Sundsvall, Sweden

Day Ten 110 Miles 3963 ft 

Total distance completed at end of leg 2 Northern Sweden 1019 Miles

We finally left Lappland altogether yesterday,  so no more reindeer, however the further south we have gone the colder it has got, but we are still further north than the Faroes. 

After yesterday’s travails in segment three the plan was for an easy day down the river valley to the coast, but as is customary the day does not necessarily go to plan, with several factors slowing down each segment. 

  
We left our exclusive campsite before 9 with the rain having given way to a cloudy sky. 

During the first segment I fully learnt how to construct a Swedish road. For the next 35km the road alternated between unmarked new Tarmac, types 1 or 2 gravel or semi prepared old Tarmac. I did manage to cycle all of it apart from a couple of  50 metre sections on foot and.spent many moments looking down at the sisal marker running the length to judge the edge. 

In addition to this I was pulled over twice by the advanced guard Vehicles for wide loads carrying wind turbine blades (pretty impressive this close to ) , the first chap added ‘I see you have the wrong bike for these roads’ well it was a main road was my reply. 

  
First stop overlooking a lake was reached in the dry although by this time the head wind was getting up.  

As I was about to leave you could see the rain coming in across the valley so togging up for a wet segment and reluctantly exiting the camper in drizzle Nigel said “come on  dig deep this is what it is all about”

The next 2 hrs it took to do just 29 miles were horrible, with the drizzle giving way to big rain and the wind continuing to blow. 

Despite wearing everything marked waterproof, by the time I got back in the camper I proved that this is just a sales gimmick – to make matters worse it then stopped raining

The great thing about using the camper as support was the fact that I was able to change into dry gear for the final leg and with the temperature below 10c for the first time leggings were donned 

The rain may have abated but the wind continued to blow 

Nearing the coast the countryside changed a little and I was able to get onto smaller roads following the Sverigeleden ( Sweden’s cycle route) to enjoy the cycling more, rather than hold on to the bike hard every now and again as a timber lorry went passed spraying me with muck and debris. 

Here are a couple of fun shots. A minion post box line up and then some serious rubber burn out marks. These are common throughout the land, even more so than in the UK and must be a favourite pastime of the Swedish petrol heads. 

   
 The final part of the stage took me through the outskirts of the industrial town of Timra and through our first big city since Rovaniemi,  Sundsvall. It was here I bumped into the first cyclo tourists I had seen for some time a couple of young Germans, who were doing a lap of the Baltic self supported, they said with some jealousy that they had seen the camper earlier, as they were wild camping the whole way. 

  
Reaching the campsite at almost 7 pm was the end of a long, slow day and my body is much relieved to be having a break tomorrow after five 100 mile plus days in a row, and over 1000 miles of the trip completed.