Norwich to Uppsala (Sweden) day 8. Trees

Day 8. Trees

I can’t complain about much today as it stayed dry, the wind wasn’t too bad and I even found the only available cafe at exactly halfway. However it was certainly the toughest day so far as after 8 full days of cycling I seem to have run out of steam. 

Things started excellently as I was able to fully restock the portable emergency bakery from a bakery near the hotel. I knew I would need it today as it was going to be a rather remote route.

Almost straight away I knew I was in trouble as it was the first day my bum hurt and I was struggling to maintain any sort of speed. Especially as I was on the only flat section of the route, that went along the coast.

Once I had headed inland the ride became very pretty as I rode along virtually empty tree lined roads and cycle paths with lots of rivers and lakes to enjoy.

However after a few miles of this it becomes a bit samey as all I saw for the next 70 miles were lots of trees.

The one exception was when the route went through an actual town at halfway and I took the opportunity to refuel. 

It was a far from exceptional cafe with probably the worst hot chocolate all trip. So only score 5.17.

Then it was back on the remote route through the forests. A lot of the time I had to ride standing up to protect my delicate bottom.

It was hard to choose but I did eventually select my tree of the day which is in this photo. A really standout evergreen I thought.

The route was mainly uphill and the last 25 miles seemed to go for ever as I struggled to keep turning the pedals. Several visits were made to the PEB so I was glad I had restocked. It was then down one last tree lined cycle path before I eventually rolled into town, literally.

I know I don’t have another full days riding in me and as the original route headed into even more isolated territory I decided it was time to implement plan b. Where b stands for bus.

So I’ve replanned my route to go south of the big lake rather than North. In this way I can cycle 50 miles to the city of Jonkoping for mid afternoon tomorrow. Then I will catch a bus for a bit. This will leave me about 120 miles to do over the last 2 days. I’m hoping I can manage that.

Fortunately Mrs Crusader is now in Uppsala (via a plane) and worked out that it is easier to put a bike on a bus than a train in Sweden and which bus to catch. Without her intervention I would have been stranded at a train station tomorrow and there would have been a lot of swearing.

It looks like rain is back on the card’s tomorrow as well but hopefully plan b will make things a lot easier. Putting a bike on a bus in a foreign country, what can possibly go wrong, after all it’s not Germany.

Tomorrow’s weather 

Stats

	Miles	Time on bike	Average speed	Meters climbed	Miles to go
Day 1 Norwich to Harwich	77.64	6:05	12.8	784
Day 2 Hoek of Holland to Deventer	102.95	9:02	11.4	366	884
Day 3 Deventer to Cloppenburg	103.48	8:16	12.5	231	782
Day 4 Cloppenburg to Jork	90.45	8:20	10.8	538	678
Day 5 Jork to Heiligenhafen	96.11	8:18	11.6	604	582
Day 6 Heiligenhafen to Daley	86.59	6:47	12.7	637	483
Day 7 Daley to Bastad	95.67	7:36	12.6	705	388
Day 8 Bastad to Tranemo	95.09	8:19	11.4	856	173

Todays route