Farhult to Laxvik

June 25, 2023

Waking up to chirping birds and mooing cows was bliss. (As I write this a day later I am thinking of yesterday morning even more fondly as this morning the grader to smooth the gravel road was rumbling beside the campground and the solar panel installers had arrived and were loudly setting up the scaffolding for the reception building in the campground, all well before 8am.)

Yesterday when we stuck our heads out of the tent we saw open meadows, the beach in the distance and blue sky. So we took our time, savouring the idyllic spot and it was almost 11am before we left our first successful night wild or shelter camping as they call it, here in Sweden.

We cycled through fields and small villages and after an hour arrived in Angelholm where we bought some picnic supplies and headed to the coast.

Our ride for the day was divided into three parts, coast, cut inland across a headland and more coastal riding. What a perfect day. Since it was Sunday we were able to see how Swedes enjoy a day at the beach. The western coast was made up of many small crescent sandy beaches and rocky shorelines with three foot wide wooden piers to easily make your way over the rocks for diving or jumping into the water. People were frolicking in the water, sunbathing, eating and hanging out. The joy for us was that for the entire 12km, the road ran beside the water, so that we had a terrific spot from the seat of our bikes to watch the unending scenes as we cycled along. We leapfrogged with a Vermont Bicycle Tours group confirming for us if we hadn’t already known, we were in for a treat of a day. We found a bench with shade for lunch then continued past cottages, year-round houses, fishing wharfs, ice cream stands, food kiosks, lots of bicycles parked for the day -and sun worshippers!

The next miles through the interior were of prosperous farms, wind mills, THE red shade houses of most Nordic homes (a marketers dream, similar to THE famously busy Damascus ice-cream store we visited in 2007 that only sells one flavour-pistachio!) and fabulous well-marked and integrated cycling trails.

We came out to the coast at Bastad on a rail trail that descended from high above the town giving us breathtaking views of it and the clear blue water of Laholm Bay.

Laholm Bay Beach is the longest sandy beach in Sweden. The beach stretches from Båstad all the way to Halmstad. The Dunes and meadows follow the gently curved 12km bay. It is famous for its dune belt, soft sand and warm shallow water.

This section of the coast has us on the trail a half km from the beach so we cycled out to see the beach at Mellbystrand. There were cars on this section of beach, including some meticulously restored, old American convertibles. Along with so many folks enjoying their Sunday. It was hot, we eyed the water and the ice cream stands but knew we had miles to go. So after filling up our water containers and a bathroom break we continued on.

Thank goodness the last kms were behind the dunes in a cool nature reserve with established and signposted perfect trails. Because of our late start and slow pedal day, it was nearing 6:30pm when we popped out of the reserve to our campground for the night. We opted for showers and supper instead of a swim but later sitting on a rock at the beach we marvelled at the picture perfect 11pm sunset.