offer would feel well at home on Lofoten. The weather still gracing us with warmth and sunshine, we’re deep in troll country now. The Norwegians have an affection for the imaginary subhuman critters that most adults would find tedious, but they’re everywhere – and seemingly venerated by the locals.

A 24hour cycle race lapping Lofoten makes for some interesting rolling roadblocks on the E10 towards Malangen. The roads are fast, wide, never straight, perfectly surfaced and deserted (pedal friends aside). There are only 5.2 million people in Norway – that’s 2 million fewer souls than live in London – no wonder the roads are eerily deserted.

As we push North, the dramatic mountainous incisors that poke skyward from the ocean at Lofoten soften to a rolling carpet of densely forested mountains, peaked by snowy caps as we swoop along the E6, heading ever-northward. The sheer relentless indulgence has led to an almost musical rhythm to the miles. We’re rarely bolt upright, and the constant adjustments and focus mean we never tire, never switch off or become saddle sore.

And then there’s another change. The lush Alpine landscape suddenly peppered with oppressive black mountains brooding like storm clouds on the horizon.

A section of fast and wide off-road, so compacted that it’s barely less grippy than your average UK B-road, on the final approach to Malangen spits us out on an even faster mountain descent to our fjord-side rest point. The Malangen Brygger Resort is picturesque in the extreme. Clusters of red and white stilted chalets dotted along the shoreline affording us a welcome level of opulence after the previous night’s beach sleep, and the ratty hostel of the night before.

Our motion-addled brains find it hard to compute that we’re now well north of Iceland – and most of the rest of the globe, too. Norkapp, which has seemed so far from us for so long, suddenly looks almost local.

It’s Day 7…

Catch up on Part 1 of Destination Nordkapp
Catch up on Part 2 of Destination Nordkapp
Catch up on Part 3 of Destination Nordkapp
Catch up on Part 4 of Destination Nordkapp
Catch up on Part 5 of Destination Nordkapp

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