Michael was able to use the crossing time wisely by rebuilding his rear wheel with new hub and spokes purchased in Bergen (at great expense), so when we arrived back in Newcastle at 4pm Michael was able to cycle along the path back to Newcastle with the rest of the group. A long overnight train journey via Carlisle brought us back to Newton Abbot by 0815 next morning.

So what were our impressions of Norway? First, the hostels. Like everything in Norway they are expensive, about £6 per night, £5 per evening meal and £3‑50 per breakfast. But the standard of accommodation is always greater than in Britain. There are never more than 4 beds to a room. Each bed usually has a reading lamp and duvet, and each room often has en suite toilet, wash basin and shower. When you arrive you are given a key to your room, so that you can lock up your belongings while you are eating. Perhaps one of the nicest differences is that in Norway you never have any jobs to do!

The communal areas are often luxurious. Some of the hostels even had electronically controlled doors and separate common rooms for nonsmokers.

Guest houses were even more luxurious. They were twice the price of hostels, but everything was always clean and modern. It was nice not to have to use our own towels and sheet bags for the last two nights of the tour.

Food in Norway seemed similar to British food in some ways. Every breakfast consisted of a large table piled with foods ‑ large bowls of cereals, milk, boiled eggs, bread, cold meats, a selection of cheeses, marmalades and jams. Once you have paid for breakfast you can help yourself to as much as you like. Evening meals were usually of the meat and two veg type followed by a dessert. A special feature of Norway is the brown cheese, much sweeter than ordinary cheese and often made from goats milk or a mixture of goat and cow's milk.

There are many brands of chocolate in Norway, the majority made by Freia of Oslo. Some are similar to brands in England, but most were completely new to us. The high prices of 55p for a Kit‑Kat equivalent called Kvikk Lunsj or £1‑65 for 200g of Milk Chocolate can be avoided by purchasing on the ferry from the tax‑free shop, where prices were reduced by 35%.

Hot takeaway food was very expensive, a cheeseburger costing anything from £1‑80 to £3. We kept lunch costs low by buying bread, cheese, tomatoes and milk. Yoghurts made a pleasant desert, particularly as they were much larger than our yoghurts and always came in a special carton which made drinking quite straightforward. There was even a plastic spoon attached to the rear of the carton!

Norway has about the same land area as the UK, but has only 4 million people instead of our 56 million. Space is never at a premium. Almost every house is detached and luxurious ‑ some even have their own boat moored at the water's edge. Nearly all the houses are made principally out of wood (Norway's plentiful resource). One house we went into looked like a palace, with polished pine floors, walls, ceiling and furniture.

Norwegians have a very high standard of living. A 19‑year‑old at Viken told us that he was just starting his first job and would be earning £14000. He also said that every Norwegian has at least one car.

Cycling in Norway is great fun once you have got used to riding on the right: there is very little traffic even on the larger roads. Roads are skilfully engineered to keep gradients to a minimum, sometimes by using many hairpins but often by just putting a tunnel through the mountain. Tunnels are everywhere in Norway. All the tunnels we rode through were lit, but we saw a long one of several miles which was totally black. This could have been dangerous without good cycle lights. Junctions were a bit hairy at first, as there are no road markings indicating the right of way. Instead there are signs on the approach to the junction indicating whether or not the road you are on has right of way. Since most of our riding was on long, country roads, we did not have many problems.

Once we had left Bergen, Norway's second city, all the towns and villages we saw were small. They usually had a shop of some kind, the larger ones having a supermarket and a post office. Ancient Stave churches, made entirely of wood, could be seen in many villages. The atmosphere in all the villages was rural, quiet and relaxed. There were a few cycle shops scattered around the villages, but the one in Bergen had to be the biggest and best we had ever seen in our lives.

Most of the people we met in Norway spoke reasonable English, as all Norwegian children learn English from the age of ten. Only at Vangsnes hostel did the warden speak virtually no English. We had to simplify our phrase, look it up in the dictionary and write it down in Norwegian before he could understand us. We were always warmly received wherever we went.

Small farms are an important part of the Norwegian landscape. Cows are few and far between, but sheep and goats are evident in many areas. It is not at all unusual to round a hairpin corner on a mountainside and find yourself face to face with a billy goat! And if you ever go to the mountains you are certain to hear the clanking of the bells, tied to the necks of the sheep.

Children in Norway seem particularly well cared for. Because of the distributed population, schools are usually quite small but very modern and with the best possible facilities. Many schools that we saw had their own athletics circuit. Class sizes range from 15 to 30. Children may leave school at the age of 16, but 90% chooses to stay on in colleges of further education, to increase their chances of finding employment.

Of all that we saw in Norway, the majestic scenery must have made the greatest impression on us. Everything was on a much larger scale than we had seen before. Waterfalls seemed to cascade from every ridge and mountain, each one emptying unimaginable volumes of water per second into the rivers and lakes below. Snowcapped mountains surrounded us everywhere, making the largest mountains in Britain look tame by comparison. Vast freshwater lakes high in the mountains contained water that was crystal clear as far as the eye could see. And covering every hill and mountain were the forests, broadleaved and coniferous, spreading out in all directions. In Britain we have limited areas of natural beauty, but in Norway, the whole country seems unspoiled. It is a paradise for lovers of nature.

This tour of Norway must have been one of the greatest experiences of our cycling careers. The country appealed to each of us in a special way, and I am certain that many of us will return again someday. In the meantime, local CTC members may share some of the delights of the tour by attending the special Slide Show on Friday 20 October at 10 Treesdale Close, Paignton, starting at 7pm.