July 26
The summer is hot. This Saturday is no exception. Drive at ten o'clock in the morning. Fortunately, there is not much traffic. Arriving in Nogersund half past eleven. Full on all parking lots. Finding an illegal place, it may become a temporary place. The boat from Hanö comes in. Some of the passengers should drive away. Agree of the place of a woman with dog. Kind of her. The boat has gone when we parked legally. Then we have time to eat fried herring with mashed potatoes at the restaurant Kajutan. Good.

Takes the boat 14.00, a pleasant crossing in 25 minutes. The boat is half full. In Hanö, the hostel hostess finds us, we look like we are going to the hostel. Follows us up the hill, past villas, the few hundred meters to the hostel. She tells about the island on the way. Our room is on the second floor. Nice room, but narrow upstairs and escape on ladder. A little awkward for the elderly. Get to the ground floor, not so nice room but toilet and shower outside the door. Better. The hostel has been a school, red wooden house with white knots.

It's hot, needs a bath. There is one in the harbor. Not so nice. Instead of it, we go north from the harbor. After a while is a small bathing bay. Jetty, stairs and very stony bottom. But much more cozy than in the harbor. Hot in the water, about 25 degrees. Still nice, the air is also 25, cool compared to the mainland.

There is a restaurant on the island, the restaurant Briggen in the harbor. Fried salmon chop with fried potatoes. Small beer assortment, takes an Eriksberg. In the sunshine, young nice people sit and discuss nicely. Seems like they should grill later. In this drought? A spark and the whole island are in flames.

Evening walk to the lighthouse on the island's highest point. Swallows are sitting on wires. On the grassland, fallow deer graze, once implanted to keep open fields. The island has recently become a nature reserve. Through forest up to the lighthouse. The sun sets. Nice among rocks and trees. It is calling from work. Want to know how I did a thing. Walking downhill. Gulls are noisy. The lighthouse lights up.

July 27
Breakfast in the shade under a tree. We have our own breakfast with us, there is a small kiosk in the harbor but the supply is limited. Hostess at the hostel have told about a bathing spot on the other side of the island, Vindhalla. Is slippery and rocks but beautiful. We take the road up to the lighthouse, just before is a marked path along the pebble. Comes out on bare rocks, through a stone wall. Through an hornbeamforest. It's very dry. Opens up to a rocky beach. There are waves. The cliffs are slippery, there is a rope to hold on when walking in the sea. Younger tries, looks awkward so we refrain. Suffice to dip your feet. Sailboat passes. More coming, wearing cool bags and sunbeds. Must be hard to carry them here. Walk back again. Just before the lighthouse we go to the Dragonsign. Which we can't find. Nice walk anyway.

Back at the hostel we eat lunch in the shade under a tree. One bump. A dog standing tied to an open door has been able to lift the door. Gets great activity, the dog is unharmed, the door hangs on again. As a dessert, there is waffle at Hanöborg, the house opposite. Then we take the path below the hostel north. The path goes through fields. The island is really varied in nature. Comes to the English cemetery. A cross, a wall, some stones and a memorial stone. "Here English sailors rest, deceased in service at Hanö 1810, 1811 and 1812." 15 sailors. During the Napoleonic War, Hanö was the base for the English Navy in the Baltic Sea. South of the cemetery is a small grave, Karna Mattsdotter and her two children who died in a cholera epidemic in 1834.

Going further north with a view of the sea and the Listerland. Below is Bönsäcken. Enough to swim there with some inconvenience. Steep down and down there with water-cut stones. Before the English arrived in Hanö, the island was fortified with some guns, but the island was disarmed. Now two cannons are pointed out to the sea. Follows the white track through a forest to "our" bathing place. Dip. A toe strikes the stairs, blood occurs. May be cleaned and patched.

Rest in the shade outside the hostel. Then food at Briggen. We only have food for breakfast and lunch with us. One can benefit the local restuarant. It is an island and a harbor. There should be several fish dishes you think. Selects a beef fillet. Rather dry. Walking and watching the fallow deer in the sunset. Many who go up to the lighthouse to look at the "blood moon", lunar eclipse where the moon is extra red. Not interested. The lighthouse lights up.

July 28
Moves a table to get shade for breakfast. In the other corner of the garden towards the former. Take it easy. Cleaning the room. Several other guests do the same. Now known faces. New guests arrive. Goes down to the harbor. The port guard complains about smokers, it is so dry. Buying ice cream in waffle in the store. The boat 11.30 arrives. Not so many people to join. The car is still in Nogersund. Drive home, thunderstorm threaten but it won't be. In the evening, the reward is eaten and drunk for earlier flower watering.

Karta

Hanö