Last Updated on: June 5, 2023

Coming down into the valley Nore & Uvdal we landed in the village Rødberg,  took a little break and discussed where our Autumn ride would go next.  

Gravel-On-Wards Northwards

We agreed on a route, and had at first a navigational miss. Partially my fault or rather, had a minor GPS mishap due to lack of proper destination. Didn’t cost us much time, plus we got to ride the cooler bit of a winding road, with alp-like twists and turns.

We went back to the starting point, then slightly north of Rødberg went eastwards. Fairly soon we hit on gravel, and this time it wasn’t any miss. The road we found opened up fantastic nature, set in beautiful autumn colors.

My BMW GS Adventure on gravel high up and in towards the region of Dagali

The road went on for miles upon miles, enough variation for us to really have a great time.

This type roads you find all over this region. Pleasant, fun and exciting to ride on with adventure motorbikes 🙂

A region for fresh air, awesome roads and nature

It’s easy to understand why people have cabins up in this region.  Why some people love to go here, to chill, to disconnect, be away from urban life, from noise. Regardless of season, Autumn, winter, spring or summer, it is highly appreciated by those who come here.

It was easy for us to understand why we came here. And as our bikes aren’t very noisy, those we met didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by our presence. We were the only motorcycle riders up there on that day.

Mountain view: not too many cabins around in this area, but we did see people

In many respects, the gravel roads are way better than worn out tarmac with lots of holes and bumps. However, if it’s raining the experience might not be quite so pleasant, as some of the stretches can quickly turn muddy. They do however dry up fairly quickly.

This type of riding is definitely home ground for the BMW GS Adventure. A joy to ride

So good we turned around

As the awesome road came to an end, pavement took over. We faced the the choice of either go south or north on tarmac, or turn around and take gravel on return.

Many motorcyclists might be of the opinion, that you don’t really know what a road is like until you’ve ridden it in both directions. Ergo sum, we turned around and took the same road back. A decision we did NOT regret!

We stopped for a while by a small waterfall before heading back south

A full circle –  before dinnersupper

Coming down from the “gravel fest” we headed back to Rødberg.  Since it being late we decided on eating dinner, and chose somewhat of a Norwegian “culinary specialty” at a local hotel. Quotes here used with intention. Norwegian cuisine is pretty diverse, though meatballs, cabbage stew, potatoes and brown sauce can hardly be called a culinary specialty. But we’re not the (too) picky sort.

Sometimes simple is best. Nonetheless, the food was absolutely edible, each got a decent size plate for a ditto decent price. After dinner we headed back across and through the hills and woods we came down through earlier in the day, then down and back to Eggedal, a place mentioned in the previous post.

Øvre Eggedal Church, captured in the evening

It was getting dark’ish as we approached the place to stay overnight, up around 2100ft. The day ended with a pretty decent gravel ride in the semi-dark.

Heading up on a mountain for the overnight stay we past some pretty places

For those not into motorcycles thought it best to include a picture without one 🙂

The next day – return to Oslo

We woke up to pretty nice weather but it did not take long before clouds began to form. The forecast didn’t say anything about rain but a forecast remains (surprise) a forecast. Things change, sometimes very quickly, for better or worse.

Pretty decent view to wake up to on a Sunday morning

A quick breakfast and discuss evolving around and about the route back home. We wanted to try something we hadn’t tried before, to see how close to Oslo it was possible to get, mainly on gravel.

With this in mind we set course due east, and hit upon our first gravel encounter shortly after we descended from the mountain.

The west side of lake Krøderen has some awesome roads

This is/was one of the smoother parts of the road, other sections are a “tad” more uh.. interesting 🙂 

Towards Oslo trough Autumn woods

Neither of us had done it before, and there has to be a first time for everything. The norm is that you cannot get close to Oslo on anything but pavement, big roads, medium roads or small roads. Yet, we both knew there were roads through the woods, if somewhat obstructed by barriers.

It’s not a-something you can do with a car. With Adventure motorcycles however, things are and look a bit different. The first of two legs we rode through on roads neither of us had tried before. Stretches we’d normally do on pavement.

Adventure bikes where they belong. Coming up to this point we traversed rocky paths as well as a “road”

In short, it was quite an experience. Parts of the roads were apparently used for servicing the power grid. I think the vehicles who used it probably were the 4 wheel equivalent our our motorcycles. Other cars would have  died, regardless of it being spring, summer, autumn or winter.

We then crossed over and into different terrain/roads

Don’t know how many of these lakes there are, but quite a few

and another one

One of the stretches was composed of hard packed dirt and gravel, smoother than gravel

The last leg towards Oslo

We crossed over pavement, rode a few miles and then headed back into some other woods. Here we made a choice that eventually led us to a road I doubt many people have tried on a motorcycle.

Just past the last “hurdle” and out in a valley close to Oslo

Suffice to say we’re content having done it once, proven it is possible to get from far into the country, all the way down to the outskirts of Oslo almost entirely on wood roads, gravel, dirt and rocks.

We departed in agreement that it had been a a autumn ride worth remembering!