23 July 2014 (sunny and hot!) 63 km

I’d had a very late shower last night, in fact it was midnight before I got out. Julia also was busy and figured I would only wake her up when I came in, so she got on typing the days events.

After some long days with big mileage, we were looking for a decent nights sleep.

And that is how it unfolded, we both slept really well, waking up at 7am.

Went to pour the milk on our cereal, but it had turned in the heat yesterday, so we threw it and Ju got some cold stuff from the kitchen staff…….for a price…. Yummy…!

Pete and I with Sten and Helena from Belgium - lovely people

Breakfast over, tent and gear packed, we wandered over to say bye to Helena and Sten. Great couple, hope it works for them.

As we cycled off, the plan today was a steady plod in a nor east direction……but oh how the day was to turn to shit…..

When the day was good.........

Began very well with a visit to tourist info in Alingsas [ pronounced aleensee ] about 18 km’s up the road. Travelling on a main road, with some traffic and good road surface, we made great time. The girls at the Tourist office were excellent and gave us free internet where we caught with anything outstanding. Took around 2 hours.

Alingsas

With Julia busy, I took off to the supermarket to get lunch and when I arrived back she was virtually done. The girls had suggested a nice park for lunch, with plenty of shade as it was now stinking hot.

Set up there and enjoyed a nice lunch, with great scenery, as a woman was sunbathing with a teenie tiny bikini on [not worth having it on I reckon ]. I must say the ladies here don’t mind revealing what they’ve got and not just at the beach. Men walk through town with no tops on and girls shop in bikinis. Along the road we visited the local castle……..but after some of the places we’ve seen on this trip, the castle wouldn’t even credit the title of a stately home.!

Nice, but hardly a castle

Out of town using a tourist office map for reference…….and here began the afternoon.

Firsly, the road marked on the map wasn’t there, only a main road. Ju wasn’t keen, but options were nil. Got into a steady rhythm and regular hill climbs. Not too far in, but ploughing away, Ju suggests a minor road to our right as she didn’t like the current road.  Looking on the map, it appeared to be a shorter route and there was also a cycle route sign of the type we had followed so successfully for the past few days so we felt fairly confident taking this road.  Our first hint that we should not go down this road was about 200 metres in when it turned to gravel.  Ju suggested turning round at this point and going back to the main road, but as we moved out of the way of a speeding tractor, I said No, let’s just carry on.

This took us way out into the sticks on gravel roads for the next 2 ½ hours. We were in the back of beyond and the heat was exhausting. Each road we chose went nowhere and tempers were very frayed. In the end we sussed a way out, but it meant head down and grind it out.

This particular shade of reddish brown is very popular here - with good reason.  Looks great!

Finally…. Three hours later… we were in the town of Vargarda, where a visit to Mc Donalds first up to use their internet, was foiled because the place was hot as hell inside and no coverage outside.

Into the local ICA supermarket [ definitely one of the better ones ] for an ice cream to cool both temperature and emotions. Julia suggested a stay at the local camp and although we covered 60kms today, we only moved about thirty from our site last night.

Found the camp a couple of kms up the road…..nice too. Whilst Ju showered, I wrote the blog.

When she got back from her ice cold shower (by choice) I took off into town on the bike [funny that ] to pick up some dinner.  Decided what was called for was a great salad , from the best damn salad bar I’ve seen anywhere…… and it’s at the ICA supermarkets in Sweden. It’s got everything you could possibly imagine and you can feed two for around $12. With that we had chicken and washed it all down with  a couple of well deserved beers……Delicious…!

For me, a shave and shower was next whilst Ju did wages and payments for Face to Face. It was 9.20pm and time to do laundry [if you could get a machine ]. Not bad at this camp, but because it’s school holidays, at some camps everything is chocka.  This camp is full of these really cute dogs.  They told us the name of the breed, something beginning with S but essentially they are Dutch sheep dogs – very cute.

Pete makes a friend

Finished the night with a nice hot coffee and some chocolate before snuggling down for what we hope will be a restful night.