From Östra Nedsjön lake, some people decided to change our original route along the train line Borås–Göteborg and instead divert north via Floda and then Gråbo. It had turned out that for the children cycling themselves, any amount of car traffic was making the ride harder. Staying motivated the whole way was already a struggle, and when the route was not so beautiful and adventurous, when they had to cycle in a straight line, when they couldn’t spontaneously stop to pick some berries that they had spotted on the side of the road, motivation was even lower. The rural roads…

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On the evening of the 1st of August, the Biketour arrived in Borås for the start of the Childish Weeks. In this experiment, which we are doing for the first time, the coming two weeks of the Biketour have been organized to especially focus on the needs of children. Some parents and their children had already arrived the night before and found a suitable campsite in Borås. Others arrived over the coming days. There are now 11 children with their own bicycles and one toddler who is travelling on a child’s seat, along with around 20 adults on the tour.…

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I cycled for a few days alone with my 2-year old child on my bike with the special bike seat construction through Sweden towards the Biketour. I wanted to gain some experience and develop a routine before joining the group. It was the first time for my child to be on the bicycle for so long in a single day, the first time for them to camp in the wild, and the first time for me to biketour with a child. Despite having a lot of experience travelling on the bike alone and taking tools and equipment for every possible…

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There are some specific factors much worth considering in a particular case of the bike tour, as it’s by far not a typical group to work in such a way – as well as a few things commonly overlooked or underemphasized in most texts about consensus-based decision making. A lot of people who have attended many meetings organized this way (and some who have practice in a facilitator role) and feel familiar about it are not aware enough about them. It’s recommended to reflect on the framework in debates and read extra. What usually receives too little attention is Prerequisites…

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We have been lucky! Lucky to have been hosted by amazing people in the little vegetable farm in Bygdeå, been invited to their sauna, swimming trips and sharing rhubarb pie … crafting little bycicles with a visiting kid, piling fire wood and singing karaoke! While our stay and preparation time in Bygdeå, we also fixed our bikes, sorted the communal equipment and had a few movie screenings of Sámi films. We enjoyed potatoes, parsnip and beet root from the farm and of course ate quite some knäckebröd. When it was time to say good byes and head towards Ubmeje/Umeå, they…

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note: all place names are (first) written in Sámi language* (and then in Swedish) The start and first weeks of the Biketour this year are in Swedish occupied Sápmi. To travel further and learn more about this region, we decided this year to have a pretour where we travel without our bikes and by hitchhiking instead. Sápmi is the land of indigenous Sámi people, and has been colonized by Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia and its predecessors and since been under their dominion. The colonial and racist treatment of Sámi people continues nowadays especially through so-called green transition with land-grabbing and…

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June is here and biketour is just around the corner! Here we describe the projects that we will visit on this year’s biketour. Be prepared for colder temperatures (especially while camping and sleeping), almost nightless nights, great people and cool projects; forests, gardens and a forest garden… bike kitchens, cultural centers and camping in the nature. Hope to see you on the tour! Note the update on the route plan: we have one more stop just before Oslo and visiting Lillehammer has been cancelled. Tour will end in Oslo in September. Bygdeå: hosts on a vegetable farm, 13th of June…

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