Journey: Bilkyrkogåden Kyrkö Mosse – Stensjönäs National Reserve – Naturum Vattenriket – Forsaker waterfall lookout – Havang Dolman – Kungagraven – Stenshuvud Norra Huvudet National Park – Ales Stenar

So the longly awaited car graveyard… I’m going to say it was amazing! We have since found out there are multiple car graveyards in Sweden and this one was actually the property of a chap called Ake who used to buy them to strip and recycle the car parts, so these carcasses are much older and date from 1950/60s. I have a feeling Jamie and Ben would have loved this place and known more about what was left but I was just in awe of how nature had taken over them and the slow decay.

Our 2nd short walk was a small nature reserve called Stensjönäs which seemed to be little used and quite sickly as the trees had been cut as if dead headed 3/4 down. Mabel picked up a scent and Ernest proved himself to be a great frog spotter while Jasper had a roll in the dirt (taking after Mabel).

We then drove on to Kristianstad which has a lovely nature center Vattenriket and multiple walking trails. We chose a mid distance route and largely enjoyed the wet lands but part of the walk was along a main road and as you are so close in the city you never really lose sense of it. I think we have been spoilt by being in the wilds so much 🙈

4th walk was to a waterfall at Forsaker, we have seen lots of lakes but few rivers and this was our first proper waterfall walk. It’s a nice easy loop route, with a viewing platform near the waterfall and there is an outdoor public pool at the end. We timed it perfectly and missed the worst of the rain by dashing back to the van at the end of our walk.

Whilst only short walks we let the pups rest while we visited Havang Dolman burial stones and stunning beach (complete with skinny dippers who might have braved a max 10seconds in the sea 😂). There was also a hostel with cafe so we finally had Fika! My yummy bite was a vegan energy ball…Marks chocolate mint cake and ice cream looked the better deal.

While I’m researching I try to add some history to our route so our next stop was Kungagraven…it is the only bronze age cairn in Scandinavia. Mark laughed when he saw the huge pile of stones and put on his best “yay exciting” face. I think maybe we have seen enough burial mounds 😂

The pups were ready for a longer walk and Stenshuvud Norra Huvudet National Park (god knows how you pronounce it!) was gorgeous. We did the 3.7km loop trail through forest and grasslands. Mabel wasn’t keen on the styles so I carried her and at one point we were meant to go through a field of young bulls but one was really taken with Mabel and came over to the gate to sniff us. We had to distract him and make a quick dash…typically Mabel thought this field was a great place to randomly go on strike and refused to do a fast waddle. Fortunately non of the bulls paid any notice and we all got through ok.

Back at the van, Markles was in agony trying to get enough phone signal to listen to the cricket updates (he had been checking throughout the walk). Hearing only snippets of commentary then having to wait several minutes for signal to get updates…it was an amazing game and the gasps and disbelief alongside the frustration were quite comical (towards the end he was praying – just 10 seconds of signal please!).

Cricket resolved we drove on to our final walk Ales Stenar. This is Sweden’s equivalent to stone henge and arriving as the sun was setting was simply magical. My photos don’t do justice to the gorgeous pink skies and the aura this place has. A must do for anyone visiting Sweden.

Journey: Aboda Klint – Kalmar Castle – Öland (various sites) – Lake Tiken

Mabel and I love our morning snuggles and it’s always hard getting us out of bed and on the go, but once achieved we were raring to go on our morning walk in the forests at Aboda Klint. There are two routes 2.5 or 4.6km and when the paths separated we let Jasper choose as he was leading. He obviously has a sixth sense for this sort of thing as always chooses the longest route.

It was an easy walk up and around the huge lake. Mabel definitely caught the scent of something in the woods but we couldn’t see anything. We are on day 7 of moose watch but no sightings, still plenty of deer, cows and horses – we are great at spotting them 😂

Despite the big shop yesterday we had forgotten bread and I’ve been meaning to buy scales as paranoid all my cake munching is taking affect so when we saw a huge blue building with bright yellow writing…it seemed rude not to visit. Typically we pulled a miracle and walked around the entirety of IKEA only to find they didn’t sell scales and thus left empty-handed. We then had to brave a second huge shop which did and while Mark hunted for bread I spent 40minutes trying to fathom them out as they are Bluetooth and somehow connect to my phone to tell me stuff…why is everything so complicated 🙈 Turns out I’m a small poo’s difference from when we were in Amsterdam so I needn’t have worried.

We then drove on to Kalmar Castle and had a walk around the grounds before heading across the bridge to Öland. This island had so much history and the entire south section is classed as a world heritage site. After a quick look at a bulging tree where the mozzies tried to eat us alive, we went on a history trail. We were stopping every 20minutes or so to see numerous burial mounds and standing stones such as Mysinge Hog and the Gettlinge Grave Field. We also visited Eketorp Fort which is a reconstruction of the fort which had been in use between 1000-1400AD. Our attempts at toss the horse shoe were rediculous; we definitely need practise 🤣

Our final stop on the island was Ismantorp Fortress, it’s hard to show the scale of it in our photos, I guess you would need an aerial drone view, but it’s amazing the outlines of this fortress and you can see the chambers within…now embedded within a meadow of wild flowers.

Conscious we still have much to see and need to be back in Denmark by Tuesday for the acro festival with Heike – I can’t wait! I plumped for driving another two hours towards another flagged want to go site. Mark is generally happy just sitting and keeping watch for moose, he rarely asks where we are going but after 40 minutes he suddenly got the paper map book out and asked why we were driving West instead of South (we were driving into the sun…no fooling him!). 

He had mentioned a few days ago a forest where people had abandoned their cars when Sweden changed from right to left hand drive… I’d thought it sounded cool and thinking he must be interested to have mentioned it, I was happy to drive the 2hrs 20mins to go visit it…he thinks I’m mad. We will find out tomorrow if it’s worth it as we are only 23 minutes away and currently camped overlooking Lake Tiken

Journey: Trollparken – Hammersbadet – Norra Kvill National Park – Runkesten – Co-op – More Kastell – Aboda Klint

It has been a few days since Mabel rolled in sand so a little beach around the corner from Trollparken seemed the obvious choice for the pups first walk. On arrival the beach was a tiny bay inhabited by a huge hedgehog who quickly rolled into a ball when he spotted our 3! We realised it was linked to a campsite and facilities included inflatables and diving boards into the lake, so we had a brief walk but felt rude staying too long. 

We drove on to Norra Kvill National Park, which is a lovely old growth forest with lots of deep mossed boulders. Again not the best moose territory but we had a gorgeous walk up to the high point. Our pups are doing so well, Mabel bounces up the boulders, Jasper steams on ahead and Ernest is so hench!

Having already questioned the quality of the roads on the way to Norra, Mark was thrilled when we went onto smaller gravel tracks for half an hour to see a big rock called Runkesten. Fortunately I’m in charge of route and driving so off we went regardless giving our bones a good rattle down the ‘roads’ until they gradually got better. 

The big rock was impressive, but not quite as impressive as the swarms of evil bitey ants that guard it! We literally ran in, took a photo and ran back out again as they were climbing all over us, the dogs were going nuts and all three pups were rolling in the moss trying to get the ants off. Definitely worth the trip 😬🤣

Mark has commented on numerous occasions that he has never eaten so much green stuff in all his life. It’s great and obviously healthy but means every other day we have to go food shopping for fresh stuff…and chocolate. Cupboards restocked it was another 50min drive to an amazing ravine.

Here the roads really were rough and I was in my element, unlike Mark whose arse was tensed shut sure we might somehow die. I grew up on the Isle of Man and am used to tight winding roads, and the van is fine…if logging trucks can cope so can our van 😂 (not all the roads are log truck suitable but I have faith). We arrived just as another campervan was leaving which helped prove I wasn’t a lunatic for driving that road and quickly realised that the ravine would be considerably more dangerous than my driving if we chose to try and walk the dogs down the very steep scree ‘path’. I’d also forgotten that Mark doesn’t like edges and has a fear of falling so a pulling dog near a cliffedge was a living nightmare. He did brave a quick photo to prove the dogs had seen their first ravine 😍🐾

Dogs safely back in the van, we braved the path and I slipped even without the pups. The Kastell was amazing from the bottom and we successfully crossed the stream over super slippery rocks to get a better view. I clambered up the moss covered rocks to a high point…but Mark was happy enough on the ground. He hates watching me do dangerous stuff but it’s got to be done…my inner adrenaline junkie hasn’t completely grown up yet.

Our final camping spot is Aboda Klint, which has stunning views over a lake and forest walks for the pups. However we arrived just as a thunderstorm hit, so we are now listening to the rain and thunder whilst watching the lightning. I do love a good thunderstorm ⛈️

Journey: Naturum Stendorren – Soderkopings Sluss Gota Canal – Trollparken Garpes Banner

Last night I slept on the sofa with the pups and woke up at 8:40! An amazing lie in, I’m getting to be quite a pro at them 😂🙈

With Sweden being so big and having masses of inland lakes everywhere takes ages to get to so you just accept you’re in for multiple long drives and enjoy the scenery. Our first was to a lovely nature reserve called Stendörren where we pretended to look for moose. We have since found out they mostly eat scrub and this was bouldering coast line so not the most likely place to find them. Still we did a couple of lovely trails and it’s all very pretty. I’ve still yet to go wild swimming in Sweden but it’s bound to happen at some point (when I remember a towel).

I was desperate for some Fika (coffee and cake) so we drove on to the Gota Canal, we tried two sections of the canal and the part at Soderkopings is much better, there are lots of cafes, locks, boats and a 1km climb to a scenic point over the town. The queue for coffee was rediculously long so we plumped for ice cream instead…vegan ice cream in the middle of a little town, I couldn’t believe my luck 😄

Our final drive was to the wonderful Trollparken, which is a little woodland hike with 80 hidden trolls to find. Mabel is so funny; if she is sleeping before we go out it’s always difficult coaxing her off the sofa… She doesn’t isn’t like to be on her own and the boys are always eager to go out so we have to call her bluff, pretend to leave and then she comes 🙈 The trail was great fun, some funny designs and at one point I got captured and carried off for dinner…

Journey: Arby Nature Reserve – Gripsholm Castle – Stockholm – Moraåns Dalgång 

Today’s plan was to head into Stockholm. I’m not a big fan of cities so Markles largely plans the cities and I add his suggestions to my Google flag map of where to go. With still a way to drive I’d found a lovely nature reserve and castle en route so we had a lovely long walk, saw some rune stones, walked around the castle grounds and did the grocery shopping. It was a lovely morning 😊

New abridged version – Arrived in Stockholm, nightmare couldn’t find parking, we disagree over whose fault it is. 3 hrs later, I find parking…

As luck would have it 8pm is the perfect time to potter about, the streets are less busy, the light is gorgeous for photography, all the moose souvenir shops are still open. We have a lovely stroll around the city, see everything we wanted to see…and head back to the van. You aren’t allowed to park overnight so at 10:30pm we are leaving Stockholm heading to a little nature reserve to camp up. I had suggested the IKEA carpark but Mark thought I was joking 😆

Journey: Karlstad – Garphyttans Nature Reserve – Kvarntorpshögen – Ruda Gärd – Siguard Inscription

It generally works out that I organise the route…but this doesn’t always make for the most logical journey as I do love going into the wilds and can be easily led by a pretty Google picture/reviews. When we left Karlstad we were 3hrs 16min from Stockholm and Mark told me not to bomb straight over but go in that general direction…sounds easy enough…. except I’ve somehow tallied 4hrs 7min of driving and am still an hour from Stockholm 😂🙈

Karlstad was a bit of a non starter as the dry stone circle I’d planned wasn’t accessable due to road works and sat navs version of the city centre was a huge shopping mall. As we had stayed so late at the campsite we decided to push on an hour’s drive to Garphyttans Nature Reserve. Here Mabel and I were on high alert in the woods looking for moose, and we struggled up the mountain path despite our little legs and my poor footwear choice of flip flops (sure the moose could hear me).

From there we were meant to go to a food market but it was another hour’s drive and would be closed so I randomly picked a sculpture park an hour away. Mark was less than pleased when I opted to take the van up an 18% incline single way gravel road, but I’ve got good faith and the van was fine. The view from the top was amazing but I’m not sure what smelly gas was coming up through the soil as there were steam vents and caution hot spots. The sculpture themselves were a nice mix but it only took us 20mins to do the circuit…it wasn’t really worth the drive.

Still I thought I’d make it up to him by way of an idyllic red hut on the shore of a beautiful lake…only an hour away. Again it was in the back and beyonds down little gravel roads. We arrived at a big farm with a path leading to the hut…Mark looked confused and said is this it? Trying to picture it on a bright sunny day, we walked down to find it had a hot tub on a jetty on the lake…truely idyllic. Except the hut was locked, the hot tub empty and looked like it hadn’t been used in a while, and the garden hugely overgrown. I had to laugh because we had driven so far for a run down hut. Still the lake was pretty and as it was obvious we couldn’t camp there it meant driving on in early evening with more chance of spotting moose (I really want to see moose can you tell? 😂).

Going back to my original plan of visiting the Siguard inscription, I told Mark it would be fine and there was sure to be camping and it wasn’t too far from Stockholm. Cue another 1.5hours of me driving and pointing at cows, horses a deer, a couple of cranes…but no moose. I think the road signs are lying there are no moose crossing the roads.

We made it, have parked up with the place to ourselves. Mark made a yummy dinner and we will rouse the pups from their slumber to do the bedtime walk to see the stone carving. All ended well and they did warn us Sweden involves a lot of driving 🙂

Journey: Sven Jons Udde – Halmstad – Varberg – Fjaras – Hovs Haller 

Ah what a soggy day but I still love the sound of the rain on the van roof – it’s never as bad outside as it sounds.

We were warned there is a lot more driving between things in Sweden and so we haven’t seen as many obvious little towns to stop in. Instead I plan our route based on which Google attractions look nice to me…This often has us going into the wilds and Mark suggests finding somewhere closer. Our first stop was Picasso Park in Halmstad…It’s tiny with a cool sculpture next to the road…But as a bonus the town has a food market on and we found a lovely bakery to feed our sourdough habit.

Back from our wet walk I drove on to Varberg. The rain made the coastline even more dramatic, and as we walked along the promenade we realised we had arrived on race day. Not the nicest weather to be running 10k in, but they were pushing through it.

In Sweden I managed to find a British castle… It’s called Tjolöholm castle but we would call it a mansion or country estate. As we are both useless at navigation we walked the longest route possible and at the end realised we had parked only a few hundred yards from the castle and should have turned right rather than left to begin with. Still we saw some nice views of cows and stretched the legs.

Our camp spot for the night is Hovs Haller nature reserve, and we are 1 of 8 campers who had the same idea to park here. Mark is especially chuffed we are the only UK van and it’s fair to say is been weeks since we saw another UK motorhome. 

After dinner, I totally slumped and woke 2.5hours later. Markles then lured me out of bed to walk the dogs and it was so pretty – the setting sun just catching the back of the clouds and a new moon. Mabel went into sniff overdrive on the hunt for something…It’s amazing watching our typically slow waddler become so engrossed and animated. She sniffed out some friendly sheep and is now curled up on the sofa fast asleep.