From Ottenby to Seby, around 18 km. Sun and sea birds and the sound of the sea. And cattle.

I paid for my stay as soon as the camping reception opened, filled up my water bottles, and was on my way shortly after eight in the morning.

The trail first followed the asphalt road through Näsby village, a medieval-style “row village” with all the dwelling houses arranged ribbon-like along the two sides of the road.

On the edge of Näsby lies “the wall of Karl X Gustav”, built by a 17th-century king to keep the deer herd on one side and the peasants on the other. Originally supposed to be “tall enough that a man on a horse couldn’t see over it”, these days it’s about shoulder-height for me. It wouldn’t stop any deer (and those are kept in place with electric fences instead, anyway) but it’s a pretty impressive sight. Five kilometres long, straight as a ruler, interrupted only in two places by the road (as it goes south on one side of the island and loops back up north on the other).

Soon after Näsby the trail left the main road for paved cycle paths.

I could still hear the road all the time – except after a while I realized that it wasn’t the road but the sea. The road did not have enough traffic to make that constant rushing noise. It was the sea, with the wind from the east making waves crash against the rocky shore all the time, just out of sight but not out of hearing range.

The trail continued gradually onto smaller and smaller footpaths between fields and meadows and cow pastures.

The cow pastures were all bordered by limestone walls, mostly somewhat crumbled. They seemed mostly decorative and symbolic, because the electric fences are doing the actual job of keeping the cows where they’re supposed to be. But I guess the stone walls are much more visible than thin electric wires, and might get more respect from cows. And humans.

Roughly halfway along, the trail passes Eketorp, a reconstructed Iron Age ring fort. It was technically not open yet for the day (low season again, and the ticket office wouldn’t open until 11) but it also wasn’t closed or locked, so I went wandering around anyway. I probably missed out on some booklets and what not, but it was rather interesting even with just the info plaques that were out there.

The fort had been put to different uses over centuries of time. The reconstructed version shows several side by side. One part has been left as it was found, with just ground-level traces of stone walls. Another part has been built up as it probably was during the Iron Age, with small densely-packed stone huts. On the other side, timber houses have been rebuilt to mimic the fort in its reincarnation as a medieval garrison.

A few days ago at home I was swapping out my summer dresses for an autumn wardrobe and starting the sock season, and today it was at least 25°C. Judging from the state of the vegetation, uninterrupted sunshine seems to be the standard here.

And there was not much shade to be had along the trail. There were plenty of large trees in the villages, but nothing out among the meadows and fields. When I finally spotted a lone tree – scraggly and sparse – I knew I had found my lunch spot.

The sea birds were never far away. Large flocks of geese flew noisily overhead every now and again, often 70 or 80 heads strong. Gulls congregated en masse around tractors ploughing the fields. They remained on the ground until (it looked to me) the tractor was a finger’s width away from crushing them, before taking flight, and then immediately landing behind the tractor to get at all juicy the worms.

In the late afternoon the trail turned back to the seashore.

The beach could not in any way be described as pretty. Weeds, churned-up mud, cow pats, bird droppings. And hundreds and hundreds of sea birds, making the sea look like bird soup just fifty metres out.

There were cattle everywhere, all the way to the water’s edge. Southern Öland is cattle country, and they roam free and wide.

There are numerous info signs along the hiking trails and at other tourist spots, informing people how to behave around cattle. Keep your distance, close all gates, don’t get between a cow and its calf, don’t feed them, don’t bring any dogs.

The cattle – mostly young ones, by their looks – were curious and nosy. As long as I walked past them, they didn’t pay me any attention, but whenever I stopped for a while, they noticed me and all decided to come have a look. Poked at my backpack where I had put it down while photographing; nosed at me and my clothes.

This stage of the trail officially ended at Seby boat harbour, where there is a parking lot, but that spot was clearly picked for ease of access and not with tenting in mind. There was, however, a shelter a few kilometres further along the trail, so that’s where I headed for the night. It was in a small copse in the middle of cattle pastures. And of course fully surrounded by electric fencing, because otherwise it would immediately be overrun by cattle.

It was a beautiful evening. I went out to take photos in the golden sunset.

And of course I got accosted by cattle. I stayed away from them, but they did not stay away from me. I think this herd hadn’t seen many people recently and were extra curious. Or something. In any case, they first got rather uncomfortably close, and then kind of started rushing me. Not actually aggressively, I believe – they pulled up a metre or two away from me every time – but enough to make me move away very carefully and slowly, without turning my back to them. They are very much bigger and stronger than me, after all. I breathed out in relief when I was back at the shelter, on the other side of the fence again.

The evening sky was clear, and the forecast for the night was the same. I set an alarm for 1 o’clock in the morning and got up to look at the stars. The view was pretty good, but not the best I’ve ever seen. Villages on the west coast of Öland spread hazy light in the west, and a slowly pulsating light in the south must have been Långe Jan, a good 20 km away.

The Milky Way was distinguishable if you knew what to look for, but not bright. As a bonus, I saw three meteors.