We were lucky with the weather and another good day was forecast. Robert had found a 26 mile cycle ride that he adapted to start from our accommodation. The route followed the coast round to the Lista Lighthouse at Lista Fyr. The route was mainly on roads but frequently diverted off the main road to follow tracks or go away from the road thought small housing estates. Even when on the main road the traffic was light. We stopped at a Joker Supermarket hoping to purchase some more dough balls and cinnamon buns but unfortunately the store did not do them.
We pressed on hoping to find somewhere suitable for lunch. We stopped at the Lista Lighthouse. It had been constantly manned for 187 years until 1983 when it was fully automated. It was possible to visit the lighthouse for a fee. They give you a key for 30 minutes but it was booked up when we arrived. Unfortunately there was not a café but you could purchase sweet snacks, ice creams and drinks.
We bought a coffee and shared a back of cheese nibbles before following a marked cycle track. When we reached the community centre just outside Stave the cycle track continued but our route turned off to head back to Farsund. After a little debate we decided to continue along the cycle path to Varnes fort and 12 mile detour to go there and back. In hindsight this was a mistake. The route was a lot hiller than we expected and the cycle path finished 1km from the lighthouse and 0.5 km from the fort. You could not cycle the last section so Lyn had to wait whilst Robert went down to the fort. The path to the fort included a long unlight tunnel which required careful navigation . The fort turned out to be a second world war gun emplacement. The path and tunnel to get to it had been built by Russian prisoners of war. From the top of the fort there were good views across the fjoid and you could see why the spot was selected for the gun emplacement. After visiting the fort we retraced our route a short distance to where the cycle path officially ended.
A seating area had bike racks and even a spot where you could recharge your electric bike if you need additional charge to get home.
We then slowly cycled back to the bus shelter where we had diverted off the planned route. There were several bee hive but unfortunately we did not see any honey for sale.
From bus shelter it was just over 10 miles back to the accommodation. Most of the route was away from the main road but the last few miles we did have to go along it into Farsund. On getting to the town we stopped at the Rema supermarket to purchase fish burgers and vegetables for dinner. We got back to the apartment at around 18:30. A pot of earl grey was the order of the day along with some slices of bread as we had missed lunch.
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