Day 53 - July 16th
With no particular sights to see in Leksand, we had breakfast and then hit the road heading towards the Swedish town of Mora, which is at the northern end of Lake Siljan.
As we came into Mora the heavens opened once again so we decided to camp out in the local McDonalds, catch up on emails/blog etc and wait for the rain to subside.
Before we knew it, 3 hours had passed (it’s amazing how long you can sit on a breakfast meal and coffee) and we still hadn’t left McDonalds! With the weather now clearing up we headed off into town to find a parking spot so we could then go off on a bike ride around Lake Siljan.
After picking up a map from the local tourist office and being told that a circle ride around Lake Siljan would be about 350km (too much for a day), we decided on the smaller lake beside it – Lake Orsajon.
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| A truck load of split and stacked firewood. This is for you Bronny. |
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| Traditional Swedish cottage. In fact most wooden houses in Sweden are painted in this colour. |
Although not 100% sure on the distance, the tourist office had said it could be done in a day so we packed some gear and hit the bike trail around 3pm.
They don’t like to mark their trails too well in Sweden so the first leg of the route was spent going in all kinds of directions until we finally found the correct path behind the local hospital. Following that it was smooth sailing along gravel forest paths and then on to some asphalt roads through smaller country towns.
An hour and a half into the ride, we hit the turning point on the lake and had covered about 25km, so we’re quite confident we would be able to finish the ride before dinner time (see ride out video below).
Unfortunately the weather decided to take another turn for the worst and we were caught in some fairly soaking rain for about an hour. Soaked through and a little hungry we managed to camp out in one of the local bus stops for 20mins while we had a cup of coffee and destroyed a packet of biscuits (see video below for update during inclement weather).
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| Taking a break from the rain in the only shelter we could find. The local bus stop. |
In typical Swedish style, the sun broke out again for the 15km ride home and it was amazing to see just how quickly the roads dried. Within about 20mins of the rain stopping we were travelling on roads that were bone dry!
What the inclement weather did provide us was some great storm clouds and sunshine over Lake Siljan, which again made for some good photos.
We finally arrived back to the van about 7pm and all dry, despite being soaked on a couple of hours earlier. There was some sort of agreement to have an Alcohol Free Day (AFD) on the ride home, which soon changed after getting back to the van and we enjoyed a couple of beers, finishing the Box of Fun and having our own little party until we saw the midnight sun.
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| Admiring the afternoon sunshine on Lake Orsajon. |
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| Craire. |
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| Calm after the Storm - Lake Orsa |
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