To Stockholm and Hooroo Jon

On the Wednesday it was time to move on again. We fluffed about pretty effectively until midday, when Suzie woke her Dad up for the farewells and photos. We rode to Storfors to say goodbye to Eva at her work, then swung our bikes to the south east and followed a fairly main road to Karlskoga. We stopped for lunch along the way on the side of a lake under some trees.
Throughout the few days that we spent with our Swedish family the weather was very nice for riding – no rain, no wind and not too hot. Now we were riding again and the rain came to welcome us back, with the rain starting to fall as we arrived in Karlskoga. From Karlskoga we were heading east to the next big city of Orebro, but the only road between the 2 cities was the highway. So with the rain coming down and the prospect of balancing on the shoulder of the highway, we took the alternative option of catching a bus. This turned out to be a great move, as it saved us many kilometres of highway riding, which is never fun, and most of the way on the bus we could hardly see out the windows with the rain increasing to downpour proportions.
The Orebro library was a great place to get out of the rain when we arrived, and a very helpful worker helped me to find a road atlas of Sweden, and then let me copy off a few pages of our next day's destinations. After confusion on how to get out of town, we finally returned to some peaceful country roads, where we happily travelled along until we found a servo. Sweden doesn't stock the type of fuel needed to get our stove going, so we devised a system of hanging around the fuel pumps until someone used a pump. After they had paid and driven away we could get the last of the fuel out of the hose with the aid of gravity. After just a few hoses, this method gave us enough fuel to last a day or 2.
We finished the day by setting up camp on some high ground above a quiet road and cooked up a feast whilst the mozzies feasted on us.

After bringing up 2,500km on the 5^th we added another 90km on the Thursday with a long days ride to get to Vadsbro, where we were looking for a lake to camp beside. The day was perfect for riding, with fluffy, white clouds in a blue sunny sky. With the photocopies of the road atlas we were able to take the backroads, and had ourselves a delightful morning cruising along nicely compacted dirt roads. We rolled through the towns of Vingaker and Katrineholm, stopping for Jon to buy himself a new weatherproof jacket. This stop actually chewed up most of our day, as Jon was having more difficulty choosing his jacket than certain members of a certain sex.
As we were coming in to Vadsbro we could see a lake to the south of the village, but buggered if we could find it. We found we had gone right through the village and were on the road to the next town, before stopping at an intersection. A minute later the first car came and went through the intersection before stopping. The driver jumped out to offer some assistance and was able to tell me how to get to the lake, by going back into town, turning over the train line, up the long driveway, past the big red shed, around the locked gate and through the wheat field. Thankfully his instructions were correct, and thankfully I had listened well, as this lakeside camp, that we would never have found on our own, was brilliant. It was fighting for best campsite alongside the bothy on Hoy Island, but I think Hoy wins simply due to it being an ocean side camp. We were the only campers at this point of the lake, but during the long afternoon several locals came and went after a refreshing swim. We also had a good session of swimming and jumping off the platform. By the time we had properly set up it was dark, so we headed onto a rock outcrop above the lake and got a nice fire going to cook on. I got to bed on this day just before midnight very tired and very happy, knowing that to be a part of this journey was an experience that not many choose to do, but most regret later in life that they didn't do it, and here I am living it and loving it.

I was up and at'em early the following morning to try my luck with the local fish. After failing to entice any onto my hook I headed back up onto the rock where we dined the night before. Here I put myself through an hour of stretching in the warm morning sun before Jon dragged himself out of bed, with Nadia not far behind. The fire was re-kindled to scrub the dinner pots, then a stimulating brekky of muesli and yoghurt with a big handful of freshly picked blueberries.
The day was shaping up to mirror yesterday's sunshine, and we were all undecided as to whether we should pack up and move on. We had decided to catch a train to Stockholm the next day, so didn't have far to go to catch the train. Whist trying to decide we all somehow ended up in our bathers and down at the jumping platform, so any thoughts of packing camp were put on hold as we jumped and swam for a long time. When we were finishing up and drying in the sun a local fella arrived and told us he knew of another nice beach at another lake only 20km away. We figured that this would get us a bit closer to our planned train trip to the capital, and so in the shade of the trees we packed up camp and got on our way at 2pm.
This little ride of only 24km should have been easy and relaxing, riding along shady dirt roads, surrounded by lush patches of blueberries bursting with juice, but for some strange reason, tension was running very high during the trip. It didn't help that when we arrived at the beach we had been told about, we found it was more representative of an overgrown paddock leading down to a small sandy strip crowded with families and crying kids, complete with a no camping sign.
There wasn't any talk of looking for another option and we got stuck in with setting up camp. As with other high tension days, it melted away as soon as the bikes were dropped at the end of the day, and a relaxing evening was had around the fire talking of the end of our 3 person adventure. Our team of 3 was coming to an end when we reached Stockholm, as from there Jon was heading off into his own sunset, just 1 man and his problematic bike, like a cowboy on a lame, mangy, sun-blighted donkey with a penchant for tequila.

Our last day on the bikes together gave us another great day of weather, with the light wind dying off by midday. Nadia was packed and on the road while Jon and I were still finishing up. We hit the road and cruised along, not catching up to Nadia until we reached the town of Sparreholm, from where we were going to catch the train to Stockholm. Before Jon and I arrived Nadia had made the interesting discovery that Sparreholm doesn't actually have a train station. This led us to the bus station where we found a glaring emission in the midday bus department, bringing us to our 3 way option of whether to: 1) wait for a few hours for a slow bus that might not be able to fit all 3 bikes, or 2) ride east towards Stockholm and to the train station at Gnesta, the next big town in that direction, but taking a long time to ride, or 3) to ride west to the town of Flen, the closest big town in any direction, but actually taking us away from Stockholm. I think it was mostly due to my charismatic smile that we ended up on the third option, going to Flen and away from our destination. The other 2 didn't seem to agree that going away from Stockholm was going to get us there quicker, and if it didn't work, I think this would have been not only the end of the 3 person team, but I might have found myself all on my lonesome.
Nadia didn't want to be late to get to Stockholm for our meeting with Suzie and her boyfriend, so she rode like a demon and pulled us into Flen where we quickly found the joint train station/tourist info. Here we got told that the next train wasn't coming for another 2 hours, until we realised that the 12.00 train hadn't arrived and it was now 12.01 so we bolted out the door and raced to the track to see the train pulling in, but the boom gates were down and we needed to be on the other side of the platform. But they do say that providence moves for those with charismatic smiles, and for some magically unknown reason the train pulled up well short of the boom gates and slowly the gate raised, leaving us sprinting down the platform to the train master standing at the far end of the train and he turned out to be a good bloke and after telling us the price and telling us to hurry the hell up he opened a door and we jammed all bikes and bodies onboard, with some drops of sweat telling of our relief.
The trip was saved, and just 55 minutes later we were unloading in Stockholm Central Station, the second national capitol of our tour (3^rd for Nadia who visited Copenhagen). Jon took over the lead and had us weaving through the streets to the hostel he stayed in a month ago. He was looking for his towel that he left behind and they also had some very good city cycle path maps that got us from city centre all the way out to Suzie's apartment along very nice and very busy bike paths.
Stockholm is built on many small islands, so we were riding over bridges, along waterways and beside lakes where half the population were sprawled out on the grass and sand, soaking up the summer sum.
It took us less than an hour to arrive at Suzie's flat, where we were introduced to her boyfriend Johan. After all 3 of us were showered we wandered the area and ended up at a Thai restaurant for dinner and a cold beer. That night we nibbled on cheese, sipped on red and chatted away whilst looking through many amazing photos from Africa and our travels.

The sights and sounds of Stockholm were sampled and savoured the following day with Suzie and Johan performing admirably as our tour guides. They showed us through the old town, the free bits of the royal palace and a massive old church, Johan took us to a bookshop where we all bought some new reading material, icecreams were enjoyed and shopping was done for other bits and pieces, namely a big memory stick for all our photos.
That night a beautiful dinner and desert brought our tour with Jon to an end. I'd had some amazing times travelling with Jon over the last 40 days, but I was also very excited to be back on the road with just Nadia and me, as the tempo changes and it's much easier to make group decisions with only 2 people. From here Jon was planning a week on Gotland, a small island with good nature. After that he would catch up with a friend in the Swedish town of Jonkoping, and then he was roughly planning to head into Eastern Europe and make his way to Turkey. He was still chasing hills, cheaper prices and friendlier people.
We had done the hills for now, and now for us our journey was to Denmark, a nice, flat country with bakery treats on every corner. To get from Stockholm to Denmark we rode back to the central station and caught a train to Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city where we arrived in the middle of the culture festival, which was pretty cool with lots to see. Here we had 2 days to wander about before we caught a ferry to Frederikshaven in Denmark.