Granny's Got a Bike: Day 13

A slow start to the day today - our mega ride yesterday has slowed us both down a bit.

Police Station in Sala

Restaurant we ate at last night, Sala

I have added the link - see below - if you want to see actually where we have been - if you have google.earth it does give a bit of an idea of the terrain we have been riding through. a couple of times I-got-U gave up, but generally it will give you an idea of where we have been.
http://www.a-trip.com/users/home/10338

So packing bags now and heading off to the Eco-lodge where we are going to be sleeping in a charcoal-burners hut - very tiny and no electricity, so don't expect any updates tonight!!

Hurry up Karina, get off Facebook and get loaded!

Today is our last day of our riding tour - on Saturday we are being collected by Anders & Agnete and we will then be spending time with catching up on family. I will try and update my trip blog with photos during this time, plus add any rides I do - probably around Ravganging & Oset (spelling errors please ignore!!).

Short cut through the forest - 20km on unsealed road again!!

We left Sala in lovely sunny weather again – what??? Three days in a row?? It wasn’t too long before we discovered that the road showing on Gary was actually an unsealed road and it was loose gravel as well! Gad – do we go ahead or turn back. But if we turned back and took an alternative route it was going to add another 20km to a 80km day… so let’s see what’s ahead. Around a couple of bends the road changed into a 2-wheeled track, but at least it wasn’t loose gravel. But were we on the right road? We pedalled on a bit more and came across 3 adults and 3 or 4 kids walking along. So we asked whether we would get to Visbo if we continued. They were a bit taken aback! They had a summer cottage in the forest and were entertaining the children by going on a mushroom hunt. They have never been interrupted before by a couple of Aussies riding their bikes through the forest. So we had a friendly chat and they confirmed that we would get thru to Visbo if we continued along the road. They didn’t think it got any worse...

Hmmm... does the road continue after these boulders?

So we went on and I think we had a beautiful ride through real deserted forest – birds singing, sun shining and all well with the world. Karina was a bit worried about getting flat tyres – there was no mobile reception – wot if something went wrong. When my chain slipped off and got jambed, she was freaking out a bit, worrying that I would break the chain trying to loosen it. But after some anxious moments, all was well and we were on our way again.

Posing for Cycle de Vie - Karina lost in
a Swedish forest somewhere!!

I had the GoPro camera strapped to my helmet and a movement caught my eye – it looked like a small bear climbing a tree far away, so we pedalled a bit faster and discussed what it might have actually been. I haven’t checked the whole film for that day – will report if it was! It could have been a raptor flying up to land in the tree – we shall see. “Enough of this bear talk” Karina said, so on we rode!

I won’t mention the several army green sheds we passed along the way – with warning signs attached…

Eventually we came to another gate which we were able to drag our bikes around and there was a suburb of Visbo straight away. It was a bit of shock to the system – one minute total forest, the next total suburbia…

It wasn't so bad? Lucky we got no punctures tho!

Finnish Orthodox Church, Visbo

On Route 66!

Karina getting some food ready maybe - no Facebook here!

Billy's boiling!

*****

Visbo was a pretty industrial town and on the other side we stopped outside a strange looking church – a Finnish Orthodox church we read – and had some lunch before pedalling off along Route 66. This bit of the ride was a real shock after our forest journey. A busy large highway, with Gary Garmin telling us to get off it as soon as possible, trying to recalculate our journey. The shoulder was only about a foot wide and the white strip was a ripple strip, so we had to just keep riding at a good clip and ignore the traffic flashing by.

Eventually we turned west again and back onto a much more comfortable road, with less traffic. We passed one of the Chevrolets that had earlier overtaken us… but its bonnet was up and 2 unhappy campers were waiting for the engine to cool down. We gave them a cheery wave, but not a sausage in return!

Eventually, we came to the sign for Kolarbyn and turned up the road. This eco-lodge is really having a small impact on the environment. There were little tracks weaving up to the huts, a couple of fireplaces scattered around the huts and swimming was the showering option. We were shown to our hut for the night – Kristina it was called, how appropriate! It was a bit chilly, so we got the fire going in there, before going down to the store to see what was on offer for our evening meal. We found eggs, bread, jam and we still had some cheese left – no worries! But we felt tired and not very socialable, so we made our own fire and cooked up some tucker there. We were invited to the main fire, so we later went over and introduced ourselves, told our tales and listened to theirs, but soon we came back to our hut, hoping for a good night’s sleep.