TRAVERSE Issue 05 - April 2018 | Seite 65

first steps and I neglected to ask how long he would be on the road. I can image a very long time! Maybe he is still hiking? After leaving Nordkapp, the fun began! I watched my thermometer going from 10C to 8 to 6 and decreasing very rapidly until it was freezing and below zero at minus 2C, (28F). I still felt everything was going well until I crested a ridge to notice it was all white – at first, I thought my face shield was steamed up. I was not go- ing to be so lucky – after about anoth- er 8 hours of snow, rain, sleet, hail, and all other forms of precipitation known by modern science, alternat- ing at unpredictable intervals, I final- ly arrived to the lodge I had booked and promptly put all my riding gear in their hot room in hopes that I would not need to put on wet clothes in the morning. I kept an anxious watch during the night as the snow contin- ued to build in hopes that I would be able to ride in the morning. Could this really be happening in July?! I was lucky and most of the snow cleared by morning and I was on my TRAVERSE 65 way to, hopefully, warmer weather as I continued south. Clothes were about 95% dry in the morning – ready for some fresh and new precipitation – but no snow. Continuing my travels, I went from Norway into Sweden to catch up with some great friends and back into southern Norway for a few days –in- credible riding and nature! Next, I took the ferry to Denmark and celebrated my birthday at a rus- tic farmhouse – I did not realise it was so remote, with no restaurants near – so the owner brought me my