[002] The Kuststigen Trail
I'm travelling in South America. Here's what I'm up to, some photos and other bits
Nothing to do with South America, but I wanted to share with you a recent walking trip I did in Sweden:
On the Kuststigen trail I passed more robot lawnmowers than people. Sweden has one of the lowest population densities in Europe, and a crazy love for short grass. Even their motorway verges are kept trim. It goes against the recent trend of wild lawns and mini meadows, but what Sweden sacrifices alongside motorways they make up for in the rest of the country.
I'd come to West Sweden on the final day of August to walk 90km over five days, wild camping along the way. Besides the odd day walker, I didn't pass one backpacker during my entire trip.
The full Kuststigen trail stretches 400km and finishes in Norway. My walk started two hours north of Gothenburg by bus (sections 12-22), and took me through a gorgeous mix of woodland, farmland and granite coastline.
The ground was squelchy underfoot. Summer had been wet which pissed off the holiday folk who had by now packed up and left. It meant huge mushrooms on the woodland floor. A lady I passed on the road showed me the size of her haul - "makes the terrible summer all worth it!". She showed me which type were good to eat, but I'd forgotten by evening and cooked instant noodles on my stove
Wild camping was a great part of this trip (it is permitted throughout Sweden). Night one I camped on top a rocky plateau overlooking an oil refinery down in the bay. I watched ghostly lights in the night, and listened to the silent groan of supertankers as they drifted into the fjord. On the adjacent marsh huge flocks of greylag geese took off in a murmur of wing flaps and honking.
My second night was perched over Abyfjorden (pictured above) where I watched the water grow dark from the comfort of my tent. The cows clanked their bells on the opposite shore, and a heron fed its young nesting in the cliffs. Down in the fjord I watched giant pink jellyfish bobbing about. I was woken in the night by the trumpeting of an elephant, things only making sense the next morning when I passed Nordens Ark zoo on my hike over to the west coast.
Unfortunately my trip wasn't all magic. For the first 24 hours I was dehydrated, rationing just one water bottle I filled up at Gothenburg airport (silly boyyy). I was relying on kind locals for refills, but they'd gone back to the city. I arrived into the tiny village of Brodalen parched, hungry and a little soaked from the morning rain showers. I bought some grub from the convenience store and took off my footwear to dry in the late afternoon sun.
If there's something Swede's love more than lawn-mowing, it's dill. My lunch was a prawn mayo baguette (topped with dill), bag of crisps (dill flavour), salad (mainly dill). It was good, probably the best meal I ate in Sweden. Partly due to my extreme hunger levels but also because the only other meal I had (besides instant noodles) was something called 'Flygande Jacob'
Flygande Jacob is a national dish with a story behind it. Some guy (Ove Jacobsson) was asked to make a dish for his neighborhood feast, took everything he had in his fridge and put it in a casserole. Here are the ingredients: chicken, cream, bananas, chilli sauce, roasted peanuts and bacon. You might think - 'ooh, could work' - but it doesn't. Come to Sweden, try it, and then don't eat it again (sorry Swedes)
My walk ended by the North Sea. The well-marked trail (thanks to my new best friend: the blue signpost) followed inlets and climbed over smoothed granite mounds. I wound up in Hunnebostrand where I watched swallows and house martins pick insects off the harbour water, then found a waterfront restaurant where I ordered a cold beer and read The Dharma Bums, imagining I was now Japhy Ryder after only four nights in a tent.
On the bus back to Gothenburg my previous five days unravelled outside the window: gaps in hedgerow marked by a blue tag, dewy fields with footprint marks. I listened to Yo La Tengo which is the perfect watching the world go by from the bus window music.
I'd come to Sweden carrying the uncomfortable weight of grief after my friend and colleague was tragically killed this summer, and the load now felt somewhat lighter. This is the power of a great walk, and the Kuststigen was just that.
Always love
George
Try this one next time you're at a bus window. It's a favourite of mine:
And one of the sweetest things about Yo La Tengo is that they're the most incredibly beautiful and talented musicians, and they look just like your aunt and uncles jamming together. This is the most lovely song <3
Yo La Tengo - Aselestine live on KEXP
PS. On my final night in Gothenburg I wound up in a funny little dive bar in the Haga neighbourhood. They run a pub quiz on a Wednesday which fills the place with students and goths. I got involved with the couple on my table and for the first time in my life actually solved an anagram: SOLSTOLARNA TINTIN - 2003 cult movie. Let me know if you get it? I will now be retiring from all future anagrams.
Leaving you with the one cabin in Sweden which wasn't red:
