Hammarstrand

Sweden

“if you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want”

Richard Yates

I wake up to sunshine at 3.00 am and need to go to the toilet. Rachelle is awake. We dash into the hive of insects and relieve ourselves next to the cabin. The trip to the distant bathroom is far too dangerous.

There is no way we will get back to sleep.

I wake again at 8.00 am.

We shower, I make porridge, and we hit the road.

As I drive out, I start putting the pieces together. A privately owned campsite with a cabin and no running water. The provided reading material is magazines on hunting, knives, and survival. The site is called WTF campsite with a skull as its icon.

Preppers hosted us.

We have been listening to an audiobook as we drive. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is as relevant today as it was in the 1950s. A beautifully written, tragic novel that I encourage everyone to read or listen to, even if it confrontingly holds a mirror to the banality of our daily lives. There is a brutal honesty in the misconception that we are special, and not like the rest of suburbia.

“Intelligent, thinking people could take things like this in their stride, just as they took the larger absurdities of deadly dull jobs in the city and deadly dull homes in the suburbs. Economic circumstances might force you to live in this environment, but the important thing was to keep from being contaminated. The important thing, always, was to remember who you were.”

Richard Yates

The drive to Hammarstrand is uneventful, and we arrive at a lovely cabin complete with such luxuries as a toilet, running water, and a shower. We put a load of washing on and walk to the nearby supermarket for food.

As we walk, I notice a restaurant: Restaurang Kaffestugan, which is a grill. I point it out to Shell and suggest we have dinner there.

Her response: “I didn’t book a cabin with a beautiful kitchen so we could eat out. No, you will cook, and I will watch you cook. Don’t be lazy”

From the neighbouring wine store, I pick out a generic German Riesling. I am happy to see a very reasonably priced 2024 Fontanafredda Nebbiolo. We are set for the evening.

Dinner is roasted potatoes and pork fillets. Once again, the beef is overpriced.

As I prepare dinner and pour Rachelle Nebbiolo, she attentively supervises the chopping of the potatoes; our host arrives home, and we have a chat.

Stefan was born in Holland and has ridden a touring bike all over the world. He met his wife riding in the Ukraine.

They moved to Hammarstrand two years ago to set up this accommodation. They are now looking to move to either North East Spain or Slovenia. I like their sense of adventure.