The End of Day 1

Today's Planned Destination: Valje

Today, was a very frustrating day, to say the least. I forgot how difficult it can be to ride a long distance when you haven't been accustomed to doing so. I am not entirely sure of how many km's I rode in total today but I believe it was approximately 160. The day began very peacefully and the km's seemed to melt away. The only difficulty I had was getting familiar with the weight of the gear on the bike. As I approached Vanneberga...it started to rain.

The roads, for the most part have been spectacular, clean and not busy with traffic at all. I was following a route set out by the cycling in the Blekinge region .pdf that is available online. (You can access the .pdf in my links section under Biking in Blekinge.)

This route is NOT very direct as I found myself winding all over the beautiful Swedish country side. As my initial finish location of Valje came and went I decided it may be best to push on to Åhus so that day 2 could be a shorter day of riding. And that, boys and girls, is when the rain really started. It is quite an interesting situation to find yourself in riding in a monsoon, when you're tired with no food, or tent to speak of. I held the fort outside a grocery store in Åhus, before slowly riding around the community looking for somewhere to sleep. I checked hostels - full, hotels - to expensive, a church - to religious, the beach - wet, the forest - also wet and then I found it ...at 7PM. My little pink Oasis in the middle of ...well, given the water situation the desert analogy isn't a strong one. Without further ado my home for the night.

Now, this picture was in the morning of the next day, and to be honest I am writing these entries after the ride has concluded but ignore those facts and imagine me, held up in a tiny little house, somewhere undisclosed with the curtains drawn and my bike inside curled in a little ball trying to sleep. The whole time waiting for the police to yell "Hey you, come out ... of that tiny house with your hands up!" I smiled as I thought of this, until I fell asleep. So tired, but very dry.

Total time on the bike: ~ 8 hours
Total time from departure to arrival: ~ 12 hours