On the way to Stavanger I ended up biking through "The Birthplace of Norway" it was in this area that in 872 Harold Fairhair fought a civil war with all the Viking clans, won, and united Norway under one king. This made Norway the strongest force in the north and began the Viking heyday of pillage, conquest, and northern expansion.
Upon reaching Skudenshaven, I took a side road because I wanted a picture of the harbor and historic houses. When I turned to go back up to the main road I saw a public bathroom, with a shower! One cannot refuse fate, so I took a long delightful shower in one of the cleanest places I had showered so far.
Fresh and clean, I meandered my way down to the ferry dock, the deserted ferry dock. I asked a man who was walking past when the next boat would come. He looked at me with surprise and said, "the ferry service stopped running one year ago!" Ack!
He kindly offered to share his taxi with me and I jumped at the chance to not have to backtrack over 50km. I would have to take the bus since there are no roads that bikes are allowed to go on from where I was to Stavanger.
Once in the taxi I found out that he has close family in Ballard and had just visited for Norway's independence day which he said was celebrated with greater gusto in Seattle than in his town. We talked about areas we had both been in Washington, BC, and Norway; he had even visited Leavenworth (the Christmas town right?). He then insisted that we take the taxi through the tunnel to a farther bus station so I wouldn't have to wait so long. When I was dropped off, he refuse to let me help with the fare (thank god since it was over 800kr or $150!) saying that we need to take care of each other from time to time. He gave me his card in case I had any problems and it turns out he was the cheif pilot for the Norwegian Coastal Administration. If I had not taken the side street for a simple picture, my day would have been so very different.
Arriving in Stavanger my good luck continued and I managed to find accommodation for my last two nights. Once that was settled I headed off to the last major sight that I wanted to see in Norway, and probably it's most famous, Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock.
It is every bit as impressive as it looks in all the pictures. An 1800 ft sheer drop to the fjord below on 3 sides. Since I had one last night of camping left, I figured I might as well do it someplace cool. I packed up my things into one pannier, locked my bike to a tree, and hiked up so i could camp out on the top. Normally the rock is crawling with tourists, but that night it was only me and an Italian couple (my tent is the bright green one). We drank tea and watched the sun set and miraculously had the whole rock to ourselves.
After a fairly windy night, I woke up at 5:45 to watch the sunrise over Lysefjiord. The wind was still howling and chilly. Much as I could have watched the view forever, I headed down the very exposed trail to make breakfast and ride last 20km of my trip back into Stavanger.
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