Today is a purely domestic day getting ready to leave for Norway
tomorrow. We get up leisurely,
have showers and then breakfast finishing in time for the electrician to
come. He shows up just on time and
gets to work. He checks all the
connections to the fuel gauge and concludes that it is the float that has
failed and we need a replacement.
Unfortunately he does not have one and he is going away tomorrow for a
family party and won’t be back until we are planning to leave here. So the repair will have to wait for
another port. At least we are now
sure what is wrong with it.
However, he does fix the light gauge on the holding tank. It too was the float, but it was just
all calcified and needed to be cleaned off. It is now working, but we realise it is filling up faster
than we thought and we have to me more careful about using it while we are here
in port.
So repairs done we decide to get the laundry done. I will take a few things to wash in
Oslo, but the bulk of the laundry including the linens, towels and underwear
need to be done here. The weather
is nice, sunny and not too warm, so we make ready to cycle into town to the
launderette. I am able to pack all
we must wash into the saddle bag and one back pack, which Richard will carry,
because he doesn’t want me to cycle with extra weight.
So, off we set. There is an
excellent cycle path right past the marina and towards the town. It is completely separate from the cars
and traffic and even in my very wobbly state of cycling I can manage it. However, the path does not actually go
into the town, just bypassing it on the coast road. Also to get to the town we have to cross the highway and the
railway track. The only way we can
see to do that is to climb up two bridges with stairs. To do this we have to carry our
bikes! That is my exercise for the
day. When we get into the town I
am unwilling to continue to cycle.
There are just city streets, not wide with quite a lot of traffic. So we wind up walking our bikes nearly
as far as we have ridden them.
We finally get to the launderette and I do two loads, which will keep us
going for another 2-3 weeks. While
I am doing laundry Richard tries to find another way back where I can cycle
more. He identifies a small road
running parallel to the one was walked up in the centre of the town. He thinks it may be much more quiet and
I could cycle down it. So we try
that. At first I am not keen to
ride on the road. It had no cycle
lane and there are cars parked on the side of the road. It is also on a slope down, which
worries me. But after a while the
traffic thins out to just the occasional car and the road flattens out. So I decide to be brave and get on the
bike to cycle down. I start out
quite well, but after a bit the road gets a bit steeper and some cars start to
follow me. I then panic. I really feel out of control and decide
I must stop. But for some reason I
don’t stop properly and next thing I know I am on the ground and have ridden
into a parked car! I am OK, but I
do have scrapes on my knees and forearm.
The car seems to be fine and the driver, who was inside is more worried
about me. So up I get and now I
won’t get on the bike until we are back on the proper cycle path. We do manage to find a way under the
highway and railway track which means I do not have to carry the bike up and
down stairs, but that path does not take us direct to the cycle path road. Finally we get to the cycle path and
using all my nerve I get back on the bike and manage to cycle back to the
marina without further incident. I
am not sure I am ever going to be able to cycle on roads, but we shall
see.
Having made it back to the boat I clean myself up and put antiseptic
cream on the worst of the scrapes (which is really just my forearm). I am now ready for a stiff drink! So we go the restaurant just across
from the boat, which seems quite popular.
We finally wind up ordering a 50cl carafe of Cotes de Province
rose. They serve it automatically
with water and ice cubes, which makes it drinkable, and is what I need. We have a simple lunch and I am feeling
better.
Richard checks us in to our flight. The restaurant is supposed to have free WIFI, but the signal
is so weak that it doesn’t extend to the tables out front! We later try with out booster aerial
but that doesn’t seem to do much either.
In fact we have had no luck with it all trip. We will take it to Oslo and see if Colin can make it work
better. The marina office kindly
prints off our boarding passes so we are ready to go.
This evening we have packed our bags and eaten in. I have cleaned out all the perishable
food from the fridge, so things are looking ready to go. I won’t post while we are away, so will
be in touch next Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment