Cycle Shorts: 1 Day of Your Trip - Norway: Russell Nankervis

Russell Nankervis shares his experiences from one day of his 7000km+ trip cycling from the North Cape in Norway to Tarifa, Spain across Europe.  This day occurred  on day two of Russell's adventure as he was cycling through Arctic Norway.

This is the second episode of Cycle Shorts where listeners share 'one day of their trip'. Want to be featured as well?   Get Involved and tell me about one day of your trip - just click here and record a voicemail message***

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hi everyone, Bella Malloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride, bringing you episode two in our midweek special series Cycle Shorts, where you, our listeners, recall one day of your trip. Today features guest Russell Nankurvis, and he's going to tell us about one day of his trip. The longer journey saw Russell go from Nordcap to Tarifa, point to point. So that's a really big distance there, covering all of Europe. And I will be covering that trip in its totality in a full episode with Russell to come. But in the meantime, let's listen to him recall one day of his trip, his experiences from that moment. Take it away, Russell, the scene is set in Norway.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Hi everyone, my name is Russell Nankurvis. In 2022, I completed a cycling crossing of Europe starting in Nordkap in Arctic Norway and cycling down to the southern tip of Spain in Tarifa. It was a journey of nearly 7,000 kilometres, and I'm now going to give you a snapshot of a day on my travels while I was in northern Norway. So this is from my second day of cycling, and this is about one day from the very northern tip of Norway, starting in the small coastal town of Repvag. I left the hamlet of Repvag with the sun still shining, and I enjoyed long stretches of quiet roads that tucked in and out of inlets with the sea, the Arctic Ocean on my left hand side, and mountains bordering on my right hand side. It was a beautiful second day in northern Norway and the novelty of cycling past reindeer between the ocean and mountain views was still putting a smile on my face. I encountered an abundance of road works on my second day of cycling as the twenty-four hour summer sunlight was making it an ample opportunity for road works in northern Norway. On one particular roadside stop, I laughed as a road worker chased a large herd of reindeer that had gotten stuck in a newly dug drain ditch. I watched a tall, bearded Norwegian road worker stumble between the pit while waving his arms and shouting while his co-workers all laughed at his demise. Cycling along the coast had been a stunning morning, however, darkening skies became an increasing concern. Scanning my maps over an early break, I found that there was no towns within sight that would provide any decent respite with the incoming rain. I found myself locating a detour that would save myself at least five kilometers from the next one hour of cycling, and it would take me to the town of Skadi, where I could then have lunch at a roadside stop. I rode inland off the main highway, leaving behind the safety of the main road. I rode through dense scrubland exposed by the snowmobile tracks that crisscross between the highway and birch forests of northern Norway. The rain became heavier and heavier until I pulled over into the nearest shelter that I could find, in the form of a vacant building in the middle of a forest. In the building I called my partner Fiona back home and then I put on my wet weather gear, preparing myself for a wet afternoon in the rain. I was now on the shortcut away from the main highway, where the path eventually deteriorated and became muddier and muddier as it became narrower and narrower. Eventually I had to wrestle my bike to stay upright until I came across a major roadblock. The shortcut that I had taken through the forest was now broken by a five meter wide running river that was now blocking the path directly in front of me. I had to walk down a steep muddy embankment until I got to the river, where I took my shoes off, threw them across the river, put my cold into the freezing Arctic waters, and then carried the bike with all my strength across the river. Once I was over the other side, I could then put my muddy shoes back on and I focused on getting the hell away from where I was stuck in this river. Eventually, while I was still walking through the forest, I could hear the road just over the trees, and I became fixated on getting to that road as soon as I could. Eventually the road appeared and I could then start cycling again. My five kilometer shortcut had turned into two hours of depressing walking pace, but at least now I could find myself some food in the town of Scuddy. In Scuddy after I'd eaten a stale sandwich and stale cake, I then could leave and came for my next stop which would end my day. The town I had planned to stop at would be Alta, and that would be eighty kilometers away. The weather was still very grim, even though conveniently it had stopped raining while I was having lunch. The rain soon began as soon as I put my helmet back on and left the shelter. My challenging day was set to continue with not only the rain but strong headwinds, busy roads with a narrow shoulder, and heavy cloud cover, meaning I couldn't see the sunny surroundings that had been promised before starting today. After 30 kilometers of riding since lunchtime, the rain became just too much, and I found myself pulling into the first shelter that I could find. It was as if my mind was on autopilot and I couldn't fight it any longer. I sat on a wooden bench, which had a partial cover, as a small bunch of reindeer came up behind me and looked at me and walked off, completely unfazed by the storm hammering down from above. As I noticed the reindeer, I also saw a lone male cyclist. We both looked at each other and glanced eyes, and I could see in the expression on his face that he'd been a hardened traveller. He left no emotion. We both nodded with straight faces at with respect to each other, but we both knew we were going through a hard time. I found that in that moment I was being tested both mentally and physically by the miserable conditions. I did find, however, that my key lesson for the day would be to push on. I knew that even if the rain was still terrible at the time, further down the road it would bring me closer to the comforts that would boost my spirits, like drier clothes, shops, accommodation, a shower, and most importantly a warm meal that I was so desperate to get to. I found that in that moment the cruel aspect of slow travel was really showing itself, that you do need to keep moving regardless of the situation. The keys to adjust your attitude to suit your surroundings and to continue on, knowing that there'll always be a better place, whether it's around the next bend or the 15th hill of the day, if you have the willpower to keep pedaling, you will eventually be rewarded. And so after a character-building afternoon of long climbs, wet rows, winds, and featureless straight roads, I miraculously rolled into the town of Ulta under clearing skies. Although I was wet and cold, I could now start to feel the sun warming me up. I had survived a severely challenging day on the road, and I even managed to find the last supermarket before they closed in town. I found myself committed to finally having my first night of wild camping, and I snuck in behind a boat ramp reserve which had a beautiful view overlooking the bay in Ulta. I hung my wet clothes up between the trees and I slept well out of sight with an eye mask on trying to block out the midnight sun. I found that in it was only my second day of travel, but I'd already learnt so much, and I knew that I was glad that I was taking on such an adventure. Thanks all.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

I really enjoyed listening to Russell there and his recollections from that day. I must admit I had a little chuckle to myself just thinking about my own moments where that perceived shortcut and deviation has ended up in a route mapping misadventure and seen me go down the path well less travelled. I could only imagine the chill of that Arctic water too. What an experience to come for Russell just there on day number two of this longer journey. But I loved that it may have only been day number two, but he took away so many experiences already, which I'm sure held him in good stead for the rest of his trip as well. I can't wait to dig into that adventure in more detail and bring it to you, our listeners. Now I know many of you listeners are taking your own adventures or have taken pretty big ones in the past too. This is how this whole mini-series of midweek episodes has come to life. Many of you have emailed me letting me know about your trips, and I thought, wow, I want to bring my listener stories to all of you as well. And give you a platform to share your experiences as well. To get involved, it's pretty easy. Either reach out to me on social media or click on the link in the show notes, which indicates that you can leave me a voice message. Click on that link and just start talking. Tell me all about one day of your trip. It can be about anything that was impactful for you, whether it's riding through amazing new landscapes, getting to grips with being in a totally foreign country, to beautiful experiences that you may have had roadside with a perfect stranger. I want to hear about them all condensed in one day of your trip. Get in touch and let's see if you will be featured in the weeks to come. If you're enjoying Seek Travel Ride, I also encourage you to sign up to our new Seek Travel Ride monthly newsletter. You'll find a link on how to do that in the show notes as well. And it just lets you know what's coming up for the podcast in the month ahead, who our guests are, and how you can get involved with the community a little bit more as well. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening.