Postcards from the Unionsleden: Bike-slacking from Sweden to Norway
Photos: Alex Beyfus & Sue Williams
The Unionsleden is a 220-mile route linking Karlstad in Sweden to Moss in Norway, following gravel tracks and roads that wind through forests and around lakes, over largely flat terrain. My wife Sue and I followed the suggested seven-day itinerary — though for practical reasons we rode it in reverse, since we knew we could get bike boxes for the flight home from our friends at FARA Cycling in Oslo.
With no intention of breaking any FKTs, we bimbled along at a sedate pace, stopping often to take in the sights, and found ourselves cycling through scenery straight out of a Bob Ross painting. Old-skool bike touring? Cycling Weakly? Bike-slacking? Whatever you want to call it, here are some postcards from the trip.
Day 0 – Gothenburg to Karlstad by Train
There are no direct flights from the UK to Karlstad, so we flew into Gothenburg, on a scheduled flight from Stansted. After a night in a campsite dormitory near the airport, we headed to Gothenburg central station to catch a train to Karlstad, where the Unionsleden started. The journey took two and a half hours and cost about £35.
BIKEA? Keeping the bikes flat-packed in their boxes meant they would be allowed on the train from Gothenburg to Karlstad for no extra cost. 
From the train window we got a fast-forward preview of the Swedish countryside… 
…and an indication of just how many trees we would encounter. 
On arrival in Karlstad, we built our bikes, and headed to a supermarket to get supplies for our trip. 
Swedish wood isn’t just used for making flatpack furniture. Aspen trees are used to make matches. The ‘safety’ match was invented in Sweden in the mid-nineteenth century. The ‘Solsticken’ matchbox, created in 1936, is an iconic image in Sweden. 
A huge variety of filmjölk in cartons. A drinkable yoghurt with a buttery tang, it is usually eaten for breakfast with a topping of unsweetened muesli and fresh fruit. 
No supermarket trip in a new country is complete until you’ve found an unfortunately named product… but keep in mind the words of Jarvis Cocker – “Everyone hates a tourist – especially one who thinks it’s all such a laugh…”
No surprise to see that Karlstad was a cyclist-friendly town. 
Practical shopping bikes were the order of the day. 
Exploring the town in the evening light. Sunset is at about 10pm in July, and the low sun at this latitude meant that the photographer’s ‘golden hour’ was stretched out across the evening. 
Karlstad sits on the northern shores of Lake Vänern – the largest lake in Western Europe. 9% of Sweden is covered in lakes, which number close to 100,000. No surprise then that 1 in 8 Swedes own a recreational boat. 
The Klarälven river runs 280 miles from the mountains in the north and empties into Lake Vänern in Karlstad. The Östra Bron bridge was built in the late 18th century, and spans 168 metres. Earlier wooden versions of the bridge were battered and destroyed by winter ice flows and torrential spring floods.
Day 1 – Karlstad to Borgvik (38 miles)
Our first day on the bikes didn’t disappoint. The forests that whizzed by the train window in a blur the day before could now be explored at our leisure.
Riding out of Karlstad, it didn’t take long until the route turned from a tarmac cycling path into a gravel road and our first… 
…Birch forest. These are home to Moose, Brown Bears, Grey Wolves, Lynx and Wild Boar. 
The gravel road margins were also home to a wide range of plants… 
…and less dramatic animals – mildlife like the Common Brimstone… 
…and Peacock butterfly. 
Peppered around the forests are the iconic red-painted sommarstuga. These second homes are used as rural retreats, especially between late June and mid-August when Swedes take an extended midsummer vacation. 
Decent sized towns are few and far between in this part of Sweden and often would contain just a few houses with no shops or cafes. Many towns – like Malsjö – share their name with IKEA products, triggering an odd sense of déjà vu. 
We stopped for the night in Borgvik – a small town on the shore of Lake Vänern.
Our Airbnb was Sylvanian Family level gorgeous and the perfect place to relax, until we looked in the fridge… 
…and found a raven wrapped in newspaper and the feet of some cloven-hoofed beast in the freezer compartment. Naturally my mind raced ahead and pictured us being drugged and stitched into a bearskin onesie by our hosts – à la the film Midsommar. The Airbnb owner however, turned out to not be a psychopath, but instead explained the next morning that they were simply used to train his hunting dogs.
Day 2 – Borgvik to Svaneholm (25 miles)
Having survived the night without ending up in the hunter’s chest freezer, we set off on the shortest of the seven stages. We lingered at every possible opportunity to make sure we didn’t arrive at our guest house before check-in time.
We soon passed through the town of Nysäter, where the Värmlands Vikingacenter was located. More importantly for us, it contained a mini-supermarket where we could restock and take temporary shelter from a rain shower. 
There are approximately 90 billion trees in Sweden, with forests covering over two thirds of the country, so inevitably our ride took us through yet more wooded wonderland. 
Will-o’-the-wisp wouldn’t look out of place in these wetlands, which are maintained by beavers, that were reintroduced to Sweden in 1922. 
Falu rödfärg (Falun red) is the distinctive mineral-infused red sludge-like paint used to preserve many wooden buildings in Sweden. It is breathable to allow moisture to escape, and fades over time rather than peeling or cracking. 
This Volvo’s paint didn’t offer the same level of protection.
Staying at Svaneholm Hotel felt a little like being in the Hamptons, with the owner’s seaplane parked up on the vast grounds that led down to lake Mellan-Svan. 
The hotel shared its grounds with Svanskog church, which was built in the 1730s. Designed as a replica of the stone cathedral in Karlstad. 
…but built of wood instead, and covered entirely with wooden shingles.
Day 3 – Svaneholm to Långbron (33 miles)
The natural beauty of this part of Sweden was staggering. And although after just two days of cycling we had settled into a familiar pattern, there was no danger of being bored. How could we be, when round every corner we’d find yet another hypnotic, picture-perfect scene?
The Fengersfors Mill, in the Åmål district pulled us out of our stupor and was an excuse for another extended stop. It started life as an iron-works in the 18th century… 
…but was converted to a paper mill in 1901. 
…before closing in 1978. 
In 2002 it was reopened and re-named as the ‘Not Quite’ art and cultural centre. A space for artists to display their work, lead workshops and sell coffee and cake. 
Artwork by Richard Eklund @rickardelica 
Artwork by Sandra Magnusson @virkerskan 
The abandoned industrial buildings set in their natural surroundings also had a beauty of their own.
Allemansrätten – the right of public access – gives Swedes the legal right to roam, swim, forage, boat and even camp on private land. 
But we’re too old and wussy for wild camping so instead we headed for our next destination – the town of Långbron… 
…and our picture-perfect guest house, which bore only a passing resemblance to the one in the Amityville movies. 
Långbron is located on the Dalsland Canal, which connects shipping from Lake Vänern to the Dalsland and Värmland lake districts we were cycling through. 
Only 7 miles of the canal had to be dug out though, as it utilized existing glacial lakes, fjords and rivers in the region. 
The next stage of our ride would follow the Canal to its northern shore.
Day 4 – Långbron to ‘Alcatraz’ (51 miles)
By accident, this ended up being our longest stage. Although we followed the Unionsleden route meticulously throughout the day along the eastern side of the Dalsland Canal, I forgot that I had booked accommodation on the western shore. A mistake that led to an extra 15 miles of re-routing later in the day.
The only mechanical suffered on our trip happened at the start of our longest stage. The sidewall of my rear tyre had been shredded on the gravel roads. The hole was too near the bead to use a boot on, so a new tube acted as just a temporary fix, but bulged out and was soon to puncture again. I needed a new tyre if I was going to have any chance of finishing the trip. 
Thankfully the Nordic God of Fettling answered my prayers when I discovered that the only bike shop we’d encounter outside of Karlstad and Oslo was just a few miles up the road in the town of Bengtsfors. The owner Erik ran cycling tours out of his shop ‘The Dalsland Experience’, and had designed a huge range of cycling routes for the regional tourist board, including 17 gravel routes totalling over 850km. Erik the Biking was truly sent by the gods! 
With the puncture fixed we set off again… 
…stopping for lunch and another swim. 
Perfectly tended lawns were often the work of robot lawnmowers – their AI brains resigned to a life of quiet, monotonous subservience, like the servants in Get Out. We didn’t get out – we carried on.
Although there were few shops along the route, we did come across a number of loppis – garage sales where you could buy anything from old handkerchiefs to a set of moose horns. 
The route here was opening up slightly, with large patches of grass and farmland breaking up… 
…the otherwise endless forest. 
A Neolithic grave – or Dolmen – in the woods near our destination. Dating from around 3500BC, these were used as communal graves by farming communities. 
Long shadows at the end of our longest day in the saddle. 51 miles at an average of less than 9 miles an hour. Life in the slow-lane. 
A dorm in the ‘Alcatraz’ campsite was our home for the night. The site is a hub for adventurous types – ideally located for exploring the lakes and forest trails, and has the slogan “Escape from real life, Escape to Alcatraz.”
Day 5 – Alcatraz to Töcksfors (39 miles)
Despite its name, we were in no particular rush to get away from Alcatraz. This would be our last full day in Sweden and we were keen to soak up as much as possible of its natural beauty before we crossed the busy border into Norway.
Day 6 – Töcksfors to Askim (36 miles)
Töcksfors was the busiest place we’d been to since leaving Karlstad. Linked to the Norwegian border by multi-laned roads, it did feel as if the idyllic part of the trip might well be over. There were two huge shopping centres on either side of the town, that catered for Norwegian day-trippers who would cross the border in order to take advantage of the lower prices in Sweden. This economic practice is called harrytur which translates as ‘tacky trip’.
Alcohol, tobacco, meat and dairy products are all popular with the Norwegian shoppers. Thanks to a 2018 sugar tax, mammoth supermarkets like Gottebiten and Godis Fabrikken which are dedicated entirely to candy, pop and pick-n-mix were opened in border towns… 
…to cater for sweet-toothed Norwegians looking for bulk-buy bargain goodies.
The route out of Töcksfors followed quiet roads and a gravel track that shadowed the highway toward Norway. Thankfully the Unionsleden crossed the border in a quiet forest that was noticeably hillier than any other track we’d ridden in Sweden. 
Although the Norwegian side of the border was busier, with far more cars, towns and people, we still came across familiar sights. 
Heavenly lakes could still be found, but were closer to roads, rather than feeling truly isolated like those in Sweden. 
The moose we were so keen on encountering in Sweden, still remained elusive in Norway. 
Like the Swedes, the Norwegians in this region seemed to be nostalgic petrol heads. 
Lovingly restoring classic cars which their owners were proud to show off – like Helene pictured here. 
Performing donuts on snow and ice is a popular pastime in Norway, with festivals dedicated to the art. Doing the same on public roads after the thaw is, of course, strictly forbidden – but judging by the black arcs of rubber at almost every junction, it’s a law that is widely ignored.
Day 7 – Askim to Oslo (40 miles)
Short of time before our flight home, we skipped the final section to Moss and headed directly to Oslo. Remarkably, even with one of Europe’s capital cities as our destination, we were able to reroute much of the ride through the spruce and pine forests of Østmarka National Park, which stretched right to Oslo’s eastern suburbs.
Looking back, I suspect we rode the Unionsleden the wrong way. The route was designed to be ridden from west to east, finishing among Sweden’s endless forests and lakes rather than leaving them behind. Having crossed into Norway, we found ourselves comparing every beautiful landscape we saw to the even quieter, more isolated scenery we’d enjoyed for the previous six days.
This isn’t a criticism of Norway – its mountains and fjords are some of the best landscapes I’ve ever ridden through – but if you’re planning to tackle the Unionsleden, I’d strongly recommend following the route as intended. It saves the best until last.
Further reading:
- Detailed information about the the Unionsleden route as well as maps and GPX files: www.unionsleden.com/en/stages
- The Dalsland Experience run by Erik Joseffsson for guided tours, bike/eBike hire and expert knowledge about cycling in the Dalsland region of Sweden: www.thedalslandexperience.com/start
- Detailed information about riding in the Dalsland information as well as maps and GPX files: www.vastsverige.com/en/dalsland/cycling/
- Our friends at FARA Cycling in Norway: faracycling.com/
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