printemps en france

I start by giving a shout out to Billy at cykelnetto for sending me some spare parts for the panniers. I bought my bike at his webshop and it has been performing brilliantly so far!
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I was falling into a bad mood after leaving Paris. I left way too fast, without meeting some good friends a last time and without waiting for some to arrive. Once I left I got stuck in the afternoon traffic and some heavy rain on the way out of Paris. I ended up pitching my tent just outside the southern suburbs, in a miniscule forest. In the night I could hear people walking outside my tent – that scared the color of my skin and in the end it made me even more unhappy.

In the morning after the rain continued and I was on a steady decline. I had not slept all that well minding the people walking outside my tent, I had lost my motivation and energy and I felt very lonely. In the end I did not get far that day and since my kit was all wet I decided to sleep in a public camping site. I went to bed early, feeling sick, cold and terrible.

Waking up, the sun was bright and not a cloud in sight, all blue, but on the inside too. I started to get a bit irritaded with myself. Here I was, on a great journey and with brilliant weather and I was complaining? Get yourself together! My pepp talk did not help and even though I biked through the most picturesque countryside I had lost my motivation. I was hoping to reach Dijon that day but around five in the afternoon with a hundred kilometers still to go i realized i never would and I started to look for a spot to pitch the tent.

It is not all that easy in rural france, most of the contryside is farmed and I decided it would be better to ask someone since I would be quite visible for some hours before sunset. I reached a small village, Villedieu, promising name, and I knocked on the first house just by the church. An elderly woman opened and I asked if she knew somewhere I could pitch my tent nearby. She gave me a spot just outside the house, in fact just by the cemetery and by the church with a view over the village and the surrondings.

village camping

I was running out of battery to my phone and after pitching the tent I knocked again on the door to ask the sweet old lady for some electricity. She invited me in the house and we talked a bit. The whole family arrived, I was presented and soon invited for a shower and dinner!

It struck me then that I was happy, smiling like a fool and I enjoyed every moment with this beautiful french family. I had regained my energy and I stayed up late talking about this and that before heading back to my tent with an invitation for breakfast.

the family that made my day brilliant

I left the Family with a happy smile and a small parcel with cheese and ham for the road. This is fantastic, to meet people like these is so important for me and I feel now I gained a lot of confidence in humanity!

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Leaving Nörrebro in the morning after a fight?

Really, I’m impressed with the bike paths along many larger roads, easy to navigate. Most of my day I had plenty of space on either the shoulder of the road or on my own separate road right next to the one for cars. Brilliant! Also, the fact that you can readily take the bike on the train makes it easy to pass bridges where bikes are not allowed!

Took the road to Roskilde and the instead of heading south right away I keep west towards Holbäck and the south. The wind was changing over the day so to give me perfect head wind at every moment – it seemed. I passed a burning house, firemen working, neighbors looking. Remember thinking I was happy not to have to worry about things like that. I was cooking up my lunch in the forest when a man came out of nowhere. I was a bit surprised. We talked a bit, he was curious about my plans and he disappeared into the forest again.

I took the train across the bridge, arriving to meet the rain and the seemingly never ceasing headwind for company. It was only 28km from Nyborg to Odense and still it took me close to 3 hours to make the distance. Ha ha, I was standing up on the bike, pushing through the head wind. I looked at the mileage signs to start with but since I did far less distance in 30 minutes than I’d hoped for I stopped to look. I felt it just brought my morals down. Finally I arrived in Odense, cold and dead tired. My friend had cooked me some brilliant homemade pasta and I feel touched by the hospitality.

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kust

Today I will head down the coast to Falkenberg and then tomorrow on to Helsingborg and leave Sweden on Friday morning by the ferry.

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Setting of from Stockholm, aiming at Göteborg some 500 km away I did the mistake of thinking I could break it in three days. Crazy. First it took me some 6 hours just to get to Södertälje, some 50 km away, realizing on the way that cities with suburbs are not built for bicycles.

Road between Stockholm and Södertälje, mostly icy, but with mud to fill out.

Pitching my tent that evening i realized, I was not making it in three days. Not by a long shot. I had done some 130 km that day but saving time on eating as I did that first day out of Stockholm was a bad mistake. I fell into a deep sleep to wake up with aches and a fierce feeling of hunger.

The next day, as I packed up my gear the first snowflakes came falling. At first it was just cold snow but as the day progressed it became more heavy and wet. I stopped for lunch at a restaurant, not caring for a picnic in the snow and it just stopped for five minutes to return, full on again as I came out. I don’t mind the snow, but is do find it scary to ride the roads when the visibility is low. The cars and trucks don’t seem to slow down and it means I have to stay just more attentive.

I reached Örebro as the snow came down hard on me and I could stay indoors for the night, drying my gear and relaying on some good food to strengthen my body.

10km before Örebro

As I constantly kept waking up during the night, from the cold/flu I had started to experience and from the feeling that at any time Securitas could show up and kick me out, I did not get a proper night. As I came out that morning, fourth day, blue sky, longing for a coffee, I realized that I would be in Göteborg that evening and I felt real good.

The day was showing me it’s best sides, a bit of sun, a bit of tailwind and well, coffee. In Lilla Edet I stooped to make some phone calls, with some 50 km still to go and bad weather approaching from the west I did not want to stay too long. Just thinking that made it start snowing. I believe. It got worse, quickly, and I kept pushing on for some 30 km until the snow came down along with rain and the road turned into a road construction area. Due to the snow I had removed my spectacles as they only lowered the visibility, I had fixed some diodes on the bike to stay visible but i got lost in the construction area and ended up on a highway. There was not much space left for a biker, nigher on the road nor in the hearts of my fellow travelers. They kept punching their cars to do 90 or more on the road. I felt small, and when the gears on the bike gave up for the massive amount of snow that had cluttered to them I had to stop and walk. A highway with no shoulder is no place to be at rush hour in a blizzard. I got a lift for some kilometers and ended up pushing my bike the last bit through the snow to my friends house.

snowfall outside Lilla Edet, just before the shit hit the spokes

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