2geonomads

Thursday 12th June 2014

Nothing really planned for the morning other than to pack our suitcases and prepare for the next leg of our trip north of Gothenburg. Stefan has a deadline to meet for some  articles on the Soccer World Cup for the Swedish Football Federation website so he starts to give some thought as what gems of wisdom he will be able to come up with. He has always had a remarkable ability to work under the pressure of such deadlines and today he shows his usual unhurried , calm approach to the job at hand.

We have had a ball with Stefan over the past three days and he has been the perfect host. Hopefully, we will be able to reciprocate when he and Marianne come to Aus in the future.

Noon sees the arrival at Stefan’s of another old friend from the 1960’s in Gothenburg, Hans-Ake Fridh who will take us up to the island of Orust, north of Gothenburg.Hans-Ake and I first met in a cafe called Rosengrens in 1967 and I became good friends with him and his family. In 1968 we had taken a trip to Norway in my old VW  Beetle, during which I managed to reverse into a tree and tear off the rear mudguard. This was re-attached  using a combination of wire and string so we did eventually get the old car back home to Gothenburg. Sadly the vehicle met its demise some weeks later in the centre of the city when it came to a halt. A local policeman who was obviously more  auto- savvy than me checked things out and told me that it had no oil in it and the engine had gone to meet its maker. No surprise really  as I had never even considered that the car might need oil.

Sake and I have kept in contact over the years and we’re glad to have the opportunity to visit him and his partner Britt-Marie at his Orust summer house.

We take a leisurely drive to  Slussen in the north-east region of Orust , which is one of the many beautiful islands in this picturesque archipelago.

Sake has plans to substantially increase the size of his summer house over the next couple of years but at this stage it cannot accommodate a couple of guests. However, Sake has arranged with his friends Sven and Anna Lundström for us to stay in their guesthouse Villa Helena just down the road.

Sven and Anna had been to Australia a few years ago and they had stayed with us in Melbourne. They had also parked their campervan on the farm belonging to Chip , Gail’s brother in Busselton. Since that time Sven has been ill but he is now on the road to recovery, albeit at a slower pace than this very active fellow would probably like to see.

Villa Helena is a very well-appointed B&B and we are given a very comfortable room for our 2 night stay.

Sake’s house is in a delightful location and once the planned extensions take place he and Britt-Marie will have a superb, away-from-it-all property.

Just to acquaint ourselves a bit with this part of Orust we take a short walk down to to the  jetty looking out over the stretch of a water separating Orust from the  mainland.

Sake and BM serve up a lovely meal in his house and we are joined by Sven and Anna to round off a very enjoyable day.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret