And… continuing…I was so tired from the short night, but this was a really nice place to sleep – guarded by hippos. The next morning I got a delicious breakfast and the inn owner sat with me – we got to talk some bits.
She’s a retired teacher and runs the inn nevertheless, keeping her guests company, working hard for she does all the cleaning herself. Wow. We had a really good conversation about so many things – from hippos to physics and nuclear power, to Swedish education. Eventually I had to leave and hopped on my bike – direction North. My plan was to reach a small town South of Kungsbacka called Frillesas. Again, somewhat around 40-ish km and I chose to follow the Kattegattleden rather than my Komoot route because the route was a bit more scenic. The landscape, rough beach and rocks before the shoreline, is phenomenal, and the weather held, so I cycled, took a bit of a look for the vegetation, cows, bridges, shore…
Until I reached a campground in Bua where I sat a bit for a hot soup and birdwatching.
Those birds were really courageous – whenever someone left their table they came exploring. There might be snippets of food for them. Of course they regularly got shooed away but they were clearly aware that Humans won’t harm them.
This day my propane burner got to work – I made some coffee on the beach – usually completely unnecessary, because in Sweden you get all-you-can-drink coffee all over the place. But the beach was so beautiful and I just had to stop. And – I’d have taken my equipment in vain, had I not used it at least once…
All alone at the beach, just one guy with a dog passing. Some Zen, lotsa beauty around me.
But eventually I needed to continue. I continued cycling to Frillesas, found a very very old fahioned hotel there, run by a lady who seemed to really focus on the „old glamour“ flair. It was a very personal place and a bunch of tourists, all my age or older were stopping there.
Frillesas is quite small, there’s one supermarket, and two restaurants – I could have also eaten in the hotel but I tend to go out, take a look at the surroundings.
I had a nice pizza at an outdoor restaurant, and then did my daily mile to the beach. There I sat a bit – my hips complained a bit about everything so I did some yoga, stretches and stuff, while watching the sunset.
And photographing the sunset. It was just amazing.
Off to sleep, I had washed my sports clothes, so I could hang them to dry overnight.
The next morning, of course my things were not dry yet. So I packed them anyway, had a nice breakfast from a buffet, and when I just wanted to start, it started to rain. Now I had been super lucky with the weather. No rain, no real cold, in the nights maybe a bit colder than expected but it was really nice all the time – and on that last bikepacking day, the water came down. So I waited a bit for it to subside.The other – mostly German – tourists did the same. It did subside a bit, so I got started, just to be drained a few moments later…
This is where the wind proofing comes in. Usually rain is not so bad if there is no wind cooling you down so I put on my thin windbreaker and continued North. My plan was to reach the town of Kungsbacka and hop into the train to Gothenburg.
The birds had submitted to the rain and just all sat at the shore. Probably found little critters as the water had receded. Again, also in the rain, the landscape is phenomenal. I followed the Kattegattleden – more or less, got to the city of Kungsbacka, had a nice salad there, for lunch, and hopped into the train to Gothenburg.
People living along the Kattegattleden seem to like figurines of cats. During my way North I saw a lot, and also silhouette cats made from flat metal pieces to clean your shoes. These were all over the place.
Like in the Netherlands, some Swedish train stations have elaborate bike parking. This looks so much safer for one’s bike than the German „just put it somewhere“. Yet I did not put my bike there, it needed to come to Gothenburg. And bikes are free in the train.
Exiting the train in Gothenburg, I found my way to the RESistance hotel, which I had booked tor the next few days. I was greeted bu a level 8 portal – and slowly got mentally ready for the anomaly.
