Angsta

Sunday was a bit of a day of reckoning for Julien. It was the first day on the trip that he felt he might not make it.

After leaving the campsite at Angsta Julien cycled for 25km to a small town where he stocked up on fruit, veg and water for the road ahead.

He then continued on and tried to find somewhere in the country to stop for a bite to eat.

However Julien had been warned that the roads out of Ostersund were very complex and it took him a long time to find a decent route out of the city.

The main route Julien wanted to take had many signs saying no bikes allowed, so he took an alternative road that was longer but had some really spectacular views.

Eventually Julien hit a small town, which he described as being a real hole!

He tried to buy something to eat there but the food was so bad he had to throw it away!

As Julien continued north the amount of insects began to increase especially as he cycled up some large hills.

As he cycled up one hill Julien was surrounded by around 50 flies and wasps and he had to cycle as fast as he could to try and shake them off.

Unfortunately he pushed a little too hard and aggravated the leg muscle that he injured a couple of days ago.

This made it really painful for him to cycle on especially up and down more hills.

His leg was giving him so much trouble that the last 15km took Julien 2 hours!

Eventually though he made it to the campsite in Stromsund where he stayed for the night.

At the campsite Julien phoned his girlfriend who is a physiotherapist and she gave him some good advice on how to deal with the injury.

Julien also met a really friendly lady called Linnea (sorry if the spelling is wrong!) who was really interested in his journey and who was very sympathetic about his injuries.

Looking ahead Julien expects the landscape to be a little flatter over the next couple of days.

However he is aiming to take it slow on Monday and see how bad his leg is. If the pain continues he may have to take a day or two off.

Let’s hope that he is ok to continue on.

Here is the Google Map of day twenty and a Google Map of the Journey so Far.

You can sponsor Julien on his Just Giving page. Please also visit the Child’s i Foundation. Thank you!

Today has been another tiring one for Julien.

He set out early this morning, unsure whether to stay at a campsite 60 miles away or go further to the next one at 100 miles.

He made good times and stopped at the first campsite at around 4.

Some of the people there told Julien that the route ahead was quite flat and as he though he had enough in him to cycle further, he decided to push on and cover another 40 miles.

Unfortunately it tuned out that there were many more hills along the way. This caused Julien some pain in his leg but overall he thinks that his injuries are not bad enough for him to slow down.

After 12 hours of cycling Julien made it to Angsta where is he staying for the night.

He has been cycling huge distances in Sweden, averaging about 95 miles a day since he started cycling across the country.

However Julien expects the next couple of days to be slightly shorter at around 70 miles a day. He hopes to make it to the Baltic in about 4 days and to Finland in about a week.

Here is the Google Map for today. Please also visit the Child’s i Foundation and sponsor Julien on his Just Giving page. Thanks very much!