Really, the detour the previous evening defined the rest of my trip. Had I gone to Karlskoga, it would have taken me straight up north on the 205. Instead, I went for Kristinehamn, where - eventually - the 62 would be the road, winding through Norway. OK, for those actually reading this story, I gave away little hint.

In Kristinehamn, I got a few more (free...) maps, proclaiming a completely car-free stretch of a bike road 90 kilometers to the north of Karlstad, and then 120 km of wilderness road to the north of that. Sounds good! The only issue was getting to Karlstad towards the west, you had to do a big detour, as the lake itself (this is still the shores of Vaenern) does not offer a bike road. What to do, I started the somewhat complicated ride towards Karlstad, but decided to find small roads in the direction of northwest (and not to go to Karlstad), instead of first riding west, then north; clear as mud? It was a wise decision - at least I was rewarded by one of the nicest experiences on this trip.

As I was riding and humming through some charming countryside - little hills, small villages, no traffic - I get to this intersection. A lady in her Volvo (what else? it's Sweden, after all...), stopped to help me with directions, she then asked where I was from. Nowadays I reply with Austro-Hungary, she smiles and leaves. As I am heading on this tiny road through a village, this fellow wonders out from a garden and stops in the front of me. What the hell does he want, I asked myself. In somewhat broken English, he says 'Our friend called us on the phone and we heard from her that you're biking here from Australia. We'd like to invite you for lunch'. Well, now do I admit the truth and risk not eating? Yeah, the truth is always better, I told her I was from Austria (and Hungary), by that time his wife was already there and we all burst out laughing, 'oh well, you can still dine with us'. What was to come was a very pleasant two hours, where Kristine and Bjorn and their three grown-up kids, Marie, Michael and Martin, served a lunch of meat-loaf, potato, salad, followed by home-made raspberry pie with vanilla ice-cream, washed down by home-made raspberry syrup. Kristine was a big traveler, she has spent 6 months in Australia (not Austria), and wanted to chat about that country. Instead, she had to put up with Austria, still, it was a very nice afternoon. It turned out that the family had 100 cows - so the meat we were having was home-grown, too. Unfortunately, the email address they provided me is not working, so I could not thank myself, but I will 'hunt them down'. All of this happened north of the town Vase.

The roads in Sweden are - generally speaking - excellent quality, however, some lack the 'black-top', or the asphalt. That is what happened on the road north of the family and with all my luggage and my weight (plus the meat loaves), it is not advisable to ride on longer stretches, so I had to back-track somewhat, but way not as much as the previous day. When even the new pavement ended, I just went for it, it was quite an uphill ride, I was literally in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere during the afternoon, I caught highway 62, which was again nature pure - one lake followed by the other - very peaceful, an occasional car, a few eagles, but that's it. BTW, I just checked only, Sweden has about 100,000 lakes, not bad. Late in the evening, I made it to a city called Hagfors, where a young receptionist gave me a very good bargain at the local hotel. I remember laying on the sofa, not being able to move, my feet and legs completely sore. Then came a good night's sleep, with dreams of meat-loaves.