Western Norway was great fun last month, by the way. Just google Tindevegen or Jotunheimsvegen to see how beautiful. As you will have gathered, these days I am of the do it properly the first time round school, if you can. And I really do not think there is any point in the occasional night in a hotel or similar. I never do, unless very rarely if there is a very early train or plane to catch etc. I sleep very well in my tent. I do take a day off from cycling now and then, however. My ideal is one day off every three or four days. I use it for domestic chores like washing clothes, bike maintenance, or to vist an interesting town/museum.
I do realize that as a Dutchman my perspective may be different. My guess is that the vast majority of the Dutch camp on their holidays, and even if they don't, most Dutch households will have at least some usuable camping gear. That gear may not be ideal for a cycle camping holiday, but it is a start. I have always had a tent and a decent sleeping bag, from my pretty early childhood. On my first holiday without my parents (to Cornwall), all I had to do was borrow a backpack. In the years thereafter, I would sometimes buy some new kit, and gradually my gear improved (some of it I only had to replace in recent years, some thirty years later). The next buying spree only came some ten to fifteen years ago, when we started camping with our own children, and needed gear for that. Now that much of the original gear from thirty years ago has finally packed up (and some of the stuff we bought fifteen years ago), we have gone into the next round, with light weight and small packing volume even more important than before.
Willem
