Published: July 12th 2010Europe » Sweden » Västernorrland » ÖrnsköldsvikJuly 12th 2010


Tarmac Trees and Fences
on the E4. Great cure for insomnia.
Long drive today and weather glorious so pleased we have cab aircon in the Tandy. I spent quite a bit of the trip trying very hard, but failing, to stay awake. Driving along the tree-lined E4 is like counting sheep.
Its not that I don’t like trees, actually I like them a lot but not in such quantities and in such a monotonous arrangement. Both sides of the E4 are lined continuously with trees, nearly all conifers and, what I think makes it worse is the fence which is obviously newly installed between the forest and the road all the way along. Makes everything so regimented somehow. Not a branch out of place as it were. I presume it is to keep the Elks off the road but did still manage to spot one through the fence. Probably our last as we are moving south.
Very few photos today as absolutely nothing to photograph as we drove along. Difficult with so many trees and such flat terrain.
About halfway along things started to improve and from that point got better and better until we were driving through pretty and scenic countryside.
We started to see hills. The Sweden we have seen
so far has been absolutely flat and lined with forest. Then pastureland appeared as well and on a couple of occasions we actually spotted the coastline and some pleasant lakes. Much much better and am really relieved that Sweden actually is as nice as I had hoped.
Stopped by a rather good little lake for lunch and watched the wind blowing waves across the water. Then found another lake for our overnight campsite, Snibbens, at Ramvik. This was a change of plan. We originally were to spend 4 days heading down to Stockholm but decided in view of the over abundance of thick forests in the more Northerly Wilderness areas that we had had enough of that and would prefer to see some of the south as well.
So far an excellent decision. Campsite chosen late yesterday when we revamped our route and as it was small we got to it as soon as we could as no reservation available. Everyone is rather crammed in but it doesn’t matter at all. Had a lovely swim in the lake from the little sandy beach. Water was delightful if a strange colour. Coloured from the rocks which are supposedly iron. Whatever it
was it was extremely clean and refreshing.
This area is known as the Hoga Kusten or the High Coast and is a World Heritage recognized area - something to do with the effect of the land rising again after sinking in the ice age. This coast is full of inlets and islands and we crossed the very long suspension Hoga Kusten bridge just before we turned to our campsite.
In this our latest plan (C?) we go to Stockholm tomorrow and will spend three nights there to give us two whole days in the city. Called ahead to the campsite to change our reservation as this is one of the few sites we have already booked - being high season and a city site it seemed wise.
There are more photos below
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