Uppsala to Lulea…

First target for the day... Sundsvall was about a third of what was required...!!

I left the Park Inn in Uppsala, after tucking into their extensive breakfast buffet and enjoying every course they had available… At R770.00 for Bed & Breakfast, you better believe I was going to eat my money’s worth…!!

The hotel was one of the best I have stayed in, and the staff very pleasant, cheerful and helpful. I was allowed to park the Big Fella right outside their front door, where it could be clearly seen from the reception desk…

I had carried all my gear out to the bike and had it all loaded prior to going in for breakfast. Having said my goodbyes, I put my helmet on, and was just about to swing into the saddle, when a little old lady who had been sitting outside enjoying her own breakfast, walked up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to my bag containing all my clothes which was on a chair nearby…!

“Don’t forget your bag…!” she said…

In my rush to get everything loaded before breakfast, I had forgotten to put my clothes bag into my Top-Box…!! Had she not reminded me, I would have ridden off and got to Lulea, 868 km and 10 hours later, and discovered that I had very little to wear for the next few days…!! It was the first time on the entire trip that I done something so stupid…!! I had left the bag on the chair, on the pavement of a busy road, and it had sat there while I was inside the hotel having breakfast… Can’t think of too many countries where the bag would not have grown legs in the same situation…

Bridge over the E4...

Now I had these daft looking things to contend with as well...!!

Gastrik had me thinking "enteritis"... So I rode on, looking for another spot to stop and eat at...

For the most part, the E4 hugged the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea, taking us through Gavle, and then Hudiksvall, where I stopped to refuel… There I met Rudi, a German biker from Nuremburg, who was on his way back from a solo run up to Nordkapp…

This was the first person I was able to speak to, who had actually been there, so you can imagine how eager I was for news of his ride…!! Not only did he give me the low down on what to do when I got there, but also advised me to change my route to take in a few of the sights he had seen… He had ridden up the Norwegian coast on his KTM 990 Adventure, and was heading back down to Germany through Sweden…

“The section ahead of you is a long boring stretch of highway and forest…!” he said. “Rather cross over into Finland and ride up through Rovaniemi and on to Nordkapp from there. At least you will have something to see, and then find a place to sleep inside Finland, because Norway is very expensive…!”

Rudi from Nuremburg in Germany, was on his way back from Nordkapp on his KTM 990 Adventure...

We stood chatting for almost an hour, and I was happy to glean as much from him as I could. Before we parted, he very kindly gave me his detailed map of Scandinavia, which he said he no longer had any use for… I was about to buy one myself, as my European map did not include the very top of Scandinavia…

“Watch out for the reindeer up there, they are all over the place and you’ll find them standing in the road…”

Moose, wild pigs, bears, wolves and now reindeer… This place was a veritable zoo…!!

Because of the colour...??

Promising to stay in touch, the 32 year-old Rudi headed south on his long ride back to Germany, and I was left pondering our chance meeting and all the positives that had come from it… Thanks again Rudi…!!

Next target, Umea...!! Haparanda on the Finnish border was a bit out of reach...!!

It was almost midday when I got back onto the highway and headed north again… I still had over 500 km to go before I reached Lulea, and was eager to get a new route to Nordkapp worked out and downloaded onto my GPS… I was excited at the prospect of seeing some of the things Rudi had told me about…

The scenery along this northern stretch of road was an endless belt of Pine and Birch forest, interspersed with the occasional village… I could tell when a village or town was coming up, by the open grasslands where rolls of hay were being stacked in preparation for the coming winter… The rolls are not left open to the elements like ours are back home, but are wrapped in white plastic, which completely cover the roll… I have not seen as many cattle here in the north as I did further south, but no doubt they are out there somewhere… Either that or the rolls are destined to be sent away to parts where the cattle and dairy industry is bigger…

The names continued to baffle...

Crossing the bridge over the Pitealven River...

Timber stacked to dry...

I began seeing more and more signs warning me that Moose were apt to be rushing across the road, but despite these I never saw a single one of these animals during today’s ride… I did however surprise a few deer that grazed alongside the fenced off highway, safe among the trees and bush… I began seeing more and more group of bikers, returning from their own journeys up north, waving enthusiastically at me as they passed me on their way back to whichever European cities they had set out from… I did not see any going north, and began worrying about the fact that I was going to get up there “out of season” so to speak…

I passed places with the strangest names imaginable, like Njurundabommen (I kid you not…!!) and Kvissleby, before cruising through bigger towns like Sandavall and Kramfors, where I finally came across some “heavy industry”… A huge paper mill left the air in this area smelling less than pleasant, but nowhere near as bad as Ngodwana on the N4 to Nelspruit…

Late lunch next to a pretty little lake...

At Omskoldsvik, another smaller paper mill pumped clouds of vapour into the air… I also passed a sawmill, where lumber was stacked out under sheds to air-dry. Then I ran into a little problem with fuel… I should have filled up at Umea, but passed this town by, thinking that there was bound to be a filling station on the outer reaches of the town… There wasn’t…!!

I ran the Big Fella down to zero before finding a filling station in a small village off the highway… Saved…!!! Not…!!

This was an “all electronic” service station… My Maestro debit card was not programmed into the system, so it would not pump any petrol for me… (Maestro Cards are a bit of a hassle up here…not many places accept them…!!) I tried my Mastercard, which requires a 5-digit pin code, but the machine would only accept 4-digit codes…!!

The lady operating the little shop at the station would not accept cash in payment, so I was stuck without fuel…!!

Just then a woman pulled up and began filling her car with the stuff the Big Fella was craving… I explained the little problem I had and she kindly agreed to put twenty Krone’s worth of fuel in my tank, which I paid her in cash for…

I wanted to take a photo of her and me together, to put on my site, but she was a bit camera-shy… I handed her one of my cards, and if you are reading this, then I must say “Thank You” again for helping me out… Much appreciated, Ma’am…!!

This was enough to get me to Bygdea, about 20 kms up the E4, where my Mastercard pin code was accepted and I managed to fill up… The Maestro card was also rejected at this filling station…

While I filled up, three Vespa Scooters chugged into the garage, and six young Italians dismounted from them… These three guys and their girlfriends had left Italy on the 1^st of August, and were on their way to Nordkapp on their 50 year old Vespas…!!

My Italian Connections... Well four of them anyway... Have Vespas, will travel...!!

One of the scooters had a mechanical problem, and it seemed to me that the intrepid trio of couples would be spending the night right there in Bygdea…!! We took some photos of each other and then I was off like a shot, way behind the schedule I had set myself, and desperate to make up for lost time…

Then the rain came down…!!

Finally, the third and final leg makes an appeareance on the distance markers... Lulea was another two hours away...

Bridge from another bridge... I took this while we crossed over the Umealven River mouth...

I did not have my rain gear on, so headed off the highway and sought shelter in a service station in the little town of Skelleftea… After a while, I watched as a strong wind blew the clouds away and the sun back out to play… I needed no second invitation…!!

Typical Swedish farmbuildings, almost always painted red...

With a growl, we got back onto the highway and the Big Fella responded to my urging by getting up to speed in no more than a few seconds… I love the way this bike responds when you pour the power on… It seems to lift itself off the ground and hurl itself forward in one smooth motion… Awesome…!! Especially considering the weight that it is carrying…!!

We thundered through Bergsviken, over a long bridge crossing the Pitealven River, skirted the town of Pitea itself, and then roared into Lulea, just as it started to drizzle again…

I started scrolling through the directory on my GPS, trying to find a hotel that did not sound too expensive… (Sometimes you CAN tell by the name…!!) I settled on the Park Hotel, and despite my protestations, Gi-Gi AND THE Big Fella took me straight through a pedestrian walkway, where people were enjoying their supper under the umbrellas of sidewalk restaurants, couples were pushing prams and doing a spot of window shopping, and yet more were WALKING their bicycles, in strict accordance with all the signs posted along this area… My pair of delinquents completely ignored the looks of amazement on the faces of the locals, as we buzzed around large flower pots and fountains and a large yellow bandstand…

The pedestrian walkway where we had left the locals dumbfounded...

The Park Hotell in Lulea...

My room in the Park Hotell...

We finally left the bemused inhabitants of Lulea behind us, and down near the waterfront, turned into a quiet street and stopped outside the Park Hotell… (Yes…double “L”…) The manager lived around the corner, and after buzzing him, he arrived a few minutes later, got me settled into my room and showed me where to park the bike…

I had ridden over 1600 km in the past two days, and although my mind was up for the long run to Nordkapp the next day, sadly, my body was not in agreement… My back and shoulders were aching, and just before I fell asleep, my mind finally capitulated and agreed to give my body the next day off…

The Top of the World would have to wait another day or two…

GBWT 2010