Today was a stage that included a detour to a town where I could shop. Yes, and eat pizza. That’s kind of the reward. Because these are not the stages I look forward to. They usually involve several extra kilometres and a lot of walking on gravel and asphalt. And the provincial towns aren’t always the most charming.

Today I came to the least charming one so far. It was called Laxå. In fact, I find towns like that a bit depressing. Now I probably haven’t seen the whole town. I only touched the outskirts, but that’s enough. I do wonder why on earth anyone would want to move to such a place. Why such places have been invented in the first place. When you spend so much time out in nature, in the woods, the contrast is almost frightening.

I had to make a detour of about 10km to get in and out of town and after shopping, my rucksack tends to weigh an extra 2-3kg. But one has to eat, so unfortunately I can’t avoid these kinds of excursions. At the grocery store, it always takes a while to choose the right thing. It’s not always what you want the most. You have to carefully consider the weight of the food in relation to the calories it provides. Not the usual considerations when you go shopping, but essential when you’re hiking long distances and have to carry the lot. In the end I got what I needed and now I don’t have to worry about it for the next five days.

I was so happy to get back to the forest. And tonight’s shelter is absolutely marvellous and windproof as well.