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Sleep on the ferry was ferry-sleep. We tried sleeping on the outer deck, but it was too windy. Especially the hands got cold with no way to keep them warm, without a sleeping bag. Too bad I left my gloves at the motorcycle. I should have slept with all my mc-gear on. It would have not needed much more, since I didn’t change at all. Due to the wind, we moved from the initial nice spot with the broken lamp closer to the door, just to finally move into the staircase several sleepless minutes later. Unfortunately there was not enough space to put the (nice extra long 195 cm) mattresses fully, without blocking a door or the stairs in a way. We did it anyways. After 3 hours of spotty sleep in a well lit room we got up at 5:30 and went to the motorcycles. My new merino buff did a very good job of being a sleeping mask and spending darkness without to much warmth anywhere else in the face. Just the 3-4 people walking by without any motivation of being quiet interrupted the sleep quite well. Getting off the ferry was no problem, as we were the first out after a travel-bus that parked in front of the exit. We drove to the first gas station after the ferry and the last in Trelleborg before the E6, filled up on gas and prepared the first coffee on new grounds on day one of the journey. We enjoyed it together with a flapjack (mine was chocolate flavoured). Regards to Aneska, who left some in my tank bag since the last motorcycle trip to cz. In the mean while two german motorcyclists (Honda CBF600 / BMW GSA1200) arrived at the gas station and were baffled by the self service system that is the norm in Sweden. We A short explanation and a somehow unfriendly polite chat (they were headed towards Nordkap as well) we got going. We already encountered them at the ferry-dinner and they didn’t seem to want contact (even though I was clearly noticeable as motorcyclist). We drove up to Malmö and from there on we followed the first leg of Sweden’s TET.
This took us over lovely small roads through tiny villages, hillsides of freshly mowed hay and smaller forests. Usually I just pass through southern Sweden via the E6 so I never saw the more beautiful back-country. The TET started out mostly on asphalt but soon gravel took over. It was of good quality sometimes freshly paved and thus a little bit loose in the front. Washboards were seldom. We had to deal with a little bit of loose rocks and grass but as it was dry there was no real problem, Benni almost washed out once. Then as focusing became harder we decided to take a break and have some porridge.
After all this crescendo of difficulty was the perfect entry into ‘offroad motorcycling’ with enough patches of very nice street riding. For the porridge breakfast we found a small windbreak right next to the street.
Obviously we had to try the thermarest chairs and were pleasantly surprised. Especially in combination with resting the back of the head on the motorcycle it’s the most formidable sitting accommodation a traveler would ever want.
We had just unpacked and started cooking water for porridge when it began to drizzle. Moving the chairs inside and using the bank of the shed as table another attraction appeared, as a quad drove by, followed by a woman on a horse. The quad driver sat on the quad sideways and we wondered what they’re trying to accomplish. As Niklas noticed they tried to get the horse to tjölt.
After following the TET some more, we took a more direct route to gotenburg, which was quite scenic until we entered the highway for the last 50 km. Garmins ‚adventurous routing‘ did quite a good job, when we left TET for Gothenburg.