Kvassheim lighthouse stands on a low, stony point on the southern Jæren coast, a short white tower attached to a keeper's house, looking out over a sea that has wrecked more ships than anyone could count. This coast has no natural harbours and no shelter, just a long, flat shore of boulders and sand, and before the lights were built, ships driven onto it in storms had little chance. The lighthouse was taken out of service in the late twentieth century and is now a visitor centre and cafe for the protected coastal landscape around it.
The shore here is part of the Jærstrendene landscape area, a long protected strip of beaches, dunes, stony headlands and grassland, and it is full of traces of the past: burial mounds, old farm sites and boat houses, as well as the harbours built later for small fishing boats. The rounded stones are everywhere, left by the ice, and on the beaches they form great banks that rumble when the waves pull back.
The riding is relaxed and atmospheric. The road follows the coast through farmland, with long straights and a few curves, and the surface is good. Traffic is light. The wind is strong and steady, especially in autumn and winter, and conditions can flip within the hour. The light on this coast is soft and changeable, and the sunsets over the sea can be spectacular. In spring the fields are green and the birds are busy, and in autumn the colours of the grass and the sky are rich and moody.
A short way south lies Brusand, with a long beach and dunes, and beyond it Ogna, where the scenic route ends and the landscape changes from flat Jæren to the rocky hills of Dalane around Egersund. Inland, the villages of Vigrestad and Varhaug are small but have shops, and Nærbø, a little further, has the old Hå vicarage, now a gallery, near the shore.
For fuel and food, Vigrestad and Varhaug are the nearest options, and Egersund, about twenty kilometres south, is the nearest larger town. The cafe at the lighthouse is open in season. Stop, walk out to the point, and watch the waves rolling in.