So, we took the ferry to Goteberg. It was an early start (5am) but the ferry was good, the crossing smooth and easy and the arrival in Goteberg took about 1 hour between narrow rocks and outcrops.

The man on the port side, red-bearded, in an official uniform wished us a good trip and we headed north for maybe 100 miles. Having spent time on the coast it was time for the verdant pastures of Sweden.

The camp site is besides a lake, in the countryside, with no noise except that of the breeze, birds and bees. It was a quiet day, awning up, chairs out and birds to see on the water. As usual they kept as far away from us as they could so deciding what they were was hard. But fun. Nevertheless, after such an early start bed was calling at an early hour. Here with the sun setting after 10 pm and rising soon after 3 am light is almost always with us.

So, there I was drifting in sleep, when a loud, not welcome, noise awoke us both. Looking out of my window I saw to my annoyance that the strap which had been staked to the ground with the aim of preventing the awning lifting off of the ground, had come adrift. I crawled from bed with the intention of re-fitting it! No chance. As I opened the door another gust of wind lifted the awning off the ground and dropped it with all its legs and other bits on the roof of the motorhome. Broke. Detached. Finished.

Removed from the roof it was left on the ground overnight for further inspection in the morning, that is this morning. This revealed that the 3 steel plates that had held the awning onto the side of the motorhome had all been snapped. There was no hope of re-attaching the now damaged box. Nor could we bring it home as it is between 3.5 and 4 meters long. Anyway, it was damaged and not really usable. So, no more awning at least until we return to Devon. More to the point, given the dampness of the weather, we would once again be forced inside. Pity.

So, after spending time on the phone with the insurers we were then in full retreat into motorhome as the rain and wind increased to make it into a pretty miserable day.

I guess that we had to consider the other side of the issue, namely that the motorhome was otherwise, we think, undamaged, roadworthy and that we could continue our trip.