Sunday, 15 July 2018

Day 7 - Hanging out around Halmstad

After a great nights sleep, we rode out of the sandunes and along a forested section of trail towards the town of Halmstad.



Here we crossed the River Nissan and rolled into the old town square where a friendly lady showed us how to operate the public drinking water pump so we could fill our bottles. 



Although sunshine was on the way, it had been an overcast start to the day. A quick explore through the town soon saw us at the doors of a coffee. A comfy leather sofa had our names all over it and we we soon relaxed into them. There was no music, so Clare pulled out he headphones and soon we had to chilled tunes too. It all felt so good.



After at least an hour of sofa time, we snapped back in to the world outside. We could hear music playing, so followed it to the park where a very funky band were playing. There was also another band playing jazz at an outside cafe, so we sat and listened for a while. They were really good. 
All the hot and dusty weather has really dried out our bike chains to the point where they had started to creak and groan while peddling. After leaving the musicians, we went to a bike shop to buy some chain lube to prevent the bikes from completely ceasing up. Then a short visit to Netto and we were back on our way. This time in search of somewhere to camp nearby. After the trails of the previous day, this afternoon we struck gold. 



Along the coast, a short way out of the town, a small peninsula jutted out into the bay. We turned down the small track, away from the houses and were delighted to find a secluded headland, down on the waters edge, with a perfectly flat area the size of our tent. It was mid afternoon and just what we had been hoping for. There was not a cloud in the sky and the heat was almost too hot. The only thing stopping it getting a five star rating from us, was that the sea was very shallow and a bit weedy, so not a good swimming area. Still, we weren’t really complaining.



Otherwise it was ideal. We got stretched out, listened to our book, ate, rested and generally soaked up the atmosphere. It was very relaxing and probably needed. We’d been travelling on the bikes for a week now and had left Wales without any downtime. We were both happy to be stationary with no fixed agenda for a bit. Clare upped the ante in the dining stakes by producing camp chicken fajitas for dinner! So tasty!



Meanwhile, our solar panel charger, was soaking up the suns energy and all of our batteries, phones and GPS were fully charged by dusk. Since we’ve been on the tour, we’ve been completely solar powered so far. 



Dusk here comes at about 10:30, but it doesn’t seem to ever get properly dark. We’ve certainly not needed our headtorches yet - but maybe we’re just going to bed to early. We stayed up until past eleven this evening! Wild times!



Total Ride: 34.6km

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