Sweden - Roadtrip, Forest & Such - 1

The trip up north started in the morning of the 14th of August. We set off from Gothenburg and decided to hurry out of our usual play ground and not relax before we were some ways off. That meant a 7 hour drive to Uppsala, where we stopped for the night. We thought we would be there faster, but road wasn't really what we expected. The drive was quite slow, as the so called motorway constantly changes to a regular road so you keep having to slow down from 100kmh to 80kmh to 60kmh, back to 80kmh, down to 60kmh, up to 100kmh, down again. Very frustrating. 

The first night we spent in the town of Uppsala at a hotel, Arena. The plan was a visit at our favourite shop during vacations - Decathlon! Wohooo!!! Those are only established in the vicinity of Stockholm, to our great disappointment. We've been wishing for one on the west coast for quite a while already.

The hotel seemed fairly new, budget type. A bit plastic. To my huge disappointment there was no water boiler or tea or coffee in the room. We didn't go to the bar for that though, but bought our evening meal at the supermarket 100 m off. After dinner it was already pretty late and we headed to bed.

Day 2 we started off with a nice hotel breakfast before heading of to Decathlon. There we decided to go glampers and bought three legged stools to make sitting around the camp area easier (something that later was a real blessing). I also got a new fleece sweater. I tried on a regular jacket the same brand as a pair of my hiking pants, but had to admit that I'm way too fat for that one at the moment. Ben's eyes bulged as I tried it on sending me into a laughing fit. That face!
Oh well, I look forward to not being preggo anymore.

Afterwards we headed off first to Falun to visit one of dad's oldest friends. After a coffee and a cinnamon bun there we drove to Timrå and found a nice spot by the waterline where we set up camp. It was at the outlet of Indalsälven, the Indal river that crosses most of Sweden horisontally. We had borrowed our brother's 4 p tent and decided to start off with that one. We did bring our 1p tents too, in case the big one was too problematic or just if we couldn't find a camp site large enough.

This evening we found a good enough camp ground for this huge tent, though. This watery area had quite some mosquitoes and we actually had to use our head nets. The fore room of the tent we had is big enough for the three of us to sit there on our stool, with our backpacks and the trangia, so we made dinner and hung out in there. The evening ended with a fabulous yellow full moon over the water of the Baltic Sea.
After a late dinner we settled in each with our own stuff, such as listening to audiobooks, writing this blog and just relaxing.

Outdoors and pregnant - 2 - packing list

So prepping for some nights in the great outdoors, a little hiking, maybe scrambling up a rock and taking a dip in a lake or two, this is what I actually ended up bringing. Good thing I'm traveling by car😉

General stuff - check!
Tent
Sleeping pad
Sleeping bag
Hiking poles
Backpack
Flashlight
Head torch
Mosquito net (pregnant, deet is off limits 😞)

Kitchen
Cooking gear (Trangia)
Cup
Knife
Small thermo bottle
Water bottle
Dish cloth and soap
Lighter

Need to get: gas for the kitchen.
I forgot my food container, so I'll just get something simple for the trip.

Hygiene
Soap
Toothbrush
Tooth paste
Deodorant
Skin moisturizer
Sun screen
Tape
Plaster - check
Towel
Toilet paper
Tweezer for all kinds of small stuff, ticks included.

Clothing
Warm sweater
Socks
Warm socks
Hiking pants
Shorts
Gloves
Hat
Under garments
Swim suit
Rain jacket
Rain pants
Jacket
Sandals
Boots
And in some inexplicable way I forgot the base layers!

Stuff that might come in handy
Climbing gear: shoes, harness, carabiners, gloves, helmet

So now I'm just hoping for fairly good weather. The insane heat of this summer seems to have passed and there are a lot more rainy days - which is good, since my core temperature is higher than usual due to the pregnancy and I've been dying of heat exposure over and over this summer. Ice water is heaven sent sometimes. 😜

Outdoors and pregnant - 1 - where to go, what to do?

So, yes ... that happened.
I think I went a bit crazy suddenly and pretty soon I'll be not just me anymore. yay, pink fluffy puffy stuff and all, but how to do outdoors while preggo?
Later I'll write something on activities with kid, but first things first...

So, many women have a great pregnancy, they're energetic, do fitness training and everything and just seem to not change physically except for the bump. A colleague of mine was telling me about running around in the woods doing her exam to become a captain in the military, just days before full term. I was amazed that she could actually RUN! My body had no intentions of following that sort of a road. Already from the start I got super mega insanely exhausted. I've spent almost 3 months sleeping. After work I'd just crash and .. well,.. sleep like the dead. And eat. Yeah the eating part. My regular low carb, healthy, veggie rich diet did reeeally not go well with the growing, crazy, carnivore, sugar craving embryo, so I gained some weight quite quickly in the beginning trying to figure out how to eat. Luckily that part normalized, but I do feel pretty heavy. Aside from that an old pelvic injury started bothering me to no end.

So, no exercise and heavier than I'd hoped, but the craving to go outdoors has not lessened. So far I've spent a week at the coast with my bro, fishing and scrambling over boulders and rocks along the Swedish west coast, as well as done a cave scramble in Börsås - super much fun, very tight cave, and way too short. Took us 15 minutes to get through. In the pic I'm looking at the tiny exit hole. I couldn't find any good website on it, so try googling Börsås cave or check it out on youtube.


Anyhow, next I'm considering a slow pace hike in Norway or somewhere in Sweden and these are the things that need to be taken into account.

• I'm not very fit at the moment.

• I'm heavy - extra weight means weight of a backpack needs to be minimal as I have a bad knee and SI-joint.

• Backpack can't be too tight around the waist - again, minimal weight.

• Energy need is higher - need to have more snacks and stuff to keep a steady blood sugar level throughout any hike. 

• Hiking pace needs to take a loose pelvis into account. Can't walk fast and no sudden moves.

Other than the above, it should be a piece of cake, right. 😅

Sweden?
I have never really explored Sweden. For some reason it has not been as interesting to me as more "exotic" places abroad. That said, the country has loads of interesting spots to offer and is full of forests, lakes and hills with hiking trails, fishing areas, rivers for kayaking and so forth...
I've always wanted to go to Treriksröset, which is the place where Sweden, Finland and Norway meet, the "Three country cairn", but I'll have to save that one for later. Its as far up north you can get in Sweden. In the pic here you have Sweden below, Finland to the right and Norway to the left.


Norway?
So... Preikestolen for example, only has a 300 m ascent. There are 2 difficult sections, first one being in the very beginning of the hike. It's a constant scramble up a hill. Last time we were there it had been raining and the trail was quite muddy. We were late starting out our hike and didn't have time to go more than half way. So we stopped in the middle section and had dinner by a stream before heading down again. We couldn't go very far back then because we had our dad with us and he was in really bad shape (which he protests very loudly, not acknowledging that we only did the first part of the hike). If I go for this one I'll be the one who's in really bad shape. 😝

The mountainous Norway has a typical shifty weather, meaning you need to be prepared for both fabulous sunshine and sleet rain. If you want to spend the night at the top the gear you bring needs to accommodate cold and rain.

I considered Finland too, but that would require sitting still at the table visiting relatives. Not what I'm looking to do in my last days of FREEDOOOM!!!

So...
Tent with tarp.
Warm sleeping bag.
Base Layers - merino wool under layer, wool socks, etc
Layers - sweater, pants.
Water resistant layers - pants and jacket, buff, gloves etc.
Cooking gear. 
Head torch for moving about and to have as a light in the tent.
Water! and snacks....

So... my regular clothes are out of the question. I've ordered a new pair of pants for hiking, which hopefully will fit. I'll go with one of my old puffy jackets, a blue 8848Altitude, instead of my super efficient, Haglöffs ROC, fabulous shell jacket. That one will have to wait until next year... In this pic I'm wearing the super shell over a simple Quechua quilt jacket from Decathlon. It was insanely cold and windy on that mountain pass, but the combination was perfect for that weather.
The blue 8848 jacket survived a year of shifty weather on the Faroe Islands, though, so I think it'll be ok.

Well then, the first part of the project is finished - deciding to go.
Next comes packing for all eventualities. I'm planning on going super flexible as I haven't decided where to go and what to see. I just need my gear and a car and off it is 😜

Fishing along the coast, Sweden

So, we haven't been up to any craziness lately. Summer was slow in coming and we've been busy doing regular everyday stuff, such as working and studying.
Last year at this time we did a super intensive drive up to Norway and checked out some boulders and sports routes along the way, slept in a tent and such.
This year that was not in the cards, so we did the next best thing, we went fishing ;)

There are some few things you need to know if you intend to go fishing in Scandinavia. The rules are different in for example Denmark versus Sweden, the latter being a bit more liberal. Denmark has quite a long coast line in need of constant work and up-keeping which is why you need to pay a fee if you intend to do some fishing. The same goes for fresh water fishing. Many areas are also rented by different fishing clubs, meaning you can't fish there unless you're a member.
Sweden on the other hand has free fishing with a rod along the coast line. If you want to fish along rivers and lakes you need a fishing permit. You can get more info on the rules of those online HERE.

Trout
Fishing along the coast does include some important rules though. Along the southern coast it is not allowed to fish
trout from the 15th of September to the 31st of December. Along the west coast the trout prohibition is not lifted until the 1st of April.
Size also matters. The smallest trout allowed is 45 cm in the west and 50 cm in the south.

Mackerel
These fish arrive at the west coast during May-June and stick around until August, which is when they move farther away from land until they go to wherever they spend winter time. Most people fish these from boats, but you can catch them from land too, although you need to get a little bit lucky, since mackerel never stay put, they are in constant movement between surface and bottom, looking for something to eat. If you're on a boat you can use several fishing rods and try your luck at different depths simultaneously.

Where to go and when depends on time of day and weather. A tip is looking for information from other fishers around.

There are loads of good spots along the coast line. We've mostly been to the beautiful west coast rocky areas. During summer the rocks get warm in the sunshine and even though it might get windy you can keep warm sitting in a nook between a couple of boulders. These pictures are from the island Hönö.
When the water is warm enough it is also a superb place for swimming and snorkeling.


Hönö is also a good climbing destination for those who like bouldering. Bring your crash pad and prepare to experience hundreds of boulders in all grades.