SWEDEN: Kattegat

The body of water between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea is known as the Kattegatt (the Swedes add the extra ‘t’), essentially where the top side of Denmark faces Sweden. With so many reefs and shallow waters, Dutch mariners compared navigation of this passage to squeezing a cat through a hole. Turn a corner from Gustav’s parents’ home and follow the road for a few minutes and that is where you quickly end up. It’s Munson’s first saltwater swim since we were here last July. The bottom drops away so slowly that it’s not really deep enough for a malamute to navigate except on foot, so more of a wallow than a swim today.

The shore here is so thickly matted with seaweed that it’s like a marine felt has been washed up and stones cut in it for the larger stones.

We revisited the coastal village of Torekov which has this splendid tree prostrating itself in the central park by the remains of an old church. It reminded me of Beverley Nichols’ 1945 children’s book The Tree that Sat Down, which was closely followed by two sequels and then a much later The Wickedest Witch in the World (1971). These books with a very modern witch are a bit like B.B. meets Roald Dahl are not well known now, but deserve a revival.