A beautiful morning looking off our balcony.

That’s where we need to get to first off. Lysekil, situated on the southern tip of Stangenas peninsula, also at the mouth of Gullmarn fjord.

A nice breakfast overlooking the water, we packed up and headed to the ferry, adjacent to the accomodation.

Behind our accomodation block was this windmill, overlooking Fiskebacksil and well placed for wind, although we have not seen any of these older windmills operating.

The little ferry terminal. Tony checking the ferries progress.

Getting closer.

Really close now as it navigates its way through that very narrow channel, then reverses in for passengers to walk on board.

First little hill climb was out of Lysekil and soon we were following either busy roads or quiet rural. It was a real mix today, with very little cycle paths available.

The wind was a factor today. It was a SW of around 35 kmh with gusts around 57 kmh.

Our route was one of zig zagging our way further north.

On the zig, it seemed to be busier roads, with the wind a huge factor hitting us more to the front and side. Scary at times when the gusts hit, as we are in the right hand side of the road, we did not have much road leverage with drop offs etc.

The zags, they were better as we often had the wind behind us! The roads tended to be quieter as well.

We had a lot of climbing today. 900 metres in our 103 km of riding.

The scenery. Most of the photos are whilst we are in the zags, as it is possible to stop safely.

Slightly inland from the coast, rocks still prevail. Lovely scenery. Dotted by the occasional church, forest and village.

This church is in Svenneby and is one of Bohuslan’s oldest churches. Dating from the 12th century at a time that this land was Norwegian. The baptismal font and belfry both stand on the rocks high above the church.

A little further up the road, Svenneby has a second church.

We turned off and headed into the village of Hamburgsund. Eventually making it into the supermarket for food (as numerous people came up to ask about what we were doing, our bikes etc), we sat and ate by the pleasant harbour and marina.

The town sits by a long channel separating it from the island of Hamburgo. We met a lady on a ebike who was filling her panniers up with food from the supermarket as she lives on Hamburgo. There is a small ferry connecting the island to the mainland.

Time to keep moving. More churches, marinas and villages to see.

We are staying in Dapto, about 5 km south of Strömstad, our final Swedish destination.

Our accomodation is in a kitschy place I would ordinarily roll my eyes at. However, the range of accomodation is extensive, spread out over a huge area.

We are staying at a Pirate themed park! We are in a 12 room hotel, and I have seen no other guests in this part of the complex at all.

The hotel is very well appointed, with pirate themed ‘artwork’ adorning walls, the occasional skull, treasure chest and chocolate filled coins to eat.

Our room is huge, with a lovely corner balcony, with an undercover area for the bikes.

Our washing dried beautifully outside, plus the heated towel racks in the bathroom were turned on (often they are not).

Our room and balcony.

The complex takes up all the land this side of the waters including the green hill to the left. There is a theme park bottom left, conference facilities and the widest variety of accomodation possibilities.

It is very quiet here at the moment fortunately. Dinner was super quiet and nice.

Today has been our last full day riding in Sweden, and what a blast it has been.

So many highlights from meeting Jennie and Cecilia, to the outstanding a Bohuslan archipelago and everything in between.

I love the Swedish supermarkets, the range of food exceeds what we have available. Price wise, the food is still quite reasonable despite the AUD fx rates. many items are cheaper than what we pay.

Riding has been exemplary. With the exception of today, around 75% has been on sealed cycle paths. To date, we have ridden 1,039 km in Sweden alone.

Todays route. You can see the Norwegian border lines, to the upper right and ocean.

Would I come back to Sweden to ride? Absolutely, this country rates as one of the more cycle friendly countries we have visited.

We had been pre warned that Swedish drivers were not as courteous as Danish, but they have been excellent.

Polish drivers are better at road crossings, but as long as you wait, all has been good.

Even the weekend pack riders use the cycle paths here vs the road!

Thanks for reading 😊🚴❣️💪

Waking up to the mazing views from our little overnight cottage on Kloveron Island, a peaceful and serene place.

Sunday morning and a conga line of boats start to head out from Marstrand Marina for their days adventures.

We enjoy a lovely breakfast on the deck delivered by the enchanting Astrid, 12 year old daughter of our host Magnus.

I could spend more time here, easily. We have discovered that there are trails across the Island that are rideable.

But, life goes on, and our adventures need to continue.

Looking off the deck early morning:

We had organised a private transfer with Magnus in his boat to Ronnang, which would save quite a few hours of waiting for different ferries.

The map below shows Ronnang in the north. We were on the large island to the south of Marstrand and Arvidsvik.

Today, the first day of summer, was to deliver the wettest day so far with 9-10mm predicted for mid afternoon.

Whilst we awaited the agreed time, we cleaned our bikes.

Off we went, bikes snuggly on board, with gear removed. Magnus at the helm, the most chilled boatman. We both really liked him and were thankful for this transfer.

If ever you decide to head to the Bohuslan archipelago, you need to stay there! Contact me for more info.

I sat next to Astrid who talked to me about her school in Marstrand, going to the Fort at lunchtimes, the curriculum that includes a compulsory Swedish programme for 11-13 year olds that incorporates subjects include mental health, your body, exploitation and so on.

I was very impressed at the depth of her knowledge, and her grasp of English as a second language (she also speaks German).

At this stage she would like to become a psychologist and help troubled teenagers supporting other current Swedish mental health care programmes.

With young ladies like Astrid, Sweden’s future is in excellent hands.

Some of the views along the journey.

Within one hour we arrived in Ronnang and bid farewell to this lovely family.

We headed along the marina and back out onto solid roads.

Crossing a large and high bridge afforded views across the Stigfjorden Nature reserve.

Our path today was a mixture of Bohuslan archipelago views, rural views as we rode through mid sections of islands, nature reserves and small villages.

A lovely church with the skies darkening.

Curios roadside.

There is a walking trail in the area, as shown by the map. We noticed many of the road post indicators.

We liked this view from a lay by we pulled into.

Another lovely old church.

Back to the coastline and the first of two ferry crossings. These are free and operate on demand. The ferry is winched across with cables.

I like this view. There are so many rocky outcrops. little lighthouses dot the area.

Rain wise, we kept dodging bullets. There were wet roads in places. The skies darkened numerous times and the wind got stronger but we kept moving forward.

Tony checked the radar numerous times as it was changing fast! We are the blue dot and the weather is either side.

On we went, loving these islands.

The second ferry we were super lucky timing wise. Tony saw it was about to leave and put his foot down just as they started to lower the entrance. He made it, they lifted it and on I then went.

The excellent thing about these ferries acting as a bridge, we likely have no cars passing us for 10 minutes.

The last 20 km or so are a series of sharp and short climbs, up to 12-13%.

With only 5 km to go, the rain gods could control themselves no more. Down it came.

We arrived into our destination of Fiskebacksil, riding along my least preferred surface, cobbles.

I am still super cautious on cobbles having broken three teeth and two ribs on cobbles back in 2018 in Switzerland.

Fiskebacksil is at the mouth of the Gullmarn fjord. A smaller town with around 400 permanent residents, boosted by tourism.

It is another glorious setting, but it took us 30 minutes to appreciate this as it was pouring, I needed to check in.

I knew they previously were ok with bikes in the room, but they were now very wet. They were still ok with that much to my surprise.

We are in one of their apartments, and it took us far too long to figure out the lift in the rain! We over complicated it as it had a key pad with numbers. Google scan and translate and we had it sorted, transferring our bikes and gear up to our apartments ( oh and one set of stairs to carry up up as the lift did not go to our level).

Although not as clear with the rainy weather it is a great view with Lyeskil over the water, where we stay riding tomorrow.

We get better photos after dinner and showering.

We walk into accomodation always sussing out how we will dry our clothes after washing them! Given it was raining, using the balcony (where we put our wet bikes, but under the overhanging canopy) was not an option. This is the setup I came up with.

Tony’s bedside table, rubbish bin inverted, fan! Needed to be in this position as the hangers are those non removable one, which we hate!

We booked into the hotel restaurant and this turned out to be an expensive meal, quite fancy, but nice, as we sat there in our clothes that have been stuffed in touring bags….

A nice assortment of bread to start. Main meal we both had veal cooked a few different ways, and decided to go full hog and have a less is more dessert.

My dessert is a rhubarb creation, deconstructed! Tony’s was a caramel something!

We went for a wander as the rain had cleared. We think our best photos were those a bit later from our balcony overlooking the fjord.

Another awesome day. Loving this north west section of Sweden.

Tomorrow is our last full day riding in Sweden as we close in on the border with Norway. What a ride it has been through Sweden.

A shorter day today with 70 km ridden, but over 600 metres climbing. We’ve now done Everest once with cumulative 9205 metres.

Thanks for reading.