This Is The Way We Do Coastal Swedish Cycling

Right. I'm on a mission. It's three nights since the last post and there are no other words for it other than BEST CYCLING EVER! I'm sitting here at a cute local cafe overlooking the water in a tiny weeny place called Pårp - we camped 1km overnight in the cutest little campground - and we just had a classic Swedish brekkie - pics down below. Now the reason i'm on a mission is I wanted to get this post done before we head off for our day, you see after much ummmming and ahhhhing we've decided to leave this delightfully beautiful and hedonistic Swedish coastal cycling and head inland. "Go and do the west coast" everyone said, "It's absolutely stunning", they said. And they were so right. We've had 4 glorious nights on the coast now, and we're up for a change of scenery - we've decided to leave Route 1 to Gothenburg and try our luck up the middle of Sweden on our Stockholm. So, I want to close off this phase before we leave this idyllic spot because tonight we're going wild camping - no facilities, no electricity - woohoo!

So, this is a quick post - pics, a little commentary and TWO GUEST APPERANCES from Phil the Drone. You see trying to capture how utterly gorgeous it is here with the camera is impossible, so we threw Phil up a couple of times for you to have some idea of what we're experiencing. So sit back and enjoy the pics and footage.

We left you last at our big stone hostel - we actually had to wait till around midday the next day to move on because it bloody rained all morning. But finally, it cleared and off we went to our next destination, Torekov. And it was glorious. We meandered through coastal roads peeping into people's beach houses, waving to other cyclists, marvelling at the wonderful slow pace of summer life in Sweden. We found ourselves an amazing campground right on the beach, with a 1km walk to the gorgeous harbour with some great food, a fun vibe, lots of yachting action, but all on a small local scale. There were the cutest summer houses, and the locals all walking around in terry towelling robes which I couldn't work out - but finally realised they walk to the beach in their robes (beach is said lightly), they walk out onto a pier take off their robes, go down the steps into the sea, dunk for a few minutes, then climb the stairs, whack their robe back on and head to the cafe for a cardamon bun (YUM YUM) and a coffee! All very civilised to me! I didn't have a robe, but wore my mumu to the peer (we stayed at the campground two nights so we could have our first Sally rest day - it was AWESOME) and followed the practice - I stayed in a bit longer than the locals, but had a lovely dip - the water was delicious.

I could have stayed at Torekov for a week, but alas Stockholm and my Tuna friends await, so we set off yesterday, destination unknown because it was going to be a big day. Yesterday was the biggest climbing day for me so far. Mike had been preparing me for the climb, my seat was now up a further .5cm, I was ready to go! Could I do it? Would I throw a tanty? Would my knees cope? Would our marriage survive? And I'm here to tell you, Sportsfans, it was a triumph!!! GO ME! The big climb was right at the beginning - 10km of up up up, and with Mike's coaching, I made it easily. Woohooo! There were a few technical issues with the downhill, it was a bit freaky, but I made it. And then couldn't believe when we got back down to the coast on the other side the party began.

We rocked along the foreshore and encountered a party spirit, very tanned and well dressed good looking sporty people were everywhere, lots of posh abounded, we assumed they were there to cheer me on due to my great cycling hill climbing, but alas we soon discovered it wasn't all about me, but in fact a posh Swedish tennis tournament (the hot hot dog guy filled us in!). Two weeks of international tennis right on the water front explained the massive super yachts and portable porsche stands in town. We even got to go and watch two games of the women's centre court game - my first real live tennis experience and it was pretty good. So after a feed, we continued on our merry path, still oohing and aaahing at the summer houses as we rode - we found a very cool asian food hut on one of the beaches were we stopped for a red curry (random, I know), then continued to try and find a campsite. On the way we noshed on some smoked prawns, which was lucky cause when we got to the campground there was no place at the inn - it was all booked out. So, recalibration by Mike and we were back on the cycling path for another 11km to the cutest little campground, again right on the beach, and we had a very snuggly night last night (a great sleep), and we find ourselves now 1km down the road at this cutest cafe talking to you.

We've now hit 1500km, which I'm pretty chuffed about. We're not sure how the route ahead is going to work, but the one we're taking does have a train line so that's our back up if weather or topography gets the better of us. Stay tuned. And thanks again for Fabulous Phil the Drone who has excelled himself this time.

Big love to everyone. Happy Birthday Dad.

As we hit the road after the rain - we find bike pumps and lots of public toilets on our route (something we haven't experienced so far)