Day 6: Camp Lofoten to Malenga, 463.4km

Bike: Honda CRF100L Africa Twin DCT

Mileage ridden today: 463.4km

Mileage so far: 2410.1km

The road out of our Lofoten camp was just as awe-inspiring as the road coming in. Fuzzy headed and watching out for hundreds of cyclists out for a sportive, many riding in tunnels with no lights on, this was followed by fast sweeping roads. It was the perfect way to wake up after a night sleeping under the stars. Well, under the sun at least. For the record, Alpinestars Drystar leggings make a great pillow.

As we headed further north, the road started to change and became bumpy, roughly surfaced and rutted in places. Most of Norway’s roads are incredibly well looked after, but not up here.

Our route took in about 20km of off-road gravel trails, letting the Honda Africa Twin adventure bike show its true colours again. With traction-control off, and the DCT’s G-mode engaged to allow the bike to cleverly work out the angle of descent and ascent when off-road, the Africa Twin suddenly felt lively and responsive, spinning its rear tyre in the gravel and feeling every bit an overgrown dirt bike.

But doing skids and slides can’t keep you from the view.

With the third fuel stop of the day done, and some 460km under our belts today, we rolled into the town of Malenga where a nice hotel waited, most welcome after a night on the beach and the previous night in a hostel.

Riding big 1000cc motorcycles long distances isn’t easy, even ones as competent as the Africa Twin. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body, get some rest in a good bed and get ready for the last big two days riding to Nordkapp. It feels very much like we have left civilisation behind a long time ago, we are now further north than Canada and Iceland and getting really excited about the last 865km riding to Europe’s most northerly point, and an absolute mecca for adventure touring motorcyclists the world over.