Making Hay While the Sun Shines

We are back on the coast enjoying a very rare week of beautiful weather. Clear skies and low temperatures everyday making for excellent climbing conditions. And as the local farmers ‘make hay while the sun shines’ in the most literal sense, we have been trying to making the most of this unpredictable window before the rain returns.

We don't seem to be the only ones enjoying the break before the cold sets in either. There is a constant stir around the crags, with deer grazing the forest floors amid the first falling leaves of autumn, woodpeckers hopping from tree to tree, filling the air with their erratic tapping, down to the caterpillars creeping around doing whatever they do to get ready for winter.

The climbing takes its toll though, most immediately on the hands: Our skin is suffering!

'B' is for Brussels?

So our last moments in Brussels were spent drinking our last belgian beers in the bus to the airport. The consisted of a lot of running around, quick visits to the swedish embassy (Ikea,) and some less than ideal sleeping situations. Next: A couple days relax, then back to our base on the Swedish west coast...

Waiting

We are relocating for a few days. To Brussels. Have a break from climbing, and enjoy some cheap beer. The only downside is spending a night in an airport with very few benches or anywhere to sleep, (other than the floor.) A restless night awaits, but maybe some productivity will come of it...

Water

So one of the only constants here on the west coast of Sweden is water. Apart from the fact that we are right next to the ocean, it rains quite a lot. The results are, among other things, big slugs, and chanterelle mushrooms. (At least I hope that's what they were, cause I ate a few!)

POV

The view from inside and outside stugan!

CREATIVE Writing

Well as it stands, I am without a camera, and therefore have no way of providing any visual examples of the beauty of the Swedish west coast. I guess that is my motivation for an attempt to paint a picture with the only medium currently available to me: words.

As the sun begins to set, (around 2200 hours,) one doesn't really appreciate quite how far north one is. It isn't until a couple hours and maybe a movie, or a few chapters of a book later, that you look outside to see that the first star at dusk remains the only star in the ever evening sky. Darkness is only relative to the density of the clouds during those hours around 0000.

So in the opposite way a day ends, the next begins early, well before I have woken up. Rapidly changing, unpredictable weather has been the inconstant constant: Clear evenings followed by rainy mornings, with who knows what after lunch. It keeps everything green. Abundant patches of wild blueberries, and the odd group of golden chanterelle mushrooms top the mossy carpets that thrive in the damp atmosphere sustained by the pine forests. The countless granite outcrops and cliffs, are coated with lichens, matt black to fluorescent greens and yellows. Dissecting all this into hundreds of islands and inlets are the frigid waters of the Skagerrak. Part of the body of water that divides the North and Baltic seas. Its waters, far from the crystal waters of the tropics, a deep cloudy blue.

Thats what I've seen so far anyway.

New Horizons

The time has come for a change of scenery. Rising temperatures in Spain means that the landscape is beginning to turn a shade of brown, amplifying the call of 'the greener grass', bringing me to Sweden. Along with an invitation and the prospect of new friends, new culture and new challenges made it a great choice for a summer destination.

So from here I will hopefully become more diligent with my updates, and have experiences to share. I will let you know in couple of weeks...