A summary of my last weeks...

Dear readers,

Since I wrote to you, last, many things have happened. I am 1000 km further, totalling 1600 km. I am not in the mountains anymore but more in the hills. Hills are pretty nasty around here because it does not allow you to find your own pace… It is a succession of small uphill and small downhill and you are on relatively flat roads the winds takes it over.
Back in the mountains I have two bad memories. One in Vemdalen when I had to fight my way up an uphill road under the rain, and the second one occurred 10 km after. The latest one was fortunately not under the rain but it took me a while to arrive on top.
Up to today, my worst enemy has been the climbing but the weather. Indeed, it has been pouring almost everyday. I did not expect it will affect as much your moral. It easily gets on your nerves. Nothing is worst than being soaked, shaking because of the cold and not being sure where I am going to spend the night. Typically, this situation to me two days ago. I had been biking for 30 km under the rain to arrive at Korpilombolo. My whole body was soar from the rain, I could not move, my movements were uncontrolled and nobody was answering at the hotel where I was supposed to stay. I had to go to the neighbour to ask for some assistance. They finally manage to reach the hotel owner and I could fortunately sleep in a dry and warm place.
Since Friday I have been staying in Pajala, waiting for my second package and waiting for 3 of my Finnish friends travelling in the area.
Since yesterday, the weather became better and I can enjoy the heat of the sun again. The positive impact of the sun on your mood is impressive. While I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown two days ago, I am now totally fit and ready to go further.
Several meetings with other bikers (Marcel, Houde, Hakan, Johnny, Richards) and with camping owners (Bert, Marguerite, Nina…) have helped me to keep a positive mindset…Meeting new people, even though it is for a short time period to think about something else and to share your experience. Sharing my experience either with people I meet or on my blog is a nice cure to “depression”. I impressed by the outcome of it… Yesterday night, my three Finnish friends were visiting and seeing three known faces cheers you up as well.
Another positive influence on your mood are the objectives that you set to yourself. Those objectives have grown bigger since the beginning. My originally planned 60 km/ day have become 100 km/ day. Cycling 100 km/ day is putting me ahead of my schedule which allows me some liberties such as rest days and accepting invitations of people I meet. In Asele, Bert and Marguerite, owners of the camping, invited me to take one rest day in their camping which allowed me to go a bit sightseeing with them. In Pajala, I have been offered by Nina’s fiancé to go fishing as well as to go sight seeing. As a bonus he will also drive me 70 km further on my itinerary because of heavy road works.
Other objectives were the 1000 km edge, which I fulfilled last week. This week, I have reached the Polar Circle and hopefully, next week end I will be able to reach the North Cape.
Today, I am in Pajala and should leave soon with Nina’s fiancé for a new place…

Waiting for a package in Funasdalen

Dear Readers,

I am currently in Funasdalen in Sweden, still waiting for a package that was supposed to arrive on Tuesday in Os in Norway. Yesterday I biked from Roros in Norway to Funasdalen because it was the new destination of my package and I hoped to catch it there. But my expectations were filled with desillusion and I am still desperatly waiting.
Roros and Funasdalen are seperated by 77 km, some mountains and a lot of snow. This makes it a difficult trip especially if it rains. At some point it even rained ice! Roros and Funasdalen are in two different scandinavian countries, therefore I had to cross the boarder.
Crossing it was particular because the custom is posted on the top of the mountains in the middle of no-where with just a few houses, one guy from the custom and a bus full of norvegian stopping for a little snack at the same time as I did. 40 km later I arrived in Funasdalen a big ski resort with a big lake, a few houses, two to three restaurants and my hostel. Very few restaurants remain open after 20h00 so I had to rush under the shower and go in one of the restaurant to have some diner. Quickly, I met a norvegian man who happened to stay in the same hostel as I did. We chated for a while and were joined by one german and one american who were doing field work in the area. It was my first social evening and it was really nice meeting total strangers and talk about our different perceptions about the scandinavian culture. We came to a common agreement saunas are very good, food is different, Danemark, Sweden and Norway are three totally different countries with their own culture and swedish women chewing tobacco is definitely not sexy.

Let the trip begin...

Dear readers,

I am now gone for my trip since a week. I drove to Copenhagen by car, took the ferry to Oslo and started the big adventure last wednesday. Fortunately, a friend of mine decided to come with me for the first days and I was thus not alone. After we arrived in Oslo we arranged a couple of stuff for her to get back to Oslo later on. Getting out from Oslo was no fun as the hills were pretty steep. After 40 kilometers we stopped in a place under the trees, to sleep, which happened to be infested by mosquitos. That night I thought I would quit right away. Unlike France, the weather up there was beautiful and we were thus pedaling the whole day under the heating sun. We immediately imposed ourselves a heavy rythmn and after two days we did 80 kilometers which was breath taking. Once out of Oslo the nature is just overwhelming full of trees, hills and animals, so many places that you can see untouched by human beings.

Now my friend is gone and I am going through the day on my own. It is definitely not easy and yesterday's 93 kilometers were a hassle. For the last 40 kilometers, I was exhausted, it was raining and the road was seriously climbing. But at the end of the day, eventhough I was tired, you could see on the map the jump and psychologically it is a good feeling. So today I wanted to go easy and just to ride a few kilometers to pick up the package I sent to myself with food and medication. But what a desillusion when I heard that this package did not arrive yet... I still need to find a solution...