FUGLENAES Fuglenes and LILLE-REIPAS Raipas starting at Hammerfest

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. FUGLENAES Fuglenes

   Fuglenes is the headland at Hammerfest where one of Europe's long scientific ideas comes to an end. In the early nineteenth century the astronomer Friedrich Struve ran a chain of survey points stretching from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean to measure the shape of the Earth, and the northern end of that chain is marked here by a stone monument. It is a modest column on a rocky point, but it carries a World Heritage listing, and the idea of someone carrying a triangulation across ten countries makes you look at the little stone differently.

   Read the complete FUGLENAES Fuglenes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   FUGLENAES Fuglenes is where the day begins. Next is Transferdalen.

2. 2. Transferdalen

   Alta is the biggest town in Finnmark, the northernmost county of Norway, and it lies at the head of a fjord far inside the Arctic Circle, on the same latitude as northern Alaska and the Siberian coast. East of town, the valley called Transferdalen cuts into the plateau, a place of birch and willow on its lower slopes and bare, rounded fell above, with a river in the bottom and Sámi names on the maps. The peak whose name appears on the ride titles, Luvdiidcohkka, is one of those Sámi names, and the Sámi, whose reindeer herds still move across this land, are the people who have known it longest.

   Read the complete Transferdalen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Transferdalen comes up 65 km in. Next is LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka.

3. 3. LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka

   Alta calls itself the northern lights town, and it has some right to the claim. The little town on the Alta fjord, about a degree and a half south of the North Cape, has some of the clearest, most dependable aurora in Norway, and visitors travel from across the world in winter to stand in the cold and wait. In summer, the same sky never gets dark, and the midnight sun lights the fjord and the hills for weeks. The nearest large settlement to this stop on the plateau, Alta has about twelve thousand people, and it is thirty-six kilometres away.

   Read the complete LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   130 km in you reach LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka. Next is LILLE-REIPAS Raipas.

4. 4. LILLE-REIPAS Raipas

   Some of the most important monuments in the world are very small. Lille-Reipas, on a hill above the town of Alta in far northern Norway, is one of them. It is one of the points of the Struve Geodetic Arc, a chain of survey stations running from Hammerfest on the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, about 2,800 kilometres, that was used in the nineteenth century to measure the size and shape of the Earth. UNESCO listed the surviving points in 2005, and a simple marker is all that stands at most of them.

   Read the complete LILLE-REIPAS Raipas write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   LILLE-REIPAS Raipas, about halfway. Next is back through LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka.

5. 5. back through LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka sits at 259 km, about halfway. Next is back through Transferdalen.

6. 6. back through Transferdalen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Transferdalen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Transferdalen comes up 324 km in. Next is FUGLENAES Fuglenes.

7. 7. FUGLENAES Fuglenes

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete FUGLENAES Fuglenes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   FUGLENAES Fuglenes closes the day.