Amazing Sweden

It has been almost half a year since we toured Sweden for three weeks. After my adventure on the Kungsleden two years earlier, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce Marie-José to this beautiful country.

And if you go to Sweden, you should also visit the northern part of the country. In my opinion, (Swedish) Lapland cannot be compared to anything else in the rest of Europe. The untouched wilderness, the enormous vastness and the 'alone-in-the-world' feeling come to mind when I think back to Northern Sweden.

The plan was to drive north more or less in one go and then slowly descend south again. In this way, we hoped to experience pleasant temperatures for a little longer than if we had done it the other way around.

But the distance to Northern Sweden is great, about 2500 kilometers. After two whole days of driving, we decided to take it a bit easier from that moment on. And so we made a stop on day three with a nice walk in the Skuleskogen National Park. This park is located on the east coast in the High Coast region, which can be proud of the highest coastline in the world, namely 286 meters above sea level and every year it even adds 8 millimeters.

And after a visit to a kind of open-air museum with those typical Swedish red houses (former workers' houses), we finally crossed the Arctic Circle on day four.

And yes, when you say Arctic Circle, you naturally think of the Northern Lights. The end of August is still quite early to see the Aurora Borealis and the app on my phone was not very positive either, but nevertheless, on that first evening above the Arctic Circle we immediately fell into a lot of butter. It was certainly spectacular and we could not have wished for a better start to our trip.

As mentioned, we then changed course to the south to head back home. In the remaining 2½ weeks we experienced a fantastic journey. While Marie-José had to get used to the seemingly monotonous landscape of fir trees, hills, water and (many) more fir trees during the first few days, she too soon began to see the overwhelming beauty of this landscape. And ‘wild camping’ also gets used to very quickly, if you often get to spend some time alone or with just a few others in the most beautiful places. Below are a number of photos that I think give a good impression of what else we saw during that holiday.

First of all, I made a trip to the top of the iconic mountain Skierfe in the Sarek national park. I had not wanted to make time for that during my Kungsleden trip, so I was very happy that I now had the opportunity to do so.

And this was the view from the top of Skierfe on the Laitaure delta.

One morning while running I saw a large group of cranes foraging in a meadow. After breakfast we went back as quickly as possible and luckily they were still there. This photo where part of the group was joined by a couple of whooper swans stood out for me.

And as I said, you will automatically end up at beautiful locations to spend the night. For example, we were at a lake one evening, where there was also quite a bit of moose poop to be found. Unfortunately, we did not see any moose then or the rest of the holiday, but fortunately the sunset that evening made up for everything.

If you drive around Sweden for a few weeks, you will understand why they generate so much electricity from water. Literally everywhere there are lakes, (fast-flowing) rivers and waterfalls. Here is a small selection.

The traditional dwellings of the Sami are also not to be missed. An absolute must is also the museum in Jokkmokk, which tells and shows you everything about the Sami and their living environment from the past and present.

At one point we also rode a piece over a plateau near the Norwegian border. A completely different impression than the forests and lakes, but certainly no less impressive. Especially when the wind is blowing hard, it can be quite spooky, as I had also experienced at the time on the Kungsleden.

Sometimes you have to make a little detour for something special and the church below is a good example of that. A fairytale location on the water and it looks as lovely inside as it does outside.

One morning started quite foggy. Now many a photographer's heart beats a little faster in foggy conditions and mine is no different. Especially when the fog slowly dissolves, you see one beautiful scene after another appear before you while driving along the water. You understand that I often parked the car along the side of the road that morning to take pictures.

Wooden houses are of course also synonymous with Sweden. Often red, but other colours are also regularly seen. And every now and then no paint is used at all, which in turn provides a beautiful and appealing weathering of the wood.

Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose on this trip. And we didn't encounter any bears (fortunately?) during our walks. However, we did see reindeer regularly. And yes, sometimes you really have to be careful while driving, because they just walk on the road alone or in a herd.

Towards the end of the holiday we were once again completely alone with the camper somewhere at a lake. That afternoon and evening we were once again treated to two fantastic natural phenomena. First there was a rainbow in the afternoon, brighter than I have ever seen.

And in the evening there were spectacular northern lights to be seen again. According to the app on my phone we were already way too far south for that and we had 0% chance of seeing anything. So I was glad that I looked out the window in the evening to see if maybe there wasn't a coincidence...

Sweden, I love you!