I had barely pulled off the E6 when the sat nav decided to play its usual trick and send me down a single-track lane that narrowed with every bend. By the time I realised I had taken a wrong turn near Aelvsered, the lane had turned into little more than a tractor path and my hire car was brushing the verges. A low branch scraped the roof with a sound like fingernails on a blackboard, and I stopped with a jolt that sent the road atlas sliding to the floor.

That small mishap turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Instead of following the main road straight to the cottage, I ended up on a gravel track that wound between fields of tall grass and the odd red wooden barn. A hand-painted sign pointed toward something called “Ullareds aengar,” so I followed it on foot once the car was safely parked on the verge.

The meadow opened out into a quiet clearing where a couple of old apple trees stood beside a dry-stone wall. A narrow path, barely visible between the buttercups, led down to a shallow stream that locals clearly used as a shortcut between farms. I spent the next half hour wandering along it, shoes in hand, listening to nothing but the trickle of water and the occasional woodpecker. It felt miles from anywhere, yet I later discovered it was only a ten-minute walk back to the cottage drive.

When I finally reached the Aelvsered property the light was already softening. The house sat at the end of its own short track, half-hidden by birch trees, and the key safe was tucked behind a loose plank on the woodshed exactly as the instructions promised. Inside, everything smelled faintly of pine and the previous guests’ coffee. I opened the kitchen window and heard the same stream I had followed earlier, now hidden behind the hedge.

That evening I sat on the small wooden deck with a mug of tea and watched the midges dance above the grass. The sat nav mishap had cost me an hour, yet it had given me a slice of Halland that no guidebook would have mentioned. Tomorrow I planned to try another unmarked track, just to see where it might lead.