Contents.
Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2007-->Scandinavia.-->Day 2

Day 2-2. Ängelholm to Vilshäred.

As we came into the edge of Båstad my front brake blocks finally gave up the ghost and started making unpleasant grinding noises against my wheel rim. I have to say I was quite glad that this had happened after the fast and steep descent rather than during it. Trying to brake me and my laden bike down the steepest inclines, with just my rear brake would have been interesting to say the least. I would certainly have overtaken Damae on the way down, which would have been a surprise for both of us. On leaving the woodland and after a few twists and turns we popped out into the town right next to another ICA supermarket. This was handy as it was now lunchtime, and saved us the 'I'm hungry and thirsty where is the supermaket' pre-prandial search.

Whilst I crouched in the sun and fitted new brake blocks Damae wandered off to get some information and groceries including something for lunch. We ate a good lunch of sandwiches and fruit, before heading up the hill to the tourist information. Damae was in and out in record time after discovering that the guide she had picked up for free the day before had reasonable maps up to and past Varberg which was all we needed. The Tourist Information Office was sited on a small square with a lovely church both of which cried out to be recorded for posterity. It was then time to head off down the hill and onwards to Halmstad. Oh and by the way Båstad has something to do with Bjorn Borg, or was it the other way round?

The run up to Halmstad was nice with some variation in surface and scenery except for a short section early on around Restad alongside the E6 (a six lane motorway at this point). Although we were seperated from the road by substantial barriers it was terribly noisy. It was good finally to get away from the motorway, if I remember correctly this happened after we arrived at a motorway service station. Then we turned inland little more to Tonnersa, travelling through woodland, rolling farmland and a couple of curious bumps, we were not quite ready to stop, and there was nowhere especially appealing. But the bumps were interesting.

We were quite tired by the time we reached Halmstad at around five and had already stopped a few kilometres before due to fatigue. Although we didn't really need more maps, Damae hit the Tourist Information just for fun. We chatted briefly to a German family outside with a young child. The father was mending a puncture on the boy's bike. Apparently they had been suffering from repeated punctures on that wheel. The rim seemed to have suffered from corrosion leading to sharp edges next to the rim tape. They had done two hundred and fifty kilometres in three and a half days, which was pretty good going. Much of it along a disused railway line converted into a cycle route plus they had a tailwind.

After saying our goodbyes we headed a little way down the quay to a spot in the sun. There we rested and had a long tea break and some dinner, and watched people ambling by exchanging greetings. Damae, as is her wont in the afternoon had a little snooze, as did the ducks. I wasn't feeling sleepy so I took photos. It was almost six by the time we got going. We stopped briefly to use the toilets outside the Tourist Information and discovered the dirtiest facilities we'd ever seen (even worse than in the Yugoslav railways international night trains of the 1980's).

The last ten kilometres or so to Tylosand were slow, our energies sapped by the warmth of the summer sun. When we arrived in Tylosand it just felt too commercial so we pushed on another five kilometres to Villshärad. 'Worth the extra effort' we thought, the site was neat and quiet except our plot was next to the road, but we figured we'd get a good nights sleep here. There we ate a light evening meal but had lots of cups of sweet tea to rehydrate. It had been very hot today and we had once again a headwind for most of the way and hit the sack shortly after sundown.

Previous page Next page