My plan was always to route through Lysebotn on my way to Kristiansand and the ferry to Denmark.

My original planned route involved a lot of very minor roads, many of which were unsurfaced, and a diversion to Bergen. But with the weather forecast looking increasing wet and cold, I decided to give Bergen a miss and head directly towards Lysebotn.

I set off as soon as the rain eased - about 10 a.m. - aiming to put in as many miles as possible to get out of the wet and cold zone.

I picked up the E39 at Byerkjelo, then switched to the E5 at Skei before switching to the E16 not long after Laerdalsoyri. I followed the E16 until Vossevangen, when I switched to the E13

The ride was largely uneventful, with no scenery or places of particular note. The first half was wet, with much of the scenery hidden behind cloud and murk. Even when the rain eased I saw nothing that sticks in my mind apart from a string of tunnels on the E16, including the Laerdalstunnelen -- at 24.5 km long it is the world's longest road tunnel -- followed in short order by the Gudvangatunnelen (only 11.4 km long). Over a stretch of 51.5 km, 43 km was tunnels! I have never suffered from claustrophobia, but the Laedalstunnelen really freaked me out; it just seemed to go on for ever.

I guess I was becoming jaded, what with the miles I was covering and the highlights of the previous day's ride. I didn't even stop to take photos. Although that is not in itself unusual for me - I have never been one to stop and take photos on a ride, preferring to just let the ride and scenery wash over me. (I did a lot of that on this trip.)

As I worked my way south, the sky cleared and it warmed up - seemed like my plan was working. And it was turning into a great day's riding along route 13.

Again, as usual I saw lots of campsites at about 4:30 p.m., but I wasn't ready to stop. So I kept going, planning to stop at about 6:30.

6:30 came and went with no sign of further campsite. 7:30, still nothing. What's going on? Then two in a row that were full, before I finally found a place in Sudalsosen - fancy cabins only but by that stage (gone 8 p.m.) I was beyond caring.

And at least I was within striking distance of Songesand, from where I planned to take the ferry to Lysebotn the following day.

And that's where my so-called plan fell apart. Sitting in my ridiculously expensive cabin, I searched the web for information about the ferry to Lysebotn. Which is when I discovered that it stops at Songesand only if someone has pre-booked passage. Which I hadn't.

More searching turned up the website for booking the ferry (of course it was only in Norwegian), and it was then that I discovered that the ferry doesn't run on Sunday - and of course the next day was Sunday. I had completely lost track of the days.

So, hang around until Monday, or call it quits and head for home?

I decided on the latter. The weather forecast was for increasingly unsettled weather, with heavy rain and even hail storms predicted for Stavanger and on down the coast. I was tired of cold, wet weather, the cut on my thumb that I had received from an angry pike way back in Finland had still not healed, my ear was giving me increasing grief - in sum, I decided that I had had enough. I booked the ferry from Kristiansand to Hitshalls for two days' time, giving me a relaxed day's riding to get down to Kristiansand.

Which is also when I discovered that the quickest route to Kristiansand involved backtracking about 50 km along the route I had ridden that evening. Rats!

Well, leave that for tomorrow.