30 July 2014 (hot and sunny) 70km

From the shadows at the rear of the room I could hear a noise…..but in the situation I was in I couldn’t make it out. A voice boomed out of the darkness……..’Ayay..Cock’……

As we approached the voice a light came on.

There he stood ….Sven the Swede  [lower body wrapped in a towel….. straight out of the sauna ]and on his shoulder……..The Pigeon…!

‘Aren’t you supposed to be a parrot’ I enquired….. remembering my childhood reading Treasure Island with Long John Silver.

‘Coo… coo…coo…coo…it replied…. In the monotonous tone we’ve heard all trip….in every country..!

Sven was your typical swede.

ROUND…..PALE…. BALD  ….. BUT WITH A PURPLE TUFT OF GROWTH ON TOP…..[ no …sorry that’s the vegetable….]

Actually …he was tall…tanned ….great looking with a strong jaw line…..spoke with an accent women swoon over…..blonde locks…..dazzling white teeth…..a strong muscular body and as his towel fell to the floor…..the teenie tiniest penis you’ve ever seen……..

Hey it’s my story I ‘ll make him as I want to………

Woken this morning at 4am by a guy driving his car right past the tent. Probably come down to check the fishing conditions or something. Had gone off to sleep very quickly at 10.30pm last night, before Ju had even finished the blog. Up at 6am to a sodden tent once again….the past two days have been really bad for it…..still as long as the days are fine, you can easily dry it out.

The weather was fine once more, so off we set at 6.35am heading up the coast toward our final destination in Sweden…..Stockholm.

Road conditions were excellent with very little traffic and we were ticking along nicely. Spent the time gazing at the scenery and checking out any movements from the forests. We’d been on the go for an hour and a half when we saw a sign for Nina’s Slott, a stately home, so decided to give it a look and at the same time, have some breakfast and dry out the fly sheet.

Nina's Slott

The sun had disappeared for a while behind some cloud, but the heat was still there, so the flysheet dried out nicely while we feasted on all the food we had in our pannier bags which consisted of two jam butties, an almond cake and a nectarine, washed down with a cup of tea with no milk.  Then we cycled around the stately home which wasn’t officially open but nobody stopped us and we had the place to ourselves and the gardeners.

Ju now….Set off again and I’d just said to Pete that it looked like all the deer had disappeared for the morning when I saw a family of six in a field, but they were too far away to get a decent photo, plus we were whizzing along at a good speed so didn’t want to break our stride.  However, some things are worth breaking your stride for and this occurred about five minutes after the deer when Pete yelled out in a hushed voice (not an easy thing to do!) “Ju!” 

When I stopped and turned around he motioned me back to him and pointed into the woods.  There about eighty metres away was a moose, staring straight back at us.  We took a few photos and tried not to scare him off and then Pete walked down the road to get a better angle and he still just stood there, despite the sight of Pete in his cycling shorts.  So Pete took a few more photos and then we set off again and left him to eat in peace.  That is one of the huge advantages of cycling.  Because you move so quietly, you have a good chance of seeing a lot of wildlife.

Seeing the moose was a huge thrill and boosted us along the undulating to hilly terrain on a high until we came to the town of Vagnharad.  There were two supermarkets just off the main road and we went to one of these for a couple of Danish pastries each and a yoghurt drink.  Pete is eating like a teenage boy and is still never full. 

A nice house on the way - note the colour....yes red/brown again

We’d only finished breakfast two hours previously and right after the pastries he was salivating over what we were going to have for lunch!  To distract him from his stomach, we went to the bibliotek (library) and checked messages and uploaded the blog.  We were busy messaging the kids when a thunderstorm hit and the internet went out (sorry kids), so Pete thought it was a good time to go back to the supermarket and get lunch.  So we did that and then went and sat outside the school front doors as of course they are all on summer holidays now and we were able to keep ourselves and our bikes out of the rain while we had lunch.  Just as we finished, it stopped raining so we packed up and jumped back on the bikes for another couple of hours pleasant riding through the Swedish countryside. 

It is still all rocky outcrops, pine trees and wheat fields but very lovely just the same.  The weather came out hot again and we were looking forward to having a swim but came upon our chosen campground sooner than expected.  We reached the campground at 3.30pm after 70 km and even though we thought we could have gone further, there were no campgrounds for the next 25km and we didn’t want to go that much further.  So we stopped and paid $23 for the night which we were very happy about and then set up tent.  We were just gathering our things to go do some washing and have a shower when another bikepacking couple turned up…with their nine month old Labrador!  They were from Lithuania and had started their bikepacking tour in Stockholm just yesterday.  They are unsure how long they will travel for and they are just trying it out to see where they get to.  The dog was travelling in a little enclosed trailer pulled by the guy.  Felt very sorry for the dog actually because he would be scared stiff with some of the vehicles passing so closely, especially the big ones.  He would also get very hot in this weather and how’s he going to let them know he’s dying in there?  Had a bit of a chat to them but they were pretty reserved so we left them to it and went and took care of cleaning ourselves and our clothing as well as doing some sneaky computer charging on the side.

Feeling refreshed we went to one of the two bars they have right by the campsite and had a nice cold beer and wine while we loaded our moose photos onto the computer along with the rest of the shots from today.  Then back to the tent for baked beans and tuna with buns for tea.  Then washed up and packed up as much as we could so we could make another early start tomorrow.