Lost: One monkey

In 1948, three Swedish, 14-year-old boys, decided to explore a cave on Gotland, near a place called Lummelunda. The cave had been explored back in 1924 but the fellow who tried only managed to get a little way before having his way stopped by the fact that the opening was too narrow for him to continue. The boys, on the other hand, persevered.

They were friends, Örjan Håkansson, Percy Nilsson and Lars Olsson. They were clearly quite adventurous lads. During one memorable expedition into the cave, a big rock was dislodged, narrowly missing them. It was, however, a serendipitous rockfall, given it provided them with a narrow entrance to a much larger opening.

They didn’t tell anyone about their cave exploits. They would go exploring every chance they got. After a few years, they heard that another cave in Sweden held the record for being the longest. They believed theirs was longer, and so they told everyone. And they were right.

In order to reach the depths of the cave, however, the man sent to measure it had to pass through a hole 22cm wide. He was more than 22cm wide so he went away, went on a crash diet to lose some excess weight and, when he returned, was able to squeeze himself through.

In 1959, a bigger, more accessible tunnel was built to allow far more people to visit the caves. Of course, anyone who wants can attempt the 22cm gap, but there’s a lot of crawling and scraping involved. The new tunnel is way more tourist friendly, as we discovered today.

While the cave was amazing and great to visit, and the guide was entertaining, I think the best thing for me was the fact that the temperature was 8°. While a lot of the others on the English tour hurriedly piled on huge fur coats, woolly hats and Arctic footwear, I was luxuriating in the heavenly cold in my shorts and t-shirt.

I told Mirinda that, if only I had better mobility, I could easily do the tour guide job in a cold cave. She said I could, instead, be a cave hermit and just appear every now and then from behind a rock and scare the visitors. I thought this was an excellent idea and will search the want ads for a possible position on offer.

The guide told us that there were numerous species down in the cave. Most of them were insects, but there are also bats. Most impressive, there is a big fish. In the clear water of the cave floor lives a sea trout. I don’t think it’s a single sea trout though if they are long lived it could be. The previous owner of the cave decided there wasn’t enough wildlife and so introduced sea trout to the water. That was in the 1980’s. I’ll have to ask Jonas if sea trout can live in a cave for over 40 years.

Then there was the little fern that suddenly appeared 20-25 years ago. It’s sitting on a tiny ledge and looks remarkably healthy. The cave is only open for a while in the summer because the water reaches flood level with the coming of the snow. This means the lights are not on. It seems the little fern gets enough light in the brief summer period.

This little fern is getting more than enough sun. After the 8° we stepped out, into the heat of the day and the sweat immediately appeared on me. I was astounded that so many people persisted in wearing the fleeces they had put on in the cave. Weird.

Back in the air conditioned car, we headed off for the small fishing village cum beach, of Lickershamn, to wander around in the sea breezes, admiring the actual sand and the boats. One in particular was quite intriguing. It is the boat that Gael de Crevoisier will row, single-handedly, across the Atlantic in December this year.

It’s an intriguing story and an even stranger looking boat. I didn’t get a very good photo of it because it sits quite low at dock. Click this link to read all about it. It’s fascinating.

To make up for the lack of Gael’s boat, here’s a more normal one instead.

I can’t see anyone rowing that across the Atlantic though I’d be more than happy to hop aboard for a somewhat shorter watery jaunt.

We spent a short time wandering around, having an ice cream, checking out the prices for using the sauna before getting back into the car and heading for an even smaller fishing village further up the coast. We were killing some time before our next English tour.

Carolina Benedicks-Bruce (1856-1935) and her husband, William Blair Bruce (1859-1906), were a couple of artists who met in Paris, fell in love, married then built a house on Gotland. The house, Brucebo, in Själsö, was designed by them both.

William had started off studying architecture before taking up the paintbrush. I think the house shows his skills well. Mirinda didn’t think he had a lot of talent as an artist so, maybe architecture would have been a better choice.

But, the thing is, William was very poor. And Carolina was incredibly wealthy. This meant, in their perfectly equal relationship as a couple, they could both live as artists.

William died quite young, leaving Carolina to do important things like help the suffrage movement in Sweden, look after her menagerie of animals and to give Selma Lagerlöf her first peacock…or so the story goes. Actually, we bought the book of their lives so maybe I’ll find out from that.

Among her many pets, she had a monkey called Twiny. One day, an ad appeared in a local newspaper declaring that Twiny was missing. The ad gave a detailed description of Twiny and his collar and lead. As Mirinda suggested, it was in order to distinguish him from all the other monkeys in the neighbourhood.

While a lot of William’s paintings are somewhat mediocre, his masterpiece is far from it. It shows Carolina working on a sculpture, her fingers dirty from the work, concentrating. It is a magnificent painting.

It’s impossible to see the scale in the photo above. The painting is huge. And very indicative. It shows, I think, William’s deep love for Carolina. In fact, his best paintings we saw today were of her.

The house and the artworks it contains, are an amazing testimony to them but, the foundation that looks after it is approaching dire straits through lack of funds. It would be a massive shame if it was to be lost. It was lost once before and then saved by better financial times. I hope this can happen again.

Before today, I’d never heard of Carolina and William. I am very glad this has been rectified.

After enjoying the love story that was their lives, we headed back to the flat for a couple of hours rest before dinner.

It was an excellent day.