Sweden; Winter Cabin
Unplanned bike trip changes...
The last two mornings I’ve watched the crisp, clear morning out of my window, looking for signs of Spring which I know aren’t too far away now. I’ve always loved the pastel tones you get in a winter sky, or as the seasons change. Give me that over a deep summer sunset. It made my mind turn to a trip we took last winter, to Sweden.
We’d planned to make a two day trip to Gothenburg, but an unseasonal dump of snow and ice made the trip impossible in the timeframe on the icy roads. Adam, our host, is a multi-time participant of the Iditarod Trail Race in Alaska, and if he makes that call, you listen.
Instead we had the opportunity to stay more local, a couple of days on the forest trails, and visit Adam’s cabin. A staple in Sweden.
It was very cold, but with dry air and good layering, you actually stayed ‘warmer’ on the bike the the damp drizzly freezing rides the UK winter so often serves up. Cold hands working a camera a bigger challenge.
Maybe an unexpected twist of plans is what makes a trip memorable. Maybe it’s the company. Maybe it’s both.
We published photos from this trip before, but I decided to use some others from the Cabin here. We got there before 6am in the van to ‘warm’ it up. Light the huge ceramic burner that heats these places, as well as the wood stove. The litre of water Adam leaves in a bottle to get the water pump going was frozen solid when we arrived, so it was a long battle for water from the frozen well. But it made the breakfast of rice, eggs and avocado even better, which fuelled us for the ride.
Fuji X100V
I’m thinking about Bill Callahan as I write this.
Great photos—I'm a bit jealous of the winter riding.
Having lived in Copenhagen for four beautiful years and spent much of that time cycling through Sweden and Denmark, winter was always my favourite season for long tours. The landscape felt like it belonged to me alone. The dry, crisp cold makes camping so much easier with the right gear, far better than the damp, bone-chilling winters in Scotland. Your photos capture that quiet magic perfectly. Cracking shots, I’m looking forward to reading more from you!