May, 2022
Travel log
Start.
1/5 - 2022
Idag har jag och Tobbe setts i Kungälv. Vi tittade på Bohus fästning och jag var mycket glad att hitta en bok om Bohusläns historia (<- Den heter så, av Tomas Andersson tror jag att han hette) som jag misslyckats med att hitta på Stadsbiblioteket.
Bohus fästning har funnits ända sen Magnus Ladulås, antagligen längre, och aldrig blivit intaget. När det byggdes fanns alltså fortfarande trälar i Sverige, eftersom det var Magnus som avskaffade träldomen. Det var riktigt skönt att promenera runt bland gräset och stenarna på fästningen med gott sällskap. Det är många foton jag inte tog av utsikt över Göta Älv som långsamt flöt förbi nedanför och av små lila blommor i muren som ett bi landade på och gräsövertäckta murar framför blå himmel med något moln och annat.
Nu sitter jag på caféet "Mors Mössa" och har ätit min andra glass för dan (blåbär och choklad). Detta utslag av dekadens beror på att jag ville ladda telefonen innan jag började vandra. Jag är litet orolig för packningens tyngd. Om det blir ett problem får jag helt enkelt slänga saker. Ska utvärdera efter dag 2 så kan jag kanske packa om litet isf innan vandringen dag 3 om vädret tillåter. // Mors mössa, Kungälv, ca kl 16.
Kom fram till Romesjön, ca kl 19:45. Batteri låg på 50%, vilket vid maximalt energisparläge ska räcka i 28 h och 34 min.
Tobbe.
3/5 - Lysevatten - camp
Nu sitter jag vid Lysevatten och vaktar färdigt en eld till dess den svalnat lagom. Från Bottenstugan och genom Svartedalsreservatet var det en fantastisk hike. Ryggsäcken har blivit lättare, men är fortfarande ganska tung. Det var så stilla - inte en människa på hela sträckan. Det var mycket mosstäckt skog - mycket upp och mycket ner och mycket sjöar. När jag vaknade i morse undrade jag om jag alls skulle fortsätta - det var en kall natt och det var hårt att sova i vindskyddet trots granriset jag la under liggunderlaget. Dessutom hade jag några internetärenden som var svårare att göra under vandringen än jag tänkt. När jag tagit mig upp hittade jag ett soligt hörn i lä vid ett av vindskydden, lyckades under morgonens gång lösa ärendena någotsånär och blev påhlsad av Meese och Christoph. Jag återfann dem vid Lysevatten och det har varit en härlig kväll här. Något hoar i skogen - Mace säger att det är en uggla, som är hans favoritdjur. Rök stiger upp mot en ganska ljus natthimmel och strax ska jag hälla vatten på elden och gå och lägga mig.
<- I gotta translate this, since I'm writing about people that don't speak Swedish! It says: /Now I'm sitting bby Lysevatten and finishing the guarding of a fire until it has cooled down enough. From Bottenstugan and through the Svartedalen reserve was a fantastic hike. The backpack has gotten lighter, but its still quite heavy. It was so still - not a human during the entire stretch. There was a lot of mosscovered forest - much of going up and much of going down and many lakes. When I woke the morning before this I was wondering if I should continue at all - it was a cold night and it was hard sleeping in the wind shelter despite the pine-branches below the insulation pad. On top of that, I had some internet errands that turned out being harder to do during the hike than I thought. After finally getting up I found a sunny corner out of the wind by one of the shelters, managed to do the errands over the course of a few hours and got a visit from Meese and Christoph. I refound them at the end of the day by Lysevatten and it has been a great evening here. Something is 'hoooing' in the forest - Meese says its an owl, which is his favorite animal. Smoke is rising towards a quite bright night sky and in a moment I will pour water on the fire and go to sleep.
// 3/5, Lysevatten
Bottenstugan
9/5 2022
What usually happens when I hike happened - I got tired and stopped writing! So here is a recap of the past days:
4/5 Stora Väktor - camp
We said good bye to Meese close the the airport! Backamo that is - I think it might be for gliders? I and Christoph continued to the shelter at Store Väktor - it was in a natural reserve so I shouldn't have put up a tent, but I did anyway… By now my stuff was not so well sorted - to put it mildly - and the soot from the cooking stove got on my hands and face and it was cold. Anyway, we had a fire and in the end it was a good evening. I slept heavier than in the past few days and in the morning I sorted through my bag…
Christoph and Meese and me - Meese's picture-taking skills!
5/5 Stenshults IP - camp
Christoff is a cool cucumber and seemed totally unstressed by the time my repacking took. We got going at 10:30. It was quite a long hike to the camp outside Uddevalla, which was at a shelter at Stenshults IdrottsPlats. Warm shower! Electricity! Andreas arrived here about an hour after us, having biked from Falköping the previous day.
6/5 Metsjö, Kåtan -> 7/5
I and Andreas biked and hiked out to Metsjö, where there was a kåta that the wonderful and amazing Friluftsfrämjandet have put up so anyone that wants can sleep and feed its stove with fire. Jonatan came, hero of the day, with a guitar and soft bread and we drank and sang and made great fires. The sun the next day was warm* and this place is so idyllic; very green, with calm birds swimming in the water.
I know the sun is always warm - its a figure of speech, ok?
Andreas softing and me waving and me and Jonatan walking. Andreas picture-taking skills!
8/5 - Kaserna
Everything was dry and by now my body had gotten used to the harder surface and I slept well and long. Christoff came by while I was gone walking Andreas and Jonatan the Guitar hero to Jonatans car. He had recognized it was me on the amount of stuff spread everywhere. He is headed for Strömstad, and this was the last time we passed each other on this trip. I was a bit sad to see his backpack wander away off into the forest, but cool that he's going! Kaserna was a bit of an exhaustin camp*, but had a nice coffee with a mom and her two kids in the morning!
*No drinking water and had to get up early for a digital interview…
9/5 - STF - Göteborgs Vandrarhem
Well, not much to write. It was good to rest and take warm showers. Friendly hostel.
11/5 Orust
Nom I'm sitting on an old rusty wagon under a corrugated metal roof. Its stopped raining since about half an hour ago and now I just hear waterdrops falling down from the birches and roof. The clouds are hanging low and grey and a bird of prey has been circling above the fields, but I don't see it now. It might start raining again, but I'm going to put on some coffee, pack together my things (they're hung out to dry right now) and then drink the coffee and hike a few more hours. Tomorrow I plan to travel to Vadstena. Hey ho, lets go!
12/5 Orust
I got up finally, certain I'd slept in to 11 or 12, sensing the grey and damp outside and steeling myself to put on my wet sneakers. I opened the tent and the sun was shining through the forest, staffs of shade behind the tree trunks. A large deer was slowly treading through the forest twenty paces away. It looked at me and then kept picking its way, slowly. The clothes were almost dry and the shoes were just a bit damp. I even found dry socks.
Orust
It rained a lot the two first days. I was always dry when making camp in the tent, because the night-time clothes were always dry. It was very green. There was a super cozy café that let me in despit the guy having closed one- and a half-hour earlier. It was full of old stuff that you could buy if you wanted. A long, slender wooden kayak hung from the roof in one of the rooms. As I walked along Flatön (without a backpack - left it hidden on a hill) I ccould see birch trees with large green leaves, and "syrener" almost opening - and lots of cherry blossoms and apple blossoms and sea between smooth rocky shores and I thought of how when I'd started at Kungälv the birch trees had just barely opened, with small light-green, almost transparent, leaves. It felt like the trip had taken me* to the the threshold of summer. It is hard to describe the lightness of hiking in May - the sun is so warm, and then it gets so cold, the light filters down through the forest that is filled with bushes and trees with buds just breaking in shades of light green, and you can swim, but its gently biting cold. The entire trip, from time to time, you came to places where the forest floor was covered in "Vitsippor"; even now, as I travel homewards on the train, looking out.
// 13/5 - 2022, On the train to Nässjö.
Svartedalen
Orust
Märeta - awesome Jämtlänning I met on the last stretch across Orust!
Last camp, Orust.