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Steinar's day off

October 2, 1996

Following a weekend, with mainly dripping rain, and two office days, where I'd been sitting looking out at a crisp blue autumn sky, over a blue sea, I was starting to feel pretty cooped up, and restless.

Thus, when TV2's weather lady, Birgit, promised that the wednesday would be nice, in south-east Norway, but that on Thursday, the rain would come, and stay with us until Saturday... well,... it just got to be too much.

So I send an email to everybody at work, informing them that I won't be available after lunch. I hurry through the stuff that just has to be done, including some snickering postings to no.alt.motorsykler, and leave work at 12:00.

As I leave, I have the following exchange, with colleague Martin Smith:
 MWS: "Remember: wear a helmet, and be nice to small animals"
 SB: "Splat...? (pause) _No_ splat...?"
 MWS: "No splat."

With these admonishments ringing in my ears, I walked home, yanked the cover off the bike, unlocked it, changed to my leathers, filled up a thermos with hot water, and made some sandwiches. I threw everything into the tankbag, sat on it to close the zipper, and hurried away to catch the 13:00 ferryboat to Moss.

I wasn't completely clear on where I wanted to ride, but I've basically done the immediate roads of Buskerud and Vestfold. If I want to ride roads I haven't done before, I have to go far, and with the shortening days of autumn, 12:00 is a bit late for a start.

So I figured: Østfold, and narrow, twisty roads along the Swedish border. On the boat across the Oslo fjord, I brought out the map, to find where I would spend the day. I figured the road from the southeast-most tip of Norway, and up to the town of Halden, looked promising. But if I were to go down there on the Norwegian side, I would have to ride the same road both ways.

So the basic plan was to rush down into Sweden on the E6, to a place called Skee. From there I would take route 164 eastwards for a while, then take 165 northwards, and back to the old country. In Norway the route number of this road is 22. I would follow this route to Halden, change to 21, which follows the border. I would follow 21 to Ørje, where I would start to move westwards towards Fetsund. From Fetsund, I planned to turn even more westwards, in the direction of Oslo and Tyrigrava (this was a Wednesday, after all), before I turned south, towards Moss, and the ferry back.

E6 going south isn't much to write about. Straight ahead, at moderate speeds. One has to assume police frequenting these roads. Just over the border, I noticed the clouds thikening, and my mood darkened together with the weather. I thought about turning back, but once you've got going on a planned route... I figured I'd rather take the rain as it came (...or not).

Turning off the E6, I thought the road surfacing looked wet. I put the foot down, just to feel it. It felt disconcertingly slippery. The MEZ2 on the back, isn't the best rain tyre around, so I took it easy going east, and then north. 164 is of fair quality. 165 is a narrow, twisty, asphalt patchwork. Probably not one of the Swedes' most prioritized roads.

The roads were wet all the way to the border, but as I crossed the border, the clouds started to give way to blue sky. I stopped at a nice looking rest stop, just across the border (Vassbotten, as it's called). It started to get warmer. Some insects confused into beliving it was still summer, was flying about.

A nice Norwegian rest stop, after a quick jaunt into Sweden. Wet roads still, but they were starting to dry up. (JPEG 88K).

By now, the sky was all blue, but the roads were still damp. This was annoying, as the road here was a nice twisty, wide two-lane road, with excellent asphalt. The best thing with clothes on.

Luckily this dried up, making it possible for me to wear a bit of the sides of the tires. I can recommend this road (22 from the border to Halden), as excellent for this purpose.

Looks like it's possible to do a little loop here (Vassbotten/Kornsjø, through Sweden), so there are still possibilites for untried rides.

From Halden, I took 21 in the direction of Ørje. The road started out as two lanes (with some real nice twisties, along a lake side). It narrowed off, after a while, but was still surfaced with nice asphalt. By now, the weather that had been calling at me from the office, saw fit to manifest itself: crisp blue sky, and sun contrasting the yellow autumn leaves

This explosion of colours, where the reason I just had to get on the road. What I had been looking for the whole trip. Crisp blue sky, yellow leaves, and red VFR. (JPEG 131K).

I had a silly grin pasted on my face, was hidden by the Shoei. Yet another rest stop appeared, alongside a lake to my left. I consumed the sandwiches over a cup of tea and the map book. I figured out that the lake was called Skulerudsjøen, and I was moving northwest along route 125. I was already so far north, that I would have to turn south again, to pass south of lake Øyeren. I figured I would continue in the direction of Fetsund (north end of Øyeren).

A short stop at Skulerudsjøen in Akershus. The shadows were becoming long, but I needed a bit to eat. (JPEG 116K).

This time round, I entered 22 just north of the best twisties, but I've done those before. New trip, new roads! The clock on the dash were showing 18:00, as I stopped to fill gas, at some place called Løken. And the shadows were becoming really long.

In Lillestrøm, I flipped a mental coin, whether to hit the motorway in to Oslo, and from there to Tyrigrava. I decided to take the trip across Enebakk instead. Another place I've never been before.

I started to regret it, as it fairly quickly became pitch black... and freezing on a narrow, winding, road. If I'm chicken when I belive the grip is bad, then I'm really chicken when it's dark. Then I belive that everything I don't see is making the road surface slippery. This late in the season, there's also reason to worry about frost.

But I muddled on to Ytre Enebakk, Ski, Kolbotn, and down to "gamle Mossevei". A cage stuck with me for a while, from Ytre Enebakk. I had to really work, to lose him. Are these peasants bleeding crazy or what...?

As I hit "gamle Mossevei", a Gold Wing came zooming past as I stood in the intersection. I tried to stick with him,... but couldn't. As I pulled into Tyrigrava, and parked the bike (at 19:50MET DST), I started to realize why. I was chilled to the bone, and shaking uncontrollably.

A friend of mine chased me into the Café, and forced me to buy a cup of hot cocoa, which I must admit tasted pretty good, and helped against the shaking. Just had time to nod hello to some friends, before I climed on the bike again, at 20:10, to reach the ferryboat from Moss to Horten.

Of that trip there isn't much to tell, except that after I had tucked the bike in for the night, and locked it, I felt this was a far better way of spending a day than in an office. The tally of the day was 423km from start to finish.