nbjtours

Bollnas, Sweden

Day Eleven 112 miles 5495 ft

There are some days when it is great  to be alive and cycle through some superb countryside. Today was one of those days, and as I write this blog hundreds of geese arriving in squadrons, cackling as they do so. are coming into land on the lake

A light shower greeted us on waking but this was the last of the rain we saw all day.

Starting out by the sea and running the first 5 miles or so next to it was the only disappointment, as half of that was taken up by a massive Akzo Nobel chemical plant which looked as though it made the rust red paint that covers all the houses here.

Turning inland up a river valley I had expected to climb, but the next 40 miles were a series of 400-500 ft climbs followed by drops not quite so large,  making today the hilliest day of the tour so far.

The benefit of these climbs and the increasing amount of farmland were the splendid views
As ever we also saw some fabulous lakes  either glimpsed through the trees or across the farmland. It is hard to describe how superb these sights were so here are the best ones.

  
  
Neil’s Nature Corner

Whilst no expert I do take an interest in the local flora and fauna so after a day when we all saw a lot here is an update.

Birds

The most commonly seen birds throughout Scandanavia so far have been the Hooded Crow and a couple of species of Wagtail. Other common birds seen have been Magpies and Swallows. Now we are further south, many flocks of sparrows chatter busily across the way, something we rarely see on the UK now. Other occasional views have been Eagles/ Buzzards, some Storks and the Geese on the lake here

Butterflies

We had not seen many until today but those known to me included Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Brimstone, Fritillary and the Small Blue.

Plants

There is more variety in everything here even though we remain about as far north as the Shetlands. There are more types of tree. I even saw apples in someone’s garden and the roadside verges are still colourful despite it being well Past the best time of year. Lupins probably naturalised were everywhere and although most were in seed a few still were in flower

Other bright spots in the verge included Harebells, Red Clover and a bright yellow member of the Dandelion family.

    
Farmers were hard at work cutting grass for silage although I did still see some green Barley and wheat some way off being ready to harvest

  
Today for the first time I actually had another cyclist pedalling the same way as me, but having pushed to catch him it turned out that He was the only Swede who did not speak English and then sat on my wheel in silence for almost 5 miles so I chose to stop to take some photos.

The other sporty types I have now overtaken a couple of times are guys out cross-country skiing training using rollers instead of skis.

A fabulous but long day again, but at present the body is holding up. It makes it so much easier in the dry.

Arriving at another beautiful campsite overlooking the ubiquitous  Swedish lake. Nigel had dinner ready as soon as I was showered and we had a great view as the sun set over the lake. Roll on another day like today.