Ideally, we’d have liked to sleep in late this morning, but a very friendly voice at the end of the room service phone called to let us know that we had one hour to shower, dress and leave the ferry if we wished to stay on the Åland Islands, where we had just docked. Despite the late night, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and excitedly jumped out of my bunk to get freshened up. There was a small amount of drama trying to get off the boat as the lift would not stop at the deck that our bikes were at. In the corridors, there were several people passed out or lying face down, semi-conscious from the night before that had to be negotiated as we made our way out of the warren. Eventually the customer service desk got someone to guide us out, just before the final departure time, by escorting us through pallets of booze that were being moved around by fork lift trucks. Either no one else was disembarking, or they’d already gone. The port was deserted as we peddled off into the sunshine.
We felt dwarfed by the size of the boat as we rode away alongside it.
Following exit signs along the waters edge, we had to open the gate to get out and into the town of Mariehamn.
We were finally on the Åland Islands!
We rode through the empty high street (it was only 8am), then down to the park by the marina, where we got our sleeping mats out and fell asleep under the shade of a tree. It was mid-afternoon by the time we got ourselves ready to start riding. From a visit to the tourist information office, we got some info about camping and various bike routes and changed our plans a bit to include visiting a few more of the islands. Riding out of town was a bit of an anticlimax to be honest, as we had to follow a main road, which is a very different experience to what we’d become accustomed to. The sun beat down on us and the heat radiated back up from the tarmac; we both felt rather weary all of a sudden. On the plus side, Clare did find some Ray Ban sunglasses on the side of the road. Having selected a potentially camp area, we bounced down a gravel track towards the sea with our fingers crossed. Luck was sort of on our side. The change in landscape on the Åland, has given way to a rocky coastline rather than the sandy beaches of the west side of Sweden. The rounded granite shapes are beautiful, but less conducive for pitching tents. An old Viking style longboat was at the end of the path, where it met the sea. A picnic table gave us a place to cook up, but we had to reatreat into the forest to find a flatish area to lay out the tent later.
The rocky coastline did however provide the perfect entry point and very deep water for a few cooling swims.
And the baking hot rocks were perfect for drying off afterwards too.
After cooking up by the longboat, we decided to get the tent up and get some sleep. The 24hour travel day seemed to be catching up with us.
The woodland camp seemed idyllic enough, until we discovered a few ticks in the tent! We must have knocked a few in with us when we climbed in. Thankfully none had attached themselves and we had a sweep of the tent to help us sleep easier. Just after midnight, I got up briefly as the sun was still low on the horizon, giving some amazing colours. I would have stayed up longer but was too tired!
Total Ride: 12km
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