Hinter Tag

Krokom - 10km behind Valsjöbin

About 110km

Average speed of 16.5 km/h 

Very varied. Gray and calm in the morning, then rainy and stormy, then sunny with clouds and stormy 

Initially tailwind, then strong headwind halfway through 

Today, I had a terrible suspicion that fortunately turned out to be untrue. My speedometer shows exactly the kilometers I've ridden. In the first days (when my GPS was still working), there was always a significant difference between the GPS kilometers and the speedometer kilometers. Today, I only rode on one road and could compare the road kilometers with the speedometer kilometers. It matches. It might sound trivial to you, but for me it's very important to know how much I actually ride. 

But now let's talk about the day. Of course, it rained again at night and the tent was wet. Nevertheless, getting up and packing together was surprisingly quick, so I was already on the bike by half past six. It was gray, very important: dry, and hardly any wind. They had announced gusts of up to 60km/h. How nice when the weather report is wrong in my favor. I didn't have much food on the go and wanted to reach a supermarket as soon as possible. In Sweden, supermarkets only open at 10 on Sundays and close again around 16:00. But first, I rode on the deserted E340 road northward. There, on the left in the meadow, I saw an almost white reindeer. I had expected reindeer much further north. It was not at all shy and even when I got closer than the flight distance, it calmly strolled away. Shortly after, two large black grouse flew away from the forest in front of me. I'm pretty sure they were capercaillies (they were too big to be black grouse).

The area was very lonely, and even the places marked larger on the map were tiny villages, all without a supermarket. I was slowly running out of my supplies. The weather had worsened and when I saw a gray rain wall approaching as I looked over a hilltop, I had just enough time to put on my rain gear before it started. After 10 minutes, it was all over again. Although I got caught in a shower a few more times today, it was just drizzling. From 1 or 2 pm, the weather got better and better. The clouds cleared, the sun came out, and the wind increased, just like my speed decreased. 

At some point, around half past 3, I arrived at my destination, Valsjöbin. But neither an open store nor a campsite were in sight. 

Then an older woman came up to me on her bike and asked the usual questions. Where are you from? Where are you going? So far, everyone has been amazed when I tell them where I'm going (I hope someday they'll be amazed when I tell them where I'm from). She offered to cook for me, but I would have to take a detour. These are the encounters I had hoped for, and of course I said yes. Karin lives right behind the border with Norway. And I mean right behind the border, 100m away from the former customs house. She lives alone and is very sympathetic. She lives in harmony with nature and knows a lot. What was great was that she is an enthusiastic cloudberry picker (unfortunately, I don't know the German name). She sent me out to pick some sorrel for the salad. We had a delicious meal. For starters, nettle soup (tasted much better than it might sound), sorrel-cabbage salad, tender pork cutlets in plum-cream sauce, served with potatoes and carrots, and cloudberries for dessert. I told her so enthusiastically about my colleague Pierre, who raved about the cloudberries, that she gave me a whole jar. I promised to send her a photo of me with the cloudberries at the North Cape. Then we flew a round with the drone, which she was very excited about. Although she offered me a bed, I didn't want to impose too much on her hospitality and set up my tent in her garden. Now I hope the wind calms down a bit and it doesn't rain too much tonight.