Sweden

PC and Susan had lots planned for us once we eventually arrived in Sweden.  On Friday morning we spent the day resting and catching us with PC and Susan took me into Halmstad to try and buy some winter baby cloths, but even if it was cold all the warm stuff was packed away.  But I managed to get a few things for Leigh. 

On Saturday evening they had arranged a good traditional South African braai, with a small difference - a lot of the meat was local venison, moose steaks and wild boar ribs.  But we did also have real South African borewors, and droe wors!!!  All the way from SA!!  Larry had last visited PC 13 years ago and met a large number of his friends during that time so it was a good opportunity to catch up with some old friend and meet some new ones.  Many of them have visited Sa in the meantime. It was a wonderful evening filled with good food and lots of catching up and we eventually got to bed at 3am!!

PC feeds wild boar on a hunting property a few km away where he is part of a hunting syndicate and we went on a regular basis to feed the boar and deer.  This was in some very pretty natural forest but a large amount of pine plantation, there is a complete desert under the pine forest, really ugly and when you see how pretty the natural forest is and you realize the damage that is done with these plantations.  We also went on a very interesting game drive with Henning, the Danish game keeper on Sperlingsholm, a large estate and we were lucky enough to see roe deer, 1 female moose, lots of young wild boar and plenty of fallow deer.  We drove through lots of forests both pine and natural and these were really spectacular, the forests in Europe must have been fantastic.  Henning also raises pheasants and partridge which are released into the forest when they are 8 weeks old.  We had a look at where the birds are kept and it looked a lot like raising ostriches which we did for a number of years.  Larry also went hunting for wild boar late one evening just as the sun was setting  - 10 pm - and he was lucky enough to shoot a young one for meat. 

We also had a very interesting tour with Nils Kuylenstierna.  He is the owner of an estate called Sperlingsholm and we were privileged to be shown the Estate and old family home, with wonderful furniture and be told some of the history of family.  His son is going to move into Sperlingsholm and Nils and Tytti will be moving into a wonderful old building which is currently being used as office space, but used to be the Governor’s residence.  This will be restored to its former grace, and is bound to be fantastic. The only problem is that the road runs right in front of the house and Nils contacted the local road department and was quoted an unrealistic price to move it 400m, so local bureaucracy  is alive and well in Europe.  One of the amazing things was that Nils owns a hydro electric plant, this was built by his grandfather in 1906 and he still has the indefinite lease to the river and to supply electricity to certain sections of the grid.  All the buildings are in fantastic condition and it amazing to hear how old some of them are and lots of them are still being used for the original purpose that they were built for 200 year and more ago. 

On Tuesday, we had supper with Jan Hamilton and his wife, Anna-Karin, on their family estate, called Stjernarp, where Larry hunted during his last visit.  They have a huge wind turbine right next to their home  - about 65m high - and Jan was telling us that he is put up another 3 turbines and these will be much taller than the current ones by about 45m! And that’s only the tower, not including blades!  It was interesting to discuss the economy and effectiveness of all the turbines etc – this should be used a lot more in Sa, where we have wind 365 days a year!  It was also very interesting to learn more of the Swedish nobility from Pc.

On Friday, Larry went with Pc and Jan, to a hunting fair, about 2 hours to the North East, which was interesting from a business point of view, and might be worthwhile exploring further.  The summer show was very different to the winter shows in the USA and Spain, and the many outdoor exhibits add a fun flavor, with clay pigeon shooting etc.

So with hunting, touring around the local estates, towns and seaside villages, beaches,  and a lazy afternoon spent fishing on the river – Larry managed to catch a perch - which runs past PC and Susan’s farm, it was a great time, we managed to relax and do some socializing.  The Swedish countryside was very green and lush and well run, even the rubbish dump was pristine!!

The Scandinavians seem to have a weird sense of humour – or spelling, as we saw many road signs like Fart control, middle fart, in fart, ut fart,  din fart etc.  This possibly explains Pc ‘s behavior.  But we think they actually meant something to do with speed, or driving.

Thank you to PC and Susan and all your friends for a wonderful time, we will be back!!