The weather was gray and rainy and riding rather uneventful, following good gravel roads. The track made us do another detour, to make us drive over a water reservoir. Over the day nothing remarkable happened. As it got later and later and we thought about looking for a place to camp, we made a turn and found ourself in a muddy two track way with occasional puddles in the tracks. Niklas went first and being not relaxed enough at some point I hit the wall of the track with my front tire, as I tried to balance the motorcycle, and went down. Nothing special anymore, we picked up the bike and got going again. Despite my fall, the section was interesting and made us wake up again, but dropped our hopes for a nearby spot for shelter, as the sides of the path were very overgrown. At some point everything got full packed gravel, as we got closer to a gravel mine. Seeing the ascending, gravely and slightly vegetated way to continue I proposed to stay, as I was tired and wanted to enjoy the more difficult sections instead of just looking forward to getting it done. But Niklas convinced me that the current spot is not nice and we drove so far, that the next shelter on the map was rather close by, so we got going. What followed was one of the nicest sections of the TET. It seemed to be a path for quads, a small two track. Acscending, descending, curvy, rocky, a little bit trough wood and over big areas of stones. Steps, that would be too challenging were filled with concrete.
Just short after this section, we arrived at the location of the shelter, but could not find it. We drove back and forth and read the (Swedish) description. It was probably 2,5 km into the woods at a former gravel pit. We found the way into the woods. It was a track, but not a nice one. Niklas already had problems crossing a drainage pipe, due to his worse ground clearance. With a bad prospect of success and a low mood, we decided this is not it and went back on track. The next shelter was 30 km far away but right inside a nature reserve – these are usually the best ones. Riding a few kilometers on tarmac, Niklas in front of me, something hit me. I could not determine what it was and it did not seem critical so we contiued.
The shelter was supreme. It included not only two toilets and a big fireplace, but also large amounts of dry firewood. Thus we decided it is finally time to make a proper fire and I started cooking. This morning I took the 4 l water bladder into my luggage as I had space. But now looking for it, it was gone and instead we found a small dead bird in the beavertail, that must have been what hit me earlier. I did put it in the beaver-tail of my duffle but when I dropped in the mud, it must have found its way out. We did not look, but from not on we will me more aware to check our belongings after a drop. It seems, I always have to lose stuff from the back of my motorcycle as this happened a couple of times on our former trips. It was firmly secured. Way better than Niklas laptop, put in the exact same spot in the exact same piece of luggage. Too bad as the water bladder was really nice and useful. Having just a small amount of water left, soup was the food of the day, to waste as less water as possible. Unfortunately the soup was a bit on the rich and salty side. Tasted good, but left us a bit thirsty after all.