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A first dip

Lake Vattern, is the second largest lake in Sweden (by surface area) and the sixth largest In Europe. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, absolutely fucking massive! It is long and not so much thin, as anything spanning multiple kilometers can hardly be thin but it is about 28km wide to 118-135km long (depending on your source or exact points of measurement) I rode its west shore, believing it would be a quieter highway. (I have no way of checking if I was correct).



It started with a blissfully segregated bike path, taking me along the shore, past a slightly ominous painting of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. But the weather is sunny and clear, the wind light, it is a good day for riding.


The bike path winds past a huge number of children walking I would guess to school, they all without exeption remain on the pedestrian side and allow me to cycle past without worry. These children, who are probably about 7 yrs old, could teach the tourists of Hyde Park a thing or two about respecting a bike lane (Just as an aside, I also think cyclists should respect footpaths)


Once the cycle lane ends it is onto the road but I am distracted from the annoyance of the traffic by a sign warning about moose... the search continues.


Now I should mention before this current trip there was another plan, a 2020 plan aka a thing that didn't happen. Myself and Kike and 23,000 other people planned to enter Vatternrundan, a race round this lake... It's 315km, you may or may not have 24 hrs to complete it, depending on your start time.


I was nervous when we signed up, but from my ever confident position on the sofa I thought it would be 'okay', bit of determination, endurance has always been my best discipline, it would definitely be okay.


... I would like now with more knowledge, to change this sofa sitting view and say 'no' it would not have been 'okay'. I am pretty sure I would have been swept up by the broom wagon, which is a bus that picks you up in races if you’re too slow. I would have been on that bus...but as it never happened I can, once I'm at home, sit on the sofa and say ... It would have been 'okay' because we need some positivity about 2020.


You see it is not flat, nor does it go around the edge of the lake, it wanders over hills, through new developments which will have incredible views, through farm land without any hint you are still near this vast lake. It would be a very long and hard ride to go all the way round but they do it every year if you fancy it.


Today, though I'm in no rush, I have about 100km to ride which will see me to a campsite still on the same shore of the lake.


At some point after lunch I got a bit sick of the traffic, I mean it gets old being passed by trucks and caravans, so I decided to make a slight course variation and head on the official 'round Vattern route' which I was only partially following as it is not all on sealed roads but I risked the gravel and it was amazing!


Not the gravel, the gravel was gravel but the route, suddenly I was alone on the road, soaking up the sounds and smells of the woods, sadly still not spotting any moose but clearly hearing the bird song and free to let my mind wander. And the gravel, though I would go so far as to call it amazing, was hard, compacted and although a bit of a drag, very ridable.


On arrival at the campsite, after check-in,


I finally did it!


I went swimming! In the lake! Lake Valtern and it was glorious, warmed by the days sun, so gently sloping it was quite a walk to get deep enough to swim but once in it was stupendous.


I floated on my back looking at the sky, I was really here, really in Sweden, swimming free in a lake and I had pedalled all the way here. Every effort, every worry, every ache and every thought drifted away.


Then a wave broke the surface tension holding me and I dunked under before spluttering back to the surface, graceful as always.


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