Blogs from Bräcke, Jämtland County, Sweden, Europe

I was starting to get into a nice walking cadence when it occurred to me that it had been a little while since I had last seen a marker. The little while that is the spacing between markers can vary considerably. In some places there were markers on every power pole along a stretch of road which offered no option but to keep going in any case. More often there were prominant markers at road and track junctions to confirm to keep going, or to turn onto a new path or road. In any case, I turned to check, and spotted a road a few hundred metres back that I hadn't paid any attention to as I passed it. Sure enough, I had missed a turn onto a delightfully shaded section of road and track. The ... read more

Revsunds prästgärd is run by Rueben, a Dutchman who was involved in creating the S:t Olavsleden route from the many individual routes that came together and linked up. The signage alone is clearly a massive undertaking, with everything from small 20mm or so square tiles on stakes, through 50mm or so signs on a variety of square and oblong red painted timber boards and hung, nailed, screwed and strapped to posts, trees etc, and finally big welcome signs at various county and local government boundaries. Revsunds is also a meeting place where several of the St Olav routes meet in Sweden before heading off again in different ways to Trondheim. So I put in a pretty big day to get here from Mordviken (Murder Bay). Most of the morning was spent on quiet roads and forest ... read more

There were no bears Just before i left, Miriam, who helps run Täljegården, warned me that if I should meet a bear today, I should sing to it. While I was prepared to treat this as a practical joke, it was said so seriously that it made me wonder what I might choose to sing. At which point I realized that I barely knew snippets of anything but the Australian National Anthem, and I didn't quite know how 'whose lands are girt by sea' would work on a bear intent on girting me. Sometimes, things like that can stay with you the whole day! Avoiding the Main Road There are times when staying off the E14, the highway the St Olavsleden generally follows in Sweden, isn't a walk by the river, but rather a long, continuous ... read more