The Update #7 – After rain comes the sun

As real Dutchies, I am starting the blog about the weather, as the past week we had all kinds of weather. We really had bad weather at the beginning of the week and perfect weather since Friday. Unfortunately, the bad weather at the beginning of the week hold us back a little. But despite that, it was another wonderful week.

Last week we left you when we were on the island of Tjörn. We had found a lovely bakery here where you could have a delicious lunch with a beautiful view. And because of the terrible weather, we thought we deserved a nice lunch inside. We used the internet to facetime, upload the photo and video material and put the blog online. Later in the afternoon the weather got a bit better, at least good enough for another adventure. I had seen a viewpoint on the map of the island which sounded nice to go to. However, we had entered the wrong place in the navigation and after a lot of very adventurous roads we arrived at a house. It was a beautiful house in a beautiful spot but not the view point. Where the viewpoint was, we both had no clue. So, no viewpoint. Next on the list was filling water and we found a place at a gas station. It was the first time we had to pay for this but we really couldn’t wait any longer because the water tanks were almost empty. It was almost 4:00 PM now and for the first time I became restless. I thought we really had to experience something today. Haha. So we decided to go to a nature park, this was the best decision of the day. Somehow I think it’s often often the case, if you are going to visit a place completely blank without any idea what you are actually going to see or can expect, you will be surprised. You will be surprised by it’s beauty and making it twice as beautiful. You probably felt it coming already, this was also the case at this spot. We had no expectations at all and chose a walk at random. But the walk was amazing, actually mainly 1 part of the walk was really nice. Here you walked through some sort of natural tunnel. There were all large round boulders one after the other and on top of each other which created a tunnel. The inside of the tunnel was completely covered with moss. It was a lot of fun and a really great place for beautiful pictures. There was also a nice viewpoint where we had a look. It made our day.

After the walk we drove on to the next island, Orust. At night the bad weather really took of and it was storming. It made us almost afraid that the wind would blow the bus on it side, but it only rocked the bus. So, let say that the wind rocked us to sleep like babies.

The next morning we first drove to the town of Mollösund, which is said to be a nice fishing village. I think it would have been, however everything was closed here and so after looking around we quickly drove on. We drove to a place where a ferry would leave for an island, where you could have a nice hike. We expected the ferry to work the same as all the other ferries we’d taken so far, except you couldn’t bring your car to this island. Unfortunately, it was not. When we arrived, the ferry only went once every 2 hours and we had missed the previous one by 3 minutes. It would not be until 3:00 PM before we would get on the island and then we would have to take into account when the ferry would return. We thought that was a bit too much of a hassle. Apparently, we didn’t want to go that badly to the island after all, so we went on to Smögen. Unfortunately, Smögen was the same as the previous village Mollösund and also the next town Fjällbacka, everything was closed as well. In the beginning we thought it was because it was a public holiday but these places are apparently mainly focused on tourists. And because it is not the tourist season yet, they are only open from Friday to Sunday. And is was only Tuesday now. The villages all looked very nice with a super location at the water front, but a bit boring without people. In Smögen there was a lovely free public shower where we were able to take a nice shower after working up a sweat. In the town of Fjällbacka, where almost everything was closed as well, we had a nice lunch and made use of the internet. The day before, I had received a message from the (scientific) journal about my publication. I still needed to make two very small changes but then it would be accepted as a paper! Really good news. So I wanted to make the changes right away. Because the villages and their beautiful location didn’t really brought us joy, because it was raining and everything was closed, we drove on for a place to sleep a bit more in nature. There were a number of rock carvings here. So, we put on our rain gear and looked at the rock carvings. Afterwards we enjoyed reading a book inside and baked delicious pancakes.

The next day was really a day of rain and more rain. In the morning we drove a little further to look at a number of other rock paintings, there were a lot of them and it was nice to see them. But let’s be honest, that’s not really fun in the pouring rain, not even with rain gear on. I often joke that as long as I have my rain gear on or have it with me that it never rains. But that was not the case this time. We drove on to the Tresticklan National Park, where you could hike, but that was not for today because of the rain. The next few days it would get better, so we helt that thought. We really found a fantastic camper place. Right on the water, all alone and with a really fantastic view. Even in the rain we could see that. We just watched YouTube videos for the rest of the day and that got us through the rainy day. And now I may hear you think, hey Jap and Lon, it rained a lot in your first week in Sweden and then you wrote that you are not made of sugar. Has all that fika sweetness turned you into sugar? Not at all. But there is a difference between rain and rain and now it really rained all day and too hard to want to be outside. And besides, we only do things that we want to do. We just felt like being inside with this weather and we had a great time.

In the morning we woke up to the wonderful sound of the birds singing and the sun shining. What a world of difference and what a view. The place where we slept was beautiful. My favorite so far. Jasper starts his morning with a cold dip in the lake. Because we have more time now, we also have space in our heads to do things that we normally don’t get to do. Jasper has been applying small things from the Wim Hof ​​method once in a while, but now he really wants to delve into it. I am curious how long he will last and what it will bring him. I will reveal that he hasn’t skipped a day yet and that I even took a dip in the water once. We then started a walk through the NP. It was not entirely clear how many kilometers it would be, but at least we could make a nice loop. It turned out to be 10 km which took us 3.5 hours, just what we needed. We walked through a beautiful forest with many lakes and we had a wonderful chat about our future travel plans. Once we got back to Bob, tired and satisfied, we heard a strange call from an animal. It turned out to be a black throated diver or loon bird. We were eventually able to spot it with the binoculars, haha ​​who would have thought! Bird spotters after all! At first we thought it might be a moose, because it came pretty close to the sound that deer make during mating season. But is was only a bird… In the evening we were able to play a game of Catan outside with the beautiful view over the lake. Despite the fact that we really had to wear our thick sweaters and even many layers myself, because it was quite cold, we were able to sit outside without rain.

The next day we really had to leave the lake, however not because we wanted to. It was a fantastic place and we would have liked to have stayed a little longer but we had used up all our water to the last drop and there was nowhere close to get water. So, we couldn’t stay another night, but we did stay as long as possible during the day. We started the day with a nice cold dip for both of us. After which it was time to pump up the SUP for the first time! FINALLY! We had been looking forward to it for so long and now everything was perfect. The lake was beautiful and so was the weather. It was a really nice green environment and we were also able to fly the drone and get good footage while supping. It was a bit nerve-racking to land the drone, but we were able to keep it dry.

Afterwards, we enjoyed reading until it was time to pack. It was still a long drive to Karlstad and on the way we still had to score water and empty the toilet. Luckily that was easier when we came near the cities again. We were also out of food, so we also needed to do some shopping. It was almost 10 pm when we arrived at our camping spot. However, this is not a problem as it gets dark at 11 pm. The sun goes down until around 10 pm, but it remains light here for a long time. In the morning the sun also rises early in the morning, around 4 am and it is already getting light around 3:30 am. It gets tricky to figure out the time if you weak up at night. When we arrived at the camp spot, we immediately had contact with Daniël, Maria and Gandalf the dog. They come from Sweden and also from the Karlstad area and have recently started living in their van. We went for a walk with them and had a nice chat. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were really in full force and we finally had to give in and get into the camper. Daniël told us that there are a lot of mosquitoes in Sweden. It sometimes even happens that sports matches are canceled because there are too many mosquitoes and therefore they cannot play. Bizarre right? Where we are now I have also seen some mosquitoes but luckily not as extreme as yesterday. Let’s hope it stays that way for a while because as much as they love me so little I love them.

This morning we had a nice walk with our Swedish friends. Gandalf went for a dip in the lake with Jasper. We spend some time by the water talking and at lunchtime we waved goodbye. Jap and I went into the town of Karlstad, Maria had recommended a place in town with nice terraces along the water. We really enjoyed sitting and eating here for quite some time. The town itself was nothing special, but we did get some ice cream to celebrate this beautiful day. Tonight we sleep in Glaskogens nature reserve where we go hiking and supping tomorrow.

A fact about Sweden:

• We regularly come across very slow-moving cars on the road. Each of these cars does not have a number plate on the back, but a warning triangle. We assumed that these had to be for people who learn to drive or something similar, but why would you drive 30 kilometers per hour if you can drive 70? And the cars are always completely pimped. So, we dove into it and got the answer. In Sweden there was a shortage of tractors after the war and/or tractors were too expensive. That is why the rule was introduced that you could also have regular cars registered as a tractor, but then you cannot drive faster as 30 kilometers per hour. In Sweden you can drive a tractor from the age of 16 and you can only drive a regular car when you are 18. So instead of a scooter, many 16-year-olds here have a ‘tractor’. haha funny right?

So that’s ir for this week, we are going to light a fire to chase the mosquitoes away and send smoke signals (the wood is very wet).

Until next time, love, Jap and Lon

Menu of the week

Spendings of the Week

Budget per day €54 and per week €378 and per month €1700

Route

Driven kilometers: 627