According to World Wide Words, the term "it's a dog's life" refers to “a life of misery, or of miserable subserviency”.

Obviously, they haven't met Lambi yet....




Yes, she looks pretty miserable and subservient - NOT! Though I do confess to feeling concerned about her health lately. She is an older dog at nearly 13 years and every time she is unwell, I worry that it might be fatal. Are all pet owners like this? For example, if she starts to cough and I immediately think "bubonic plague", when all she was doing was clearing her throat. Over the last two years, I have noticed that she cannot tolerate direct sun and heat any longer, but we can ensure that she is shaded and well hydrated when it is hot. But now I am worried about her nose, which has been running since we left home. Naturally, I thought of catastrophic things first - tumour, cancer etc though Lars-Göran thought she may just have a cold. I have been keeping an eye on her and while she is no worse, she is no better either and this runny nose has been going on now for nearly 3 months. It keeps us all awake at night as she snuffles and licks her nose (disgusting, or what?) and now I have firmly decided that we have to take her to the vet and our aim over the next few days is to find one and have her examined.

With that in mind, we set off towards Kullen lighthouse, which sits high on a hill above a rocky point with the very pretty town of Mölle in the distance.




The sailing began well and once we were clear of the rocks around Hallands Väderö, we aimed the boat at the lighthouse and I took over the steering. Even I could manage that much! While I was steering, I thought I saw a seal near the boat and became childishly excited. As it turned out, it wasn't a seal - it was a tumlare, a kind of porpoise. I've never seen one of these before, so I was even more childishly excited, so much so that I lost the course for a while - oops...

I thought of the old tv series Flipper, even though Flipper was a bottle-nose dolphin rather than a porpoise. When I was a kid, I loved the show and I tried to explain the plot to Lars-Göran who plainly didn't believe there could possibly be such a cheesy series. But there was, honest (just think Skippy, but set in the sea in Florida rather than in a national park in NSW). I even remembered the theme song and of course started to sing it - very sad, I know. You can listen to it here.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of the tumlare and anyway, all I could see was its back and dorsal fin as it slowly swam alongside the boat. I told Lars-Göran that a sight of a dorsal fin in Australian waters drives fear into anyone in the water. I was hoping it might surface more fully and asked Lars-Göran if it might come nearer if I kept really quiet, but he only laughed and declared that it would take a major miracle to get me to keep quiet for more than 5 seconds. Whatever is he talking about?




I am fascinated by the coastline around here. The first time we sailed here (November 2001), it was cold and very foggy. Every now and then, as we sailed along feeling cold and miserable and hanging on in the rough seas, the fog would lift momentarily and I would catch a fleeting glimpse of the rocky cliffs covered with lush green forest. I felt as though I was in Patagonia or perhaps along the rugged, green coasts of Scotland or Ireland. I've always remembered this and often remarked about it to Lars-Göran, so I was looking forward to seeing it all again, but this time in better weather.

This is Sweden's oldest lighthouse. Landsort usually takes that title, but that's only because Kullen was in Danish territory when it was built. It all seems like splitting hairs, if you ask me. Probably the best known lighthouse keeper here was the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe in the late sixteenth century. One interesting story I read was about the passenger liner Prinsessan Margaretha, which ran aground under the lighthouse in 1971. Apparently the main officer on duty set the course, then had a blackout and the guy steering did not want to change the course without direct orders, so he steered straight into the cliff. Not too much initiative or common sense on display that day.




Just around the corner from Kullen is the very pretty coastal town of Mölle. This was also a place I longed to visit. There is no real logical reason for that, only the really moving image that was implanted there when we sailed by that chilly afternoon in November five years ago. As I mentioned, the coast was shrouded in mist and when it cleared for a few minutes I caught sight of this picturesque little town perched on the hill. Looking at the chart, I saw that it must be Mölle and ever since, I have this romantic attraction to the place.

This was another of those towns that began life as a fishing community, then became a fashionable and somewhat controversial bathing resort in the nineteenth century. The controversy grew out of the fact that men and women bathed in the sea together, which was somewhat racy in those days. Of course, they were decked out in those bathing costumes that went from neck to ankle, but still.....

Today it continues to be a popular place, with several hotels and a lively,if somewhat tiny harbour. We tried to moor there for the night, but the harbour was jammed full of German and Danish boats, so we had to leave and try further south. I was quite disappointed as I had looked forward to visiting and walking around the town. I tried not to show my disappointment or I know Lars-Göran would have turned back and tried to squeeze us in somewhere just for my sake. As it turns out, the winds are going to shift to north west overnight which will send waves rolling into the harbour.




It doesn't auger well for other places we want to visit either. There are no dedicated guest harbours along this coastline, only small harbours like this one, or boat clubs that may or may not have a few spare spaces. We are also here much earlier than we expected to be and "the season" is in full swing, so we have to expect overcrowding. We bypassed a couple of even smaller harbours that were either overfull or too shallow for our boat, finally grabbing one of the very few available spaces at the town of Höganäs, a rather ugly looking industrial town about seven nautical miles south of Kullen. "It's only for the night" assured Lars-Göran. This was just as well, because we were kept awake by a group of Dutch sailors drinking and carousing on the next boat.

In the morning it was cold and overcast, but we had no desire to stay in the harbour, so we dressed well and headed out into Öresund, the narrow strait which separates Sweden from Denmark. In the distance, under a threatening sky we could see the ferries criss crossing between the two countries and the cargo ships entering and leaving Helsingborg.




I would have liked to go to Denmark, but we can't do so because we have the dog. A dizzying and expensive array of vaccinations are required to take Lambi across the border and these regulations seem to change constantly. She is an old dog, so I don't want to put her through all of that palaver, so we keep ourselves to Swedish and Norwegian waters. Well, not quite - we did stray into Danish waters as we neared the narrowest point - there is only just under 4 kms of water between the Swedish town of Helsingborg and the Danish town of Helsingør. On the Danish side, the view is dominated by the commanding sight of Kronborg Castle, which is world-renowned as Elsinore, the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet.




There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever saw this beautiful sandstone and copper Dutch Renaisance style castle, but it is his play Hamlet which has made it famous and a number of celebrated productions of the play have been staged here. It really is a stunning building and you can look at it and imagine Prince Hamlet stalking around the secret passages and casements. Last year they even had to exorcise a ghost from the castle :rolls eyes: Next thing you know, they'll be claiming there's a moat monster.




Glancing to the east, we can see Helsingborg clearly visible on the other side of the strait. This is Sweden's eighth largest city with a population of just over 100,000. From the water, we could see a blend of older and more modern buildings, but the weather started to close in and in drenching rain, we decided to continue southwards towards the smaller town of Råå which is the main leisure boat harbour for the Helsingborg.




As we sailed along the shoreline, we saw some of the new trendy harbourside apartment buildings being erected. I bet they aren't cheap and what a fabulous view to look across the water and see that lovely castle every day.

While the Danish side is quite charming, the Swedish side of the strait is quite ugly, dominated by these awful looking industrial complexes and wharves. What a contrast to Kronborg Castle.




We want to spend a few days in Råå to see the town, get Lambi to a vet and to drop in and see Helsingborg, which is around six kilometres away - if there is room at the harbour that is!