Finding Peace and Inner Balance

Started the day in Tveit near Valle burried in our blankets.  The mountains were in the same mood, blanketed with a  thick fog which didn't lift whilst we ate our breakfast.

We headed into Valle to do the day's shopping in the co-op which had a small bike shop attached.  Andrew found the tourist info which had a knitting shop attached and doubled-up as a hairdressers.  We visited the jewellery store which was very tempting but I didn't.

After a little deliberation around the tourist info-guide that we picked up for the valley, we headed south, stopping off at Bygfjord museum (closed) to eat our lunch, goggle at the glass-blowers and have a swim in the lake which was much more fun than expected.  TSK got in up to his neck once and I swam  about a bit before resolutely heading to shore.

We stopped at Ose for a nosey at the knitting museum and a chat to the owner then continued to Evsjad, passing my intended mountain bike trails along the way.  With every intention of returning to them.  Town looked more like a town and less like a gaggle of multi-purpose buildings so we continued to the campsite.  Three campsites later and we found just what we were looking for.  Lake shore, 150 per night and plush facilities.

We hunkered down on the beach in the sunshine and I left Andrew to read his book whilst I got the slackline out, had a swim and then went out on my mountain bike. 

Again I found myself relieved that I was wearing a distinct (and peaceful "Canada") cycling jersey as I cycled past the Norwegian Army doing practise fire with live munitions.  I randomly hurled myself down fire-roads and over a few mountain trails (which petered out) until I finally took another circuit through Evsjed.  At the end I followed signposts to some historic sights.  One of which turned out to be the path to mine workings.  I followed a water-wheel sign but it just kept going up at around 1:4 and after the first section of pushing my bike over boulders, only to find myself faced with another 1:4 slope I decided to give it a miss.

The ride back down was fun though.  All the way out of town, ducking and diving across the bike lanes along highway 9, I ended up at the public works yard and had to retrace my steps.  I finally got back to Andrew 1.5 hours and 25km later. 

We had dinner and a glass of wine and I discovered that slack-lining is a lot easier after a glass of wine.  I also discovered the technique to get me going which is to focus on the single foot balance, only making steps through a series of short transfers from one foot to the other.  Keeping balance on one foot is nigh-on impossible - or maybe it's just me.