You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2008.
Finally the last of the chanterelles were cooked and eaten, and it was time for bed. But once again a little surprise was in store. As we drifted back to camp in ones and twos, we were instructed to put on our headtorches and directed off up into the forest for a late night “reflector walk”, finding our way through the woods only by the reflective markers attached at intervals to branches.
It was a peaceful and meditative experience, best if done alone. The sense of quiet and thick darkness of the woods cleared the mind and I arrived back at camp relaxed and thoughtful.
Retiring to a warm sleeping bag with a tummy-full of freshly-cooked wild mushrooms on a crisp starry night is a wonderful feeling, and we slept soundly until morning. The only blight on an otherwise perfect day was waking with a crashing headache the next morning. I quickly found I was not alone in this as there were one or two other campers wondering zombie-like through the morning mist clutching their heads. The general concensus as we stood huddled in the morning chill discussing our woes was that we’d all underestimated how warm it had been the day before and, with the exertions of the orienteering exercise, hadn’t drunk nearly enough fluids. But half an hour, a dose of aspirin and a litre of water later and we were all feeling ready for action once more…
Photo: Tommy Sollén
Today was to be a break from outdoor activities, with a programme of workshops from the manufacturers whose equipment we had been testing for the last few days – Lundhags, Bergens, Helsport and Didriksons. Swedish and Norwegian outdoor clothing is not particularly well-known in the UK (with the possible exception of Haglöfs), but is consistently of very high quality, and as always I had been impressed with the comfort and functionality of the gear we’d been testing. Today was a chance to learn more about the products from the companies themselves. The morning passed in a relaxed series of informal workshops, mostly conducted sitting on the rocks gazing out across the lake as the mist lifted and a surprisingly hot September sun shone down on us.
The afternoon saw us heading for Nordens Ark, one of Sweden’s most unique wildlife sanctuaries and internationally renowned as a centre of excellence for the breeding of endangered species. I learned a great deal from our inspirational guide and was particularly interested to see that the Ark concentrates not only on breeding international “superstar” endangered species such as the Snow Leopard and Amur Tiger but also lesser-known species of woodpecker and owl that are locally endangered in Sweden.
Photo: Lory Poly
The highlight of the day for me was a chance to step inside the enclosure with the wolverines, my personal favourite Swedish animal and one which is much misunderstood. The day ended in the company of another of Sweden’s exotic yet little understood predators, the wolf, as we settled down to a marvellous dinner in the Ark’s restaurant with panoramic windows looking out into the wolf enclosure and adults and cubs padding back and forth just the other side of the glass as we ate.
All in all, a hugely enjoyable and very educational day. Tomorrow it would be back to the water to explore the western archipelago by sea kayak, but for now I was content to enjoy the comforts of good food, great company and some of the world’s most incredible animals.
(concludes next week)
Best regards
Bob from The Nature Travels Team
Nature Travels offers a range of holidays in Sweden for independents, families and small groups as well as tailor-made itineraries for larger private groups, Armed Forces adventurous training and corporate events in Sweden.
We offer a number of dedicated wildlife experiences, including moose watching, howling with wolves, beaver safaris and birdwatching in Sweden.
After a relaxing morning’s canoeing bathed in sunshine and soothed by soft breezes, the organisers had something very different for us in store for the afternoon.
We landed on a small beach at the other end of the lake, dragged the canoes onto shore and hoisted our packs. The afternoon’s adventure was to be an orienteering exercise in small teams. The distance to cover didn’t look far at all, but we hadn’t counted on the unforgiving terrain we would be traversing, and it wasn’t until many hours later, tired, sweaty and stiff (but rather proud of ourselves), that we would finally emerge from the deep woods to make camp for the night.
The exercise started easily enough. Maps and compasses in hand, we took turns within the group taking a bearing and walking on the compass, trusting that little needle to guide us unerringly to our next checkpoint. But we soon found ourselves a long way from any paths, wading through bogs, battling through dense stands of pine and struggling up steep slopes peppered with boulders just waiting to snag a misplaced foot or twist an unwary ankle.
Photo: Tommy Sollén
Our confidence was bolstered by successful hits on our first two checkpoints, but dashed on our way to the third. We walked further and further, convinced that by now we must have overshot the mark and be faced with a long detour. After a good while spent scrambling through the undergrowth with dwindling hopes, we finally came out onto a beautiful high plateau. The trees thinned out to reveal a stunning 360 degree panorama of a carpet of forest stretching to the horizon, broken only by the glimmer of sunlight on the rivers and lakes below. The low sun lit the whole scene in amber, picking out the autumn colours of the forests beautifully, and the view certainly served to lift our spirits, especially when we glimpsed the orange checkpoint marker peeping out at us from behind a lonesome pine – it seems we hadn’t gone so far wrong after all. Trust the compass!
From here it was, in the best sense, downhill all the way. The loose rocks and closely-packed trees made going slow and potentially treacherous, but an hour or so later we popped out of the woods to find ourselves in more open country. We pitched our tents, broke out the stoves, and headed off to a small peninsula looking out onto the lake to make a start on dinner. On the menu tonight was dried camping rations, which we were looking forward to only in the sense that when you’re hungry and in the outdoors almost anything tastes OK.
But the quality of dinner was to take an unexpected turn for the better when, walking a short distance off into the forest to examine a tree felled by a local beaver, I looked down to see the ground covered in a yellow carpet of wild chanterelle mushrooms.
Photo: Tommy Sollén
Finding chanterelles in Sweden is an instant way to make a whole army of enthusiastic lifelong friends, and it wasn’t long before almost everyone in the group was tucking in to this delicious delicacy – the “gold of the forest”. Camping rations are OK, but they can’t compete with fresh chanterelles fried in butter…
(continues next week)
Best regards
The Nature Travels Team
Nature Travels offers a variety of hiking holidays in Sweden, including Sweden’s most famous long-distance path, the King’s Trail in Lapland, and the mighty wilderness of Sarek National Park. Many of our active accommodation and log cabin holidays in Sweden also offer excellent opportunities for self-guided hiking.
Canoeing, wild camping, sea kayaking, orienteering, endangered species and a lobster safari – we only had a few days, but somehow managed to find time for all these things on a recent visit to the glittering coastline and stunning autumn forests of Dalsland and Bohuslän in western Sweden, just a couple of hours from the beautiful city of Gothenburg.
The occasion was this year’s Outdoor Academy of Sweden, an annual event bringing together tour operators, equipment retailers and journalists from all over Europe to explore the endless possibilities of the Swedish outdoors and test some Scandinavian-made outdoor clothing and equipment along the way.
The adventure began on Tuesday with a coach transfer from Gothenburg’s Landvetter airport. Although Gothenburg is Sweden’s second city and Landvetter its main airport, it’s a surprisingly relaxing and pleasant place, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Heathrow we had left just two hours before.
By late September in western Sweden the forests are in the full glory of autumn, and we drove through a stunning landscape of reds and yellows up into the county of Dalsland. After the equipment handout, it was time to pitch camp for the night under a clear sky peppered with stars in the silence of the forest for our first night under canvas.
After breakfast around the camp fire next morning we took to the water in collapsible Ally canoes. It was the first time I had used a packable canoe and I was amazed and their lightness and flexibility. As we set off through the morning mist, negotiating low hanging branches and steering our way around fallen trees, the sun cast shafts of light through the thick forest and it felt more like a trip through the Amazon than western Europe.
A few hours later we emerged from a tunnel of trees and paddled out into a great wide lake, the sun shining brightly in a cloudless sky and surrounded on all sides by shimmering clear water ringed by dense forests of birch and oak. Making our way through the twists and turns of the river, squeezing under bridges and drifting past huge patchworks of spider webs in the foliage had been terrific fun, and now the tranquility of paddling quietly across the lake bathed in autumn sunshine offered another kind of outdoor experience – a real tonic for the soul.
Some time later we reached our goal for the morning, a nature reserve on the opposite shore of the lake, where it was time to break out the camping stoves, hunt around for the ever-elusive penknife in the backpack, and get down to the serious business of making lunch!
(continues next week)
Best regards
Bob from the Nature Travels team
Nature Travels offers a wide range of self-guided canoe holidays in western Sweden from 4 to 14 days, suitable for friends, families and groups. Both wilderness canoe tours and rural canoe routes are available, and all experiences include wild camping. For details, please see www.naturetravels.co.uk/category-water.htm
