Blinking ek chuck have you seen the time, its 10 o clock. We both jumped up and gawked at the clock in amazement. Craig looking like a cyclops with only one eye open and dibble down his chin; and me, like mad professor with my wild hair. What a pair of cuties we look today!
Craig was in the middle of making our first brew when he made the dreaded sigh. The sigh thats says ‘oh no not again’. It could only be one thing, the fridge. Things were not as cold as they should be. We weren’t convinced the blast of air at the Danish centre had fixed the problem and were less convinced when Craig found a loose connection. However, once Craig fixed the loose connection we were sort of hoping that fixed the problem but nah, it is still not right. We have huffed, puffed and blown enough. For anyone wondering what we are talking about…our fridge/freezer runs on LPG. At the back of the fridge there is a vent. Inside there is a gas pipe with a small pilot light, which keeps the fridge cold. Inside here it gets quite dusty and it can cause problems when dust particles fall on the jet and block the flow of gas. We have tried to remove the dust and debris but the problem remains, so we now need to take to a second repairer.

Like the name

We switched the fridge to 12 volts in the hope it keep it cold for a while longer. We cant run on 12 volts for too long as the fridge will complete drain the batteries. We headed back towards Gothenburg and after 10km turned off for the Hymer centre. As expected, they did not deal in fridges but politely gave us details of two nearby service centres that could help. Fortunately both near by. We scooted over to the Electrolux Service Centre at Hisings Backa just on the outskirts of Gothenburg. Inside was like a small retail unit on an industrial estate. An elderly gentleman and young lady listened to our problem. Extremely helpful and polite, they searched for an available technician but despite their best efforts they could not find a suitable engineer. Just as we were about to give up Erik the ‘main man’ from their Uddevalla service centre appeared. The extremely helpful and knowledgable chap came outside, had a look at the issue and got straight on the phone. The engineer he needed was off sick, so he asked us to wait whilst they found a solution.

The fortress.

We went in Vin and planned option B in case Erik could not find an engineer…we telephoned Dometic based in Gothenburg. Once again, the gentleman spoke excellent English and was very helpful. For anyone visiting Sweden, it is worth noting…Dometic centres do not have any facility to service fridge/freezers they refer you to Electrolux Centre. With that we stayed put and waited for Erik to confirm a reservation for tomorrow at 11. Unfortunately the engineer was off sick, so the soonest they can do is tomorrow and in the town of Uddevalla. We confirmed and thanked Erik for his help.

Uddevalla is about 70km north and a town we planned to stop at, so at least that works in our favour. As the appointment is only at 11 we decided to go back to Konglav and visit the 10th century Viking settlement, which is dominated by the ruins of Bohus Fastning. The fortress originally built in wood then later in stone was at the frontline in the wars between Sweden, Norway and Denmark. In the 18th century it became a prison and in 1789 all the towers were destroyed apart from the main one known as the fathers hat.

The town of Kunglav is not worth a wander. Built in the 60’s with concrete slabs and blocks it certainly looks dull and lacks character, which is far from the rest of the area. The walk back to Vin along the river side under the apple blossoms and magnolia trees was certainly more rewarding. Mac and Tosh discovered a passion for chewing acorns and chasing sugar steelies.

Our sleep spot tonight, same as last night at the side of the river in Kunglav.

GPS position N057.863723 E011.999850

Route: Kungalv to Gothenburg to Kinglav

Weather, low 12 high 25. Nice and warm just like our fridge.