IT'S A WEIRD THING.....

I love this 24 hour daylight thing.
Others have a problem  with it but I love sitting here at 23.30 in broad daylight...glass of wine, Art Blakey on the music system, looking at the view down the estuary to the sea whilst all around are cocooned in their mobile homes with all the blinds drawn trying to keep the light out.
I couldn't live here of course because the other side of the coin is 24 hour night-time which would drive me to suicide....I've  always thought that and having experienced the 24 hour daylight I know it's true...I want to go out now and walk about doing things but it's nearly midnight and everybody  else has gone to bed so shhhh!! Actually  I might be a bit pissed (I won at cards tonight (2€) but the  money hasn't changed. hands yet but we'll give them 24 hours before I go public)
It's midnight and 100% daylight.  I'm going to bed.

IS THAT RAIN,DEAR?....NO,IT'S JUST A REINDEER

3rd June 2016

Thursday
At leisure in SOLLEFTEÅ. An uninteresting town but nice riverside parks with cycle tracks. The weather has been gorgeous since last Saturday with temps in the mid - high 20's and clear blue skies.....still light at 23.30 or 02.30.....but we're getting further north and snow forecast at Nordkapp this weekend. The scenery has improved...but not a lot. There are so many pine trees but when we pass a lake, the water is a beautiful deep blue. Passing lakes often but the trees are endless, lots of pine and silver birch. We had a nice cycle ride along the river,round an island and through the town. Have had a rear/brake light go on the Thule bike carrier. They are a Swedish company but can I find a replacement. ....clear bulbs a plenty but this is red and nobody sells them. Have resorted to a clear bulb and red marker pen and emailing Thule HO.  They sent me to a dealer in the town who sold the same rack as mine (2 other people have similar racks which also have red bulbs)but they looked blank even though the raks on sale had the identical bulbs. I toured all the auto garages with no result. Have sent strongly worded email to Thule threatening Twitter/Facebook/YouTube exposure ...as if I knew how to.
Nice dinner in the camp restaurant at very reasonable price apart from the GF'S glass of wine which was nearly the same price as her dinner......I am being very well behaved and not drinking before driving days as the limit is so low as to be nil. Well nearly every driving day.

Friday
Last of the long drives, 230 miles to ARVIDSJAUR. Passed a sign saying Nordkapp 1021kms but we are going by a more circuitous route via the Swedish coast and Finland.
Weather still cloudless blue skies but temp dropped to 13. It'll be cold tonight.
And having signally failed to see a Moose we saw 2 herds of reindeer including some young and a calf that ran across the road in front of me....I thought it was a goat kid at first until we spotted the adults in the ditch at the side of the road...very hard to see as we had been warned. Unable to stop for photo with cars behind but managed a few shots of the larger herd we saw later disappearing in the woods. We are now off the motoways/dual carriageways on A/B roads and with the lack of towns,habitation and traffic progress is very good and the 230 miles was much easier than had been anticipated looking at the map. Reg&V are very helpful re the Geocaching and the Travel Bug I picked up in Stockholm is now progressing northward with reports of its progress. It started in Ile De France in October 2015 with a goal of getting to Buxton in Australia. So far it has travelled over 3000 miles through 125 stages.
Lost at cards but evened up the score by only paying 2 Krona so now up just the 2€ over 13 days.

STENO CAMPSITE..10.15 pm

TYRED OUT......

STENO,Sweden

TYRED AND EMOTIONAL. ....2 DAYS OF TRAUMA AND A SWEDISH BLOWOUT.

Wed 1st.june 2016

Tuesday
The day started well with more lovely sunshine and a forecast of 24° but then I hit the roadworks  where they had left something like a triple sleeping  policeman, 12" high at 20mph.
Derek who was following said I  went 4ft in the air. The resulting return to earth shook us rigid and I was convinced that major damage was done. Happily the only casualties were the cycle rack number plate which is now attached with cable ties, and the clothes racks in the shower which dislodged their contents onto the floor......the the GF decided to turn on the electrics, incl the water pump, and as the falling clothes had caught he shower handle,  pulling it on,  she managed to subject a lot of clothes to a shower.......been here before.  Shutting everything down limited the damage to a mere wetting rather than a soaking.....hey ho.
No major damage was evident, although the cycle rack must have been subject o an incredible  force and was worrying ......
Rest of the day was another monotonous drive, no elks, until 30 miles from STENO the landscape changed dramatically and the campsite was a joy........on a lake, lovely scenery,  just what we came for.....could have stayed here for 2 days rather than Stockholm. .....
Wednesday
Another bright and sunny morning.......
I was in front on an undulating,scenic road,  unlike the last 10 days, when I realised that Derek  was not appearing in my mirrors.  Pulled over to wait and when they didn't appear after 5 mins, turned back. ....just as the phone rang to say that they had had a blow out and where sitting on the road behind us. Others had stopped when they saw them and a lot of others  from our group  and other motorhomers on the road slowed down to offer assistance which was heartwarming to say the least. We contacted the Swedish breakdown service and the AA in France who were brilliant in coordinating events and liased with the Swedes to set up an account of £1000 credit to cover the cost of recovery which was likely to cost 5000 SEK, about £500....so top marks to Safeguard Ins (our insurers too) and the AA. The rescue truck arrived in about 2 hours, removed the the wheel and to D to a depot for a new tyre ...1300 SEK or £120..
Luckily, D had stopped before the tyre completely left the rim otherwise the resulting flailing would have removed a large chunk of plastic bodywork and maybe damaged the shock absorbers. So we sat on the E4 amongst very heavy traffic for another hour until they returned .
Setting off in high spirits, in 2 km we discovered the E4 to be completely shut down due to a major accident so another frustrating delay and then the Tomtom figured a way round that all the locals knew anyway.....so single track road with 45 tonne lorries in each direction....hey ho.

So our 3 hour drive became an 8 hour drive. Everybody was fantastic and D&M entertained all  and sundry to say thank you. Excellent campsite at SOLLEFTEÅ,again lakeside.

Played bridge last night and lost but refused to part with any money on principle.....so still ahead, and with the prices around here it's just as well.

Lunch Al fresco......