Six Australian filmmakers are travelling the world in search of a story, each tasked with making a weekly short film for ABC iview’s Race Around The World.
This is contestant Lucinda Price’s experience from her week three travels in Sweden.
How do you feel when you hear the words “school camp”? Do they elicit a feeling of nostalgia — sleeping alongside your mates, making damper by the fire, and experiencing independence from your parents, perhaps for the first time? Or do you start biting your fingernails?
I’m in the latter “camp”. They say the body keeps the score, and for me, that rings especially true of Year 9 camp at Victoria’s Gippsland Lakes.
I remember the most minor details from those 10 days.
Restless nights in an incorrectly pitched tent, leading to damp, freezing mornings. Long hikes through mosquito-infested bushland. “Trust” exercises with my fellow classmates designed to breed resilience, but which instead had me silently praying to a god I didn’t believe in to deliver me from evil, and to McDonald’s.
Said Year 9 camp. (ABC/Race Around The World: Lucinda Price)
So, when I landed in Sweden and learned about a principle called Allemansrätten, I knew I had to reset that score and face my fears.
The term refers to a unique Swedish law that grants everyone access to private and public land. In practice, it means you can walk, hike, ski or cycle pretty much anywhere.
You can pitch a tent for a night or two wherever you fancy, provided you are respectful and far enough from residential areas to avoid disturbing the owners (and aren’t on land being cultivated). You can forage, picking wild berries and, if you’re brave, mushrooms.
You can enjoy nature as you see fit, provided you abide by the core philosophy of “don’t disturb, don’t destroy”.
Allemansrätten is Swedish for “the Right of Public Access”. (ABC/Race Around The World: Lucinda Price)
Coming from Australia, a country that places such a high price on land ownership, I found the law intriguing.
I instantly started fantasising about setting up camp on Bondi Beach. Waking up with Benny the Opera House seal after a night on the steps. Pitching a tent on the grounds of Kirribilli and offering Mr Albanese a sip of my rehydrated coffee.
The opportunities to freeload would be endless, much like the lemon trees and rosemary sprigs I could ransack.
But I was getting distracted.
I needed to take advantage of this law, to push myself and to experience the wild side of Sweden. So, I resolved to take myself out into the ancient forest for a night.
Having just travelled from Jamaica, I had absolutely no gear. I started scouting on Facebook and ferreting around in local op shops for warm clothes and cooking utensils.
After gathering up a bounty and dropping a cheeky $100 on things that were essential to my survival (an insulated floor mat and a six-pack of Coke Zero), I set out in a hire car.
On the advice of a local, I decided on Vaxholm, an area encompassing many small islands. It’s a part of Stockholm’s archipelago, encompassing the odd 267,000 islands that are part of Sweden.
Vaxholm is only one hour north of Stockholm and, as I drove, I was surprised at just how quickly the super modern, seamless city was replaced by ancient pine trees and crisp, cool air.
As I walked through the forest, the fresh smell engulfed me. (ABC/Race Around The World: Lucinda Price)
I parked (for free!) at a beach spot, and headed into the forest. It was instantly magical, picture-book stuff. The best way to describe the smell was pure green. Perfumers couldn’t bottle up something half as glorious.
I felt like a kid in a candy store and, given my distaste for time in nature, it was healing.
After a 45-minute walk, saddled with gear but relishing my independence, I landed at my destination. It was a little camping spot by the water with a wooden wind hut, a fire pit and a neat bundle of logs.
But what happened next has to be seen to be believed.
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The scene typified what makes Allemansrätten so special — to find a free place to spend the night, and for it to be so scrupulously maintained and inviting, was a treat.
But, I was alone. Accompanied only by a strange and unsettling noise in the middle of the night, suspiciously like a snore.
There was no way I was spending another two nights in the forest with a demon suffering from sleep apnoea, so I fled for Stockholm.
The average cost of a night in Sweden: $400. The average cost of Allemansrätten: double that. And the excuse to never camp again? Well, that’s priceless.
Lucinda Price is a contestant on ABC iview’s Race Around The World. Stream Race Around The World on ABC iview, or watch Sundays at 7.30pm on ABC TV.
