My Norwegian Cycling Adventure - Part 6

Day 9 (cont) - Fjaerlands Tunnel to Sogndal 26.17km in 3hrs 52mins. Avg speed 6.88kph. Money spent £0.00

As with the previous tunnels, the first couple of hundred metres were well lit but ahead there was nothing, just a dark void. As the light dimmed, again I switched on my lights even though I knew there was no point. The little light that these things gave off was just swallowed in the absolute darkness. They made no difference whatsoever.

Moments later I found myself once again having to stick out my right leg to touch the tunnel wall as I pushed myself along slowly but this time it was harder. I wasn't moving along as easily as I had in the previous tunnel and it got worse. I realised I was climbing uphill. Not only was this tunnel over twice as long as the previous one, it was uphill too. Now I could hear only two things; the shuffle of my right foot as I used it to push forwards off the wall and the sound of water droplets falling down the walls and from the roof of the tunnel above me. I was cold, scared and totally blind.

I continued on in this manner and heard a new sound....a low grumbling noise. I couldn't tell if it was coming from behind me or from the front but I had an idea what it must be. 'Please don't be a lorry coming from behind' I whispered to the tunnel gods as I wondered what to do. I had no idea if I was on a straight section or if it was fairly bendy. I wondered how much warning a driver would have before seeing me. Would they be able to see my lights as they approached me? Would they just see me at the last second as they came around a bend? Would they have enough room to move over? What if two vehicles passed by me in opposite directions at the same time? How far away is it? How loud will it get? How wide is this tunnel? All of these thoughts ran through my mind as the low rumble got ever so slowly louder and louder until I could actually feel the road surface start to vibrate. My heart was racing and I was shaking like the proverbial dog. God only knows what my heart rate must have been at that moment, it must have been through the roof.

I dismounted, stood the bike up against the wall and stood next to it with my back against the tunnel wall. I had even considered which side of my bike to stand. I figured that if a large lorry came from behind on my side of the road it may hit the bike which stuck out from the wall further than I did. I figured that if that did happen, the bike would take me with it if I were to be stood beyond it. So I stood in front of it and ensured as much of my person was in contact with the wall as possible. I even turned my head sideways thinking it would be narrower. The vibrations increased quickly and the sound got louder as I saw the tunnel begin to light up in front of me. I was relieved. At least this vehicle, whatever it is, is on the other side of the road. Moments later I could see it was a small car and as the car came closer I got to see the tunnel itself. Thankfully it was just as wide here as the entrance point so I knew there was room for this car to safely pass. I relaxed a little as the car approached and was then startled as the driver decided to show disdain by sounding the horn as they passed me. It was deafening.

Typical scene between the tunnels.

I was a little surprised to have encountered a vehicle in the tunnel as up until this point the roads had been very quiet with just a car every couple of hours or so passing me by. I felt a little unlucky but fairly confident that I would probably not see another one in this tunnel. I remounted the bike and once again pushed myself slowly along in the pitch black. Ten or fifteen minutes later, I saw light ahead but this time there were no accompanying rumbles. I was relieved and surprised as I thought it would take me longer than this to get through nearly 7km of uphill darkness just shuffling myself along. As I approached the light, the tunnel became visible once more and it became apparent that this was not the end, it was a works station. I assumed it was for emergency vehicles and the like should an incident occur in here. The tunnel widened at this section and I dismounted at the works station to re-gather myself. There were two sections carved out of the rock, one on either side of the road. Enough space in each to fit a few large vehicles such as fire engines. There were electrical circuit boxes on the walls and grey doors with electrical hazard stickers on them. I contemplated fixing up a brew here but decided against it, preferring to just get this over and done with. I continued on.

Five minutes later and I was doing the shuffling along once more, again in total darkness. I noticed that I was no longer shaking and felt like I was hardening to this experience. My confidence was short lived, however, as once again I heard the faint distant rumble of another vehicle! I knew what to do. I dismounted, stood the bike against the wall, placed myself against the wall and turned my head as before. It seemed to take forever until I could once again feel the road start to vibrate and I wondered 'Is this car coming from the front or the rear?' At that moment I realised I was stood on the wrong side of my bike and just as I was about to move out and around my bike, the road behind me began to light up. 'Too late' I said to myself as I retreated back into the wall and turned my head sideways and facing the oncoming vehicle. This time the vibrations were much worse and I noticed how much longer the vehicle had taken to reach me after I began to hear them than the last one had. As the vehicle came into view, I couldn't believe my luck and my heart sank. It was an Articulated Lorry! One of those huge ones with the massive horn section attached to the front. The only one I could recall seeing on the road in Norway. The driver must have been aware of his horn section because as soon as I saw his lorry he must have seen me and hit the horn. I thought my head was going to explode. It was louder than standing in front of the speaker stack at Glastonbury main stage! He passed me by and the wind rocked the bike as I held onto it. He was about two metres away from me and had edged over the centre line. I was thankful that another vehicle was not coming in the other direction at the same time as that would have been very interesting indeed!

I waited until I could no longer feel the rumble of the vehicle and continued on. It was quite a while later when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Whenever anyone uses that phrase in conversation I feel a shiver run down my spine as I'm taken back to that moment, the sound, the rumble, the wind; and that's just me! The vehicle made a lot of noise too!!!

I exited the tunnel and checked out the time. It had taken me over an hour and a half to get through this thing. I was shaken but not stirred. With renewed confidence I enjoyed a gentle roll alongside a lovely looking river until the scenery opened up and a large lake was on the right hand side. I took the above photograph and carried on my way. A short while later came yet another tunnel. This one was only a couple of kilometres long, fairly straight, and the gradient was flat so it took a matter of minutes to navigate. More gentle road followed and then came another tunnel. This one was another long one, the Frudals tunnel at 6750m. Fortunately for me, this one was a downhill ride which made all the difference. I felt like a tunnel expert by now and was through in less than half an hour.

There had been one point in between two of the tunnels (I can't remember exactly where now) where I had come across a toll booth. I remember exiting a tunnel, seeing the booth and wondering over the minute or so it took me to reach the booth, just what the toll operator must be thinking and what he would do. After all I had probably broken the law by cycling through these things. I reached the toll, stopped, looked up at the man and asked him 'how much?' He just waved his hand at me, ushering me on to the next tunnel that lay in view just up ahead. I wondered what he must have thought when he saw me emerge from the tunnel and as I cycled away from him displaying the large GB letters on the back. I probably reinforced the notion in him about mad dogs and Englishmen!

On exiting the Frudals tunnel it was a nice descent into the Sogndal region. I took the snap above on the way down. I was understandably pretty shattered by this point so I took advantage of a little potential free camping spot I saw just before Sogndal. A wire fence about one metre high surrounded a lovely looking field where it seemed I would be able to get the bike over it, lower it down the short but steep verge and camp undetected not too far from the road. I pulled over, unstrapped the panniers, tent etc and passed them through the fence. Then I lifted the bike over and took it down the verge and out of view of the road. I retrieved the rest of my gear, pulled out the stove and started cooking while I set the tent up for the night. After devouring more soup, bread and fruit I wrote in my diary for a while then lay back and fell asleep.

Please join me tomorrow where I make my way further into the mountains and find out for the first time what a real climb feels like.

Until then may you attract only goodness

STEEMONKEY🐒