It was a muggy night and we both woke early at 5.45am. Decided to get up as it felt like it was
going to be yet another stinking hot day.
There was a mist all over the canal and through the valley which had
thoroughly soaked the flysheet, so we packed this separately to get out later
and dry out while we ate breakfast. Hit
the road at 6.25am after packing as quietly as we could so as not to wake any
fellow campers and found the road we needed straight off.
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| Images from our pre-breakfast ride today |
It was a cracking road, great surface,
undulating and just seemed fast. It used
to be the old main road before the motorway went in so we didn’t have to keep
checking our directions either.
Travelled through big expanses of wheat fields mainly backed by pine
forests and made great time, stopping at Husby for breakfast and to dry out the
tent. Then back on the awesome road to
catch a ferry (which was free of charge) across the Braviken strait to
Kvarsebo. By now it was 9.45am and
getting warm so when we saw a lady going in for a swim in the beautiful still
water here, we joined her.
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| Scenes from our coastal trip late this morning |
She was quite
taken with us Kiwis and we had a nice swim and a chat before we departed on the
next leg of our journey. This was
following the coastal road and was a lot of uphill and down dale, mercifully
through forest, so we had a lot of shade.
But 12km later when we reached Navekvarn, we were desperate for a swim
again. So after checking with the
locals, they all told us to walk to the other side of the little island just
offshore where there was no alvia (kelp? Algae? We’re not sure), and it was
clearer than the rest of the water in the area.
Unfortunately I left the camera by the bikes – no it didn’t get stolen,
I just wasn’t able to take any pictures.
Had a lovely swim here and then sat in the shade and ate a Magnum before
heading uphill out of town and getting a sweat on again. Just out of town we had to make a decision as
to whether to take the tourist road to the right, or whether to go on the main
road. Decided on the tourist road but as
soon as we turned down it, the road surface changed to gravel so we did an
about turn and took the main road. Great
decision! This road was as lovely as our
first ride this morning, although not quite as cool. We made good time though and were in the town
of Nykoping (pronounced Nysherping) by 1pm having done 70km and had two swims
all before lunch!
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| Some scenes from Nykoping - a lovely town |
First on the agenda was lunch so we hit our favourite
supermarket for one of their salads – in fact we got two of their salads and
had one each as we were starving! Found
the perfect seat in the shade by the river and sat here eat.
Just as we were about to sit down, I smelt
fresh paint and noticed the three signs sellotaped to the seat and surrounding
fence warning “Nyomakt”. I pointed them
out to Pete and said I think this might mean “wet paint”. Pete
said “nah, I think it means enjoy your lunch” and we sat down anyway after checking they were dry.
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| Enjoy your lunch! |
Then we went to tourist info and found out the bibliotek had
free wifi so went there and uploaded yesterday’s blog before cycling round
town, taking in the sights.
Thunderclouds were building and it was very sticky and humid so we
decided to go back to the bibliotek and write today’s blog while waiting to see
if there was going to be another thunderstorm this afternoon.
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| scenes from Nykoping castle |
Nothing was forthcoming, so decided to take in more of this
town….. where I might add the once King of Sweden, in medieval times….lived for
300 years…….not the same guy dudes….!
It’s a nice town and we covered a lot of it snapping here
and there.
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| More from Nykoping |
The temperature mid afternoon was 27 degrees and I think that was
down on midday…. However it’s the humidity that is so sapping, especially
whilst we’re riding and particularly on those hill climbs.
Decided, even though we’d done a lot of km’s today, to push
on out to the coast, heading for Stockholm eventually. Back to the supermarket
for evening supplies in case we decided to freecamp tonight and got talking to
a guy named Naas [Julia reckons we should just call him Lars…as that’s a more
Swedish sounding name ] who gave us an interesting history lesson about the
town. Apparently back in 1317, the then
King of Sweden chucked his two brothers down a hole and let them starve to
death because they wouldn’t give him the controls to the x-box, or something
like that. He then threw the key to
their dungeon out into the ocean where it was found 600 years later in 1912 by
a couple of kids playing at the water’s edge.
The key has now become a symbol of the town.
Shortly after 5pm we left town on the 219 road up the coast.
Just as we were getting into our stride
however, my left pannier fell off my bike – fortunately the other one had the
bottle of wine in….joking.
Not long out,
at the little village of Sjosa Pete spied what he thought was a Briard, playing
with a lady on her lawn. Crossed the road and sure enough it was…..and it was
called Briana…! She was lovely but much smaller than Rufus though still as
adorable and we chatted for about 15 minutes, (with the owner, Briana just sat
there looking gorgeous and sniffing our bags) before saying goodbye.
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| Briana - isn't she lovely? |
Kept an eye out for a freecamp and thought we’d found a
great spot until we noticed all the ants – and they were big ones too. They actually has tracks through the
grass. So we thought we’d go to a
campground and hope they didn’t have the same problem. Found one not too further on and although
it’s pretty basic, it’s cheap ($20) with great showers – we both had cold ones
by choice. Then ate dinner, downloaded
the photos and finished the blog.
Apparently a front is coming through tomorrow,,,,,,we will see.
Now….this little camp we are in tonight is mostly occupied
by people older than ourselves and they are all Swedish. Nothing unusual in
that…..but get them in a group… all talking and the only word you seem to hear
is ….JA. We sat eating our meal on an
outside table and I kid you not it was like being in an episode of Seasame
Street with The Swedish Chef. JA’S were
about the only word seemingly being spoken, so we can only presume that there
was a lot of agreeing going on. It was very amusing especially for a couple of
Kiwi’s thinking back to childhood and suddenly being transported right back.
Didn’t have the same effect on the Swedes as they just kept Ja…Ja.. Jaaaaaring
all night long…!
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