Lapland

[Olof_imp]

D+9. A morning walk around Salsåker revealed this creative garage solution. Incidentally this is a Volvo Laplander, in military terms "Person/Cargo Terrain Vehicle 903". Volvo produced and delivered 8000 of these 1963-1964, which many of the components shared with the cars, for example the engine - the Volvo B-18. It turned to be very rugged. It served in the Swedish Armed Forces until 1974 when it was replaced by a larger platform. Many 903s were sold as surplus and have today a small but loyal following.



Back at the mansion we had breakfast by the Baltic before departing for the longest leg on the trip - 600 km. The first half would be boring dual carriageway. We hoped however to make good progress in the early hours, before the caravans and motor homes appeared. Then, for the second half after lunch, we thought we'd found a nice set of A- B-roads from Gävle for the second half down to Nyköping.




The plan worked well at first. The dual carriageway snaked through a hilly landscape, smooth and freee from traffic and law enforcement. We made quite swift progress and enjoyed every minute of it. The CB impressed, stable att all speeds and, as it turned out, pretty easy on the petrol too. Under five litres per 100 km is not bad att all considering the pace.

After Gävle however the roads turned out to be quite dull, with lots of heavy traffic and overcrowded petrol stations. The heat was getting to us as well. Pretty grim faces until the last 200 km, when everything improved. It even cooled down a bit. Lots of quaint villages and great roads, as made for motorbikes. We arrived in Nyköping tired byt happy.