PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Rain or Wind and a Mini Road Trip Through Sweden
Week 95 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
This week started with lots and lots of wind and then the rain came in as well. It was surely not a good week for skydiving. Out of 7 days, we got one day of jumping in. Which means only one day of work for us.
But the second part of this week is my highlight.
We packed the car and hit the road.
Off to Sweden!
The predictions for this week were terrible. The wind was gusting on the ground with over 40 knots. That is way too much to even consider skydiving.
Our company still kept us on hold on the first day hoping the winds would die down towards the late afternoon. This way we couldn’t go anywhere but had to remain stand-by on site.
Unfortunately, my husband got sick. It seemed he had caught the flu so I was anyway busy looking after him, making lots of tea, and preparing a warm soup.
I only captured these poppy flowers at the trailer opposite ours. I love seeing them in full bloom even though their beauty doesn’t last long.
The next day didn’t look any better and the company had canceled all work for the whole day. That was in this case perfect for us since not only my husband was sick but I was feeling it too.
Now both of us were staying inside, drinking tea and trying to get rid of this annoying sickness. All while the wind was rattling on our trailer. It was really storming outside.
Only later that afternoon, I headed out a few meters to the forest next door and watched birds singing in the tree tops. At first, I couldn’t spot them but then I was getting this male bird in front of my lens.
It’s a European White Wagtail.
You all know I’m not a big bird watcher and don’t have a birding app. But my mom is my go-to for any questions regarding birds. Thanks to her I know the name of this bird and his gender. A simple Whatsapp message was sufficient to finish my research.
And while I thought I had already enough photographs that day, I had to take and share one more as the rainbow was appearing over the trailer park.
Somewhere between rain and wind the sun peaked through as well and created these amazing reflections.
Saturday. Another day of being sick. And another day of wind and rain.
The strong upper winds continuously pushed the clouds over our heads at rapid speeds which is why it never rained for longer than 5 minutes. But when it rained, it poured down. All hell broke loose.
In the small breaks in between, I got the picture of this path leading to our trailer (hidden behind the bush on the right). Yes, we do have to mow the lawn but we’re dragging it out.
I love wilderness and like providing insects, bugs, and birds a home to thrive in. That path is part of the lawn but because we always walk on that small stretch it became a beaten path in the middle of the high grass.
I’m curious when people will tell us we should cut the grass. We’re in Germany after all. Having a perfectly cut lawn is part of the religion…
And since I’m not following the only-one-picture-a-day rule today anyway, I’ve got one more picture of the skies.
It looks like a sunny day with a few clouds in the sky but when you look properly you’ll see the dark clouds on the horizon. That darkness was above our heads only minutes after this picture had been taken.
Sunday finally the weather looked better even if it wasn’t great yet. My husband and I had also recovered from the flu and felt much better now. If you can say it that way, we definitely chose the right days to be sick since we didn’t miss one day of work.
And no, we don’t get sick days. Where we’re sick, we can’t work. And when we don’t work, we don’t earn money. As easy as that. It is part of our lifestyle.
But there was light on the horizon. In the upcoming three days we would be off work since our plane was going in for maintenance from Monday until Wednesday.
As soon as we heard about that we had planned an escape already. We just had to finish work today, jumped in the car and drove north to the city and harbor of Rostock.
That’s where we boarded this ferry.
It was the first time for both of us to drive on a ferry in our car. Lots of excitement, I can tell you that.
We left the harbor and with it also Germany behind us. It was just past 10 pm when we hit the Baltic Sea.
The next morning we woke up on the floor of the ferry (Scandinavia is expensive, we surely couldn’t afford a cabin for the 7 hours on this ship) and drove on land in a foreign country.
Both of us have never been to Sweden and we were more than excited. We drove 3 to 4 hours north. Just before lunchtime, we found this beautiful lake and a perfect place to set our camp. Wild camping it is since we found out campsites in this country cost more than 50€ a night.
Perfect for us, we anyway prefer it more remote and basic.
You can see the picture below taken with the drone we purchased last year. You might have missed drone footage in the past few months but we thought the drone had a defect and tried to get it fixed which wasn’t really possible. Now it flies again and we play again.
It was raining now and then in the afternoon and we also got caught in a rain shower when we were hiking but none of that dampened our experience.
Here is a second picture of the day with some raindrops hanging on the blades of grass on the shore of the lake.
The following morning we hit the road again with a destination further south and more east in mind. I had found a lovely wild camping spot marked on iOverlander and the reality of it wouldn’t disappoint us even a bit.
This was the view from inside our car. Yes, we slept in the car for the two nights in Sweden. It was cold but a warm blanket helped us stay warm.
In the afternoon we walked off to surround the lake. We planned on a hiking trip but it ended up being more of a wilderness fight through the bush. Even though we thought we had started out on a hiking trail, the path we followed disappeared and eventually, we were just pushing through the swampland and thick forest.
We often doubted ourselves and the fact we could really make it all around the lake but a bit over 3 hours later we closed the circle and arrived back at camp.
What an adventure.
Wednesday was the first of June and the day we had to catch the ferry back to Germany. We still had half a day left and chose to take the scenic route down south eventually hugging the coastline with the Baltic Sea on our left.
With a few stops in between, we found some pretty views and lovely beaches.
Back to the ferry and that same evening, we arrived in Germany with the sun setting on the horizon.
What a view.
A beautiful mini road trip coming to an end.
We had less than 2 hours to drive and arrived around midnight in the trailer park. Ready for some good night's sleep and refreshed for the upcoming week.
This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.
Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian
Join my email list here if you would like to read more photo essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writers’ stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).
