The Rest of the Trip to Järbo

Well, we're way behind on our blogging, but we've decided to catch up from where we left off on the last post. So here's the story of the rest of the journey to our current host in Järbo, Sweden!

After exiting the National Park, we continued through rolling, pastoral hills until reaching the small town of Ullånger. We had only ridden about twenty kilometers, but it was already midday because of our long morning in the park. We collapsed at a picnic table on a small pavilion, Adie immediately laying down to take a nap. But, having passed a few shops on the way into town, we spontaneously decided that it was time for a treat. So off we went to find some ice cream! Of course we were successful, and we devoured the well-deserved cones under the hot sun.

One of the many beautiful views.

While resting afterward, we were suddenly caught in a summer downpour! Luckily, there was a small shed being built next to the pavilion, so we sheltered inside, happy not to be trying to ride in the torrential rain. As is usual with these passing storms, the sun soon returned, so after a hearty lunch we were back on the road.

The rest of the afternoon was beautiful and uneventful compared to the previous twenty-four hours.

Always fun to see a familiar name!

We passed through a tiny town called Nora, stopped at a church, then raced another rainstorm down to the edge of a large fjord. At this point we were exhausted, so we picked the only satisfactory campsite we could find - a field next to the train tracks - and pitched the tent just in time to escape a second shower. After a big dinner of lentil curry, we hit the sack, barely disturbed by the faint sound of electric trains passing by.

The next morning we hit the road fairly early, estimating that we had forty or fifty kilometers to ride to catch a bus at 11 AM in Härnösand. We were set back when a link in Lucy's chain bent after the chain fell off the front ring. Thankfully, Adie has a chain tool on his multi-tool, so we were able to replace the bent link with new. We had to ride fast after that, but luckily the road ran right along the road, providing a glorious view of the water glistening in the morning sun. We reached the city just before eleven, giving us time to buy tickets, use a real bathroom and fill our water bottles before the bus arrived. Thankfully, there was space for our bikes underneath, which was not a guarantee. We can't believe that Sweden has so few bike-friendly public transportation options!

Adie removing the section with the bent chain link.

During the four hour bus ride, Lucy slept, trying to recover from some mild dehydration, we ate, no surprise, and caught up on the reading and writing that we never have much time and energy for while riding. We had a half hour break at a rest stop beside a lake, which was surprisingly pleasant for being right next to a highway. Eventually we reached the city of Gävle, where we were dropped off at another rest station along the main road. This threw a bit of a wrench in our plans because we'd written out cycling directions from the city center, but we found a map appeared to show some roads that led to our route. Unfortunately we discovered that these roads were mainly dirt tracks, many of which were really just driveways. But finally we tried one that took us more than a hundred meters, and we successfully joined up with our intended route.

The fifty kilometer ride to our host in Järbo was mostly through flat suburbs and fields. There was a long, straight section with strong headwinds that felt like what we imagine riding through Kansas would be - not so fun. But we reached town, turned down the road to our host, and immediately returned to dirt, which reassured us that we were in the right place. We arrived just after 7 PM, hoping for some food and a long night's rest, which wasn't exactly what we found but we were happy to be at a new home nonetheless.

A panorama of our new home, taken from the top of a tripod that we've built (we'll get to that).