70°57′18′′ N 25°42′49′′ E

The tunnel’s entrance was staring at me. I thought I wouldn’t even make it to the tunnel tonight; but the campsite at Repvåg I was relying on, has been converted into a hotel, so they didn’t have a tent spot. Hence, I thought I would camp out slightly further ahead, and tomorrow early in the morning I would tackle the long tunnel. Everyone I met going south, talks about how difficult the tunnel is. It’s 7 kilometres long, goes under the sea upto 250 metres. It made sense to camp out and trying it tomorrow, but somehow I ended up at its entrance. For a moment, I thought of being prudent and camp near the entrance; I had already covered 100 kilometres today, and was quite tired already. I was standing at its edge and could feel the cold air being ventilated. There was a sign “Fog in tunnel”, which was also quite curious. There was no good reason for me to go through the tunnel tonight.

After I entered the tunnel, the first thing I felt was speed. It was 9% decline. And I felt cold; I realised I forgot to zip up my jacket. Quickly I reached the bottom, and saw ice on the road. At some point the rock walls were replaced by pre-fabricated rings, which told me I was probably under the fjord. The car noise was loud, very loud. The ventilation fans sounded like jet engines. Eventually, after shedding quite a bit of sweat, I came out the other side.

When I came out of the tunnel, I decided it would be a shame not to camp here!

Honnigsvåg, Norway