Day 7. Illness on Røldalfjeldet. Denmark to the North Cape.

Yehaaaaa - now we've been on the road for a week. And we can be happy that it went well. We have had experiences we cannot digest at all and have cycled more than 650 km.
We woke up at 8.30. Heine had slept 12 hours. The night before he had only eaten a little for dinner, and in the morning he didn't eat too much either. The trip over Haukelifjellet the day before had been hard on both of us, but it is of course worrying that Heine can't eat anything. Jakob suggested a rest day here in Røldal, but Heine insisted on taking another day on the pedals⛰️😬
After breakfast we packed the bikes and at 10:45 we were on the pedals on our way out of Røldal, which is located at an altitude of 400 metres.
The climb started even before we were out of town and between the mountains on the horizon we could see the pass we had to climb over. Google said 3 hours about the 43 km to the town of Odda, which is located at the southern end of the Hardangerfjord - so we knew there was a climbing trip ahead of us⛰️
The car tunnel out of the valley was forbidden to cyclists, so there was no way around it but to take the long detour up the mountain at an altitude of 1100 metres. When we reached the ski lifts on the mountain it started to rain.
Bring on the rain jackets💦
It went up the mountain at seven to ten kilometers per hour on seven to 10 degree gradients. It is tiring to move the 125 kg up so many meters of height.
At our own pace, we trudged up the winding mountain roads. Cars were supposed to be allowed, so we were the only ones on the road.
Soon the snow was around us again. It got colder, it rained, it went uphill and it was foggy. That trip slipped on top of the stage yesterday .
After two hours of driving at an average of nine kilometers per hour, we finally reached the top. We dressed properly with down jackets and rain pants for a cold descent. Nice to be able to let the bike roll.
We got the most impressive views down over the hairpin bends and all the greenery below us.
Back on the main road, we still rolled downhill and made a stop at the Låtefoss waterfall. Here we ate a bit and had cocoa and tea before the journey continued.
The rain stopped and after three hours of driving we reached Odda. Norway is truly a country of contrasts. A few hours before we had 4 m high drifts of snow around us, and now we were sitting in the sun on the banks of the Hardangerfjord, which is Norway's second longest at 180 km.
We cycled with the fjord on one side and green apple orchards on the other much of the time.
Half of the route was on a cycle path that went all the way along the fjord without car traffic. Here we had it all to ourselves because we don't see any other cyclists.
40 km north of Odda we reached the town of Lofthus. Here we celebrated our first first week on the road with pizza, beer and coke while enjoying the view of the fjord.
Afterwards we drove up to a campsite and set up our tents.
Today's stage was 82 km.
The first week we drove 650 km.
This gives a cut of 95 km. per day.