Ride Around » Norway Adventure

Norway Return Route Completed

Adrian Ritchie — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 20:33:08 +0000

I’ve finally finished my return route through Norway at the end of my summer holiday last year (2005). Its taken approximately 10 hours to create and I’ve included both the route I actually took and the route I would have taken if I hadn’t crashed. I’ve also included notes about memorable parts of the trip, places I stayed over-night (or didn’t as the case may be), must see places along the way, and a few other general notes about the areas of Norway I travelled through.All the different bit are included in seperate folders so you can turn them off and on as you like. Whilst it might take quite some time to tour the whole route, I would advise turning on the Terrain layer and run a tour of the alternative last day. I would also advise turning on the terrain and having a look at the area around Trollstigen and Geiranger. I’ve even marked a plane coming into land in Bergen that no-one else appears to have spotted.Some of the details included in the notes needs to be checked up on, so if you spot a mistake please let me know and I’ll correct it.Download: Norway – Hamsund to Bergen.kmz

Famous Number Plate

Adrian Ritchie — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:18:50 +0000

As some of you may be aware I took a holiday in Norway last summer. A smaller sub-set of you may have heard my story of how I got stopped by a couple of eager “number plate spotters” as I left the docks in Bergen. It seems that my bike was the first bike they had seen with a Guernsey number plate and this was rather exciting for them. Being the good-natured person that I am, I stopped and waited whilst they inspected and photographed the plate and explained why they were doing it before heading on my way and thinking nothing more of it… apart from telling as a tale of my adventures in Norway.Well, more than a year later and I just got an email from my dad. It seems that, whilst searching the internet for something to do with motorbikes in Guernsey, he stumbled upon this site. And, if you head over to the Guernsey page and scroll down to the bottom, you will find, in all its glory, the number plate that was photographed at the docks in Norway.Isn’t the internet a great place to find all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

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Return From Norway

Adrian Ritchie — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 10:04:42 +0000

I’m back from my three week holiday to Norway but my bike isn’t!It’s a long story so I’ll fill you in about it later.

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Hows That List Going?

Adrian Ritchie — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 08:49:07 +0000

Whilst writing the previous post I came across my list of stuff to do for my holiday to Norway. So lets see how I’m doing so far:

~~Plan route~~ (I’m leaving this one to dad)
~~Buy Guernsey->UK tickets~~
~~Buy UK->Norway tickets~~
~~Buy new motorcycle helmet~~
~~Buy intercom unit~~
~~Buy bike luggage~~
~~Service bike~~
Install intercom unit & bike alarm
~~Locate possible over-night stops~~ (again I’m leaving this one to dad)
~~Acquire tent for emergencies~~
~~Purchase riding clothing (trousers & new gloves)~~
~~Find & buy cigarette lighter for motorbike (to charge phone & iPod)~~
~~Buy iPod (either Mini or Shuffle)~~

Looks like I’m not doing too bad… there have been a few other things I’ve had to do but I don’t have the time to add those to the list at the moment.

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When Does A Journey Begin?

Adrian Ritchie — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:01:59 +0000

Most people will answer this with a simple “When you’ve packed your bags and are walking out of the door!”. But is that really the answer? Maybe the question I’m asking is a bit more metaphysical or rhtorical.For me, my current journey started some time earlier this year when I decided to embark on a motorcycle touring holiday to Norway this summer. Since February/March I have been plotting and planning every last detail I can think of in order to make this journey as smooth and simple as possible and at last the final details are falling into place.My bike is in the garage having its final service, I’ve got a pile of after-market parts to put on the bike when I get it back, I’ve got a tailpack waiting to be collected from Riders, I’ve removed my intercom and alarm from my old bike ready to be fitted to the new bike, all by important documents have been copied in triplicate (one copy to take with me, one copy for my sister to take and one copy to leave at home) and all my clothes are washed and ready to be packed (thanks mum!).So when does a journey begin? It doesn’t! At least it doesn’t have one definative start… but it does have a finish to the start and thats when you’ve packed your bags and close the door behind you.

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Speeding fines makes International news

Adrian Ritchie — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 09:14:50 +0000

It appears that the news of Norway increasing its speeding fines has made it into the international papers.From February the already astronomical speeding fines will be hiked up a further 30% to 7,800 kroner (£660).Not that I’m planning to speed. But then I neveer planned to speed in Guernsey… but these things occasionally happen.

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Aquired a tent

Adrian Ritchie — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 08:55:25 +0000

Yesterday I received a tent (on loan) from my friend Shane. Its a diddy little one man thing that packs up to the size of a rugby ball and only weighs 1.3kg. I probably wont be using it for my trip up to Norway as I’ll be travelling at the same time as my sister and dad so well be staying in camping cottages in Norway but as I’ll be travelling on my own on the way home I’m sure I get much use out of it.The only problem with having such a small tent is that I’ll have to try and figure out how to get myself and my luggage into the tent.I’ve also updated my list of things to get and do.

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A Nice Lesuirely Ride

Adrian Ritchie — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:36:42 +0000

Well, it looks like I’m going to be taking it easy on my ride up through Norway.It appears that they have extremely strict rules about motoring offences, and extremely low speed limits.I guess I just have to be content with the scenery. And at lower speeds I’ll have more time to appreciate it. Having said that, I’ll have to ride longer each day so I’ll probably be spending most of the time thinking about the cramp in my legs

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Its alright, I’ve got a cunning plan!

Adrian Ritchie — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 18:03:29 +0000

Thats right. And very cunning it is!This summer I’m planning to follow in my dads footsteps. Or is that wheel tracks? Anyway, once upon a time, whilst he was at college in England, he rode his motorbike up to the north or Norway to work on a small fram for the summer. And to cut a long story short he ended up marrying the farmers daughter, my mother.So this June is my Grans 85th birthday. All of my family here in Guernsey is heading up there so I thought I’d go too. Only I’ll be riding up there on my GSX-R750.My planned route is to take a ferry from Guernsey to Portsmouth (UK), the ride up to Newcastle. Take a ferry across the North Sea to Bergen (Norway) and the ride to Hamsund (my grans home village). The route is about a 4000 mile round trip and I am planning take about three weeks – one week each way and a weeks holiday in the middle.Obviously there is a lot of planning to be done. Here is my initial list of things to do:

Plan route
Buy Guernsey->UK tickets
Buy UK->Norway tickets
~~Buy new motorcycle helmet~~
~~Buy intercom unit~~
Buy bike luguage
Service bike
Install intercom unit & bike alarm
Locate possible over-night stops

This is just an initial list. I have got a larger list of things to do but I don’t have it on me at the moment so I’ll have to update this list when I get home.Addition list items:

~~Aquire tent for emergencies~~
Purchase riding clothing (trousers & new gloves)
Find & buy cigarette lighter for motorbike (to charge phone & iPod)
Buy iPod (either Mini or Shuffle)

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