Motorcycling Sweden’s WILDERNESS ROAD (Vildmarksvägen) - An honest take on adventure riding [S5-E22]

Good morning guys! It is time to get going. Today is day 32 of my trip through Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I'm just getting all packed up and ready to go now. It's already about noon. Holy shit, time flies. I woke up to my alarm at about 7 30 and I heard the rain was just pouring down, so I thought I'm just gonna snooze a little bit. And then before I know it, next time I wake up it's 10 o'clock. I tend to think that when that kind of stuff happens it's because your body needs the extra rest. I'm not in a rush, so. I'm right now a little bit south east of Jokkmokk in Sweden and the plan for today is we're going to a waterfall called Storfors, I think. After that I might continue a little bit on the Transjuro trail, but for now I think I'll just continue on the normal roads, the fastest route to get there. So yeah, let's get this day started. There's these patches here which is really ******* loose gravel. And I swear to god, I have mentally prepared myself for impact quite a few times now, because all of a sudden the bike is just dancing on its own, I guess. But somehow it just keeps pulling through though, like my handlebars just go left, right, left, right. And like I'm completely sure now this I'm going to fall over, but then somehow it just straightens out. Slowly, steady, I can see asphalt. That's a whole lot smoother. All right, we are getting close, three kilometers away from Storfors. We are waiting for good views, guys. There's actually quite a bit of people here. There we go. Let's check this out then. Storfors, which can be translated to big rapids or big waterfall, is the largest unregulated rapids in entire Europe. Each second a staggering 250 cubic meters of water passes by. That is the same amount of water as an entire family uses on average in a year. When a spring flood is at its strongest, after the melting of the winter snow, the water passing can reach up to 870 cubic meters a second. That's quite the force. In the 19th century, people began using the rapids to ship timber. From further inland all the way down to the coast. In the area around Storforsen, you can now follow the water masses along several kilometers of paths and observation ramps, and there are even smaller lagoons to swim in on warmer days. All right, first of all, that was pretty cool. It's nice seeing something else than just forest. For that reason, I'm going to be completely honest with you. I'm getting a little bit bored with these roads. It's pretty much the same the whole way. I think I'm just going to do the fastest route down to Vilhelmina, where the wilderness road in Sweden begins, because I really want to do that one. That's about 320, 30, 40 kilometers or something away. I think I'm just going to do that. That's the plan for now. I don't want to offend anyone, because I know I have many Swedish followers as well. Sweden has really a lot of charm. I know that I'm in a part of Sweden now where there is pretty much just forest. I can't say that either, because there's a whole lot more than just forest, but there's not a lot more that I want to see when I'm on the bike. I'm going to head further south and look for a little bit more things that I find interesting and scenic, and then I'll take it from there. There's a whole bunch of them also in the front Excuse me guys, coming through, coming through. I'm not part of the herd here. Excuse me, thank you. That's a huge, huge pack. I have a feeling I'm riding straight into that massive dark cloud over there, so I'm just considering if I should just put on some rain gear. The Klim gear keeps me nice and dry and all, but I'd rather keep also What? All right guys, it is day 32 of my trip to Norway, Sweden, Denmark. I am currently in Slagnäs in Sweden. Just a simple little cabin, two beds, a little bit of a kitchen going on, and it was actually surprisingly cheap. This one costs, what was it, 280 kroners, about 28 euros per night, which is the cheapest by far cabin I've had ever, so that was pretty nice. I'm trying to decide how open I should be about this, because I know it's so much more fun to watch a cheerful, happy person traveling, constantly just enjoying her time. Yesterday was not a great day. I was so demotivated. Not really sure why. If I just slept a little bit bad a couple nights, a little bit cold and wet and tired, I don't know. I think it has a lot to do with that. I saw someone comment that they had, what was it, like a landscape addiction, and I think I'm having withdrawals from views and beautiful landscape. Today I'm heading down to Vilhelmina to start the wilderness road, the Swedish wilderness road. I heard great stuff about it. I think it takes you a little bit up on an altitude and gives you some views, so maybe that can help me out a little bit. Also, it is day 32. I've never been on a road for this long, and to be honest, I'm a little bit homesick. I'm a little bit tired. It's long days. Every single day are pretty long days with riding and then work a little bit in the evening. I don't want to seem ungrateful, because I know that there's so many people who would want to do this and who doesn't get the chance to do this. I know how lucky I am, but sometimes I just get a But yeah, I am ready for the day. I'll be packing up my stuff. Then I'm heading into this little village here to get a little bit of food and to fuel up, I think. Then I'm heading down towards Vilhelmina, which takes about two hours or something. That is the plan for now, and I actually saw a sign right back here that says that this is the beginning of the Wilderness Road, just so I don't go too far. Yeah, there we go. See? Vilmarksvägen. Saga vägen. Cool, cool, cool. There should be good stuff happening from now, hopefully. The Wilderness Road is a 500 kilometer circular route that runs from Vilhelmina to Strömsund via Gäddede. It's Sweden's highest paid road, reaching 867 meters above sea level at its highest point. Along the Wilderness Road, you will find a great number of lakes, waterways and waterfalls, one of them being Trappstegsforsen, which literally means stairs of waterfalls, and it's easy to see why it holds that name. Slowly but surely, the landscape is changing. Less and less trees, there's mountains, there's snow. Oh, guys, I have missed this. It's been a whole, what, week since the last time I saw snow-caped mountains. The most famous stretch on Sweden's Wilderness Road is the drive through Stekenjokk Plateau. This unique landscape is subject to special regulations, as it is both a bird protection area and a Sami cultural heritage landscape. This is a place where the Sami people herd and tend to their reindeer, and they have done this for thousands of So right now, I'm basically just trying to find somewhere to pitch my tent. I've passed a few campsites, but honestly, I feel like wild camping is even. So yeah, we'll see. It's now 18 o'clock, six o'clock in the evening, so I have still plenty of time to find a spot. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm not. We'll see. Nature spot. Could this be something, perhaps? I'll take a walk and check it out down there. This could have been a pretty decent spot, but this is just so unappealing. You know, there's just toilet paper laying around. Yuck. I think I'll continue the search. So many of these ******* horseflies here. Go away! Feathered, we are out of here before they eat us up. Leave us alone! Nasty, nasty bugs. This is looking promising, and it's marked on the map as a public campground. Maybe there's a whole lot of other people here as well. No other people? What? Perfect, perfect, perfect. Look at this. Score! Good evening, guys. The day is slowly but surely coming to an end. I'm inside my tent here. It's about 11 o'clock in the evening, about 15-16 degrees outside. Just watched the sunset over here. I'm trying to keep the mosquitoes away with my Permatrin thing. I got one of these things going over here. You light it, and then there's some kind of smoke that keeps the bugs away, and then I have my stinky boots to help keeping the bugs away. So far, so good. Ended up at a really, really nice campsite at the end. There's already a few others pulling up here. It always surprises me when there's like a huge area like this. I mean, you saw it. When someone else comes to camp, why do they put camp like 10 meters away from you? Like, there's plenty of space. They could camp like 200 meters away and still be on the same beach. Why are they 10 meters away? I don't get it. Today's been a good day, really good day. Sun, and good views, and some snacks, and good roads, and good camp spot. I mean, what more can I wish for? The wilderness road was definitely the highlight, of course. I think I've done about 350 kilometers today, so that's pretty decent for my standards. The plan for tomorrow, right now I am close to the city of Jededeh, and tomorrow I'll continue just going south on the main road, I think. I want to go by the headquarters of Husqvarna and say hi to them. I have some buddies that I think I want to meet up with, two guys that I hopefully can meet up with on the way. And then, yeah, the next part is Denmark, and then it's home. If I'm going to take a guess, I'd say that this trip probably has like seven to ten days left. I wonder if one month is my limit of going on a trip and still having energy and enjoying myself. If not, and it's kind of hard to say, I could consider, if I found the right person to travel with, I think it would help being two. Did I just say that? I know you don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear it myself. Or I just have to get better at getting to know people along the way. That's a whole lot of blabbering. I hope you liked this episode as well, and I'll see you again in the next. Bye!