At the moment I leave Östersund I fall into
the old habits: I spend two nights in my tent and one night  in
a hostel to have a shower and the opportunity to cook or to bake my own
bread. When the weather is fine, I go about 80 to 90 miles a day, otherwise
about half the distance. Most of the time, however, the weather is much
better than the picture makes me believe. So I have no problems in keeping
up with the necessary average of a hundred kilometers a day.
*
From Östersund I choose a minor road that leads
me to names as mysterious as Munkflohögen and Strömsund.
The
problem is, that those untared roads are covered with smaller stones, potholes
and bumps. So the surface requires so much attention that I decide to return
to the bigger roads as soon as possible. If your eyes are bound by the
surface of the road you loose all the advantages of the minor roads: scenery
and quietness. And road works are something special up here.  You
may face 10 miles of torn open lanes - and nobody working on them.
*
The 17th day is a rather messy one. The
weather is poor and I don't find any convenient spot for camping, so I
find myself in the end on the bank of a river among a lot of camping cars,
most of them from Sweden.
*
The next morning I reach Storuman on the E79
and turn towards Norway. Today I don't get very far. In the early morning
I check into the youth hostel of Tärnaby, the hometown of Ingmar
Stenmark.  On
my way I meet the first heard of reindeers, slowly passing what the americans
call a highway.
I go down town Tärnaby to buy some material
to bake my own bread. I don't like the swedish bread because it is sweet.
And while cycling there is no better food than bread or cereals (Müsli,
not what the british take that for).
The day towards Tärnaby has ruined my moral by hard head winds.
And the next day is said to be 120 km long... |
in
a hostel to have a shower and the opportunity to cook or to bake my own
bread. When the weather is fine, I go about 80 to 90 miles a day, otherwise
about half the distance. Most of the time, however, the weather is much
better than the picture makes me believe. So I have no problems in keeping
up with the necessary average of a hundred kilometers a day.
You
may face 10 miles of torn open lanes - and nobody working on them.
On
my way I meet the first heard of reindeers, slowly passing what the americans
call a highway.
