Dwti Draig

As I write this I am laying propped up on my bed on the daytime ferry sailing from Travemunde in Germany to Malmo in Sweden. It’s an 8 hour journey so we booked a cabin so we can nap and shower. We also booked the buffet meal plan option, but won’t do that again in a hurry on Finnlines. We were about the tenth people into the brunch buffet, before we even sailed, and yet all the bacon had gone, and was not going to be replenished. The horror! There wasn’t even any croissants. How can you have a breakfast buffet without croissants? Anyway, I digress, let’s wind back a week. 

The last couple of blog posts have been about letting go of perfect and letting go of control. The last week has been more a case of letting go of my sanity. It’s been a case of if something can go wrong, it will. I’ve been feeling like a human in Olympus who has upset Jeff Goldblum, who is now raining kaos down on us. (If you know, you know!) 

As well as the stressful time of our youngest getting ill in Peru and having to come home early (he’s fine now), things did not get any easier. The truck needed a new exhaust gas regulator and gear linkage which were both necessary, but spendy. This delayed our plans to go, but luckily we had purchased a flexi ticket for our first ferry, which enabled us to change our dates without penalty. That was a very wise decision, as it turned out. As we raced against the clock to get ready for our Wednesday departure to catch the ferry the next day, I managed to put my back out really badly. I could barely walk, let alone climb into the cab. I couldn’t even bend over to put my own knickers on, which is probably not an image you want, but now you have it. You’re welcome! We had no choice but to delay the ferry again, so we pushed it back to the following Monday, trusting I would be a bit more mobile by then. 

I was still hobbling, but managed to haul myself into the cab by standing on a beer crate and with only a few pitiful moans, so we arranged to set off for the long journey east to Harwich on Sunday afternoon. I was shuffling down the garden path towards Dwti while Lyn started her up. Only she wouldn’t start up. She had a totally flat battery, probably from Lyn fiddling with the Victron settings because our new Starlink set up soaks up so much power. Lyn immediately put her on to charge, and we returned to the house to wait, bearing in mind we have closed the house down, so had no water, fridge, freezer, food etc. It’s all been switched off. We didn’t know if we would need a new battery, so started googling next day deliveries. Luckily, within 2 hours we had enough charge to start Dwti, trusting she would recharge on the way.. We started off on our long trip at 6pm, and got to the ferry at just past midnight. We managed a few hours kip after I had managed to fold my bad back in two to get through the crawl through into the hab.

The sailing was great to the Hook of Holland, and we drove another 50 miles or so to where we had arranged to have new tyres fitted in the Netherlands. Buying there made more sense as they were 2024 dated, and cheaper than they would be in the UK. Hopefully we can visit customs before we sail back and get the taxes back as non EU residents. We spent a happy 2 hours in the waiting room of the garage, where I was able to sit with my feet up, and drink coffee. 

We made the decision then to push on through Germany, to get to the port to get the next ferry to Sweden. This meant we immediately broke one of our cardinal rules of enjoying the journey, as it was a slog. We did three two hour sessions of driving, all on motorways. This is not the way we plan to travel; we need to do much less mileage and enjoy the journey, but we are aiming to get up to Finnish Lapland to hopefully catch the aurora, and September is the best month to see it, especially around the equinox. This year is also the best year in the 11 year cycle of sun activity, so it made sense to push on. We even stopped off at a huge German supermarket and did a massive shop as prices will be much more expensive in Scandinavia. 

We stopped for the night at a busy park up outside the town of Lubeck, about 11 miles from the port. Googling Lubeck shows it is famous for being one of Germany’s “most romantic towns” and is also famed for marzipan! Be still my beating heart! We will definitely have to return to explore, as I have a particular passion for marzipan, and also for licorice, which you see far more of in this part of the world. Guess what my diet is going to consist of?

I write again, three days later, sat parked far up the Baltic coast. In fact I had to ask what day it is now and what day we sailed to Malmo as I honestly have no concept of time, which is lovely.

To be honest, the last week has been a slog. It’s consisted of far more driving than we wanted, but we were eager to make up time and get North as fast as we could, after our delays. It has eventually paid off, and today, Friday, has been our best day so far. We had parked up in an incredible spot, with a fantastic view. We were overlooking the Baltic Sea and had a fabulous view of the Hogakurtsenbron, or the High Coastal bridge. We even had our own jetty and deck in front of us. We thought we were incredibly lucky and settled down to enjoy our evening. After our spag bol, my aurora alarm sounded. We had a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights in an hour! We got wrapped up, got our chairs out and set up outside on the decking. 

We were absolutely rewarded with an incredible show. It was absolutely mesmerising; the sky was a continuing, ever changing palette of pinks, purples and greens. It was magical, like the heavens were dancing. We were in awe.

This had been our main reason for coming up so far North, but in truth I had not expected to see them until we were well up into the Arctic Circle. Hopefully this is just the first night of many, gazing skywards. 

We were both awake early this morning, and were sat on the decking with our coffees just after 6.30. It was so peaceful, and the sea so calm. I got my mat out and had my most scenic yoga practice ever, then we got changed and went in for a swim. The Baltic was not too baltic at 12 degrees. This was the second time for me to swim in this sea; in fact a swim in the Baltic was what started my wild swimming and cold water adventures 5 years ago. Again, hopefully the first dip of many.

could have quite happily stayed there for longer, but the Arctic circle beckons, so onwards North we go. We stopped off on the way to take a stroll down to a beautiful deserted beach. Who knew Sweden had such fabulous ones? We planned a stop mid day to get a Max Burger, from a Swedish chain we had encountered 5 years ago when we were here last. They were just as good today. We followed that up with our first Swedish trip to Ikea; every Ovelander’s friend. 

Soon we had got to our final stop for the day. Lyn had earmarked a dirt trail through a forest that led to a beach. We sit here now; looking out at the pink sunset skies over the sea, with a gin and smelling the pine, and life is good. Life is very good.