Monday 30th June 2014.
I had hoped that the start of a new week would be better than the end of the last but I was woken this morning with a nice cup of tea at 11.30am I drank the tea but remember nothing else till the next cup of tea at 4.30pm, after which I got up still feeling like death. Will it (the MAN FLU coupled with double pneumonia and athletes foot at the very least) ever give over??😱
Tuesday 1st July 2014.
Up bright and early today -10.30. Still feel like **** but its another day so get showered and get on!
Having spent a teetotal three days, after our showers, breakfast etc, we toddled off to town to find Systembolaget, the state run nationwide retail liquor store network of 426 stores and approximately 500 agents serving smaller communities. The agents do not carry items in stock, but the entire product range can be ordered through them. Luckily in Alvesta was a shop rather than an agent, and we were able to stock up with enough wine to get us over the border into Finland at a cost roughly the same as in UK.
Although we are still a long way south of the Arctic Circle it doesn’t get dark at night as we know it. Every blind, curtain etc, is drawn at night to keep things as dark as possible, I went to the loo at 12.30 last night and there was still a “dusky” light, dark admittedly but light enough to see the site and each caravan clearly and when Sue went at 2.30 am it was already bright daylight.
Wednesday 2nd July 2014.
Another moving day. We were up bright and early and ready to move at 10.00am. We are travelling some 300 odd kilometres north-wards, of course, and on this trip it seems that what can go wrong will go wrong. As I was getting things sorted I tripped on a loose rug and put my back out. I can sit in the car and drive but anything else is pretty painful and the last time it happened it took six weeks and twelve visits to a chiropractor to fix.
We travelled north for another 350 km the roads were just as before, two lanes, one lane, two lanes, one lane. The cruise control went on early and off late. The main excitement today - we overtook a lorry, only the one though.
A few days ago we thought we would see about getting the defunct motor mover replaced. We happened to be camping within 20km of Sweden’s main, only?? caravan maker Kabe who had a very large retail outlet around the corner from the factory, and of course we had a look around the caravans on show - stunning is the only word. Mind you the twin axle jobey we fancied came in at well over SEK 500,000 (£42730) but it was obviously very well made and appointed. I bet there are no issues to sort out after delivery and you see a lot of obviously very old ones on the roads so it may well work out cheaper in the long run. Another Kabe, The Royal Tower was released (and dropped) in 2008 and cost a cool SEK 980206.03 (£83609.00) - unfortunately the 4.5 metre (14.6 ft) height gave it problems with bridges.
They were able to supply an AWD motor mover from stock at SEK 23555.00 (£2012.65) plus installation; we would expect to pay in UK installed for a Powrwheel Auto-engage AWD Unit that, in my opinion, is a better unit less than £2000. We went without. We have since been told that Swedes do NOT fit motor movers so we have been playing Spot The Motor Mover and so far we have not found one Swedish registered caravan with a motor mover. They soon would if they went to Spain or Portugal for the winter but to be fair of the three Swedish sites we have used so far none have needed the mover.
Thursday 3rd July 2014.
Got up this morning hardly able to move so instead of moving on for a second day in a row we are staying put in the hope that the back will ease in the next day or two. We went for a little drive into town and what a delightful town it is. It is a seaside town but appears when you look around the harbour to be land locked, but not so. It is a large natural harbour with the open sea a couple of miles from the town hard. There are a number of large supermarkets here so as the sun was shining we went looking for BBQ fare and eventually came away with large pack of pork chops and some beef burgers. Just as we were preparing the vegetables for going on the BBQ the heavens opened so the vegetable parcels went in the oven and the chops went under the grill. Washed down with a bottle of “Ausi" wine it was delicious.
Friday 4th July 2014.
The sun is shining from a clear blue sky and the forecast is good for a week or more. We went for a drive today and discovered that, other than in towns, once you get a short way from the main highway, roads become what my sat-nat describes as an “unpaved road” - they are still pretty good but with a loose gravelly surface.These unpaved roads go for miles and, although you have to keep your speed down, are easy roads to drive on. After a period of time we arrived at our first Swedish tourist trap. Words cannot describe the small green with a tiny beach and deep blue/black water - fabulous! but with three people sunbathing on the beach rather crowded
Saturday 5th July 2014.
Our careful research - absolutely none - into caravanning in Sweden had not revealed that you are not allowed to collect grey water in an open vessel which we do, as a flexible garden bucket is much easier than lugging a 38 litre Wastemaster around. We have had to go and buy a 23 litre Fiamma waste tank - Doh!!
After shopping (absolutely forced to go buy some BBQ stuff - ribs, big lumps of beef, salmon etc., etc. we went sight seeing to a local waterfall, with a total drop of 83m (272 ft) making it the second highest waterfall in Sweden. It was very pleasant but (for Sweden) crowded. We walked up and down the falls and chatted for a half hour to a Swede who had heard us speak English and wanted to chat about EU membership! His partner, a Ukrainian from Kiev, was staggered that we had actually been there, and knew some of the places she mentioned. Feeling thirsty and peckish we popped into the cafe to get some tea and coffee and a couple of open sandwiches. The tea and coffee you paid once and had as many cups as you wanted and the prawn sandwiches freshly made to order came to a total of SEK 140 (£11.94). Delicious.
We also saw some cranes (the birds that is) in a field by the road and the roadsides are often bedecked by masses of lupins in shades from deep purple to pale pink and occasional white. Very colourful!
Sunday 6th July 2014.
Another moving day today - another 350 odd kilometres north. Twice the navigator pessimistically said “traffic ahead”; all we can assume is that here two cars constitutes a traffic jam. The roads were in fact quite empty and a joy to travel upon particularly as the tree plantations have given way to more cultivation and we were given tantalising glimpses of the Baltic Sea as we passed through. This, our fourth site in Sweden, is the first without a lake/sea view although the receptionist has said we could go on the riverside field and pitch by the river, but unfortunately it is rather a long way to the facilities. Once again a mover was unnecessary to get on our pitch and will not be needed to get off either.
A good end from a bad start, lets hope it continues.