Day 10

Kraksmala to Oskarshamn, 85km

Shortly after leaving Kraksmala, we went up a steep hill to a wooden lookout tower overlooking the Smaland forest. You can see a short film we shot at the top at www.longlongway.com . It was very impressive and we felt proud of our ability to actually get up there.

After that, we pressed on at high speed to Högsby, where we had lunch in a tavern where the gay waiter kept on slapping my knees. Good rainbow trout though! The other highlight was a blonde girl getting herself entwined in my handlebars while showing us the way to Fliseryd and Oskarshamn.

We got lost despite (or maybe because of) her directions and ended up on a very windy, hilly main road which was hard work to cycle on. But we made it in the end - much later than expected.

Our hotel is way out of Oskarshamn proper, near the industrial docks, which is a bit of a bummer, but it is decent enough and has a nice view from the balcony, as you can see here:

After a shower and some self-nursed sore patches, we headed into town and found one of the two decent bars in Oskarshamn, the Kraka, which is an english style pub with excellent food (Neil appreciated the enormous burger portions).

Today, we're heading on to Västervik, where we'll be taking a rest day to get clothes clean and maybe take a boat trip out into the archipelago.