As the few followers of this
blog know, and the occasional visitor might guess, I post very little articles about
traveling and adventures at cities and other crowded spots. My information and
images go essentially about active outdoors, challenges, and not so famous and
achievable spots. This time I will write you down a few possibilities for
activities in the south of Sweden. The north is another thing! (One
story including a biking passage through Lapland, ‘Arctic summits – Scandi Peaks 2017’, on this blog, at http://aventuraaomaximo.blogspot.com/2017/07/arctic-summits.html – este artigo encontra-se
também em Português –, plus a 32’’ video, https://youtu.be/JM-AHswT1TA).
In this case (the center south of
Sweden), I went there more than once to be able to explore deeply their uses
and landscapes…
Having available a little cottage outside the small city of Värnamo, to use as my
‘base camp’ and deepen my Scandinavian experience, I have dedicated myself to
hike in National Parks, bike around lakes, kayak on, across and around lakes,
rivers and islands, and swimming in lakes.
On the following video you will watch images of:
-
2
days biking around lake Bolmen (150 km)
-
Different
activities around lake Vidöstern
-
13
days crossing the Göta Kanal (450 km)
-
3
days kayaking among the Sankt Anna islands (60 km)
-
Swimming
across lake Vidöstern (3 km)
-
2
days biking around lake Ånen (93 km)
-
Down
Lagan river (64 km)
The first activity has
spectacular paths for bikers and hikers only around the south part of the lake.
Although your are surrounded by fresh water, tours here could actually lead you
to a water supply problem, if you are not willing to drink the lake water with
a certain color (the water is drinkable but is heavy on iron), because this is
not the kind of country where you’ll find a café-restaurant-store just around
the corner (like in South Europe)! To overnight I found a little spot by the
lake Unnen (east of Bolmen lake) but you will find a real and simple camping
site on the town of Bolmen (normally one is not allowed to camp on the beaches,
or badplats, by the lake, but there
is not much control either). The real distance around the lake is around 110 km
(I did some more because I’ve started and finished close to Värnamo).
Since I’ve mentioned the
‘problem’ of the water, have in mind that the weather will be your biggest
issue. The weather is quite unpredictable in Scandinavia and forecasts are
never too accurate. However, it is more stable in the summer months of July and
August (although in July 2020 it was pure crap). But July is the holiday month
by excellence, so, choose August but wait until the 10th because
that is when school season (semester) starts, and avoid weekends. Anyway, as
the Swedes say, «there is no ‘bad weather’, there is only good and bad
protection clothing».
As for ‘Different
activities’ around Värnamo and the lake Vidöstern, if you extend the radius of
action to a 35 km range, you will find many small lakes to jump in; many small
roads and trails for easy mountain biking; a few big lakes to kayak on; the
Store Mosse National Park, the largest bog area south of Lapland and one of the
most significant National Parks (one of the 30 in Sweden), for hiking (there
are several small trails for a couple of hours walks, a 12 km trail around a lake, and a 40 km long trail
connecting Store Mosse to Hestra town), bird watching, berries (raspberries,
blueberries, lingonberries) and
mushroom (kantareller) picking – make
sure you know which are the real ones…
The Göta Kanal
crossing by kayak, in 13 days, was quite a great experience! The mega
construction (is still considered the ‘Swedish Construction of the Millennium’)
stretches for 452 kilometers, from the Baltic sea to the Kattergatt sea, or,
the same is to say, from Stockholm to Gothenburg, allowing to navigate between
the two cities (in fact from Mem, some 80 km south of Stockholm) and opposite
coasts across Sweden. The water way crosses seven lakes (Asplängen, Roxen,
Boren, Vattern, Bottensjön, Viken, and Vännern, the biggest of Sweden and the
third biggest of Europe), one river (Göta älv, 93 km long), and the canal
itself, measuring 190 kilometers long and passing 58 locks, connecting all the of
them. Of course, one can choose to navigate in only a few sections, or on some
lakes (July and beginning of August is to avoid since there will be more boats
using it). More about the Göta Kanal and my east-west crossing on my article http://aventuraaomaximo.blogspot.com/2019/09/from-baltic-to-kattergatt-sea-sweden.html (includes a 6’35’’ video: ‘Sweden crossing’ https://youtu.be/Llon1LaYwZA).
Now, navigating among the Sankt
Anna islands?! That is an absolute must for any kayak lover! But you must be
warned that it is quite easy to get confused and lost in such labyrinth from
the low perspective of a kayaker. Although the few existing kayak rentals will
provide you with maps and a list of local contacts that include a ‘taxi kayak’
(and on the bigger islands there are always a few residents), the best is to
take your own App or GPS – take an objective and let your self get lost in that
direction, and then look for your position on the gps to make corrections on
your route (rather then trying to follow the islands by looking constantly at your
paper map). I’ve paddled with my companion and 2 dogs on an adequately long and
spacious kayak for 2 and half days, covering a total distance of some 60 km. We
started one afternoon at Mon (on the island of Yxnö, some 30 km east of
Söderkoping), where you will find a camping site, a restaurant, and a kayak rental; headed north-east for 2 hours and found a nice place to rest and swim
near the big island of Aspöja. The second day we paddled all the east ring of
small islands direction south, to the Missjö group. On the third day we passed
close to Tyrislöt (same big island as Mon) and made our way north, passing by
the big islands of Vänsö and Kallsö before returning to Mon. Important to
remember that most of this area is a protected environment and, due to bird
reproduction, the access to some of the small islands will be restricted during
part or all July (total interdiction means it’s necessary to keep a 100 meteres
distance to such designated islands). In August take some mosquito protection.
Kayak rentals exist both in Mon and Tyrislöt. (3’30’’ video, dedicado aos companheiros António C. M. e Rodrigo V. M.: ‘Islands Sankt Anna’ https://youtu.be/OnwAvyq-cdg).
Swimming across lake Vidöstern is an interesting challenge after
having a sequence of warm days leaving the water temperature quite confortable,
and if one is able to choose a day with no wind, to get the water surface as
flat as a ‘mirror’. There is an annual competition in this lake, taking place
in August (canceled this year due to Covid19), that covers the swimming distances
of 5 and 10 km parallel to the east bank, from north (city of Värnamo) to
south, but you can choose crossing the lake east-west (or v.v.) in many spots,
being the average width of the lake around 2 km, and never more than 3 km (you
will find a badplats or small peers to
start and finish, on both sides).
The lake Åsnen is another beautiful scenario for biking. It almost divides in two different lakes because of the many islands and peninsulas in the middle of it. The shortest round, I’ve calculated, must be of around 80 km. Mine was 93 km long: going south from Huseby, through the west bank, and north through the middle section, because this way you are most of the time close to the water. There are a few camp sites and a couple of natural resting areas to overnight. If you choose to go all around you will loose the middle section and you will get away from the waterside (on the east side); If you decide to use all the trails, than the tour could stretch to almost 180 km, but again the east bank is less interesting and you will end up biking twice on a same section. Of course, I had a bit of a logistical problem so my bike tour was in fact of 260 km (170 to get to Huseby and back, from Värnamo). (Full video 'Around Åsnen', 2’01’’: https://youtu.be/AznbldcRPKs)
Down Lagan river. The Lagan river (244 km long) borns on lake Tahesjön, a few km south of Jönköping, goes southwards, crosses the town of Värnamo, drops into the Vidöstern lake and keeps flowing south until the city of Ljunby, later on it turns west and flows all the way to the coast line, having its mouth just south of Halmstad (an area with some of the best beaches). It has a few passages where you will have to carry your kayak around obstacles such as electric power plants: I found 3 on the 64 km between the little lake north of Värnamo and the town of Ljungby (after Ljungby there are another 12). Passing the town of Lagan, with 2 lockers, is better to carry your kayak straight to the south part of it (some 500 meters), or you will have to drag it on rocks. (Full video 'Down Lagan river', 5’55’’: https://youtu.be/b3MBWjKwJGE)
Enjoy!
Video (8'52'') ‘Sweden outdoors’: https://youtu.be/sLrgezCFW10
Photos below:
