Our route: Göteborg to Strömstad and back

We cycled from Gothenburg (Göteborg) north up the coast until we were almost in Norway. We then turned inland, and cycled south again, catching a train for the very last section.

We didn't count our miles, but reckon we averaged about 45 miles a day - some were longer, some shorter, and we took two rest days.

The terrain varied but we'd describe it as gently hilly for the most part and we never had to get off and push. Where we crossed into Norway briefly, the hills grew longer, and back in Sweden for a short stretch north of Håverud they were short and sharp. (If I'm honest, I may have pushed up a couple of mean ones here.) South of Mellerud, as far as Vänersborg, it's completely flat.

Our route was largely dictated by the location of campsites, and at first by our search for a shop that sold the right camping gas, which took us fruitlessly off route. Here's a breakdown, day by day:

Day 1: Göteborg City airport to Koön (near Marstrand), via Säve, Ytterby and Kungälv. The 168 from Kungälv to Marstrand is not a lovely road to cycle - too many cars and trucks and no cycle lane. 

The campsite at Koön is fine - lots of caravans and not a lot of soul, but clean and well organised. 150 krona.

Day 2: Koön to Stenungsön, which is just over the bridge from Stenungsund. There's a branch of Team Sportia in Stenungsund which sells camping gas with screw fittings! There's also a good tourist information centre (closed at weekends) with excellent free maps, and a supermarket hidden in the middle of the shopping centre. 

It poured with rain all the way to Stenungsund and while the route may have been beautiful the highlight of our day was the lovely young woman in a ship's chandler in Koön who gave us free coffee because we were so wet, and the sausage and mash we ate in a petrol station cafe - frankly warm cardboard would have tasted good, we were so thoroughly soaked, but this really was exactly what we needed. 

We camped at the Stenungsgarden hostel, which is set away from the main road in woods overlooking the sea. The camping area is small, has its own little toilet, shower and kitchen block, and a stone hearth at the side of the camping field where you can light a fire (and dry out your kit). There's free wifi in the hostel. You can book an enormous breakfast in the cafe, which has a great view over the bay. 115 krona, plus 140 for two breakfasts.

Day 3: Tour of Tjörn island. We booked a second night at the hostel campsite, left our panniers there, and cycled round the island - a great day ride which took us over the Tjörn bridge, along the E169 (busy, but has a cycle lane) to Källekär, then north on small roads to Rora. Then south west along small roads and tracks to Skärhamn. 

Lunch here at Fisk & Skaldjur - a decent cafe in the marina with seats out the back overlooking the sound. From here, south to Klädesholmen, a slightly spooky ghost village where all the houses are white - it used to be a big herring village but now I suspect the main source of income is tourists. Back along really good cycle tracks through fields and woods to Källekär (where there's a small supermarket), and on to the hostel.

Day 4: Stenungsön to Malö, just north of Ellös. There seems no avoiding the E160 if you're heading north from Tjörn to Orust, and it's not very pleasant until you get over the bridge onto Orust itself. On arriving on Orust, we had surprisingly good pastries in the service station at Varekil - we were soaking again in what the newspapers were declaring Sweden's worst storms for years. We turned west and then southwest on smaller roads through fields and woods - the sun came out and it was beautiful cycling. 

We stopped at the hotel in Nösund for lunch: at 95 krona per sandwich this was a great extravagance, but we were starving and the hotel is pretty much all there is in Nösund - and the sandwiches really were pretty awesome, with rye bread piled with potatoes, herring, eggs, salad and cream. The view's lovely too. From here, revived, we rode on to Ellös, bought supplies, then crossed the chain ferry to Malö. (Chain ferries seem to be free.)

The campsite here is perched on the edge of a sea lake and though it's beside the road, the ferry to Malö only runs on request after 11pm, so it's really quiet, and beautiful. 10 krona.

Day 5: a rest day, spent swimming among jellyfish and crabs in the lake, reading and lazing.

Day 6: Malö to Hamburgsund, via Fiskebäckskil, and ferry to Lysekil (38 krona each). Very pretty cycling through the small islands to Fiskebäckskil, a small town of cobbled streets and jumbled houses. Lysekil's a decent-sized town with lots of shops, including another branch of Team Sportia, which luckily sells spare tyres as mine blew on day 4. We'd planned to camp by the hostel near Bottna, but it felt unwelcoming and abandoned to we continued to the large site at Hamburgsund.

The campsite at Hamburgsund is surprisingly quiet and pleasant, given its size (we're the only tent, as usual and are surrounded by motorhomes and caravans) - we get a place by the water's edge. 165 krona.

Day 7: Hamburgsund to Tanumshede. A shorter ride, first stop, Fjällbacka, a fishing village where Ingrid Bergman used to spend her holidays - a tumble of houses down the hillside to the sea. It's a small port with boat trips, decent cafes and a helpful tourist information centre. 

From here, inland on lovely small roads (but in driving rain) to Tanumshede, where there are amazing bronze age rock carvings, a really good (and free) museum, and an excellent, warm, dry cafe. We dripped all over the floor of the cafe while we devoured meatballs and potatoes and no one seemed to mind, and the helpful museum staff minded our panniers while we explored the museum and the rock carvings. 

We decided to camp at the site beside the museum, which was a mistake. The site is pleasant enough, though less well maintained than the others we stayed at, but the manager was rude and aggressive. When I queried the cost of 200 krona because the showers didn't work, we were kept awake by the manager's own party till past midnight, and woken by builders' trucks on the site at seven, the manager blew his top, started pulling out our guy ropes and yelled at us to leave. We left gladly, paying 100 krona. I have to say that everyone else we met on the trip was enormously and unfailingly helpful and courteous so don't let this put you off Sweden. 

Day 8: Tanumshede to Strömstad. We stayed inland so as to avoid the larger-looking coast roads, and got a bit lost as our maps showed few of the small roads or hamlets here (this was a regular problem). It was great cycling though, sometimes on unmetalled roads, and good to be in country that felt slightly less tidy and managed. Eventually we emerged onto the main road into Strömstad, which brought us in via the port area. The town itself is busy, with lots of shops, including a big Sport Activia where on some days they have a bike mechanic. It was pouring again, and we were tired, so we stayed at the campsite closest to town.

Strömstad campsite is weirdly space-age, with immaculate facilities and really dreadful piped music in the kitchen loos and outside eating area. It's comfortable, though, and though it's beside a major road into town, not especially noisy. Its shop was open, which was a bonus as most were shut for the season. 230 krona.

Day 9: Strömstad to Steneby, via Norway. We followed a route suggested by the man in the tourist information office, who's a cyclist himself. It was a really long day, and possibly the most beautiful of the trip. We left town, crossed the E6, and took minor roads up to Håvedalen. Here we crossed into Norway - where immediately the landscape was emptier of houses and people. We went north to Prestebakke, then south to Kornsjø, where we crossed back into Sweden. We took the 166 to Ed - it's a main road, but pretty quiet. We looked at the campsite here, but it was crowded and the tent area is lumpy and sloping, so we gritted our teeth and got back on our bikes. I was too knackered to notice, but apparently the next section, along the 164, is beautiful.

The campsite at Steneby may be beside the road, but it's also beside a lovely lake. It's not very big and it's clean and well looked after and has a private beach with little boats we think you can hire. In season there's a big cafe restaurant here, but it was shut while we were there. This is the only campsite without a kitchen that we stayed in.

Day 10: Steneby to Dalbergså. This was the first day it didn't rain at all! Not one drip! Though we started on larger roads, most of day 10 was on minor roads, and there was rarely much traffic anywhere. South to Dals Långed, then through really beautiful winding (and surprisingly hilly) roads to Håverud, where there's a mix-up of canal, river, railway and road, all one above the other. The canalside is a good spot for lunch (the main cafe serves good sandwiches but awful coffee - we'd try the small cafe inside the centre for coffee another time). Down to Mellerud to buy supplies, then out across the flatlands, through field after field of grain, to Dalbergså.

The campsite at Dalbergså is the smallest yet - again we were the only tent, but most of the caravans were empty, and it was wonderfully quiet. We pitched beside the river, which is dark and peaty and at the edge of the site flows into the enormous lake Vänern - so big we couldn't see its ends at all. 140 krona.

Day 11: rest day at Dalbergså. We spent the day by the lakeside, reading, walking in the woods, finding more bronze age rock carvings, and snoozing.

Day 12: Dalbergså to Göta, via Vänersborg and the Hunneberg nature reserve (famous for its elks, though we didn't see any). Another long day, which started with more flatlands south to Vänersborg (avoid the E45 - it's fast and frightening, and there are good small roads till just north of the town, where you can follow a cycle path to the centre). Vänersborg is a largish town, with the first 'grand' architecture we'd seen. 

We stopped for lunch, then headed out to the Hunneberg nature reserve, which we decided to cross, rather than following the ring road around the park. This was both inspired - the interior of the park is beautiful - and daft, because the well-made track across the park became far too rough for my increasingly ill (and skinny-tyred) road bike, so we had to push for several kilometres. 

Out of the park, we circled south west, avoiding Trollhätan as it was getting late. It was good cycling but we were beginning to wonder where we'd find food to cook later - luckily there's a supermarket at Upphärad. We took the Upphärad-Nygård road, which isn't signposted and is an unmade - but smooth - track. From here we headed north beside the E45 to Göta, where we discovered the campsite had closed down. It was getting dark, we were exhausted, and the rain was beginning again, so we pitched our tent beside the lake by the old campsite.

Day 13: Göta to Göteborg, via Stenunsund and the train. First, to Lilla Edet in the pouring rain again. Here we had coffee and excellent cake in the cafe beside the supermarket, which was packed with workmen, families, teenagers, smart-dressed older women - and it was good to sit there out of the weather for a while. Too late to fix my bike, we see a large cycle shop opposite. 

From here, we rode slightly south and then west through the Bohuslan - a huge area of hills, lakes, rivers and forest where you can canoe and camp in lakeside huts. It was still pouring so we pressed on to Stenungsund, where we caught the train to Göteborg. 

You can put your bike on a train run by the Västtågen network as long as there's room. We paid 93 krona each for the train ticket, plus 30 krona per bike. Västtågen run the buses, chain ferries and two train lines up the coast (and have many excellent enclosed bus stops - perfect for sheltering from the rain and reading maps). It wasn't clear whether we'd be able to put our bikes on a train run by another network, and this dictated our choice of route back to Göteborg.

In Göteborg we planned to camp at the all-year site at Lisebergsbyn (which is close to the city centre), but finally cracked and booked a room in the hostel - at least partly because having got away without buying a camping card all trip, here we'd finally have had to fork out the 150 krona just in order to put our tent up. You don't need one for the hostel. 595 krona for a room in the hostel plus an enormous breakfast.

Day 14: back to the airport, and home.

All photos on this blog (c) Ian Butler