Slagnas

Day 23: Slagnas to Älvsbyn

| tom@Childsi

Today was all about getting to Älvsbyn so Julien covered the miles as quickly as possible.

He left Slagnas this morning and was on the road for a while before he saw any other vehicles.

Julien has noticed that the roads are getting significantly quieter as he heads towards Nordkapp.

After cycling for about 94km Julien made it to Arvidsjaur where he stopped for lunch.

He left the town at around 2 and had to contend with more hills and insects as he pushed further on.

To try and avoid the bugs Julien had to maintain a fast speed.

The one time he stopped to change the audio book he was listening to on his Ipod, Julien was surrounded by a swarm on insects – horrible!

So he kept up the fast pace and powered on, arriving at Älvsbyn at around 6.30.

Julien will make it to the Baltic tomorrow and is aiming to camp at either Tore or Kalik. By the following night he hopes to arrive at the Artic Circle.

Here is the Google Map for today.

Please remember that Julien is undertaking his massive journey to support the Child’s i Foundation, a great charity that is aiming to build a home for abandoned babies in Uganda.

You can support the charity and sponsor Julien by visiting his Just Giving page.

Day 22: Vilhelmina to Slagnas

| tom@Childsi

Julien started off feeling a bit down this morning.

He stayed in a campsite right by a road and the noise made by passing cars and his fellow campers meant that he kept waking up last night.

To cheer himself up Julien set off early, had a big breakfast and bought some provisions for the day. This did the trick and he started feeling more positive.

He cycled towards Stromma knowing that there were major roadworks up ahead.

The road Julien needed to take had been completely ripped up and replaced with flat stones and a new layer of sticky tarmac.

Most of the road was very jagged and Julien’s bike was constantly shaking as a cycled on at a slow pace alongside a number of motor homes!

He made it to Stromma by lunchtime. But it turned out to be a pretty dull place. The only café in the town was in a library!

After lunch he pushed on to Sorsele. The route there was pretty tough going with more hills that took a long time to cycle up and over.

Julien suffered some sudden pain in his left leg but after taking some tablets this subsided.

Sorsele was also a bit of a disappointment with a very basic campsite, so Julien decided to cover some more miles and head towards Slagnas.

Despite the unfortunate name Slagnas tuned out to be a really nice place with a campsite set up for travellers.

The owner of the campsite told Julien that a few other people had already passed through on the way to Nordkapp.

Overall Julien cycled for 12 hours today and covered a huge 109 miles.

Here is Google Map number twenty-two. You can sponsor Julien on his Just Giving page and please also visit the Child’s i Foundation. Thank you!