Well my plans to share the melon with my German neighbors came to nothing as they went off for a walk, so i ate the melon myself and very tasty it was indeed. Read until the light became too dim and then settled down to sleep. Was briefly woken when the occupants of the rather dilapidated caravan next to my pitch cam home. There was some sort of discussion between them and the Germans plus a couple of dogs barking but I paid no attention and fell asleep again
Woke at 0400, finished off the little food I have left and packed up the tent. Was on the road by 0530 just as the sun was poking its way over the trees. The road to Stockholm is one i know well from here as I have cycled in this area a few times and Trosa which is just around the corner is somewhere I sometimes cycle to on a Sunday
The roads were deserted and few cars passed me as I slowly made my way back to familiar territory. I passed this way back in July 2009 when I cycled from Stockholm to Malmö and found a couple of roads that I took back then that I haven't had the chance to explore since. It bought back memories of how things were for me back then and how my legs ached. I even remember that this area was where I had to disappear behind a stack of felled logs to liberally apply some shammy cream to my cycling shorts.
All the villages were asleep, nothing was open. Reached the ferry Skänssundet only to have missed it by 2 minutes, this seems to be a repeating pattern as i missed my previous ferry by 2 minutes and both of these ferries left at 0800. So made a quick cup of soup and waited. On the other side chatted with a young German cyclist heading back to Hamburg and we discussed routes. He was heading to Västervick which is nice enough but having just cycled from Vadstena and the Göta Canal I suggested maybe that was a nicer route, problem with the Swedish East coast are the large E roads
Found a delightful cafe that had just opened at 0900 on road to Tumba so had a quick bite to eat. Once i hit the out suburbs of Stockholm is was just head down and cycling as fast as possible to get home. Dropped by the Gamla Stan store where I had bought my Brompton 2 years ago to report that it had worked as planned to do touring with it and to get some idea why the gears weren't working so well. Turns out i need to keep the bike a lot cleaner, something that i am pretty bad at doing, so will have to give that a go and see if it makes a difference
Made it home, had a shower and then we all went out for a celebratory full English breakfast at the new Greasy Spoon on Södermalm. Great to be home and to see Susie again though I must admit I am really tired
618.8 KM in 7 days of which 2 of them were basically half days (the first day just getting to Bredang and the day I arrived in Vadstena. When I look at the mileage its basically the same that I was doing on a full sized bike with no load but this time on a folding bike with 18" wheels and full camping gear. So I am pretty happy with what I have achieved
As always though I am left with a feeling that I could have done more, I was just getting into my rhythm and now its time to stop. And as always I am left wondering what's next and where I can go with my little bike and what adventures I can have. I feel both happy and sad every time I come home. Sad that the adventure is over for another year but happy to see Susie and home
Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/C75FWD1WJib
No comments:
Post a Comment