Lapland

[Olof_imp]

D+8 continued. We were on the road at 4 a.m., eager to get going to avoid the daytime heat, but stopped for a last picture. The beauty was unreal. The scenery was ok too.



We'd made up the plan during the last couple of days: first cover the 400 km to the coast, as it was said to be nice there. Stay overnight. Then head south and suffer for half a day on the dual carriageway down to Gävle before shifting to A- and B-roads a bit inland to avoid the Stockholm area (we're not keen on cities). Stay overnight in Nyköping, That leg would be the longest, 600 km. Then follow nice back roads down the coast until Valdermarsvik, before we yet again had to suffer main roads which would lead us to Borgholm for our overnight stay. An easy day, only 300 km. And then, finally, returning home to Råå after another 300 km. The full round trip, some 3000 km, would look like this.



The night was bright, traffic nil and the roads better than expected. We'd started on empty stomachs, relying on the 24/7 open gas station in Vilhelmina to serve us breakfast with, most importantly, hot and strong black coffee. Unfortunately the gas station was in reality closed, forcing us to do another couple of hours before we finally got our coffee in Solberg. This put a strain on our good mood but on the plus side still very little traffic and no animals (as a side note: we had the same for most of the trip - very few animals on or near the road. We had expected lots, and actually looked forward to being stopped by flocks of reindeer on the road, with bells clanking and hoofs clattering quaintly - most sites predicted (promised) this and strongly suggest tourist travellers to be very cautios as reindeer are supposed to be very stupid - but no. We only saw one measly reindeer, between Särna and Järpen going up and that was it. Very disappointing).

This was our scenery for most of the morning.



Apart from the coffee trauma the day was pretty uneventful. We rode, filled up the bikes every 180-220 km, had a snack and some drink at the same time and then rode again. We watched the landscape go softer as we got nearer the coast. More small lakes, more lush green, taller trees and more roads. By the time we reached the coast all felling of wilderness and being far up north had more or less disappeared. We found our place, checked in, had a few beers and slept well.