Red sky at night sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailors warning. And a warning it was. As beautiful as it was, waking up to a beautiful purple-pink-orange sky, the beauty did not prevail. Dark clouds crept towards us, builds up so high I was considering crawling back into our tent and calling it a day. But this was our very first official full day of cycling in Sweden, and I would not let a bit of rain stop me. My diary from this day reads:
“Dear esteemed reader, this author doesn´t really find the words to describe today in a more elegant way. The diamond of the season is WET.”
So much for a bit of rain. Wet isn´t even the right word to describe how soaked I was by the end of the day. But let´s start at the beginning.
We started at 6am as the plan was to get everything packed up by the time the storm was ready to unleash the buckets of rain. Needless to say, we did not succeed. I did however come up with a pretty clever idea to take down the tent as dry as humanly possible. This new found technique does require a strong back and a solid squat. The trick is to pack away everything inside the tent, then move the bags outside under the raincover and take down the mosquito part of the tent. In the end the stakes and raincover continue to stand up and provide a nice little dry tarp for you to either wait a bit longer or pack away the main part of the tent. This helps with the attempt to have a chance of a dry sleep the following night. Check the forecast though. If there is rain at night, don´t even bother. If your dog won´t stay dry, your tent won´t either. Might as well embrace it. Up until this point I was still optimistic that a bit of rain won´t be this bad and that my rain jacket was up for it. But the moment I stood on the side of the road waiting for Alicia, feeling the waterdrops run down the side of the helmet, and down into my socks I knew, it was a lost cause. A little thank you to Ortlieb for your incredible waterproof bags! No storm was big enough to make them cave. And they continued to provide a dry safe space for my remaining clothes and sleeping bag.
I knew Sweden was a really rainy country but this changed my perspective on how wet a day on the bike can be and how important a good mindset and waterproof gear is. Another realisation that came with the rain is that every rain jacket hits it´s limit. After hours of trying to keep me dry, my jacket soon started to give up on me and I could feel the patches of water starting to spread beneath my outer shell. I now got to the point that the only reason for wearing a rain jacket was it´s ability to shield me from the wind. And I kept wearing it, not to stay dry but to stay warm. I have learned my lesson on the Tour du Mont Blanc, when I took it off to dry and got sick a few days later due to the wind and gettings cold in the process. Please learn from my mistakes.
In Svarte we left the coast and started heading inland. We wanted to experience the many lakes and enjoy the beauty of wildcamping in a country, where the opportunities to sleep in the wild are endless. Of course our planes did change a bit, but more of that later. We continued north on the M-745 up to Marsvinsholm where we took a small break before we continued up to Skårby, where we found our very first old church. The Skårby Kyrka is dating back to the early 12th century and is known for its well-preserved old interior and the naive medieval paintings on the choir vaults. For Sierra it also meant a well deserved pee break. By this point the rain had stopped and my legs where starting to get tired. My muscles where not yet used to the weight and I experienced hills for the first time. I come from a flat part in Germany and understand full well, why I decided against Norway and choose Sweden. But tackling the hills of Sweden is not an easy task when you are riding a full packed bike and an additional 30kg in the back. The plan to have Sierra run alongside the trailer throughout the day was not realistic, as a lot of the routes where on actual roads. The dangers where too high and her shoulder injury still to fresh. So I tried my best to pull through and keep up. I slowly realised that this was going to be a really tough challenge. But for now, I was still up to the task. I was still motivated.
But what goes up must come down and I was more than excited when I could catch my breath, rest my legs and just enjoy the breeze drying the sweat on my face, that was now mixing in with the water running down my helmet. The hills were rolling through a pretty landscape of fields and remote Swedish houses and cottages, farms and small villages. The sun even started peaking through the clouds every now and then and I was starting to get excited that there was an actual chance of sleeping in a dry tent that night. But I was also exhausted and more than relieved when we finally found our campsite for the night. Bokerastens Camping. A Campsite that sparked our imagination because the idea behind it is nothing short but genius.
The owners of the piece of land have installed a small house with a funktional kitchen, hot water, showers, bins, toilets and a few places for tents and caravans
(electricity included). But as this place has no reception you need to book online. I was disheartened at first because data is rare and usually I don´t use it on my phone and have no way of
booking anything online. But the owners provide free Wifi, which resulted in a tiny thank-you-dance upon realisation. You can use the Wifi to log in for free and book your spot. At the end you
recieve a confirmation and get a code for the bathroom. I told you: Genius!
After booking our site for the night and choosing our spot freely, we started laying out all of our things to dry.
While Alicia went on a walk around the area, I made sure nothing flew off, changed my clothes and tried to let my tent cover blow in the wind to dry a bit faster. Don´t judge. It is a great technique and gives you an excuse to sing "Let´s go fly a kite". After a couple of hours everything had thankfully dried, the tent was set and I had joined Sierra for a nap. I could feel my body. It was exhausted from the physical activity. I was still not eating enough, had no appetite and constant worries about how to make this experience more enjoyable for Sierra. To make matters worse, my palms where in pain because I had to use all my strength to get the stakes into the ground. I did find a good spot to set up my tent, but also managed to find the hardest soil possible. Needless to say I was done, tired and just wanted to sleep. I wanted a challenge. I wanted to embark on an adventure that was challenging. I wanted to experience something new. Dive into the unknown. Now while I was lying in my tent I started to realise, that in order to finish this trip, I had to go beyond the pain, beyond the exhaustion and beyond what I though was possible and what I was capable off. This was going to be tough, mentally and physically. And while I was closing my eyes to go to sleep one thought kept looping in my mind: "I don´t think you are up for it!"
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