October 1 

The Vikings return home from a fantastic journey

After cycling 75 days, Thor reached his goal last week. Ust Kamchatsk which is as far east and as far north you can get on a cycle.

The ride has been really tough,  with very bad roads and a lot of rain and cold weather.

However Thor, Gorm and Maksim  have been met with great hospitality wherever they have gone. They have met natives from Kamchatka, bear hunters, salmon fishermen, and a lot of other colorful people. The nature is fantastic in this area, it has been a real adventure cycling along the beautiful Kamchtaka River, and through mountain passes with snow covered mountains.

After reaching their goal in Ust Kamchatsk last week, they have been visited a bear hunter and have also been to an active volcano. 

After seeing bears a couple of times at far distance,  they almost gave up seeing more of the famous Kamchatka bears . One morning Thor was out picking blueberries, which are quite huge in this area, when he suddenly heard the sound from another in the same errand. His pulse increased dramatically when he saw a huge bear nearby. He became quite excited and afraid, but tried to take a photo with shaking hands.  After that he ran away as quietly  as he could from the bear, which luckily didn’t see him.

Last night they started on their flight back home to Oslo with 170 kg luggage, a trip that will take about 24 hours. 

We congratulate Thor and the Cycle With Bears crew with an successful journey!

September 15^th 

A lot has happened since the cyclists arrived in Magadan having cycled through many mountain passes with extremely bad roads. Thor seldom complains but it is obvious that this was one of the hardest rides that he has endured. 

They were greeted by the local media who were extremely impressed by these grey haired Viking cyclists from Norway who had cycled through the wilderness of Siberia. Having completed their part of the journey, cyclist Arne and translator Øyvind, who have been on the road for two months returned home to Norway as planned. 

Gorm Lund travelled down to Magadan a few days prior to the cyclists  arrival in Magadan to assist the expedition during the last month. They could not find a boat to transport them over to Magadan and consequently had to sell the beloved UAZ, give away quite a bit of cycle gear to the local cycling club, and fly to Petropavlovsk, the capital city of Kamchatka. 

The challenge in Petropavlovsk has been find a rental vehicle to accompany them on the rest of the tour. A very difficult task since Avis and the likes are not represented there. They finally found a jeep after putting an ad in the local internet.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky  is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai. The city is situated on high hills and surrounded by volcanoes. In fact, the horizon cannot be seen clearly from any point of town as volcanoes and mountains are everywhere. 

Thor is now cycling alone through the bear districts of Kamchatka, and has several times seen tracks and evidence of bears, but he has not yet met any bears. “Lucky for him” we might add! He and the other guys have been sleeping at amongst other things a local fire station and they have  been on a boat trip looking for bears. The hospitality is fantastic also here in Kamchatka!