Swedish Snakes, a Snapped Spoke, The James Bond Bridge, and Serena Wins Best Cyclist Ever - Going Off-Piste is INSANE!

Remember this pic, Sportsfans?  The crazy Swedish snake one?  Ha ha to me for taking the piss.  Mike and I literally laughed out loud when we saw this sign on our walk that night at the beach near the cutie pie campsite.  Well...karma.  

After we left you last time at that gorgeous little cafe overlooking the water, we hit the road inland.  Remember we'd decided to leave the idyllic coastal route for something more rugged, to experience more of Sweden than all the prettiness?  Well we found it.  Mike had read about a rail trail that went inland that then linked us up with an old highway that's hardly used any more, Old Route 1, it's sort of like the old Pacific Highway - virtually no cars, brilliant wide road, and even some bike path space on the side.  So, we set off.  After a pit stop at the supermarket for supplies, we found the rail trail and it was AWESOME!  Great surface, amazing forests around us, undulating and fun, we were strutting our stuff at what legends we were for taking the path less travelled when all of a sudden I see a piece of black string on the path, and as we get close the end of the string lifts up and as Mike passes by it, I scream "SNAKE" and I shit you not, the bloody snake looked EXACTLY like the pic above - it's head was up trying to attack Mike's foot!  BLOODY NORAH!  We couldn't believe it.  After Mike had calmed down a bit and his breathing returned to normal (he'd lifted his foot in time to avoid the bite) we laughed at ourselves the photo I'd posted that morning...ha ha...and then FFS another one bloody comes at me - I swerved to avoid it - and from that moment on we don't joke about Swedish snakes.  

The rail trail (pre-Swedish snakes incident)

It still has some of the old stations on the route

Post-Swedish Snakes - the lakes appear - we are now in lake territory, they just appear and are glorious.

So, we continue on our merry way, with no more snake incidents, thank bloody goodness, because we were seriously spooked once Mike had researched and found this type of snake is venomous (but only one death every 8 years).  The path surface changed to dirt and gravel, and we moved into the lakes area which you can see is above is just glorious.  This ride was incredible, snakes and all.  We were riding to our wild camping (which we spoke about last post), it was a camping site that we couldn't find much info on, but just to make sure it existed we had rung that morning (from that cafe on the water), and were told by a guy who I think I woke up, just to rock up, "no problem".  So, rock up we did.  We wound our way on the road we were now on, around lakes and forest, and it was just fantastic, the sun had come out, so it was hot, but just beautiful cycling.  We climbed a fair bit, and found our way to the campsite.  And I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint all of you, it wasn't wild at all.  The grass was mown, there was a toilet/shower block of sorts (rough and ready but to our incredulity and delight hot running water in the shower - but you had to dodge all the rodent poo and dead bugs), and we were the only ones there!  I rang the guy and he said to just pitch anywhere we wanted to, and because we don't have Swish (a Swedish payment system that we can't have) he said if he didn't make it back there we could just camp for free!   So, we pitched Sally, showered, and felt wonderfully adventurous being up alone in the forest overlooking a big lake, and then an RV pulled up.  So, not alone.  But they were Dutch, and very nice, so were happy to share all that space.  The guy did turn up with his credit card machine, and it cost us 100 Swedish Kroner ($16) for the night - our cheapest accommodation so far!   We had a great night - slept like a log (though Mike was woken by some kind of animal frolicking next to the tent, we think it was a deer because we saw one the following morning as we rode off).  It wasn't wild, it was actually pretty-tame-camping, but it was the quietest and most alone camping we've done so far.  We loved it.

Pretty-tame-camping site - all this to ourselves

The view of the lake

And the next day the adventure continued.  As I lie here in Sally and type this now, I wish I had taken a photo of the following day's first 6km.  It was the best cycling ever.  I know I say that a lot, but this was like being in a dream.  I rode like a proper cyclist.  I had strength in my legs, we were on fantastic roads - wide, incredibly smooth surface, and virtually no cars, lots of climbs, and some great downhills, I was on the front, and felt like I was alone, I had energy in my legs, and I just rode effortlessly, I've got tears in my eyes as I type, it was like some unexplainable magical experience where everything seemed aligned, and I just rode with the world around me.  I couldn't believe it.  I had tears then too at being in there, cycling in Sweden, with all the trees around me, but still so much sky, and the smooth white road ahead of me winding and dipping.  Just beautiful.

After the magical 6km we reconnected with the rail trail, and the games began.  Geez Louise that was a tough ride.  We had all manner of surfaces, most of them pretty bloody dodgy, at some point there was no path at all, just lots and lots of long grass (again, no photos, soz), so we decided after about 8km of that we would take the exit path (Mike was navigating with a few apps so could compare our options) that arose...and soon found out that the blue gravel was too deep for us and dangerous if we fell (it was big blue gravel that I had real trouble staying up in), so we turned around and went back to the rail trail. Do we regret that choice?  Yes and no.  Yes because what followed was some of the most insane cycling I'd ever done, and some of it way too on the edge, and no because The James Bond Bridge has now become part of our folk lore.  We were trying to navigate our way through no track at all, moving forward, committed to our route, there was sand, mud, knee high weedy grass, gravel, lots and lots of ruts - some you could see, but most you couldn't, you name it, we cycled through it, and then came the moment.  

The James Bond Bridge.  We call it the James Bond Bridge because it's the death defying, suspense ridden moment in a James Bond movie where you wonder if they'll manage to cross that rickety railway bridge and survive or fall through the rotten out wooden rail tracks and fall 100 metres into the water below with a really big splash, lots of screams, and ominous music.  I may be being a little overdramatic, it was only a few metres drop to the water below, but it felt like everything was at risk (I could see Iris plunging into the depths below with all my gear, so I did tuck my mobile into my bra just in case).  We both stopped, and Mike Bond inspected the bridge...he tentatively walked across it to see just how stable it was.  He found where there was metal underpinning the wood, and where there wasn't, and where the rotten wood was too unstable and where it was ok to tread.  He then took Iris across, very slowly and gently, and then his bike (Romeo), and then he talked me through getting across - and I can tell you I was more than a little nervous.  But of course I'm here to tell the tale, and we made it across and SURVIVED!  And feeling totally superhero-ish we cycled our way through more death defying rail trail to the local town for sustenance.  All of this action in just 20km!

I'm just exhausted thinking about this day because the next 20km were even more INSANE.  I was a DEMON, A MANIAC, THE BEST CYCLIST EVER, even Mike Bond was trying to keep up!  You see, we'd stopped at the one place in town that offered lunch - after our death defying morning we needed lots of food - so I was at the counter ready to order when Mike informed me that rain was headed our way and soon.  We still had 20km to go to our campsite and it was the only campsite around - and I HATE HATE HATE riding in the rain.  So we ran out of the joint, jumped on our bikes and took off like you wound't believe.  I was racing the rain - it was going to hit in about an hour, and i was determined to beat it. We were back on the rail trail and I rode like a bloody demon - I had my head down, bum up, and legs pumping...we were again on crazy trails - gravel, ruts, grass, road bits, tyre grooves, you name it I was a beast.  I didn't slow down until we stopped to take a pic of the gorgeous safe and sound bridge a few kms out from the campsite.  And when we stopped Mike discovered I'd ridden so hard I'd snapped a spoke!

The Best Cyclist Ever!  It just started spitting rain as we rode the final few kms into our campsite. I'm looking pretty chuffed with myself!

We rode in feeling like legends - the James Bond Bridge plus the insane greased-lightning ride to camp.  We found ourselves in a wonderful campground where the people were so friendly and so excited to have Australians - one of the women who worked there picked us as Aussies straight away, she has a love affair with Aussie tv (McLeod's Daughters and Wentworth especially).  We had booked two nights so we could have a rest day, but alas with a broken spoke and the rain we only stayed one night, so the next morning we used the laundry there to do our washing, packed up the tent, said our sad goodbyes, and headed on a beautiful 20km ride (most of it in the rain) to the closest town of Ljungby where Mike found a granny flat for two nights.  

Our campsite at Bolmen - so friendly and Aussie loving!

So we had a marvellous rest day yesterday watching telly and chilling, ahhhh bliss.  Then today we were up and at 'em early to get Iris some help. We rocked up to the local bike repair shop at 8.15am to find the bike mechanic had left for 3 weeks holiday, but never fear, Mike Bond stepped in. Mike was pretty sure he could fix it if he could use their tools - they were so accommodating and offered up their space for him - so Iris now has a new spoke beautifully attached (and another spare one in the pannier for a grand total price of $6.50 all up).  

We then headed off for our 40km today on Old Route 1 which was a beautiful ride with great roads, virtually no cars, and beautiful scenery, but for some reason I was very tired today, I struggled most of the way, it was pretty flat so I'm not sure why, maybe another rest day is needed after my super human cycling prowess of the last few days??  We did have a special encounter though, we stopped at a little village 10km from our destination, a really cute place, looking for somewhere to eat our bread rolls for lunch.  We couldn't find anywhere but stumbled on a gorgeous old house that doubled as a cafe on the weekend, they had tables and chairs out the front, so we stopped and asked if we could sit and eat our lunch there.  The woman said yes, of course, then asked if we wanted some cardamon buns that were left over from yesterday (Sunday), and of course we said YES, so she brought them out, then she asked if we wanted coffee, and of course we said YES, so we had a wonderfully decadent lunch in her front garden with homemade pastries and coffee, and when we went to pay and say goodbye she wouldn't let us pay!  The kindness of strangers.  So great. 

The cute town today where we stopped for lunch

The kindness of strangers - homemade cardamon scrolls and coffee in the garden

Today's camp by the river bank

So, Sportsfans, we made it to our camp today just as the rain hit (again), we were now showered and chilling in Sally, our site is right on the river embankment.  We are about 75km from the big town of Jonkoping where we'll probably have a double rest day, and we're going to take it in two easy days (if the weather allows), so I'll probably update again there.  It's been probably the craziest few days we've ever had cycling, and I'm LOVING IT.  My body is feeling stronger, I'm climbing better and better, I see that I can bring it when I need to, and Sweden is just showing off all her assets.  I'm so glad we decided to go off-piste and take this path less travelled.

Geez.  That was ALOT.