Day 9. Bored Bored Bored.

Starting point. Hell, near Trondheim, Norway.

Finishing point. Umea, Sweden.

Distance. 350 Miles.

Total. 2450 miles.

Well today was another day that didn’t quite go to plan, I didn’t bother setting of until about 10am as I planned to take 2 days to get across to the Ferry Port of Umea on the Swedish east coast, it was going to be an easy 300 km per day.

The day started great, I managed to get all the gear packed away this morning before the rain arrived, and as I headed east on the E14 it was a truly scenic drive, the mountains had turned into big hills covered with a lush green forest, the road was on the north side of the valley and the flood plains were to the right of me running down to the river, on the south bank the railway line was cut into the side of the hill and so for about 50 miles it was an easy and relaxing drive.

The road started to climb as I neared the Swedish border and you could just make out in the distance the mountains with their scattering of bright white snow topped peaks. As I drove through the un-manned border crossing the terrain started to change, the trees were losing their greenness and were starting to look kind of shabby, the plateaux at that height was rocky with a scattering of trees and scrub, the roads that were lovely and smooth in Norway gave way to rough, uneven and cracked tarmac.

The road started to drop away and you could feel it was heading slightly downhill but in front the mountain range was looming large and I had visions of going over yet another mountain pass at a snails pace, but as we neared the foothills the road took a sudden turn north and into thick forest that lined both sides of the long straight roads and it stayed this way for the next 250 miles.

Road, forest, lake, small village, road, forest, lake, small town, etc,etc,etc For 250 Miles..

Luckily the speed limit in Sweden is higher than Norway so you could sit at 90 kph most of the time with short stretches at 100 kph, oh the joy !!!

A couple of hours after setting off it was lunchtime and on entering a one horse town called Jarpen I stopped at the first eatery that looked busy, its name “Kiosk-Grill” inspiring confidence that it served proper food, it so it did, the buffet for app £10 was unusual, it consisted of a hotpot style dish with sauté potatoes on top but the best bit was the big slabs of beef underneath, melt in your mouth beef, with veg all in a juicy gravy that had a hint of spice about it. The second dish looked like an omelette but about 2 inches thick and wasn’t made of eggs, don’t know what it was but that was also excellent, and then there was stuff like pizza,( not real food in my book), a cheese dish, basically just cheese sauce with grated cheese on top, and what I thought was spam, but turned out to be small round cuts of ham. All topped of with a good cup of coffee. All very edible and highly recommended if anyone is passing that way.

On the road it was back to the boring stuff, so I kept going and going and going, then out of nowhere there was a moose grazing on the grass verge, so after a quick u-turn and grabbing the camera I got a picture of its arse as it wandered back into the forest with it’s mates. Highlight of the day and is one of the best reasons to drive these roads.

And still the forest continued to enclose me, you could catch a glimpse of a lake now and again but it was lost as quick as you saw it. I realised I had made such good time I’d get myself booked on to tomorrows ferry crossing to Vaasa and into Finland for a few days, there’s only so much forest you can look at as it hides everything else.

Here’s a couple of the bridges.