93.8km covered in 4hr2min cycling
Avg 23.1kmph
Max speed 58.3kmph
Avg 23.1kmph
Max speed 58.3kmph
Bonus Kms: 8.15km in 28min, avg 17.1kmph (cautios nighttime crawl to campsite...)
After a lovely nights' sleep, we wake to enjoy a relaxed breakfast before setting off into the sunshine. We cruise into the lovely village of Torsång, where Hazel is delighted to have finally arrived at the Swedish riveria!! Best cafe yet, we consume two rounds of coffee and cake (the selection is enormous, and we justify be telling ourselves we will push through 50km before lunch at our final destination of Söderbärke...). The kayakers are out, and Hazel and I begin to wonder why we haven't seen any rowing boats out on the lovely lakes....
We are making good time and having a lovely day of cycling in the rolling hills, past some magnificent lakes. Of course, there's little chance of us cycling for more than a few hours without a refuel, and we pull up for an early lunch and some time in the shade. Ali is shocked at the sight of fresh blood on the ground at our chosen picnic spot, before she realises she's managed to cut her shin on the pedal again, and Dr L comes to the rescue with Field Hospital. Our latest favourite snack of polar bread, salty peanuts and Bob-bob squeezy raspberry jam is going down well, and the sugar levels are rising....out comes the gun show!! Ali is well in the lead at this stage, bordering on bodybuilder status, I still look relatively normal and Hazel looks scarily like a human skeleton...not sure what's going on there.... we have a few laughs and its back on the bikes...for about 2mins, when Hazel descends into hysterics at the sight of a bumblebee hitching a ride on Ali's lime green bike pants, her shrieks echoing through the valley as the bee crawls closer and closer to Ali's seat as she stands out of the saddle to zoom down the hill.....
Onwards we pedal, to the town of Smedjebacken where we stop for an ICA re-stock before heading for the town of Söderbärke where we're planning to make use of the guest-harbour and engage in some semi-wilderness camping.... Ali is flaking though, so before we leave to town we stop for more coffee and cream cake, then deciding this was not a good idea, have a cheese roll to try and even out the incredible blood sugar count...
Finally we arrive in Söderbärke, where we enjoy our best swim yet in a beautiful lake in the late afternoon sun. I'm keen to set up camp on the grassy hillside picnic area above the lake, but the girls are convinced there'll be gangs of youths visiting the area to terrorise us during the night.... we compromise by holding out on putting up tents, and cook up a storm on the picnic table, enjoying a two course pasta meal followed by cake.... It's getting close to 9pm and I'm getting tired....yawning away, I try to convince the girls to put up the tents but they're refusing to budge until dark - this exactly the kind of location they would have hung out as teenagers!!! I shrug, and turn to put the water on to boil for our cup of tea, when lo and behold, a group of three youngsters appear with their disposable barbeque!!! Dissolving into fits of laughter, we can only watch in hysterics as they slowly appear in one's and two's over the hilltop, until there is a group of about 10 "youths" enjoying the bbq.... I try to convince the girls we'll be safe to set up in the corner but they're not buying it... "you know they'll go skinny-dipping later....i would have!!".... So we pack up the bikes, much to the amused glances of the teenagers, and pedal off out of town...after all, there's another swimming place a couple of kms away...we'll just set up there, and be up early tomorrow..... Enjoying the evening cycle in the dusk, we pedal along happily, until we realise we've past the town of proposed swimming place. Not only have we almost done 8km but it's starting to get dark, and we seem to be climbing into the hills again - no more nice fields or lakes to camp by!! We pull over into a layby near some woods, and after scoping out the area and deeming it to be the best (and only option), hurriedly put the tent up (all happy to squash into one tonight!). Hazel's imagination is working overtime and its going to be a long night....who's idea was it to wilderness camp?!?! A tiny red ant has manged to accompany me into the tent, and nine bites later its all over for mister ant and i'm scouting around for the Germoline...sadly its still in Hazel's panniers so its out with the head torch and i venture into the wild to fetch the goods from Field hospital...further laughter ensues as I administer the required medicines with torch in situ before we attempt to settle in...again.....oh dear..... free camping in Sweden isn't all it's cracked up to be!!!!
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