Parking area by Dutch Mountain restaurant, near Malung - Saturday, 13 August

Geoff
We weren't sure what to do today, except that we were generally making our way eastwards. In a book I'd picked up a couple of days ago from the Morokulien information centre there was an article about the home of a famous writer who had lived nearby and in the reception of our last night's site I collected a leaflet about a week long literary and culture festival, which included a celebration of her work, in the nearby town of Sunne. She was referred to as being world famous but neither of us had heard of her. She was Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), a writer and novelist who was the first Swede and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Her best known work is The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, the story of Nils Holgersson, a farm boy who has adventures after being transformed into an elf. He and a gander on his parents' farm join a flock of geese on their way to Lapland in the far north. It has been translated into about sixty languages and filmed several times. It is a children's story that can be read on various levels. Her other books have had films based on them and one film launched the career of Greta Garbo. I'm not sure why I'd never heard of her and I'm sure someone out there will be suitably amazed.

We spent a couple of hours at Lagerlöf's house, Mårbacka, a few miles out of Sunne (although the house itself wasn't going to be open till later today for a guided tour in Swedish). Instead, we wandered around the gardens and in a couple of barns there were displays telling of Lagerlöf's life and career, together with the film and Hollywood connections. We also had lunch in the cafe.

Afterwards, we drove on to investigate a possible halt for the night, up a winding road which ended at what, in the winter, would have been a busy centre for skiing and cross-country skiing. The views from the top were far-reaching but it was all rather bleak and we decided to move on. After a pleasant enough drive, we have settled at a camper stop next to a restaurant. There are loos and picnic tables. We are the only camper van here (one that was here when we arrived moved off soon afterwards) but there is also a car and caravan. There have been a few comings and goings of cars but now, at 10.15pm, it is very quiet.

Amanda

After all the rain yesterday today started off again with blue skies and sunshine, and the campsite was transformed and really lovely. We spent some time looking up some local possibilities and settled on a visit to Mårbacka, near Sunne, the home of the prolific Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf. Much to our embarrassment and the surprise of those at the house we had never heard of her. She died in 1940 requesting that the childhood home which she had repurchased and renovated be left as it was for people to visit. She was the first Swede and the first woman to win the Nobel prize for literature, and quite a phenomenal character. She is apparently known worldwide for her 'wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson' which was written for schoolchildren to both learn to read and learn about their country. It is about a naughty boy who is turned into an elf and travels the country with some geese, during which time through his adventures he becomes a reformed character. Not my usual reading genre, but I'm giving it a go. She is better loved in Sweden for her other works - novels, poetry, letters and autobiographical books. We were told that Swedish people don't like the Nils Holgersson stories because they had to read them at school. It was a beautiful place in its own right, and fascinating to learn about her life and works. We lunched in the cafe there.

We travelled on in the direction of Lake Siljan keeping a fairly open mind as to an overnight stop. We had read about a Nature Reserve called Hovfjallet which sounded interesting. After a long drive up a deserted road we arrived - it was a winter ski resort and looked very forlorn and deserted, and pretty depressing. We also encountered what I think were our first Swedish mozzies. With the scars from my first set of bites 3 weeks ago almost gone, I don't intend to go out of my way to attract more. So I let G explore a bit, and enjoy the far-reaching views before we descended again. By now the rain had set in again too, but we have found an acceptable free stopover in a Rastplatz just outside Malung.