DAY 19-21 // NORTHERN DRAKENSBERG

At the moment it's raining outside my window in Malmö. I'm drinking tea and listening to Ben Howard. This summer has been rainy and cold but since I spent two months in South Africa, during winter it doesn't bother me. Let me continue telling you about my travels. I left Southern Drakensberg in the early morning and caught up with the Baz Bus in Howick. After a few hours we arrived at Amphitheater Lodge in The Northern Drakensberg. I checked into a cute cabin and a few of us decided to go for an afternoon walk in the area. The area was flat but we could see mountains in a distance. I booked a hiking trip right away for the next day. I knew it would be a rough and long one but I desperately wanted to do it even if it meant limping down. I also knew that soon I would be chilling by a pool in Johannesburg. The next morning I and some other people from the lodge headed out to Witsiehook. After two hours we arrived and could start our hike. It was a hot day and I was so sweaty when we reached the peak of the hike. But there the second largest waterfall in the world was waiting for us and of course I got in. It was fresh, perfect and surreal. Our guide told us that we were now in Lesotho and not in South Africa anymore. While bathing in the waterfall we also had a bit of an audience of shepherds, that are typical for Lesotho. On the hike I also befriended two South Africans, I just started talking to them and being a sucker for love I soon knew their story and they knew my latest. I liked them instantly and we said we would try to meet up in Johannesburg but sadly it just didn't happen. It truly was an adventures and beautiful hike and all of us were a bit destroyed when we returned home.

In the evening I got a message from Lena. She and John had decided to also go to Northern Drakensberg and we spent another evening chatting and drinking. I know I have said it before but I adore these two, such great energy. When we all decided to call it a night I noticed how beautiful the sky was and I went and got my camera. As I sat there in silence, alone under this amazing starry I wished someone was sitting next to me. It made me think of one of my favorite movies Into the wild and how Christopher in the end write that happiness is only real while shared.  A few days earlier I had told my friend Fanny on the phone that I wished I was traveling with a friend, so we would share these beautiful moments together. She responded with saying that all of my friends are there in a way, through my photos they to get to experience my trip. I thought that was really beautiful and I tried to think about it in that way. I also knew that in less than 24 h I would be meeting a dear friend of mine from back home in Sweden. The following day I said goodbye to Lena and John again and started a long bus ride to Johannesburg.

KESSI BLUE // BERLIN

I met Kessi, a Canadian songbird, last Sunday in Berlin. We have friends in common and a bunch of us went to brunch together. Kessi and I started talking about her music and decided to do a shoot the next day before I went back to Malmö. When I arrived in the flat in Mitte she played me a song and I could feel how my eyes teared up, it was magical. She is about to record a new album in LA this year so I can sadly not share what I heard with you here since it's not recorded. But I can share with you all of my favorite pictures that I took of her.

DAY 16-18 // THE SOUTHERN DRAKENSBERG // SANI LODGE

I can't explain why but mountains makes my heart beat faster, they make me feel lighter. Maybe it's growing up surrounded by forests and a flat landscape or the fact that every time I'm in those surrounding I'm on the road exploring. Me and my new friends arrived in the afternoon at Sani Lodge Backpackers and wow what a place, I can highly recommend stoping here. It's a fair trade hostel and 2016 it was rewarded a silver award in the category Best for Poverty Reduction by the Africa responsible tourism. It lived up to all the things I had read about it and the two nights I stayed there were beautiful. I didn't dare to do the longer hikes they offered at the lodge because of my problems with my feet but that didn't stop me from getting up before the sun and doing smaller hikes close to the lodge. Not so many people got up that early to hike which gave me the privacy I needed to be creative. During that whole backpacking trip I found myself alone a lot in nature with only my thought to keep me company. At times it was wonderful and at other times hard. I'm planning a book project with my friend Tuva Minna Linn who write so beautifully about life and emotions. Before leaving Sweden we had a meeting where we came to the conclusion that I need to make some images that also represents light and happiness. I find it easy to tap into the "blue" we all have more or less of but to create those positive once is harder. I thought I had found something rare in Cape Town and even if I felt it slipping through my fingers I tried to remember that feeling and connect. When you meet someone special it's a new beginning, it's a bright and warm place where you want to stay forever and you feel your heart is light from hope and expectations. The picture of me sitting in the grass, looking into the sunrise is all about this. But when you allow another person into that place that you normally don't then you have a lot to loose, the fall is dark and you know it will hurt, no matter what shape you take to protect yourself it will draw you in. Back home in Sweden again I created another image that told another story and today the sunrise one feels like a distant dream. There are times when I wonder if I'm sharing too much here but then I remind myself that we are all humans with similar emotions, desires and dreams. In this time we live in, where social media has become a theater to show off the perfections of our human lives I find myself craving the opposite and the people who inspire me are the once that are not afraid to be real and tell it the way it is. "We are all somewhat damaged and in that realization we are all beautiful"