Day 2: Stage 3: Ängelholm to Båstad
Day two did not go to plan. It started well enough, with a nice breakfast and chat with the hotel owner, but started to come off the rails around 2 or 3 kilometres in. The route for day two should be around 55km, and involves a prolonged hilly section in the final 15 or 20 kilometres. In the end, we cycled around 34 kilometres, after going off route and cutting out much of the peninsula due to mechanical issues. At first, my companion thought the problem was with how she had mounted her pannier bags – which is a much more complicated set-up than mine. When she dropped off the back of me on the long, straight, flat road out of Båstad I didn’t want to stop to wait until I was round the corner into the caravan park area, and a quieter stretch of road. After waiting for a few minutes I couldn’t work out why she could be so far behind so quickly unless she had stopped to readjust her setup again.
Eventually she appeared, and immediately said there was something wrong with her bike. We took the bags off completely and tested it. There was an ominous, regular metallic sound, and the bike did not feel nice to ride. She did notice the back tyre felt somewhat deflated, but doesn’t have a bike pump. Luckily I have a hand pump that works for both Shraeder (what I have) and Presto (what she has) valves, so she blew it up and it felt better to ride, but still not great – and it was still making that noise. I googled bike shops in Ängelholm: there was only one, and it was closed on Sundays. Day 2 was a Sunday. There were two in the Båstad area, one of which was open until 16:00. If we could cover the distance in under 6 hours, we stood a chance of getting her bike fixed that day. I was also under the impression that the track work meant we couldn’t take the train to Båstad. Since the chain, gears and brakes all seemed to be working (though we thought the back disc brake might have been making the noise) I voted that we continue on as there were no other options. She sent a message to the bike shop that was halfway along the route, and agreed that we should try to continue on. We stopped at a coastal section 5 or 6 kilometres further on, having been making slow progress. Whilst I used the facilities and reapplied sunscreen (taking no chances after yesterday), my friend checked her phone. The guy from the bike shop had replied – but the news was not good. He was on vacation in Finland, and therefore would not be available to repair her bike.
Now that we knew the bike shop en route wasn’t an option, I realised that we needed to change the route. As with day 1, the Kattegattleden goes into a peninsula. But to get to Båstad by the shortest route we could cut out around 20km, and some hills. It might mean using some busier roads though. As I was wearing shorts without pockets, and don’t have a mount for my phone, we used Apple maps on my friend’s phone. This almost immediately sent us into a forest alongside a beach, which included a path where you weren’t allowed to cycle, followed by a beach on which it was impossible to do so. We turned back – after blowing up the back tyre of my friend’s bike again. She had come to the conclusion that the regular noise it was making was the sound of a flat tyre, and it did seem to have lost air since we last inflated it. But there was no visible sign of any puncture. Our day continued like this – with me leading the way and trying to go slow, but still dropping her, and having to reinflate the tyre every few kilometres.
With around 12 kilometres to go, I realised that we would not reach Båstad in time to get to the bike shop there before it closed. I was also aware that reception at the hotel we were staying at also closed at 16:00. I suggested that I abandon her and cycle off to ensure we got checked into the hotel, and to see if they could offer any suggestions for us. I felt somewhat guilty about this – what if she had to walk the entire remaining distance, or got eaten by wolves? She did insist that I should leave her, though I didn’t need too much encouragement. I did leave her the bicycle pump, and said I would call when I got to the hotel. Unfortunately, I had left it too late. I arrived at the hotel a whole 6 minutes before reception was supposed to close, but nobody was there, only a box containing envelopes, one of which was addressed to me and contained the keys to the room. I also couldn’t find the bike parking (one of the cleaners, who couldn’t understand my terrible Swedish accent showed me where to find it, but didn’t understand my other queries about bike repairs) and I didn’t see anyone else going about. I called my friend and she had made reasonable progress and was now about 5km from the hotel. She told me to relax and take a shower, and she would be there soon. I assumed I would have time to do this, but by the time I had chained up my bike, unpacked, and showered, I had a missed call from her. She had found the cycle path for the final 4km really easy to cycle on (it was mostly a slight downhill and very smooth tarmac) and had made better time than expected.
After she had also cleaned up, and messaged a mobile bike repair service without a response, we headed out for dinner. There weren’t many options within walking distance of the hotel, so we went to a pizza place called Restaurang Lyckan. This was lucky as it had a lot of options for my friend (who has certain dietary restrictions). The owner’s wife was working and turned out to also be Danish. She and my friend bonded over this, with the upshot that the owner messaged the owner of the bike shop, asking whether he would be open tomorrow (google said not until the day after, but she thought he opened on Monday’s during the tourist season). The pizza was really good. Initially we had just got one to share, but we ordered a second one and ate most of that too.
Day 3: Stage 4: Båstad to Halmstad
The mobile repair shop had messaged back to say that it was too late to fix the bike on Sunday evening. A reply asking if they could do it on Monday morning brought no response. The bike shop owner and the restaurant owner also both messaged to say that it was not open on Mondays. So, there was no way to get the bike fixed in Båstad. I had offered to attempt to fix the tyre, which seemed to be the worst, if not the only, issue, but for some reason my friend preferred that a professional do it. Thankfully, we had spent some time googling to find out where exactly the track works were, and which train operators allowed bikes on trains. The answers to these were that the track works were 2 stages further north, between Falkenberg and Kungsbacka, and that Oresundtåg would allow bikes on trains, but would not let you book a bike slot, and only had between 2 to 6 bike spaces per train. After a nice breakfast, we checked out as close to 11am as possible, had a chat with an older couple who thought I was rather odd to be wearing shorts in the current weather (I tried to explain that skin is waterproof, but they thought I was talking about seasickness?) then set off in the pouring rain to cycle to the train station which was about 3km away. There wasn’t a train until 12:18 or something, but I said I would wait to make sure she got a space on the train. Coming from Denmark, where there are entire carriages for bikes, this seemed odd to her, but she understood when the train arrived and there was only one carriage with a bike symbol on it – which takes 2 bikes. Luckily one guy got off the train with a bike so we knew there was at least one space. She got on the train and was confused as to where to put the bike. Thankfully a guy on the train explained what to do – which basically involves removing 3 seats from use and chaining your bike in front of them.
Whilst the train trip was scheduled to take 18 minutes, the Kattegattleden route for day 3 was 42km and would take over 2 hours – probably closer to 3 hours including stops. I did feel slightly guilty for abandoning her again, but I really wanted to do the complete route, even though day 2 had involved modifications. I’m glad I did, as the route was really nice for the most part. It takes you along some tarmac sections but also past beaches (I had a quick stop at Mellbystrand) and through some nature reserves. This slowed down the cycling speed and, thanks to the recent heavy rain, got my chain and derailleur full of dirt, and my legs covered in mud splashes from all the unavoidable puddles. It was great fun, and probably also the best stage for my friend to avoid, given that her bike isn’t really designed for that kind of cycling. The route also takes you through Gullbranna naturreservat, and past Gullbranna strand, which is a lovely beach that I have previously visited with friends on a day trip (in a car) from Gothenburg. There were no Canadian geese there this time though.
By the time I reached Halmstad, my friend’s bike had been fixed (at the second bike shop she went to), and she had got some recommendations for dinner places. It also turned out that it was a good thing that she hadn’t let me attempt to change the tyre as the spare inner tube – which she had purchased 3 years ago on our last trip, with advice from the bike shop staff who came to check her wheels – was too small. If we’d tried to change it we’d just have had to put the old one back on, and probably ruined a tube that would work for someone else. The bike shop guy kindly took the wrong tube in exchange for an appropriate one, rather than charging her extra. He said the brakes and everything else were fine, and recommended changing the wheels for larger and wider ones when she gets back to Denmark as, although they are good quality, they are not the most appropriate option for a bike of that size and weight.
With two fully functioning bikes (though one somewhat muddy one, despite my cleaning the chain, cassette and derailleur with a toothbrush) we were feeling more relaxed, and Halmstad had a pretty nice vibe. The recommended restaurant (the newly opened Shah’s) was pretty good, and we got there just in time as there were long queues shortly after we arrived. We had a nice time exploring the town before heading back to the hotel.
