Crossing the border - Stalstagun to Sul

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Breakfast didn't start till eight, so even though I had a 23 km day, and the temperature was expected to be in the high 20s, I wasn't going to get away early. Even when I was ready, there was another delay getting the bill paid. Lisa, the manager, already had several of her holiday residents sorting out their day'svactivities with her. So it wasn't until about 9:15 that I was on the road.

After a short stretch of the main road, the St Olavsleden route takes the Karl Johansvägan. While earlier roads might has been used, this road was built in the 1830s to improve the trading route that had already existed for centuries. On the Swedish side, the gradients aren't too bad. On the Norway side it's quite a different storey. In three or four walking days, I would reach the coast, losing the elevation that I had been ascending gradually over the past sixteen.

The border crossing itself was unremarkable other than it added a country to the very short list o countries that I have walked across.

A little later, when I had stopped for lunch, there was a scream from the hill above me, sortly followed by a child on a bike enjoying the downhill run. Another followed, neither interrupted their sppedy progress. Much more sedately, their mother arrived, and did stop. They had cycled from Medstugan, and she brought news of Wolfgang, the German pilgrim I had met the day I left Ostersund eight days ago. As I had expected, he was now a day behind me, so I should see him again in Stiklestad.

While most of the route followed the old road, a little short of Sul, the walking track turned up over a ridge line in a bend of the river. This avoided walking down the main road, but was a tecnically difficult climb and descent instead.

I refilled my bladder, only the second time that has been necessary. It was still 30 deg C when I arrived at Lilmoen, where I stayed the night.

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