The weather, though a bit dam, has definately warmed up and as we are finally beginning to near Stockholm we've talked about camping again. Today's the day! Let's do it, let's free camp! We left town in search of the next of 'Köping' towns, Nyköping. Along they way we've been in touch, mostly by text with lots of family and friends including the wonderful Aunty Marion and Uncle John. They've done so much to help us along, particularly setting us up with Lotte and the gang in Copenhagen. We knew M&J were arriving in Sweden today, for a little holiday to see their friends in the south and then later to join us in Stockholm so we exchanged secret texts with John (so Marion wouldn't realise) in the morning and planned a rough rendezvous....somewhere on a road, near a small town, near Nyköping at some point after lunch. It was all pretty vague.
Following a nice morning ride and a little ferry crossing over a stretch of water who's name escapes me we were whizzing along that road, near that small town, near Nyköping and by my watch, although we hadn't yet stopped for our lunch, it was well, after lunch. HA! There they are!!!!!! Speeding towards us they there were in their hire car, Aunty Marion and Uncle John - yes!!!!!!!!!! John is a keen driver and travels many miles through Europe regularly, I knew he'd find us! Marion's face was a picture - she had no idea!
They pulled in to the layby and Marion in her truely generous style pulled from her bag a bottle o' Bells and a huge Toblerone! We all enjoyed a warming swig and basically just giggle for about 5 minutes before having a proper catch up. We hung out in the layby for about 10mins in the chilly wind begore M&J got back on the road al the way down to Kivik to stay with their friends. They would be drving about the distance we have cycled in Sweden in about 5 hours - hmmmmmmm. So, thank you wonderful M&J - you totally made our day!
So excited by this brilliant pick-us-up we sauntered through Nyköping in search of a spot to free camp on the other side, somewhere nice by the sea. The clocks went back last night so the light would be fading by about 3.30pm today. better stop sauntering and get on with it. Good job we were sauntering I say because who should we see next on the other side of the road....
An ELK!!!!!! Yes, finally we've seen! Ever since we got to Sweden we've been looking out for one and so far have only seen one beware of Elk road sign never mind the real thing. The lovely big thing was just mooching around in some reeds down by the sea, his big horns silouhetted by the half light - wow. Just we were frantically rumaging for the camera some stupid cars whizzed by and trotted off quick as a flash in to the trees. Yay - so glad we saw one though.
Oh, I'm not sure if i want to free camp now, what if an elk tries to eat our tent! We travelled on to our preferred spot on the map, a little place called Horn and when we approached we saw a campsite sign! A-ha! So, we didn't quite free camp but we did get the old tent again (much to the campsite owners horror) and we were in a very lovely sucluded spot, just by the sea. It was totally and utterly dark by 4.30pm so we enjoyed our dindins in the dark and were tucked up in our sleeping bags by 6pm. Ridiculous!
We cycled 55 miles today.
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