Ayay as they say in these parts (not sure about the
spelling) but it’s Swedish for Gidday. Up
this morning at 6am and over to the kitchen room for a covert
operation……namely, trying to charge our computer and camera off the microwave
and t.v. plugs, before anyone else was up.
Some sites provide
endless sockets….whilst others have you hunting down plugs.
Had our breakfast, which I’m afraid to say included a full
block of chocolate. We had bought this
last night and had forgotten to eat it and there was no way it would last
throughout the heat of the day, so what else could we do? It was Lindt after all. I know in some households this is probably
not unusual, (yes Earps, I’m talking about you), but it’s a bit of a novelty
for us.
After two long days we wanted, if possible to have a shorter
day. So we left at 8.30am having managed
to completely charge the camera and the computer was sitting at 90%. After the near miss last night, neither of us
wanted to get back on Highway 50 with all those trucks so we’d picked out an
alternative route to Motala which involved about 20 extra km. It started at the nearby town of Ammeberg so
we asked the camp owner for directions and he said you go through Askersund, so
we headed there to start with. To be
absolutely sure, we checked with a lady at the gas station and she said you
have to go back down Highway 50 and turn left.
Bloody hell. So we turned around
and retraced our path looking for the turn off to Ammeberg, which never
came. So there we were, stuck on Highway
50 again. The only good thing was it was
reasonably early and the truck drivers seemed to keep the same schedule as
everyone else in Sweden as we didn’t see too many for the first hour. We bombed along as fast as we could trying to
get as many kms covered as possible before the trucks started coming through
and we managed 28kms in the first hour and fifteen minutes even with the
pfaffing round trying to figure out which way to go. To make it even worse, they put guard rails
on either side of the highway and one straight down the middle so if a truck or
camper van wanted to pull over a bit and give you some room, they
couldn’t. It was very scary and we got
to where we would just stop and pull off as far as we could while trucks went
past.
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| Glad to be off Highway 50 for sure |
After that first 28kms, we were
able to get on a side road and this was a huge relief although both of us felt
totally done in with the big mileage of the past few days and the full on
effort of this morning. It was a big
struggle to make it to Motala but we eventually got there just before
midday. First port of call was the lake
for a well-earned swim – not as nice as yesterday’s swims but good
nonetheless.
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| church at Motala |
Then we found the Tourist Info
in a lovely yellow building by the waterfront.
This was a great tourist info as like all Swedish info offices, they had
free wifi, clean toilets and some delicious flavoured mineral water for $2 a
bottle. Pete lay in the shade while I
went inside to post the blog. Got a room
all to myself and was just finishing the blog when a skype call came in from
Georgie and Brody. So I closed the door
and had a nice little free chat to them.
Pete meanwhile had a lovely nap on the lawn outside.
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| Motala |
 |
| Leaving Motala |
Next we needed some food so found a
supermarket, bought some salad and had a picnic in the shade before setting off
on the Gota Canal bike trail.
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| Images from the Gota Canal trail this afternoon |
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| How's this for a barn? (Not the ubiquitous red/brown colour (again) and the thunderclouds building beyond) |
This part
of the trail does not follow the canal closely but winds its way through
countryside on small roads and after this morning, was a welcome change of pace. We were still both really tired so just took
it slowly and managed to enjoy the 25kms to Boerensberg. Here we found a campsite and set the tent up
before diving into the lake for a cooling swim.
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| A lovely little church on the way |
Still very hot today but humid too as thunder clouds built up on the
horizon. We’d no sooner got changed out
of our togs than the thunderstorm hit and we dived into the tent as the
thunder, lightning, rain and wind took centrestage outside.
Lasted 20 minutes and was torrential, so much so that if it
had lasted much longer, we would have been sleeping on a waterbed tonight as
they haven’t had rain here for a while, so the water isn’t draining.
 |
Borensberg - we would guess maybe 80% of country houses
are this colour. |
Once it
had finished we decided to wander into the village of Borensberg [and boring it
was too ], Their claim to fame here would have to be the canal…..cause there
ain’t nuthin else folks !
Bought another delicious salad for dinner….. man… you wouldn’t
BELIEVE… how good these things are. Bought a can of Carlsberg to wash it down…man
..you wouldn’t believe how bad that is for you…! Sat around in the tent over
dinner….laughing at the attempt of a couple trying to put up a tent….which they
have never had a practise at….and hell….did it show…funny for us though…!
The storm has thankfully for the time being taken away the
humidity of the last week and we’d be happy for a little less heat if the truth
be known.
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