Kilometre zero! (Stavanger, Norway – KM 0)

“The 10-minute taxi ride to our house would end up costing you about one hundred dollars. Norway is expensive. If someone offers you a drink here say yes, always!” Simon had already started dispensing good advice and we were not even out of Stavanger’s airport.

Stavanger was chosen two weeks ago almost with a coin flipping. We wanted to start our new project, Nomads by Nomads from cape to cape, with a ride to Nordkapp  on the fjord-rich broken up Norwegian coastline. There were lots of flights to Bergen but Stavanger was a longer ride, Stavanger it was!

Once Pierre hit the “buy” button on the cheap flights wholesaler’s website the race was on! Not easy to get out of this semi sedentarization, to move out of small rental house and into 8 panniers. The running around delivering boxes of slides and books to our relatives’ basements and new gear coming daily by courier, was interrupted by visits to the bike shop, the dump and cobbler, dinners with friends and the complete wash down of floors, kitchen and bathroom—the last time for the next two years!

By the time the security agents at YUL oversized baggage scanner asked us to rip the bike boxes open because they could not fit inside the x-ray machine, nothing could disturb the vaguely delirious feeling of relief  that had come over us once we had been dropped off near the check-in counter. We obliged them smiling then taped the whole thing up again.

Our Warmshowers hosts in Stavanger, Isabelle, Simon and their 18-month old son Leo, made our landing in Norway the warmest and smoothest. We discussed into the bright evening sun the best possible routes North while sipping on a Hansa IPA offered by Isabelle—we learn quickly. Our beautiful Surly Trolls are ready to go, looking much fitter and valiant than their riders, inviting us on a big ride…it starts tomorrow!