I just watched this before bed, thinking it would be relaxing! Proper stressful, felt like having a panic attack. I'm a forest school teacher and so I spend a lot of time in forests, I have been lost before, and I was on foot and it was getting dark, and I had nothing with me but a little water, this brought it all back lol
Oh my goodness. I could feel the fear - lost bike, trapped in the woods with no app to help! So scary but as always you sorted the problem out and recovered your journey fabulously. Straight back to relaxing, cooking, soaking it all up. You are truly amazing - and despite having to drag your loaded bike over the fallen tree, you still film to share it with us. We are spoilt. Thank you!! I hope you had a few relaxing days just chilling with your husband.
"Oh Susanna!" as the song says!! It's not about never getting lost - it's about how you cope with the situation, and you coped brilliantly. I've been lost in the past, once on an evening walk in Wales, trying to get back to the caravan where my husband and children were, and it was getting dim and I did start to panic. And trying to find my way through busy towns - Wolverhampton and Swindon! But when you find your way after all that, you know you have achieved something - and you certainly did! I did my first wild camp by bike last week, and honestly, many times I thought - "What would Susanna do?" !! Thank you soooo much for sharing this with us!
@@susannathornton I was sure I'd answered this but it seems not - anyway, blog post written now (in 2 parts) on this trip! whatthisbikeneeds.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-little-bit-of-wild-camping-in.html
@@susannathornton I replied to this twice but I think it might not have been accepted because I put a link in. Anyway, I wrote about my trip in my blog called "What This Bike Needs".
What an adventure and you managed not to panic, recovered the joy quickly, and then still got to the cottage at the time planned. As always, INSPIRATIONAL! Thank you
Wow! Maps, compass and the necessary skills, always! Not just electronics. They will always fail us just at the wrong time. Well done for keeping cool and getting out of there. I think we can all learn from your adventure. An inspiration to the rest of us as always. Thank you!
even without a compass, it's about mid day, so keeping the sun on your back helps you going aprox north, at the very least keeps you from going around in circles ;-)
I think it's amazing that words in the Swedish language still harks back to the wars with Denmark. Like Snapphane - traitor, Dansk skalle - Danish head (A headbutting), halvdan - half Dane (something not right) etc
Well done Susanna! Gosh what an adventure. I had a similar feelings once between the Chile and Argentina border crossing in Patagonia and trail was very muddy and at times it was not clear where I should turn. Same thought…if I get lost here nobody is going to fond me! :)
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! As a viewer we really get to ‘feel’ your happiness, anxiety, wonder as you ride through rural Sweden. And I guess most of us really shared your “nightmarish” time, lost in that forest. The final photo was brilliant. Tack tack
Wow what an amazing adventure. I admire your self sufficiency and you can speak Swedish! 👍 I really like the way you are so open about the challenges you faced getting lost. You kept calm and problem solving (…and filming!) and found your way out!😊 Lovey to see this part of Sweden and the ancient woodland. Very special place and it looks so peaceful 😊 💕
Biking like this is not without risks. I tried this in a far more comfortable setting. But I felt so vulnerable, ran out of water and food, exhausted in the hot day. Due to the very bright sun my mobile screen became unreadable for navigation. I felt like being in a crisis. So I really admire this lady for her composure while being lost in the woods without her bike in sight. 😮
Thanks for writing Albert. Glad you got home OK after your experience. I learn something every time I am out really. Making mistakes... then trying to make fewer mistakes next time... Good to share and learn from each other too. I appreciate everyone's tips and comments
I answered a post about the forest but i also do it here. It's true that forest is pretty large. But if you think of how much forest we have in Sweden that forest is nothing special. 68% of Sweden is forest, 7% farmland and the built-up and landscaped land doesn't make up more than 3% of Sweden's total land area. Open marshes and other open land with and without vegetation and glaciers account for 22% So we have lots of room here and i love that, Sweden is the fifth largest country in Europe and we are only 10,5 million living here.
Bushwacking with a bike...no easy feat ! Congrats on staying calm and determined. Easy to get lost...we swear theres a vortex in theforest that lures you in disorienting all spatial cues .. and the sun is always filtering thru the trees, the birds happily chirping away...how could it all seem so "normal" as your mind us in a frenzy looking for your gear ? A most enjoyable video, thanks
thanks for watching! and for writing! yes easy to get lost, even in a small wood! disorienting, all looks kind of the same... actually your comment reminded me that I also got lost in a holiday bungalow camp in the Netherlands, similar kind of vortex, very disorienting!
Wow! That did look scary! Your smile after your swim - pure contentment. Just wanted to mention it was a real treat to have met you by chance on The Quantocks on 5/7 while walking with a friend. It was a shocking weather that weekend and I hoped you had found good shelter that night from the heavy rain, thunder and lighting. I went camping/cycling in Cornwall the following weekend, inspired, again, by you and your adventurous spirit. I look forward to following many more of your adventures.
Hello Irene! oh how nice! yes it was great to meet you both and chat there on that muddy track!... Hope you enjoyed the rest of the day and hope you guys have many more walks together like that, sounded lovely. Yep the weather was not good was it! thunder and lightning! and windy during the days mostly against me! but what a beautiful region... thanks for watching and for writing!
After the teaser trailer in your last video, I’ve been eagerly opening RUclips every day waiting for this video to drop and it was everything I’d hoped for and so much more. I sat and asked myself why I enjoyed your Chanel so much and beamed with each description I conjured. Thanks so much Susanna for the joy you bring.
Great video and I’ve also been there, lost in the forest or on a mountain when the fog comes in. I always carry a compass with me when I’m hiking in case my phone battery dies. While it’s not always easy to work out where you are on the map, you can normally find a peak and work out the direction a path is taking you on the map (even if it doesn’t have have the tracks on). If lost I work out my direction of travel and either try to keep to that direction or try to head inside it to where I know there is a road or lake, but it’s not always so easy 😂😂😂
Yeah, it is not always easy. Actually it is hard to keep your head isnt it as well, well that is what I found. Rising panic, rushing, getting frustrated, mad at myself, making slap decisions when should really slow down and think properly... all that sort of thing
Well that wasn’t good for my blood pressure and I was just watching ! ;-) great lesson that those environments we know most likely best can still spring surprises. Glad it all worked out well - onwards and upwards:-)
Lovely video Susanna. Losing your bike in a forest of trees that all look the same must have been a little frightening. Sweden is beautiful and thankyou for taking us all along.
What an emotional and physical challenge Day 3 must have been Susanna! 😮 Great you were able to capture and share the experience - you’ll always have that memory now and spark memories and fears for your viewers 😇 So lovely that your tough day ended with a beautiful camp spot!! A true adventure…some lovely gifts provided by nature and a spluttering of challenges to test the nerve of anyone! 🙃 What a relief and good feeling it must have been to arrive at the cottage! Mission accomplished and adventure had 🥊💪😎
Hi Miriam!!! yeah once I got out, it was sooooo good to sit by that lake, in a place where I knew where I was! and all was OK! and drink a flask of coffee and eat a load of biscuits 😁 I'd sat and eaten at lunchtime in the wood to keep my energy up but it was not exactly relaxing haha
Many thanks for this video. I have just found your channel. It is a joy just following your down-to-earth bicycle tours, extra nostalgia for seeing how good your beaten Trangia serves you. Your editing of you being lost on the forest roads was perfect, it reminded me of old choose-your-own-adventure books. "You are on a forest road and has reached a fork. Do you go left or right?" Right "You continue on the narrow road and after half an hour you reach a sunlight fork. Do you go left or right?" Right. "You continue on the road, it is now blocked by a fallen tree."... All the best on your continued journeys and thank you for sharing them! Varma sommarhälsningar!
Haha that is funny yes it was definitely a bit like that, those choose-your-adventure books! a junction... left or right...!? .... About my Trangia yeh I think it probably dates from the era of those adventure books actually haha! still going strong! and I love it! Anyway glad you found my channel, thank you for watching, and for writing!
Now, that’s an adventure. Exciting for us, terrifying, perhaps, for you. I guess, going into a wild area like that, redundancy of navigational equipment is imperative. Love your adventures. Stay safe. Peter
Hi Peter! thanks for writing! yeah you are right, need back up... I really messed up, by not downloading the map. You know, partly I was kind of lulled into thinking it was all going to be easy peasy there and was not paying as much attention as if I had expected something hard. All around the nature reserve part of the forest, which is a small part of the whole thing, it was all friendly signs for families and there was a car park and things like that, so it all seemed like an easy little place and I was not in hyper vigilant mode. Hence making the first mistake, taking the wrong track, and losing my bike... Then woah it was a whole different thing once I then strayed into the wider forest by mistake, and then found my navigation equipment had failed! hey ho. It really taught me a lesson
Yes,,, getting lost is really awful, esp without detailed maps. Glad you got out ok. Thankfully, you had plenty of daylight to get through the area. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Hi Jason! yeah you're right actually, it would have been awful to have been in there with darkness coming on and not enough water and things like that... lesson learned definitely re must download maps every time, and taking a basic compass too maybe, which people have suggested. It'd have been tricky to use a compass really on those windy tracks that didnt all go through etc, but at least I would have known the basic directions... Anyway! Thanks for watching!
I've also once was lost in the woods while bicycling, not too far from where you were now. It was really scary and it also started to get dark! Thank you for sharing your adventure, it was exciting to watch. And such beautiful scenery in our lovely county of Skåne!
oh that sounds bad... going dark etc... yeh if it had been evening and going dark when I got lost, it would have been much worse..! Thank you for writing! I love exploring Skåne, so interesting, so many different parts of it to see
Want to thank you for your nice beautiful movies. I was worried when you got lost in the forest, the first time I heard of a person who is lost in the forest in Skåne :) You showed a film when Sweden is at its most beautiful.
Thank you Susanna for sharing such an epic trip. I know for sure that I would have stopped filming. Looking on the brighter side of your experience in the woods it might help to know that you are not lost until you don't know where you are for two days, you are only temporarily disorientated.
Horrible to be lost - your experience here took me back to a very hot day in the Cotswolds about forty years ago when I was cycling alone and found myself continually coming back to the same crossroads. Very hot day, no birds singing, just a horrible eerie stillness. No cars, no other people, it was beginning to feel more than a little … creepy. Like you, I did of course get on my way, eventually. I’ve never forgotten that day and the heat and the silence and the rising panic. Anyway, thank you for another scenic video Susanna, I loved the last day when you got going again on your beloved bike 🤗
aw that does sound kind of oppressive and eerie, your experience... not surprised that it has stuck with you. Actually I thought quite a lot about why my lost-in-the-forest thing did feel so bad - I mean I have been in all sorts of tricky situations over the years, and this one was in many ways not really a big deal, not really a huge forest, etc and I did have plenty food, not much water but plenty food... But I still experienced it as one of the worst times on a bike I have had! I think it was because I felt trapped - going round in a kind of labyrinth, for hours, and I don't mind making huge efforts to get somewhere, but to keep on making huge efforts when you have no idea whether it is helping or just making it worse... that is mentally hard! And eerie after a while. Hard to keep your head together! Life lessons eh!! Anyway thanks for watching, and for writing again! hope you're having a great summer and getting out on the bike a lot and things
🫣😳😨😰That was TERRIFYING! Please don’t do that to us again 😅. I’m awed at your bravery and resilience and really glad you thoroughly enjoyed yourself in the end. That swimming wild camp looked fabulous. From now on I’m downloading maps!
I'll try not to do it again!! Yeh me too, I normally download maps... sods law isnt it! yeh that camp was so lovely, the sun slanting across, frying up some food, swimming at sunset, then lean back in a deckchair ahhhh. hope you are having a great summer
Very easy to get lost in the forest when you can't see any landmarks. As others have said, a compass is essential, in case modern tech fails (battery...no signal etc). As a student many years ago I did some geological mapping in Sweden in dense forest, absolutely no way of knowing where I was without a paper map and a compass. Great film of your trip, a big hand for keeping your cool👏
Hi anthony! thanks for writing! sounds cool to do geological mapping like that in Sweden, must have been really interesting, great thing to do to learn a lot. Yeah a compass definitely could have been useful, but I think I would still have been in a lot of difficulty cos my paper map didnt show any of the tracks. After failing to get out of the wood to the SE, my Plan B was to aim to exit the forest to the NE, but I didnt know that there is only one track that actually leads out of the wood that way, the rest all just loop in a circle and bring you back round. I think there is a kind of (low) cliff edge in the way. To exit the forest to the NE, I actually would have had to head back along tracks SW first. To cut over the trackless land was unfeasibly hard and dangerous as you can see when I had to drag the bike just a tiny bit off track to get round that fallen tree... So I think with a compass I would have been a bit more information, but still faced a huge struggle. The main (massive) mistake I made here was not to download the map to my phone before I set off. That was the killer mistake. I usually do download at least one map, but I didn't download any this time. I thought Skåne was basically easy peasy and that there'd be perfect mobile network coverage everywhere. Actually the other weekend I was hiking in the Lakes the with a trained mountain leader, and we did some compass work and we were talking about this wood and what I did wrong. I'll never fail to download a map again!!! Anyway sorry huge long comment here haha! Thank for so muhch for watching and for writing!
Oh poor Susanna, I really feel for you. You are safe and well and not eaten by Moonins. One day you will look back and laugh at this. Very pleased you show the darker side of your adventures, a valuable lesson to others. x
@@annicaesplund6613 Moonins dont understand borders. They roam , just like Susanna. I think the are currently migrating as they are inquisitive little creatures, or maybe just taking their summer holidays
Really interesting, thanks. I am living in Skåne and know the lakes from kayaking and ice-skating, now I see the view from the bicycle must be impressive too.
Oh ice skating on the lakes must be amazing... I have tried skating on lakes in Småland just a tiny bit with my husband, but am very rubbish at skating, whereas it turned out he could even do pirouettes and go backwards etc. I had no idea! We also have done some kayaking there and I enjoyed seeing the landscape from the water, but I realised of course in a kayak, one is quite low down, so the views especailly when paddling along a river are really just of the water surface and the river banks and trees etc. Made me think that I do like that when I am cycling (and not lost in a wood haha), I am higher up and see a lot of the landscape. Lots of lovely ways to be out in nature...
Ohh... Yeah it's easy to get lost there, a pretty big forest. Easy for me to say now but if you came up to Balsberget the way i think you did you should get down the same way then take a left on Råbelövs sjöväg that then become Helmershusvägen, a really beautiful gravel road, sad that you missed out on that one, when you get to Ekestad there is an old railway embankment that now is a cycle patch to Arkelstorp, goes all the way from Kristianstad. Because i'm from Kristianstad and fun to know, where did you get out from the forest? Sorry that you get lost and that you missed my beautiful city Kristianstad when you cycle on a road outside the city in the last episode. Always fun to see videos from your own surroundings. And a reminder to everyone that always remember the way you came from, can be pretty good to know sometimes 😉
Hi Kent! aw it sounds like a missed a really lovely section... I should have turned back and retraced, actually, as soon as I realised that the first track was longer than I expected, and that I was not reaching the lake, and that I had therefore gone wrong... Argh. Well, lesson(s) learned... And you're totally on point re that forest tract is not even that big. Just from that Motormännens atlas page, it's clear that in swedish terms it is very small! thanks for watching and for writing! lovely part of the world you are from!!
Im realy impressed.. even as a swede! I never get lost.. exept ones.. outside my own house, get in to bushes, did get going in a cirkle.. ended up close to my own house! Ones is non.. there is a lot of roads in our woods, its for harvesting trees.. dont get lost on those! You managed it like a boss! In anyway, there is an app in sweden, to load at your phone, "112" for emergency, they track your GPS on your phone.. to find you! Or rather one shouldnt need it but if one stumble on any car accident/any other thing that needs emergency/police or the same they let you talk to the right service! However, you did the best and used our "Allemansrätt" in the way one shall do, taking all advances and responsibility of that right! In anyway, my father is frome Skåne, i like it, I call it "plattelandet" been there many times as a kid.. its half sweden and half denmark! Småland is however a special landscape as your husband told you.. its the land of Astrid Lindgren.. Pippi longstocking, Emil i Lönneberga, other of Astrids tales! Now aday those skåningar is the moste Swedes ever.. its this they was east danish at that time with there own identity and cultur.. the only part thats left is Bornholm!
Well, I always love your videos. This one was a little stressful to watch but I’m so glad you filmed it for us. It was good to know you found your way out and were soon cooking, camping, and enjoying it all. Inspirational is an over-used adjective I feel but maybe we should all “be more Susanna”! Thank you for sharing it all and I look forward to the next adventure.
@@jackyhaddon6036 oh I didn't mean to sound as if I was correcting you! Sorry if I came across like that - I just meant to agree with you entirely that Susanna is very inspirational!
Hello! thanks for writing! Arkelstorp, yes that was where I was trying to get to before I got myself stuck going in circles! it was so lovely at the Skåne Blekinge border, the lakes and everything - when I finally got there...
You have done amasing, what a journey well done, you survived all that.Thank you so much for sharing it with us, you deserve a medal. Great Video and scenery.xxxxxx
Hey Susanna- Your channel is growing so much now you’ll maybe not see this comment but I’ll do it anyway just in case. Lovely video as usual and they are getting better and better. It’s so worth the extra hassle of taking the time to make those shots of you cycling past the camera, and shots of animals, architecture and scenery, plus your encounters with other people. It adds so much interest to the experience as a viewer. thanks for taking us with you. I found an app called trail router which is free and meant for walkers ( I think) but it shows even obscure footpaths and tracks. I’ve only used it in the UK but it’s helped a lot as it shows you where you are. (I guess if you are out of signal it might not work). It covers other countries including Sweden etc. MIght be a good backup as it’s free. Takes a bit to get used to working it. Take care and keep up the great vlogs. X
Hello Vin! so nice to get your message and thoughts! thanks for taking the trouble to write! Yeah it is interesting to try and get shots of local architecture and things, details, close ups etc... most often it doesnt like I want! I think a lot about how to capture what it is like cycling actually, like as I ride along my eyes look at different things one after the other fleetingly, a harebell in the verge then some moss on a stone and then a milepost then a house etc etc and I wonder how to capture that experience really. I keep trying different ideas, eg i tried doing slow mo of flowers in the verge but it didnt seem to work really when I cut it togehter... Anyway it's interesting to try different things. Wish I could paint. The idea of taking a little paint box and cycling and somewhere and doing a painting of a view or something is so nice, I would love to be able to do that..! Take care you too! best wishes!
@@susannathornton Funny you should say that because I’ve been thinking of doing some cycle/painting trips and maybe videoing them. Someone gave me an ebike recently and I’ve started getting out again. Baby steps though, compared to your amazing trips, but at least I’m starting to get fitter. Lots of massive hills around here so the ebike really helps. Anyway, good to hear from you and I’m really impressed with the way your filming and editing is going. I really must get organised! By the way, have you seen Roaming Wild Rosie’s channel? She is somewhere in Sweden living in a forest and renovating an old wooden house. She can’t drive and cycles everywhere - even to the lumber yard which is miles away, where she then cuts up wood and puts it onto her bike trailer. Her tenacity and enthusiasm is amazing. You’ve got to love youtube for it’s diverse community of creators. Take care. I’m looking forward to your next one. X
I've also experienced going up to a peak and getting so absorbed that I take the wrong path down :(. Amazing how low the lows can be and how high the highs :). Thanks for sharing your adventures!
Excellent video Susanna, I am sure we have all been a little disoriented at some, as we know the key is not to panic. Which is not always easy, so well done you. Russ 👍🏼🚴♀️☕🍰
I do love being self-contained (in my case either hiking or car camping (as in sleeping in the car, not tenting at campsites) To me this makes finding an open café or hembydsmuseum with coffee, or even a pizzeria, a nice surprise and a treat. Relying on them, or only having pizza to eat every night, would spoil it for me. Once, when hiking the Skåneleden, we found a shed with a freezer of ice-creams and an honesty box (poster with Swish details) l was almost hysterical with joy amd yet l hadn't felt that l needed it at all, much less planned it as a destination.
Wow I love the idea of a freezer of ice creams and an honesty box! Yeh I agree, that being self contained is a brilliant feeling, having my own stove and food with me. If I dont cook up a little meal in the evening, I feel sort of incomplete... The little stove humming away makes me kind of content, and makes tent properly feel like home.
When I got the notification that you’d released another video, I couldn’t wait to see it. And as always, it was excellent. Your adventures are amazing and the way you share them make me feel like I have literally been along for the ride. Not sure I would have dealt with loosing the bike, climbing the tree or being lost in the forest as well as you did though. Thank you once again for sharing. I’m already looking forward to your next adventures, while rewatching some old favourites. Thank you for being such an inspiration.
Aw Sharon thanks for the lovely comment. Sorry I am slow writing! it is so lovely of people to write in with comments, I appreciate it so much. Aw about dealing with it well I dont think I dealt with it well really! mistakes were made, lots of them! more than the usual haha. Anyway, glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!!
Very important! Download offline maps for Apple or Google Maps. Load the maps the next time you have wifi reception. Always take a mechanical compass with you so that you can keep your direction in an emergency.
again....even without a compass, it's about mid day, so keeping the sun on your back helps you going aprox north, at the very least keeps you from going around in circles ;-)
When I was a kid I had a back woodsmans book. One thing they do is to mark the trail in some way. You might break some foliage pointing the way back or scratch a cross in the soil. Whatever so there is a record.
Hi psocretes, oh that is a good idea yeah. Then you know where you have been. I think I have kind of done similar, sometimes, leaving sticks or white stones and things like that on paths, esp if I want to retrace my steps, and then it is reassuring when you see them... Actually though, that wood was kind of deceptive - in the nature reserve area, where I was at the beginning, it was all nicely signed with big friendly signs and coloured markers etc for families out on walks and so on, so I was kind of thinking the whole place was a doddle, so I wasnt really in backwoodsman tracker type mode until it had all already gone wrong!
Breaking branches of living things in the wood is actually illegal. Marking the trail, fine, but find another way. Or, as I do, drop a pin in your phone app for where you leave your vehicle and have a map only dependent on GPS and not cell coverage.
I've been looking forward to this next installment. Thank you for sharing your adventure. I was quite worried when you were lost in the wood and had to keep reminding myself that because I was watching your video you had actually got out safely!
Lovely trip, you certainly camp in lovely places. I felt your stress when you couldn't find your bike. I easily lose my sense of direction and have had to hunt for where I'd left my bike. Of course getting very stressed the longer it took. I've even had nightmares of being unable to find it. I've now found an app for my phone that lets you remember where you leave the bike. It doesn't need a connection only needs to see at least three satellites. I'm now much more relaxed when I leave the bike. Thanks for taking us through a lovely part of the world.
Aw thanks PJ Billy! glad you are a tiny part of it! Before I started my channel, I hardly ever came across people who thought the cycling and camping trips I do sounded enjoyable.Haha. But now I know there is a whole community of us who enjoy the same kind of things, and that is really nice
I enjoy your videos and admire your use of analogue navigation. I wouldn’t contemplate going more than 10km from my house without phone, Wahoo/Garmin and tracker watch.
Can't beat the sound of rain on yer tent.......nice. couldn't remember once where I'd locked me bike up in Hull town centre......it happens. Another brill vid susanna.... 'Ull' east yorkshire.
I really liked this vlog. I have almost no sense of direction at all so being lost is like my natural habitat. When I'm out and about as an amateur landscape photographer it helps me relax my senses being lost, but on my trekking bike I've had moments like you had here, but with downloaded maps for all of Scandinavia😊
I love the way you travel Susanna, I know it takes a lot of planning especially around food, but your adventures are always a pleasure to watch and I usually learn so much. I think I could easily do what you do........but with a support vehicle following along behind me 😆. I'm glad you got out of the forest, that must have been very scary. A trick I sometimes do in forests is break the end of branches every 50 paces, so I can at least retrace my steps if required. It doesn't harm the trees and helps stop you getting completely lost. What a wonderful trip, one of many more to come, I hope. ATB Big Dave Scotland
@@starvictory7079 breaking the small ends of branches is natural, deer do it all the time here in the UK, I see evidence all the time and it doesn't harm the tree or bush.
@@davidginn8448 It doesn't matter if it doesn't harm the tree, it's not about that! We who lives in Sweden shall be very happy that we have that law and care about The Freedom to Roam law and so shall also people visiting our beautiful country. It's very simple, follow the rules and show the law some respect and we can keep it that way!
HI Susanna, that must have been really frightening. I once got turned around in the hills above Perth in Western Australia in a forest, I had an old Garmin with me but when zoomed out it gave no detail so didn’t know which way to go to get back to my car, it wasn’t as big an issue as you had as I knew I was only a km from where I needed to be. I’m glad you got yourself out of it and still enjoyed the ride and that campsite by the lake was obviously the universe paying you back, wow! I loved this latest series of riding to Sweden and the ride across Sweden, amazing, already looking forward to what you do next. All the best, Matt
god that sounds really scary to me Matt! I mean, a km away, is not much... but actually if you head off in the wrong direction, you could easily just get further and further away... I changed my mind, twice, about what I was trying to do, get out to the south, or the to north... I wonder what people who have done survival training would do, in a stiatuon like mine or yours actually, would be interesting to know. Anywya, thanks for watching, and for writing!!
I had exactly the same problem in Newburgh Forest on Anglesey a couple of years ago. I solved it the same way by retracing to a known point and walking all possible paths. Easily done when you get carried away in nature!
@@susannathornton I also lost a sock that I had drying on my panniers. I found it after making many passes retracing where I had been wheeling my bike through the forest. I camped in the forest as it was the august bank holiday, but the beach there overlooking Snowdonia would be a superb wild camp spot.
yeah, brilliant tent. Not cheap but I've had it about six years now, time flies, and used it loads and loved it, I feel really safe in it, whatever the weather. It does not really seem expensive if I think of the money spread out over the years and all the things I have done
My heart was going out to poor Susanna when she was lost; first her bike, then herself... "The bike was leaning against a tree." "Yes Ma'am. And where was this tree?" "Err.. in a forest?" There were sighs of relief when you were okay.
i have it and its only good for saving battery. almost worthless in cities komoot on a phone is 10 times better. and with my solar charger and powerbank it works fine.
Good to see you healthy enough to continue your adventures, also impressed with your Swedish? language. You managed to get out of the woods, do you carry a compass with you? Not heavy. As a backup, incase phone doesn't work. That forest was huge. Thanks for showing warts and all, of your journey. Stay well, God bless.
It's pretty large and there is many small trails and dirt roads there, i live nearby, but if you think of how much forest we have in Sweden that forest is nothing special. 68% of Sweden is forest, 7% farmland and the built-up and landscaped land doesn't make up more than 3% of Sweden's total land area. Open marshes and other open land with and without vegetation and glaciers account for 22% So we have lots of room here and i love that, Sweden is the fifth largest country in Europe and we are only 10,5 million living here.
I just watched this before bed, thinking it would be relaxing! Proper stressful, felt like having a panic attack. I'm a forest school teacher and so I spend a lot of time in forests, I have been lost before, and I was on foot and it was getting dark, and I had nothing with me but a little water, this brought it all back lol
Oh I am sorry about that Alex. Sounds like a very stressful thing you went through
Oh my goodness. I could feel the fear - lost bike, trapped in the woods with no app to help! So scary but as always you sorted the problem out and recovered your journey fabulously. Straight back to relaxing, cooking, soaking it all up. You are truly amazing - and despite having to drag your loaded bike over the fallen tree, you still film to share it with us. We are spoilt. Thank you!! I hope you had a few relaxing days just chilling with your husband.
"Oh Susanna!" as the song says!! It's not about never getting lost - it's about how you cope with the situation, and you coped brilliantly. I've been lost in the past, once on an evening walk in Wales, trying to get back to the caravan where my husband and children were, and it was getting dim and I did start to panic. And trying to find my way through busy towns - Wolverhampton and Swindon! But when you find your way after all that, you know you have achieved something - and you certainly did! I did my first wild camp by bike last week, and honestly, many times I thought - "What would Susanna do?" !! Thank you soooo much for sharing this with us!
oh that is very cool that you did a first wild camp by bike. I wonder where you went and what was it like?
@@susannathornton whatthisbikeneeds.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-little-bit-of-wild-camping-in.html
@@susannathornton I was sure I'd answered this but it seems not - anyway, blog post written now (in 2 parts) on this trip! whatthisbikeneeds.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-little-bit-of-wild-camping-in.html
@@susannathornton I replied to this twice but I think it might not have been accepted because I put a link in. Anyway, I wrote about my trip in my blog called "What This Bike Needs".
What an adventure and you managed not to panic, recovered the joy quickly, and then still got to the cottage at the time planned. As always, INSPIRATIONAL! Thank you
Wow! Maps, compass and the necessary skills, always! Not just electronics. They will always fail us just at the wrong time. Well done for keeping cool and getting out of there. I think we can all learn from your adventure. An inspiration to the rest of us as always. Thank you!
even without a compass, it's about mid day, so keeping the sun on your back helps you going aprox north, at the very least keeps you from going around in circles ;-)
I think it's amazing that words in the Swedish language still harks back to the wars with Denmark. Like Snapphane - traitor, Dansk skalle - Danish head (A headbutting), halvdan - half Dane (something not right) etc
Well done Susanna! Gosh what an adventure. I had a similar feelings once between the Chile and Argentina border crossing in Patagonia and trail was very muddy and at times it was not clear where I should turn. Same thought…if I get lost here nobody is going to fond me! :)
Sounds v scary! that was an incredible adventure you did in Patagonia!
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! As a viewer we really get to ‘feel’ your happiness, anxiety, wonder as you ride through rural Sweden. And I guess most of us really shared your “nightmarish” time, lost in that forest. The final photo was brilliant. Tack tack
aw thanks John! glad you enjoyed it! tack själv!
Wow what an amazing adventure. I admire your self sufficiency and you can speak Swedish! 👍 I really like the way you are so open about the challenges you faced getting lost. You kept calm and problem solving (…and filming!) and found your way out!😊 Lovey to see this part of Sweden and the ancient woodland. Very special place and it looks so peaceful 😊 💕
Thanks for watching Jennifer! and for the lovely comment. Glad you enjoyed the film
Biking like this is not without risks. I tried this in a far more comfortable setting. But I felt so vulnerable, ran out of water and food, exhausted in the hot day. Due to the very bright sun my mobile screen became unreadable for navigation. I felt like being in a crisis. So I really admire this lady for her composure while being lost in the woods without her bike in sight. 😮
Thanks for writing Albert. Glad you got home OK after your experience. I learn something every time I am out really. Making mistakes... then trying to make fewer mistakes next time... Good to share and learn from each other too. I appreciate everyone's tips and comments
We cycle tourers never get lost 😊. You dealt with it like a boss Susanna. Thank you so much for sharing and I look forward to seeing you next time😊
Lovely video, thank you! And such a fitting song choice at the end 🙂
thanks arkivlogi! glad you liked it 🎵🚲😎
Susanna - I am so impressed by your speaking Swedish 👏 Greetings from Denmark 😃
not really good tons of mistakes but anyway, never mind! greetings to you there in Denmark!
I answered a post about the forest but i also do it here. It's true that forest is pretty large. But if you think of how much forest we have in Sweden that forest is nothing special. 68% of Sweden is forest, 7% farmland and the built-up and landscaped land doesn't make up more than 3% of Sweden's total land area. Open marshes and other open land with and without vegetation and glaciers account for 22% So we have lots of room here and i love that, Sweden is the fifth largest country in Europe and we are only 10,5 million living here.
Bushwacking with a bike...no easy feat ! Congrats on staying calm and determined.
Easy to get lost...we swear theres a vortex in theforest that lures you in disorienting all spatial cues .. and the sun is always filtering thru the trees, the birds happily chirping away...how could it all seem so "normal" as your mind us in a frenzy looking for your gear ?
A most enjoyable video, thanks
thanks for watching! and for writing! yes easy to get lost, even in a small wood! disorienting, all looks kind of the same... actually your comment reminded me that I also got lost in a holiday bungalow camp in the Netherlands, similar kind of vortex, very disorienting!
Wow! That did look scary!
Your smile after your swim - pure contentment.
Just wanted to mention it was a real treat to have met you by chance on The Quantocks on 5/7 while walking with a friend. It was a shocking weather that weekend and I hoped you had found good shelter that night from the heavy rain, thunder and lighting. I went camping/cycling in Cornwall the following weekend, inspired, again, by you and your adventurous spirit.
I look forward to following many more of your adventures.
Hello Irene! oh how nice! yes it was great to meet you both and chat there on that muddy track!... Hope you enjoyed the rest of the day and hope you guys have many more walks together like that, sounded lovely. Yep the weather was not good was it! thunder and lightning! and windy during the days mostly against me! but what a beautiful region... thanks for watching and for writing!
After the teaser trailer in your last video, I’ve been eagerly opening RUclips every day waiting for this video to drop and it was everything I’d hoped for and so much more. I sat and asked myself why I enjoyed your Chanel so much and beamed with each description I conjured. Thanks so much Susanna for the joy you bring.
Hi PK! oh thanks for being patient!! glad you enjoyed it!
Great video and I’ve also been there, lost in the forest or on a mountain when the fog comes in. I always carry a compass with me when I’m hiking in case my phone battery dies. While it’s not always easy to work out where you are on the map, you can normally find a peak and work out the direction a path is taking you on the map (even if it doesn’t have have the tracks on). If lost I work out my direction of travel and either try to keep to that direction or try to head inside it to where I know there is a road or lake, but it’s not always so easy 😂😂😂
My bike bell also has a compass and I have made use of it many times.
Yeah, it is not always easy. Actually it is hard to keep your head isnt it as well, well that is what I found. Rising panic, rushing, getting frustrated, mad at myself, making slap decisions when should really slow down and think properly... all that sort of thing
Well that wasn’t good for my blood pressure and I was just watching ! ;-) great lesson that those environments we know most likely best can still spring surprises. Glad it all worked out well - onwards and upwards:-)
oh sorry about the blood pressure thing! yeh, I didn't think that Skåne would be difficult ... and there you go! x
Ich bewundere dich immer für deine tollen Touren an dehnen Du bist na T im hab n lässt. Vielen lieben Dank und immer Luft auf der Kette 😂
Lovely video Susanna. Losing your bike in a forest of trees that all look the same must have been a little frightening. Sweden is beautiful and thankyou for taking us all along.
What an emotional and physical challenge Day 3 must have been Susanna! 😮 Great you were able to capture and share the experience - you’ll always have that memory now and spark memories and fears for your viewers 😇 So lovely that your tough day ended with a beautiful camp spot!! A true adventure…some lovely gifts provided by nature and a spluttering of challenges to test the nerve of anyone! 🙃 What a relief and good feeling it must have been to arrive at the cottage! Mission accomplished and adventure had 🥊💪😎
Hi Miriam!!! yeah once I got out, it was sooooo good to sit by that lake, in a place where I knew where I was! and all was OK! and drink a flask of coffee and eat a load of biscuits 😁 I'd sat and eaten at lunchtime in the wood to keep my energy up but it was not exactly relaxing haha
Thank you for taking us on your adventure!
Many thanks for this video. I have just found your channel. It is a joy just following your down-to-earth bicycle tours, extra nostalgia for seeing how good your beaten Trangia serves you. Your editing of you being lost on the forest roads was perfect, it reminded me of old choose-your-own-adventure books. "You are on a forest road and has reached a fork. Do you go left or right?" Right "You continue on the narrow road and after half an hour you reach a sunlight fork. Do you go left or right?" Right. "You continue on the road, it is now blocked by a fallen tree."... All the best on your continued journeys and thank you for sharing them! Varma sommarhälsningar!
Haha that is funny yes it was definitely a bit like that, those choose-your-adventure books! a junction... left or right...!? .... About my Trangia yeh I think it probably dates from the era of those adventure books actually haha! still going strong! and I love it! Anyway glad you found my channel, thank you for watching, and for writing!
I love your rain gear and I love tidy rural Sweden...so glad you made it.
Now, that’s an adventure. Exciting for us, terrifying, perhaps, for you. I guess, going into a wild area like that, redundancy of navigational equipment is imperative.
Love your adventures.
Stay safe.
Peter
Hi Peter! thanks for writing! yeah you are right, need back up... I really messed up, by not downloading the map. You know, partly I was kind of lulled into thinking it was all going to be easy peasy there and was not paying as much attention as if I had expected something hard. All around the nature reserve part of the forest, which is a small part of the whole thing, it was all friendly signs for families and there was a car park and things like that, so it all seemed like an easy little place and I was not in hyper vigilant mode. Hence making the first mistake, taking the wrong track, and losing my bike... Then woah it was a whole different thing once I then strayed into the wider forest by mistake, and then found my navigation equipment had failed! hey ho. It really taught me a lesson
Yes,,, getting lost is really awful, esp without detailed maps. Glad you got out ok. Thankfully, you had plenty of daylight to get through the area. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Hi Jason! yeah you're right actually, it would have been awful to have been in there with darkness coming on and not enough water and things like that... lesson learned definitely re must download maps every time, and taking a basic compass too maybe, which people have suggested. It'd have been tricky to use a compass really on those windy tracks that didnt all go through etc, but at least I would have known the basic directions... Anyway! Thanks for watching!
I've also once was lost in the woods while bicycling, not too far from where you were now. It was really scary and it also started to get dark! Thank you for sharing your adventure, it was exciting to watch. And such beautiful scenery in our lovely county of Skåne!
oh that sounds bad... going dark etc... yeh if it had been evening and going dark when I got lost, it would have been much worse..!
Thank you for writing! I love exploring Skåne, so interesting, so many different parts of it to see
Lovely, thanks Susanna.
Want to thank you for your nice beautiful movies. I was worried when you got lost in the forest, the first time I heard of a person who is lost in the forest in Skåne :) You showed a film when Sweden is at its most beautiful.
Thank you Susanna for sharing such an epic trip. I know for sure that I would have stopped filming. Looking on the brighter side of your experience in the woods it might help to know that you are not lost until you don't know where you are for two days, you are only temporarily disorientated.
Horrible to be lost - your experience here took me back to a very hot day in the Cotswolds about forty years ago when I was cycling alone and found myself continually coming back to the same crossroads. Very hot day, no birds singing, just a horrible eerie stillness. No cars, no other people, it was beginning to feel more than a little … creepy. Like you, I did of course get on my way, eventually. I’ve never forgotten that day and the heat and the silence and the rising panic.
Anyway, thank you for another scenic video Susanna, I loved the last day when you got going again on your beloved bike 🤗
aw that does sound kind of oppressive and eerie, your experience... not surprised that it has stuck with you. Actually I thought quite a lot about why my lost-in-the-forest thing did feel so bad - I mean I have been in all sorts of tricky situations over the years, and this one was in many ways not really a big deal, not really a huge forest, etc and I did have plenty food, not much water but plenty food... But I still experienced it as one of the worst times on a bike I have had! I think it was because I felt trapped - going round in a kind of labyrinth, for hours, and I don't mind making huge efforts to get somewhere, but to keep on making huge efforts when you have no idea whether it is helping or just making it worse... that is mentally hard! And eerie after a while. Hard to keep your head together! Life lessons eh!! Anyway thanks for watching, and for writing again! hope you're having a great summer and getting out on the bike a lot and things
🫣😳😨😰That was TERRIFYING! Please don’t do that to us again 😅. I’m awed at your bravery and resilience and really glad you thoroughly enjoyed yourself in the end. That swimming wild camp looked fabulous. From now on I’m downloading maps!
I'll try not to do it again!! Yeh me too, I normally download maps... sods law isnt it! yeh that camp was so lovely, the sun slanting across, frying up some food, swimming at sunset, then lean back in a deckchair ahhhh. hope you are having a great summer
Very easy to get lost in the forest when you can't see any landmarks. As others have said, a compass is essential, in case modern tech fails (battery...no signal etc). As a student many years ago I did some geological mapping in Sweden in dense forest, absolutely no way of knowing where I was without a paper map and a compass. Great film of your trip, a big hand for keeping your cool👏
Hi anthony! thanks for writing! sounds cool to do geological mapping like that in Sweden, must have been really interesting, great thing to do to learn a lot. Yeah a compass definitely could have been useful, but I think I would still have been in a lot of difficulty cos my paper map didnt show any of the tracks. After failing to get out of the wood to the SE, my Plan B was to aim to exit the forest to the NE, but I didnt know that there is only one track that actually leads out of the wood that way, the rest all just loop in a circle and bring you back round. I think there is a kind of (low) cliff edge in the way. To exit the forest to the NE, I actually would have had to head back along tracks SW first. To cut over the trackless land was unfeasibly hard and dangerous as you can see when I had to drag the bike just a tiny bit off track to get round that fallen tree... So I think with a compass I would have been a bit more information, but still faced a huge struggle. The main (massive) mistake I made here was not to download the map to my phone before I set off. That was the killer mistake. I usually do download at least one map, but I didn't download any this time. I thought Skåne was basically easy peasy and that there'd be perfect mobile network coverage everywhere. Actually the other weekend I was hiking in the Lakes the with a trained mountain leader, and we did some compass work and we were talking about this wood and what I did wrong. I'll never fail to download a map again!!! Anyway sorry huge long comment here haha! Thank for so muhch for watching and for writing!
What an amazing adventure! Your films are so good, you're my favourite YT channel 😁😁😁
Oh poor Susanna, I really feel for you. You are safe and well and not eaten by Moonins. One day you will look back and laugh at this. Very pleased you show the darker side of your adventures, a valuable lesson to others. x
The Moomins are from Finland.
@@annicaesplund6613 Moonins dont understand borders. They roam , just like Susanna. I think the are currently migrating as they are inquisitive little creatures, or maybe just taking their summer holidays
They holiday in Sweden 👍🏻😁
Really interesting, thanks. I am living in Skåne and know the lakes from kayaking and ice-skating, now I see the view from the bicycle must be impressive too.
Oh ice skating on the lakes must be amazing... I have tried skating on lakes in Småland just a tiny bit with my husband, but am very rubbish at skating, whereas it turned out he could even do pirouettes and go backwards etc. I had no idea! We also have done some kayaking there and I enjoyed seeing the landscape from the water, but I realised of course in a kayak, one is quite low down, so the views especailly when paddling along a river are really just of the water surface and the river banks and trees etc. Made me think that I do like that when I am cycling (and not lost in a wood haha), I am higher up and see a lot of the landscape. Lots of lovely ways to be out in nature...
Ohh... Yeah it's easy to get lost there, a pretty big forest. Easy for me to say now but if you came up to Balsberget the way i think you did you should get down the same way then take a left on Råbelövs sjöväg that then become Helmershusvägen, a really beautiful gravel road, sad that you missed out on that one, when you get to Ekestad there is an old railway embankment that now is a cycle patch to Arkelstorp, goes all the way from Kristianstad. Because i'm from Kristianstad and fun to know, where did you get out from the forest? Sorry that you get lost and that you missed my beautiful city Kristianstad when you cycle on a road outside the city in the last episode. Always fun to see videos from your own surroundings. And a reminder to everyone that always remember the way you came from, can be pretty good to know sometimes 😉
Hi Kent! aw it sounds like a missed a really lovely section... I should have turned back and retraced, actually, as soon as I realised that the first track was longer than I expected, and that I was not reaching the lake, and that I had therefore gone wrong... Argh. Well, lesson(s) learned... And you're totally on point re that forest tract is not even that big. Just from that Motormännens atlas page, it's clear that in swedish terms it is very small! thanks for watching and for writing! lovely part of the world you are from!!
I felt your panic at getting lost and was so relieved for the tailwind and a safe beautiful, camping spot. :)
aw thanks for writing Anniesbikes! yeh the rest of the day I was just so glad! just to be on a smooth road, and to know where I was!
Im realy impressed.. even as a swede!
I never get lost.. exept ones.. outside my own house, get in to bushes, did get going in a cirkle.. ended up close to my own house!
Ones is non.. there is a lot of roads in our woods, its for harvesting trees.. dont get lost on those! You managed it like a boss!
In anyway, there is an app in sweden, to load at your phone, "112" for emergency, they track your GPS on your phone.. to find you!
Or rather one shouldnt need it but if one stumble on any car accident/any other thing that needs emergency/police or the same they let you talk to the right service!
However, you did the best and used our "Allemansrätt" in the way one shall do, taking all advances and responsibility of that right!
In anyway, my father is frome Skåne, i like it, I call it "plattelandet" been there many times as a kid.. its half sweden and half denmark!
Småland is however a special landscape as your husband told you.. its the land of Astrid Lindgren.. Pippi longstocking, Emil i Lönneberga, other of Astrids tales!
Now aday those skåningar is the moste Swedes ever.. its this they was east danish at that time with there own identity and cultur.. the only part thats left is Bornholm!
Well, I always love your videos. This one was a little stressful to watch but I’m so glad you filmed it for us. It was good to know you found your way out and were soon cooking, camping, and enjoying it all. Inspirational is an over-used adjective I feel but maybe we should all “be more Susanna”! Thank you for sharing it all and I look forward to the next adventure.
Susanna thoroughly deserves that adjective - "inspirational"!
Ok. I stand corrected. She is certainly someone to aspire to. No intention to diminish her achievements
@@jackyhaddon6036 oh I didn't mean to sound as if I was correcting you! Sorry if I came across like that - I just meant to agree with you entirely that Susanna is very inspirational!
Definitely agree. I love her adventures
Delightful - as ever. Your stories are inspirational Lady. Thanks again for sharing. 👍
Great trip and video, Susanna! Greetings from Arkelstorp, that I’m sure you passed on your way to lake Immeln after escaping the enchanted forest!
Hello! thanks for writing! Arkelstorp, yes that was where I was trying to get to before I got myself stuck going in circles! it was so lovely at the Skåne Blekinge border, the lakes and everything - when I finally got there...
Hi Susanna - thanks so much for another wonderful vlog 😍 Your channel has become my new favorite 😍 Looking forward to your next adventure!!
oh that is great that my channel is your fave, glad you enjoy it!
Yet another treat, thank you so very much for sharing.
Best regards.
Yay wild blueberries 😀🫐!
What an adventure, thank you sharing!
You are such an inspiration. Thank you, Susanna. 👍🙂🚴♀️
aw thanks for watching Brian, and for writing 😎🚲
Very nice Susanna. Most enjoyable with great musuc.
thanks Colin! glad you enjoyed it and like the music 🎶🎵🎺
I love following you Susanna ❤ Thank you again, and again, and again 🫶🏼 … from Montreal Qc, Canada 🍁
aw thank you for watching Monique! and for such a nice comment!
You have done amasing, what a journey well done, you survived all that.Thank you so much for sharing it with us, you deserve a medal. Great Video and scenery.xxxxxx
Outstanding Susanna, you held it together and triumphed. I was quite nervous at times hoping you would be ok. Well done you. 😀
thanks Rick!
Thank you for beautiful Sweden!
Hey Susanna- Your channel is growing so much now you’ll maybe not see this comment but I’ll do it anyway just in case. Lovely video as usual and they are getting better and better. It’s so worth the extra hassle of taking the time to make those shots of you cycling past the camera, and shots of animals, architecture and scenery, plus your encounters with other people. It adds so much interest to the experience as a viewer. thanks for taking us with you. I found an app called trail router which is free and meant for walkers ( I think) but it shows even obscure footpaths and tracks. I’ve only used it in the UK but it’s helped a lot as it shows you where you are. (I guess if you are out of signal it might not work). It covers other countries including Sweden etc. MIght be a good backup as it’s free. Takes a bit to get used to working it. Take care and keep up the great vlogs. X
Hello Vin! so nice to get your message and thoughts! thanks for taking the trouble to write! Yeah it is interesting to try and get shots of local architecture and things, details, close ups etc... most often it doesnt like I want! I think a lot about how to capture what it is like cycling actually, like as I ride along my eyes look at different things one after the other fleetingly, a harebell in the verge then some moss on a stone and then a milepost then a house etc etc and I wonder how to capture that experience really. I keep trying different ideas, eg i tried doing slow mo of flowers in the verge but it didnt seem to work really when I cut it togehter... Anyway it's interesting to try different things. Wish I could paint. The idea of taking a little paint box and cycling and somewhere and doing a painting of a view or something is so nice, I would love to be able to do that..! Take care you too! best wishes!
@@susannathornton Funny you should say that because I’ve been thinking of doing some cycle/painting trips and maybe videoing them. Someone gave me an ebike recently and I’ve started getting out again. Baby steps though, compared to your amazing trips, but at least I’m starting to get fitter. Lots of massive hills around here so the ebike really helps. Anyway, good to hear from you and I’m really impressed with the way your filming and editing is going. I really must get organised! By the way, have you seen Roaming Wild Rosie’s channel? She is somewhere in Sweden living in a forest and renovating an old wooden house. She can’t drive and cycles everywhere - even to the lumber yard which is miles away, where she then cuts up wood and puts it onto her bike trailer. Her tenacity and enthusiasm is amazing. You’ve got to love youtube for it’s diverse community of creators. Take care. I’m looking forward to your next one. X
I've also experienced going up to a peak and getting so absorbed that I take the wrong path down :(. Amazing how low the lows can be and how high the highs :). Thanks for sharing your adventures!
Glad I am not the only one! thanks for writing!
Oh dear, this was a though on. Glad you maked it!❤❤❤❤😊
thanks Bolle!
Oh lovely as always! Thanks for sharing Susanna. Don’t get lost again 🫣
Excellent video Susanna, I am sure we have all been a little disoriented at some, as we know the key is not to panic. Which is not always easy, so well done you. Russ 👍🏼🚴♀️☕🍰
aw that's nice of you to say Russ, but I reckon I did make a pretty bad mess up that day! mistakes were made!!
@@susannathornton As they say, we learn from our mistakes, which is the main thing Susanna 👌🏽😉
Thank you for taking us on another adventure with you! x
Another brilliant video. Oh my goodness. I thought you'd never get out of that Forrest. Spectacular scenery. Thankyou for sharing. Take care
Thank you so much Susanna for sharing your experiences with us. Your travel truly took me away! X
Excellent as always
thanks Bob!
Brilliant content, you are a noble soul! thank you
I do love being self-contained (in my case either hiking or car camping (as in sleeping in the car, not tenting at campsites)
To me this makes finding an open café or hembydsmuseum with coffee, or even a pizzeria, a nice surprise and a treat.
Relying on them, or only having pizza to eat every night, would spoil it for me.
Once, when hiking the Skåneleden, we found a shed with a freezer of ice-creams and an honesty box (poster with Swish details) l was almost hysterical with joy amd yet l hadn't felt that l needed it at all, much less planned it as a destination.
Wow I love the idea of a freezer of ice creams and an honesty box!
Yeh I agree, that being self contained is a brilliant feeling, having my own stove and food with me. If I dont cook up a little meal in the evening, I feel sort of incomplete... The little stove humming away makes me kind of content, and makes tent properly feel like home.
When I got the notification that you’d released another video, I couldn’t wait to see it. And as always, it was excellent.
Your adventures are amazing and the way you share them make me feel like I have literally been along for the ride. Not sure I would have dealt with loosing the bike, climbing the tree or being lost in the forest as well as you did though. Thank you once again for sharing. I’m already looking forward to your next adventures, while rewatching some old favourites. Thank you for being such an inspiration.
Aw Sharon thanks for the lovely comment. Sorry I am slow writing! it is so lovely of people to write in with comments, I appreciate it so much. Aw about dealing with it well I dont think I dealt with it well really! mistakes were made, lots of them! more than the usual haha. Anyway, glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!!
Only just catcing up with your latest video and wow, I realised I was holding my breath until you'd found your bike! Glad you made it out eventually!
only just catching up myself here...! thanks for watching Merlin!
Always enjoy your videos. Thank you for sharing your adventures and the inspiration that comes with them! You are truly amazing!
Another GREAT video! Thanks!! It was the best part of my work day!!!
Very important!
Download offline maps for Apple or Google Maps.
Load the maps the next time you have wifi reception.
Always take a mechanical compass with you so that you can keep your direction in an emergency.
again....even without a compass, it's about mid day, so keeping the sun on your back helps you going aprox north, at the very least keeps you from going around in circles ;-)
Thanks for the nice video, very adventurous. 👍
When I was a kid I had a back woodsmans book. One thing they do is to mark the trail in some way. You might break some foliage pointing the way back or scratch a cross in the soil. Whatever so there is a record.
Hi psocretes, oh that is a good idea yeah. Then you know where you have been. I think I have kind of done similar, sometimes, leaving sticks or white stones and things like that on paths, esp if I want to retrace my steps, and then it is reassuring when you see them... Actually though, that wood was kind of deceptive - in the nature reserve area, where I was at the beginning, it was all nicely signed with big friendly signs and coloured markers etc for families out on walks and so on, so I was kind of thinking the whole place was a doddle, so I wasnt really in backwoodsman tracker type mode until it had all already gone wrong!
Breaking branches of living things in the wood is actually illegal. Marking the trail, fine, but find another way. Or, as I do, drop a pin in your phone app for where you leave your vehicle and have a map only dependent on GPS and not cell coverage.
I've been looking forward to this next installment. Thank you for sharing your adventure. I was quite worried when you were lost in the wood and had to keep reminding myself that because I was watching your video you had actually got out safely!
Lovely to see a new video, thank you. Good advertising for Brompton touring and Trangia cookers :))
Lovely trip, you certainly camp in lovely places.
I felt your stress when you couldn't find your bike. I easily lose my sense of direction and have had to hunt for where I'd left my bike. Of course getting very stressed the longer it took. I've even had nightmares of being unable to find it. I've now found an app for my phone that lets you remember where you leave the bike. It doesn't need a connection only needs to see at least three satellites. I'm now much more relaxed when I leave the bike.
Thanks for taking us through a lovely part of the world.
Well done, I really don't know how you do it. Its very impressive, and enjoyable to be a tiny part of it.
Aw thanks PJ Billy! glad you are a tiny part of it! Before I started my channel, I hardly ever came across people who thought the cycling and camping trips I do sounded enjoyable.Haha. But now I know there is a whole community of us who enjoy the same kind of things, and that is really nice
such an adventure ❤
I enjoy your videos and admire your use of analogue navigation. I wouldn’t contemplate going more than 10km from my house without phone, Wahoo/Garmin and tracker watch.
Can't beat the sound of rain on yer tent.......nice. couldn't remember once where I'd locked me bike up in Hull town centre......it happens. Another brill vid susanna....
'Ull' east yorkshire.
I really liked this vlog. I have almost no sense of direction at all so being lost is like my natural habitat. When I'm out and about as an amateur landscape photographer it helps me relax my senses being lost, but on my trekking bike I've had moments like you had here, but with downloaded maps for all of Scandinavia😊
Once again a really nice video.
So good 😊Thankyou for posting.
Loving these videos as a new watcher. Please keep them coming!
Hi wulfzz! oh that is nice of you to say! loads more films coming! thank you for watching!
I love the way you travel Susanna, I know it takes a lot of planning especially around food, but your adventures are always a pleasure to watch and I usually learn so much. I think I could easily do what you do........but with a support vehicle following along behind me 😆. I'm glad you got out of the forest, that must have been very scary. A trick I sometimes do in forests is break the end of branches every 50 paces, so I can at least retrace my steps if required. It doesn't harm the trees and helps stop you getting completely lost. What a wonderful trip, one of many more to come, I hope. ATB Big Dave Scotland
Not allowed in Sweden to break branches . The Freedom to Roam Law forbids it. Be respectful of mother nature. Only break dead branches if needed.
@@starvictory7079 breaking the small ends of branches is natural, deer do it all the time here in the UK, I see evidence all the time and it doesn't harm the tree or bush.
@@davidginn8448 It doesn't matter if it doesn't harm the tree, it's not about that! We who lives in Sweden shall be very happy that we have that law and care about The Freedom to Roam law and so shall also people visiting our beautiful country. It's very simple, follow the rules and show the law some respect and we can keep it that way!
Very breve Susanna 💪 take care, thanks for sharing. Cheers
Just lovely❤️
Another good video, you could sense the fear when you got lost, just remember maps the next time
HI Susanna, that must have been really frightening. I once got turned around in the hills above Perth in Western Australia in a forest, I had an old Garmin with me but when zoomed out it gave no detail so didn’t know which way to go to get back to my car, it wasn’t as big an issue as you had as I knew I was only a km from where I needed to be. I’m glad you got yourself out of it and still enjoyed the ride and that campsite by the lake was obviously the universe paying you back, wow! I loved this latest series of riding to Sweden and the ride across Sweden, amazing, already looking forward to what you do next. All the best, Matt
god that sounds really scary to me Matt! I mean, a km away, is not much... but actually if you head off in the wrong direction, you could easily just get further and further away... I changed my mind, twice, about what I was trying to do, get out to the south, or the to north... I wonder what people who have done survival training would do, in a stiatuon like mine or yours actually, would be interesting to know. Anywya, thanks for watching, and for writing!!
I had exactly the same problem in Newburgh Forest on Anglesey a couple of years ago. I solved it the same way by retracing to a known point and walking all possible paths. Easily done when you get carried away in nature!
oh it is kind of comforting to know that other people have done this sort of thing too. glad you got out like that, sounds like you did it really well
@@susannathornton I also lost a sock that I had drying on my panniers. I found it after making many passes retracing where I had been wheeling my bike through the forest. I camped in the forest as it was the august bank holiday, but the beach there overlooking Snowdonia would be a superb wild camp spot.
Love these videos.
You chose a good tent. That is important. I have a similar make:)
yeah, brilliant tent. Not cheap but I've had it about six years now, time flies, and used it loads and loved it, I feel really safe in it, whatever the weather. It does not really seem expensive if I think of the money spread out over the years and all the things I have done
Beautiful video, thank you for sharing your adventures
Great video ....🙂👍
My heart was going out to poor Susanna when she was lost; first her bike, then herself...
"The bike was leaning against a tree."
"Yes Ma'am. And where was this tree?"
"Err.. in a forest?"
There were sighs of relief when you were okay.
🤣 yeh that was about it, thanks for writing effyleven!
Oh by the way lovely films your making I really enjoy them😊
Super job Susanna 🍀🫶
Really enjoy all your cycling videos
That was a real adventure! I never was so lost, but of course here in the Netherlands woods are not as large as in Sweden.
Very nice 👍
Maybe it’s time for a Garmin edge😂you will never get lost😉
i have it and its only good for saving battery. almost worthless in cities
komoot on a phone is 10 times better. and with my solar charger and powerbank it works fine.
In my Tissot watch, besides the high, I also have a compas! Besides, looking at the sun, and having the time, you will also have North.
Good to see you healthy enough to continue your adventures, also impressed with your Swedish? language. You managed to get out of the woods, do you carry a compass with you? Not heavy. As a backup, incase phone doesn't work. That forest was huge. Thanks for showing warts and all, of your journey. Stay well, God bless.
It's pretty large and there is many small trails and dirt roads there, i live nearby, but if you think of how much forest we have in Sweden that forest is nothing special. 68% of Sweden is forest, 7% farmland and the built-up and landscaped land doesn't make up more than 3% of Sweden's total land area. Open marshes and other open land with and without vegetation and glaciers account for 22% So we have lots of room here and i love that, Sweden is the fifth largest country in Europe and we are only 10,5 million living here.