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Friday 17/06/2011 Ornskoldsvik - Jonkoping 167989 - 168564 = 575 miles
Early session
Guess what. At about 23:30 last night it got dark!! I got a good nights kip and woke about 06:30.
I have to wait for a lorry driver or two to give me a push but I don't want to start cooking in case they wake up and move off before I'm ready. I don't have long to wait. Three Estonian lorry drivers are awake about 07:00 and I get my push and I'm on my way.
About 10:00 I decide to stop for some breakfast. So I start to investigate various pull-ins and lay-bys. By 11:00 I've still not had any luck and by now I'm getting concerned about the diesel situation. I've done over 500 miles since filling up in Finland yesterday. So I change my priority from breakfast to fuel. About another hour later I find a filling station, which has a brilliant slope. The only problem is that it's a "card only" pump and limited to SEK500 (about 36 litres). So I don't exactly know how much diesel is in the tank. I decide to do 360 miles before my next fuel stop and make a note of the mileage.
By now it's 12:00 and it's raining and I'm about 150 miles from Stockholm, so I decide not to stop for food and to try to get through Stockholm before the rush hour. So I push on.
Stockholm
Try to imagine what you'd think of a traffic planner who decided to route the M6 through the middle of Birmingham. This is what you've got in Stockholm. The E4 is a major 1000 miles road that runs almost the length of Sweden and it is routed slap bang through the middle of the city. To cut a long story short, I hit the outskirts about 14:00 and came out the other side at 15:30. That's 90 minutes to cover about 8 miles! Traffic jams are frustrating enough but if I stalled or overheated, then I'm banjaxed with no starter motor. Anyway the 405 ran like a dream and I'm on open roads heading south. The other problem with being in traffic for so long is that I've got no idea how much diesel I've got left. I'm sure I wasn't getting 10 miles to the litre in that traffic! So, even though I'm very hungry, I need to make fuel my priority again.
Luckily on my second attempt I find a petrol station with a bit of a slope. I fill up and manage to get going again with the help of a couple of friendly Swedes. I soon find a lay-by with a slope but it's not one that I can use the cooker in, so I have a can of cold beans and some cheese biscuits and get a few hours kip.
Evening session
I set off about 19:30 for a short evening session. At Linkoping I spot the Saab aircraft on plinths and as I've got the camera handy I try for a few pictures as I drive past. By the time I get to the inland sea at Jonkoping it's starting to get dark. I stop in a few lay-bys, some with slopes, but this place reminds me very much of Torquay and I reckon if I try to kip in the car here, I'll probably get moved on in the night. So I decide to go past Jonkoping and eventually find a lorry park for the night. It looks the sort of place where you have to pay to park but it's late and I'm so tired that I just climb in the back of the 405 and go to sleep.
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