The real ocean ride
Winter or summer, riding on the northwest coast of Norway can be chilly and wet in July, or dry and sunny in February, you’ll never know. This ride was done just upon Christmas, with very short days and temperatures around 10-12 degrees. The best thing about this season is that you will get the road more for yourself.
This route can be done as a long ride on Eurovelo 1, all the way from Ålesund to Kristiansund (combined with boats and busses), but I spent a day going south from Averøy to Bud and back. The length of this route is 39 km, or 78 if you go both ways as I did. Along the route there is a lot of offers for tourists, for food or staying the night, at least during summer. As I followed the route in mid-winter this was not that good. I could get some fast-food at the petrol-station from where I started, and there was a supermarket in Farstad. Depending on the season, at least bring with you a little something to survive if you should be unlucky to not find anything along the road. Bud, where I turned, should at least have something for you even in the winter. I got a “straight from the sea”-delicious fish soup in a café just on the quay.
The ride starts with a 10 km journey on bridges connecting the small islands in this rugged archipelago. Spot the small farms and sea houses, many not reachable from the road. People come here to experience the beauty of the road and it’s bridges, which is understandable. But imagining this coastline without the road gives you a better understanding of how people used to live here, so depending upon life on the ocean, for fishing and transport.
The journey south continues on land following the quiet roads close to the sea, or sometimes more on a distance. Getting close to Farstad, look out for the sign down to the beach Farstadsanden. This beach attracts surfers, and is a perfect spot for a snack before you continue.
This part of Norway is called Møre, and the name derives from Morvin, which means something like the green fields along the sea, characterising this landscape. This is also a part of the Norwegian coast where vessels have to cross an open piece of ocean between skerries and ground waters. And among a long line of stories of shipwrecks and tragedies, the last big event that reached the news was when the cruise ship Viking Sky with more than 1300 passengers lost it´s engines in a storm in March 2019. The big ship was tossed around in the big waves getting closer to land every minute. It was only in the last moment that they managed to get the achor down stopping it from grounding.
It’s good to be safe on land, at least on a windy day., and the road you’ll follow bring you up and down, in and out from small ridges, and closed harbours along the coastline. Even though the temperatures where quite high for this time of the year I experienced frost and slippery roads in some dumps along the road, which made me very cautious. Riding with spikes would have given me more safety and speed.
Bud at the end of the road is a popular little fishing village, with old-style wooden sea-houses gathered around a safe harbour. If this is where you would like to spend the night I would recommend booking in advance. Summer can be quite full here, and out of season it can be closed.
I couldn’t stay long in Bud, as the day was short, and the journey back was long. Halfway back I realised that I wouldn’t reach all the way without putting light on the bicycle. I found the light I had brought with me, but the bracket to fasten it was not there. What a fool I had been. Luckily I had just passed a shop along the road. I just had to go back a couple of hundred meters. There I found a couple of smart lights, with some integrated magnets to connect them to the steering bar and under my seat. Clicking once lit a white light, twice gave a blinking white light, and the third tap turned on a red light. These cheap lights from the supermarket were the most versatile I had ever seen, and my trip back across the bridges in the dark was saved.
View in full at https://ridewithgps.com/trips/60946973
velono 
Leave a comment