2020: Sweden ride report, part 3

A 2020 roundtrip in Sweden. Michael, Kurt, and I went on a clockwise trip from Malmö and back.

It was originally the plan to ride south to the Balkan countries, and then a little later, the British Isles. But you know: Covid-19. Luckily Sweden is a big country with lots of great roads, so it ended up with a Sweden roundtrip.

This is part 3, make sure to check out part 1, and part 2.

It was a good night’s sleep at the campsite at Älsbyn. We had breakfast in Kurt’s cabin. Breakfast usually consist of bread, cheese and ham, and marmalade. Hot coffee to go with it. After breakfast, we packed the bikes, and continued the trip.

The route from now on, was just planned by not going on any road too big. There was at this point no particular sights to see, nor any road. That day we did get to ride quite a lot gravel, as it turned out that the route that furkot had planned, was gravel. Easy, fast, hard packed gravel.

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I actually saw a moose, or elk, on the road jest before arriving at Älvsbyn the day before. I didn’t get it on camera, as the camera was off. I don’t continuously record, as I get way too much footage that I would both have to store, and also go through once back home. I don’t know why I didn’t turn around. I don’t think the elk ran away as it appear to be grazing along the road.

This would be the only elk encounter. We saw a lot of reindeers, though. They were all over the place.

Lots of forest roads, small villages, gravel and awesome weather. The only problem I had, was that the microphone plug had come out of the GoPro mic adapter, so I had no audio on the video from the first half of the day.

While the road and the scenery was pretty much the same, there was the occasional sight along the route, that I had talked about. Talked to a microphone that wasn’t plugged in. That sucked. It something that happens from time to time. I usually see it when looking in the rear view mirror to check if I am recording, but I do miss it sometimes.

The day ended at Snibben Campsite. We met a couple of other riders, one of them invited us for beer and a sandwich. He had been riding a lot in the Middle East, Iran in particular, and some the “stan” countries.

This time, he was camping in a camper with his wife, and their little dog. But we had a great time listening to his adventures.

We said hi to a couple of riders, all touring bikes, one of them said he recognised my logo from YouTube. I have to admit, I felt a little proud.

It was an easy night. Up early, and packed the gear, and off we went.

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We rode more gravel roads, something I enjoy a lot. The easy, and fast gravel road are a treat, and I really enjoy them. I think almost half of the entire trip was on gravel roads, all of the easy, and quite fast.

The goal for the day was the town of Mora, where I had been the previous year. They have an outlet of the Mora knives, where you can get damages knives from the factory at a good price. A damage can be an insignificant scratch, irregular holding of the plastic, etc. I bought a couple of knives.

On the way to Mora, we would pass gorge called “Helvetetsfallet”, that we wanted to check out.

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It was an easy gravel road, a change to an otherwise mostly paved route. From where the bikes and cars are parked, the hike is rather technical, and you need to wear good footwear. There is no access for wheelchairs, not much rails to hold on to, but if you are normally fit, there is no problem getting there.

After the Helvetesfallet, we went to the Mora knives outlet, the same place as where they make the famous Dalar Horses.

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It started raining while we were in the shop. It did stop, however, at the time we had a pizza at a pizza joint just south of Mora. It was getting a little late in the afternoon, and we started to look for a campsite. But they weren’t easy find in this area. It had now turned September, in the COVID-19 pandemic, so a lot of campsites were closed.

We did find one, but it was a detour of 20 km. If you can call a detour for a detour when you’re on a motorcycle trip.

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This place turned out to be the last overnight on this trip. We decided the following morning to just ride all the way home. It didn’t make sense to ride 400 km only to have 200 km home on highway the day after.

But we didn’t take the fastest route. We got a good share of gravel and forest roads. It was great fun.

By now, you have seen so many gravel roads, so there is little point in showing you any more. We did not have any drama on the route, except maybe when my rear brake stopped working.

If you want to check out the video that was made from this trip, check out this YouTube playlist.

Last, but not least, thanks to Michael and Kurt for keeping me company on this trip.