Day 72 – Moose or Reindeer? (It’s reindeer…the moose hunt continues 😂)

Journey: Hamra National Park – Sveg – Sonfjallet National Park – Fettjeafallet

My early morning starts came to an abrupt end as I slept. Ernest pinned me down, I couldn’t possibly get up 😜

We had a long drive to our first National Park. Hamra was our first step into bear territory…fair to say our chances of seeing one are miniscule but Mark loves them so they were the theme of our day. We did two of the trails and on the first Mabel got wet and rolled around getting absolutely filthy – she looked so proud of herself 😂 By the time we had finished the second trail all the dogs had dried off, and Mabel literally two steps from the end gate, jumped from the planks she had happily waddled along the whole way, into the bog. Ernest noticing his sister was belly deep decided to join her 🙈 So guess who had bath time when we got back to the van. Turns out Ernest only likes town fountains not showers, he was not impressed and cried bless him.

After lunch I did my exercises and then we drove on to the world largest wooden bear at Sveg. If we are honest it doesn’t look very bear like but the strawberry stall in the carpark had the most amazing tasting berries so it was worth it. A little worryingly we have tried 4 petrol stations and none do LPG so we are hoping we don’t run out before we find some.

Or second National Park was Sonfjallet which is a steep trail with rewarding views. We only made it part way as needed to get back for dinner and it was slightly alarming being pulled in various directions by the pups who kept bolting towards new smells. Typically we would have camped but it was forbidden so at 8:45 we drove on and I’m so glad we did. Around 9pm we came across 3 moose/reindeer! I was speechless and almost cried, at first we thought they were moose but looking at the antlers it seems more likely reindeer, though they seem too far south 🤔. Either way it was a magical experience. I’d stopped the van on the side of the road and the brown one walked past me, and an albino one and second brown one went past Mark. They weren’t fazed by the traffic or roads, just continued munching. Can someone give me a definitive answer to my moose/reindeer quandary?