As is now normal for me I decided to go out on the bike at least one day during the weekend for an extended period. As I was recovering from a hangover yesterday brought about by Friday's BBQ it fell to today.
The initial plan was to just go to Sandvika and cycle around the Kalvøya Island and back again. Something a bit different than the usual scramble up and down muddy tracks in the hills.
As I came into the outskirts of Sandvika I thought it was going fairly well, the weather wasn't too hot nor too cold it seemed to be dry, so I decided to extend it all the way into Oslo.
Near the approach road to Kalvøya Island, by the Bærum Sports club, I noticed that there was a flea market under the E18 in the car park. I thought I had plenty of time so decided to give it a look. Nothing completely grabbed my fancy at the time. Nearly bought a hand-drill.
Getting around Sandvika and into Oslo was harder than it needed to be. The little brown signs showing the correct/easiest route were poorly positioned, hidden by overgrowing plants, or changed information.
At some junctions I couldn't see the sign until I had checked out each possibility with some of the signs being 50-100m down the correct road.
I had started following the signs which said 'Oslo E18' but these seemed to change to 'Oslo 1' around Sandvika without there being any notification of the change.
This not only slowed me down but also extended the route longer than it needed to be.
Had to stop a few times to verify the location, but thankfully I had the ViewRanger app on the phone helping me out, so I could always get back to the track if I strayed too far.
I got to Aker Brygge in Oslo and my knees were feeling the pain.
As I sat waiting to cool down a bit I did consider going back to Asker via the train. But obviously I didn't because the title sort of gives it away.
I did eventually pay quite a bit of money for an ice cream as it seemed the thing to do.
I wandered further down Aker Brygge where it looks like they're building some new swanky apartments and took some pictures.
It was during this period that it started to show signs of rain.The sky wasn't too dark so I thought it was a passing shower.
On the way back to Asker, just as I was leaving Oslo, the passing showers got heavier and more frequent. I had to hide under a fly-over for a good 15mins at one point.
After that it seemed to hang off and it got hotter and stickier. On one of the climbs towards Sandvika I decided I'd stop and eat the orange I had in my pack, seeing as I don't normally like to have a large heavy snack when out cycling. I was really buggered when it wasn't actually there. Must be more careful about including snacks in future.
The majority of the ride back wasn't too bad.
It wasn't until the last hour when the climb back to Asker started. The height above sea level went from zero to about 580 feet in that time. It was a hard slog (for me anyhoo) in very low gear for the whole time. I was very glad to finally get back to the house.
Felt good to have actually done it though.
The data from ViewRanger is shown here.
The map of the track can be found here.
The
The initial plan was to just go to Sandvika and cycle around the Kalvøya Island and back again. Something a bit different than the usual scramble up and down muddy tracks in the hills.
As I came into the outskirts of Sandvika I thought it was going fairly well, the weather wasn't too hot nor too cold it seemed to be dry, so I decided to extend it all the way into Oslo.
Near the approach road to Kalvøya Island, by the Bærum Sports club, I noticed that there was a flea market under the E18 in the car park. I thought I had plenty of time so decided to give it a look. Nothing completely grabbed my fancy at the time. Nearly bought a hand-drill.
Getting around Sandvika and into Oslo was harder than it needed to be. The little brown signs showing the correct/easiest route were poorly positioned, hidden by overgrowing plants, or changed information.
At some junctions I couldn't see the sign until I had checked out each possibility with some of the signs being 50-100m down the correct road.
I had started following the signs which said 'Oslo E18' but these seemed to change to 'Oslo 1' around Sandvika without there being any notification of the change.
This not only slowed me down but also extended the route longer than it needed to be.
Had to stop a few times to verify the location, but thankfully I had the ViewRanger app on the phone helping me out, so I could always get back to the track if I strayed too far.
I got to Aker Brygge in Oslo and my knees were feeling the pain.
As I sat waiting to cool down a bit I did consider going back to Asker via the train. But obviously I didn't because the title sort of gives it away.
I did eventually pay quite a bit of money for an ice cream as it seemed the thing to do.
I wandered further down Aker Brygge where it looks like they're building some new swanky apartments and took some pictures.
It was during this period that it started to show signs of rain.The sky wasn't too dark so I thought it was a passing shower.
On the way back to Asker, just as I was leaving Oslo, the passing showers got heavier and more frequent. I had to hide under a fly-over for a good 15mins at one point.
After that it seemed to hang off and it got hotter and stickier. On one of the climbs towards Sandvika I decided I'd stop and eat the orange I had in my pack, seeing as I don't normally like to have a large heavy snack when out cycling. I was really buggered when it wasn't actually there. Must be more careful about including snacks in future.
The majority of the ride back wasn't too bad.
It wasn't until the last hour when the climb back to Asker started. The height above sea level went from zero to about 580 feet in that time. It was a hard slog (for me anyhoo) in very low gear for the whole time. I was very glad to finally get back to the house.
Felt good to have actually done it though.
The data from ViewRanger is shown here.
The map of the track can be found here.
The
