Cycling from Gothenburg to Norway and back in two weeks

The campsite at Dalbergså

I'm just back from cycling up the west coast of Sweden for two weeks and if I close my eyes I can still feel the glorious simplicity of doing nothing but push those pedals.

We camped along the way and remembered just how wonderful it is to render your life down to nothing but the need for water, food and shelter as you travel.

It's a long time since we last did a proper cycle tour: the last time we set off with tents, panniers and all was 16 years ago. Then we were also carrying two small children, and when they got a bit bigger - but not big enough to cycle far under their own steam - we called it a day. They're off doing their own thing these days, so we dusted off the panniers, bought a new tent, and set off.

When we were planning the trip I found very little information out there about cycling in this area of Sweden and this did make me a little anxious. Planning is probably a bit of an exaggeration, to be honest. We looked at a map and realised we had no idea how far we'd get - so we simply said we'd head north along the coast from Gothenburg (Göteborg).

Still, it would have been good to know a bit about what was ahead so I'm sharing what we learned along the way, Rather than bog you down in masses of detail, I've put each section on a different page:

Our route
Camping
Equipment
Flying with bikes
Maps
Weather

The links to these pages are over on the right.

All photos on this blog (c) Ian Butler.