I’m ready again!

Until noon, the last check-out time, you all know me by now, I will be staying at the inn. It was a nice place and I have everything back in order: washed clothes, showered, greased Wheelie, organized, written, and downloaded new routes. I’m ready again!

Walking air freshener

But that’s disappointing… With my freshly washed clothes, I feel like a walking air freshener, the smell is so strong from probably a very cheap detergent. The route is one of the worst so far. It starts through an ugly part of the harbor, followed by a long path along a storage area with old, dirty trains, before ending up in a stinky industrial area. Then my clothes smell slightly better, but the stench dominates.

Sandblasted

It is very windy. The section that follows through the dunes and over the beach by the sea, the Kattegat, is beautiful, but unpleasant due to the strong wind. I get sandblasted and have to grit my teeth more than once due to the feeling of being pricked with pins on my legs and face.

Lost in the shopping mall

However, the natural beach environment comes to an end quickly, and while walking through a suburb with various hypermarkets and other large retail chains, I think of ‘just’ buying a gas canister. But, you can laugh, when I have my gas canister, I can’t find the same entrance/exit of the enormous covered shopping mall again. I just walk around and around and am despairing when I pass H&M for the third time.

Noise all around

Grumpy and sulky, after half an hour of searching, I’m finally outside. These kinds of things exhaust me. All those people, the crowds, and then getting lost on top of that. Terrible. But I still have a section of industrial area and a very busy, noisy highway ahead, with wailing sirens and exhaust fumes blowing my way. Later, when I finally reach a park, chainsaws still won’t give me any peace, while the wind keeps swirling around me and a dog next to me barks aggressively as I pass by a house. Ouch.

My tent is flying in the air

But slowly, calm returns and I start to feel more like myself again. What a trial. By a small lake, I find a nice spot to pitch my tent, but just as I’ve set everything up, one of the stakes goes flying and my tent collapses like a soufflé. There is grass here, but underneath it is hard ground with stones and gravel. I can’t get my stakes very deep into the ground.

The stakes won’t go into the ground

Meanwhile, it has become dark – how suddenly it got dark early! – and I try to find a suitable spot for my tent in the same little field. I set it up again twice, but the wind keeps playing tricks on me, and there is always at least one stake that won’t go into the ground. Fortunately, my headlamp is now well charged, which makes a big difference.

Hoping for an undisturbed night’s sleep

After an hour of fiddling, I can finally get into my tent, hoping to enjoy an undisturbed night’s rest, but I’m not entirely reassured about it. Fingers crossed. This day will certainly not go down in history as the happiest day of my life.

Overnight stay: Torvsjön