Memories of Klaraelven
Breakfast was included in the price - so I made sure to stuff my tummy with the goodies - was an OK breakfast, but could have been a notch or two better. Another spoke of mine was getting loose, so the local tourist info helped me find a bike shop, where the owner, after some persuasion, agreed to help me during the morning, for which he was rewarded with a strawberry Magnum ice-cream (and I rewarded myself for finding the guy). The ladies at the tourist info were also nice to me, they also received an ice-cream treat. I mailed my boss to ask for a two-day extension and then booked a flight back from Stockholm for Tuesday, August 5th, which was a week out. After all, Stockholm seemed like a fine decision, I was in Sweden and sure I would somehow make it there...so much for my planning.
It was not until noon that I had left, and what came was the 120 km of 'wilderness' road - next to River Klaraelven. The smaller road was on one bank, the somewhat bigger main road (62) on the other side. As even the main road had hardly any traffic, I made the decision to ride there - and it was some 10 km shorter (so I got compensated for some of that lost distance at Vaenern...). Oh, those lucky folks on River Klaraelven! They all seemed to enjoy life, fly-fishing, slowly drifting on floats with make-shift tents on them - looked really inviting! Maybe one of these days...
The town of Ekshaerad had a nice wooden church in it, further up the road would have been an elk-park, but I missed that. There are no highlights I can make a note of, or let's put it differently, the entire day was a highlight (except for that thunderstorm late in the afternoon).
Around the evening, I wasn't all too tired - as it was just since noon that I had ridden - so I thought that it would be the perfect day to start writing my blog, to capture all the memories (the thing I am doing right now, with many smaller details forgotten forever...). So I stopped at various hotels, motels, B&B's, and not a single one of them would have borrowed a laptop for my writing. This was a far cry from Romania or Ex-Yugoslavia, where people were readily borrowing me their PC's, laptops, etc. It was a bit of disappointment.
In the eveninng, I made it to Sysslebaeck. Here I found a camp-ground, they had a wooden hut to rent (was afraid to get wet, hence no tent), and after drinking some 'private' Ayran made just for me at a Turkish kiosk, I retired for the night - with many yet-untold memories.