September
Picking up from where we left off!
After settling into our new abode, we only had a few days of peace and quiet before Uni was back on for Lil and Marlee was off exploring the locale, which meant swimming in lakes, basking in the sun and beers at sunset.
Lil was off for two weeks on a field trip to Swedish Lapland up in the Artic Circle. On night two they saw the northern lights and got to see it every second night or so after that! Saunas, beers with new friends and days out in the field. Sounds pretty wicked, or in Lil’s words - “Epic”.
Here are some pictures of Lil’s field trip below
The weather was still warm which meant dinners by the lake.
Whilst Lil was up in mountains I spent no time waiting around, after packing my bike I dashed off on a bikepacking trip, heading north up to Sweden’s largest lake - Vänern. The weather was very wet but I was so excited to be on my bike for a few days!
I rode from the outskirts of the city through farmland, pine forests, past many lakes and down some pretty fun tracks.
The gravel is pretty nice here.
The picture on the left is of a wind shelter or “vindskydd” in Swedish. These are a dime a dozen here and make a great spot to camp at.
Two things Swedes seem to be pretty proud of - Lollies & Hydro, Salty licorice (Swedish delicacy) and Sweden’s oldest large scale hydro station in Trollhätten.
Made it to Vänern! It really is a huge lake, with it’s own sandy beaches and crystal clear water. It certainly reminded me a lot of the beach, except the only thing salty was the licorice I’d sampled earlier.
After making it to the lake, I had a swim and then rode off to find a vindskydd to camp at. The next few days were quite soggy but there were some pretty moments in between. I even saw a Moose and a few Deer!
Lil made it home after many cancelled trains, due to heavy rains up north. I ended up catching the last of the weather as it moved south.
We were then lucky to be visited by some of our friends from Melbourne as they were passing through on the tail end of their summer travels. It was nice to have some familiarity in this very new world for a short time.
