We’re in the South of Sweden now, the hills, lakes and forests of the heartlands have been replaced by open farmland with huge fields of wheat, corn, sunflower, and even pumpkin. The roads are wider, faster and busier, although still quiet by Uk standards. The towns are larger as are the campsites while there are fewer free camping sites.
We’ve just realised we’ve covered about 7000 miles in two months, that’s over 100 miles each day. Connie is still making about 39 mpg but has developed a couple of strange rattles in the engine bay. We have booked to get her looked at in Stockholm.

From Gothenburg we headed south along the coast to just south of Malmo, long drive but easy driving. Our satnav, Sally, gives us information on campsites and free camping locations. She found a location nearby that we headed for. And what a spot, a parking area a few hundred yards from a beautiful castle with a park and a nature reserve. The castle gardens are lovely with a deer park. Free camping with toilets, a very peaceful spot.

C wanted to visit Falsterbo on the south west tip of Sweden as it’s said to be the best place to see birds of prey. So an hours drive brings us to the nature reserve but an hour of watching shows no birds of prey and very few birds of any kind. Further investigation shows that we’re about a month early, the best time is when the birds gather here to migrate south!

Along the south coast we stopped briefly at Trelleborg to see a reconstructed Viking settlement. We drove through lots of small villages with quaint houses right on the road and lots of small galleries, potteries and ice cream huts. This part of the country is very popular with Swedish tourists who come south for their holidays. We stopped overnight at Ales Stenar where there is a large stone ship, an Iron Age stone ring of large stones in the shape of a boat’s hull. Some of the stones are almost 3 m high and weigh 5 tonnes - reminded us of stone henge. A very atmospheric place at dusk. Walking back from the stones to our camping spot we walked through a little harbour and spotted a mink investigating a fishing boat, presumably looking for fish scraps, great to see. The campsite was a car park for a sports club - one of their volunteers came round at 8pm to collect the £12 fee and you could use the toilets/showers in their clubhouse & get fresh water from a tap. A great idea to get a bit of income over the summer when the facilities weren’t otherwise being used..

Cx, Vx.