Apologies in advance for very few pictures but I’m sure you understand.
After last night’s food poisoning – thats my diagnosis, I was very tentative with breakfast and only managed a banana.
I had already booked and paid for a room in Turku that night, so I had 65kms to get done. I thought I’d see how I felt in Salo after the first few kilometres.
I had a coffee at Espresso House and thought I’d start riding and see how far I got. I knew there was a train line to Turku and the halfway point had a railway station do I assumed there would be others. Silly me.
At about 10kms out of Salo, I realised that this was a hopeless task. I was stopping every kilometre at the top of each hill and waiting for the nausea to pass. I could ride back to Salo – 10kms or ride 20kms to Paimio and get the train from there. I stupidly decided to push on.
The stops continued and then there was some easy flat and downhill riding which helped a lot. At one point I had a 20 minute break hunched over on the side of the road waiting for the nausea to pass. It would have looked strange, but nobody stopped to ask if I was ok.
Eventually, I made it to Paimio and got some rehydration tablets at the pharmacy. Then they gave me the wonderful news that trains don’t stop here anymore. Whaaaat ??? But there’s a station ! Yes, but no trains. But I saw them go past. Yes, but they don’t stop here. I wasn’t happy, but that lasts for less than a minute these days.
I was really surprised, as Paimio is a large town about 30kms from Turku.
I had no choice, so I put on my big boy pants and rode on. I’m not sure if it was the tablets or the rest, or just the fact that this was my only option, but I felt ok and the riding was easy – bike paths all the way into Turku. However, after 62kms on a very empty stomach, I was done for the day.
The ‘hotel’ was more like a hostel but it was perfect. I put the bike in the room and fell asleep for an hour. I still couldn’t think of eating but I slept really well.
Rest day in Turku
There was a fantastic and simple breakfast buffet at the hotel so I slowly picked my way through a few pieces of toast and felt much better.
After more sleep, I went into town for a very late lunch – a Poke bowl full of simple food which got no complaints from my stomach.
I spent the rest of the day working out a plan to have a look at the Turku archipelago and get to Stockholm. That should be interesting.
No more food was necessary. I hope to be back to 100% tomorrow.