Europe Part 3- Sweden to UK via Denmark

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November 4th 2008

Published: November 4th 2008

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Possum Post

The Dalaknut (Dalarna notch)

This is the joint used in building the typical log houses and barns in Sweden.

In the latest blog we finally learn how to build a log cabin, watch how axes are made, experience the first snow of winter , go into a big hole in the ground, see lots of trees , more windmills and birdies on a golf course and take shelter in a wartime bunker with real Germans! And, of course, you can ,yet again ,play another round of ... Where’s Possum.
When travelling in Scandinavia you cannot fail to notice the traditional log buildings . Also, you cannot have failed to have noticed (If you have been reading our blogs) that we have been admiring timber houses ever since we landed in Norway...well actually the United States and Canada. It is an ambition, one day, to build our own log cabin. So , we managed to find and book onto a log building course being run by Gränsfors Bruks, a famous axe making company, at Bergsjö in north-central Sweden to learn how it is done. The course instructions included a list of tools to bring along; tumstock (yardstick), vattenpass (spirit level), vinkelhake (set square) and hörselskydd (ear defenders) most of which we picked up at an amazing supermarket/hardware store whilst doing the

The bakery takes shape

On the course we were building a large two roomed structure which will become Gransfors' bakery when finished. Long way to go!

weekly shop. Armed with these items, plus an incredibly sharp Gränsfors yxa (axe) we slowly mastered the dalanaknut, the essential joint found in each corner of the building which locks the walls together to form a rigid structure. The course instructor Olaf Jung has been building log houses for many years and runs a green house building company. There were six Swedes, one German and us on the course, but Olaf did a good job of explaining everything (patiently, even third time around!) in Swedish, German and English. It was a fantastic week in a perfect setting deep in the wooded countryside of northern Sweden with its glorious autumn colours. In addition to learning the basic principles of how to build a log cabin, we also managed to learn a bit of Swedish and not just words that would only be useful on a building site. A real treat was a tour of the axe factory to watch the axes being made(the public are allowed to wander around the forge!) We just had to buy a couple of souvenirs!
The summer was now definitely over and the autumn colours were stunning. Back on the road again ,we headed back

Windows? No problem!

Olaf demonstrates how to install windows.

into the mountains of Härjedalen in central Sweden. Now, since the course we were looking at log cabins even more closely .Not only to see how they were constructed, but basically for accommodation as camping was becoming less and less of an option, especially when the first snow arrived, rather unexpectedly on 3rd October.
The province of Dalarna encompasses all that is typical of Sweden. It is an area of lakes, pine forests, small villages of traditional wooden houses and churches of a distinctive architecture. At its heart lies Lake Siljan, one of many meteorite impact sites in Scandinavia. We stayed for five days around Leksand and Mora and didn’t really want to leave. Many Swedes holiday here so it gets extremely busy in summer. There are some benefits to out-of-season travel, even if most of the campsites, museums etc are closed! Although mostly forests and farms, the area is also famous for its long history of copper mining , especially at Falun ,which during the 18th century produced two thirds of the worlds copper. The mine closed in 1992 and it is now a world heritage site . We did the guided tour into the “Great Pit” and some

Axesmiths at work

The traditional way to make an axe! Gransfors run courses on this too, so you can make your own axe then make your own log house!

of the mine shafts . This is also where they produce the red pigment used to paint nearly every wooden house, barn, outhouse, garage and dog kennel in Sweden.
It was a pleasure to drive on the well made and seemingly empty roads of Sweden, through rolling countryside of clear lakes and endless forests which were stunning in the yellows and reds of autumn. Driving south through Värmland we passed Torsby, home of Sven Goran Erikson ( we weren’t interested either ... he’s a football manager...soccer....the round ball) ,but you couldn’t miss the sign at the entrance of the town announcing this claim to fame. We also stayed for one night at Arvika where they manufacture all those monster yellow Volvo diggers. Unfortunately we left it too late in the day to go on the tour around the factory. After walking and camping in the Glaskogen Nature Reserve for a couple of days (where we saw loads of black grouse and got good views of capercaillie) we made our way to the island of Öland off the south east corner of Sweden. Öland is a low narrow island and is totally different from the rest of the country. The central

Be afraid....very afraid!

Kerry enjoying the exhibits in the axe musem

plateau is dominated by the Stora Alvaret , an area of limestone which is almost bare except for the occasional group of stunted trees and a unique flora which grows wherever there is a small pocket of soil. A bit like the Burren in Ireland without the limestone pavement. Over 30 species of orchid can be found along with carpets of flowers including the endemic Öland rockrose. There is also a considerable amount of archaeology from Öland’s varied and sometimes turbulent history, including Bronze Age burials, huge 5th century forts, abandoned farms and over 300 wooden windmills. We only planned to stay for a day or two but ended staying five. It was the birds, you see. Our visit happened to coincide with the autumn migration. Each autumn, something like 500 million birds leave northern regions and pass over southern Sweden. Öland is located right on the migration route of many species. Thousands of Brent and Barnacle geese could be seen either flying south or grazing in the fields. We saw (and heard) long lines of cranes and every field seemed to have at least one rough legged buzzard hovering above it. Our campsite was a well known birding site

First snow

4 October brought the first real snow to the mountains of central Sweden.

so it was not unusual to wake up and find a bloke with a telescope standing outside the cabin, but the Ottenby Bird Station at the south tip of the island is THE place to watch for birds as it is their last chance to refuel before heading across the Baltic. Whilst most of the birders trained their scopes on the bushes looking for Pallas’ warblers and other Russian rarities, we enjoyed the wildfowl smorgasbord but also saw several sea eagles, hundreds of sparrowhawks and even a gyr falcon.
So far on our trip to the Nordic countries we had been in the north where the forests are largely spruce, pine and birch. In southern Sweden this all changes and the woodlands become more diverse with oak , lime, ash, beech, elm and hornbeam. Mixed woodlands containing these species are called ädellövskog or ‘noble’ broadleaved woodland. They must be fantastic in Spring with carpets of blue hepatica and white and yellow wood anemone. We found these woodlands both on Öland and in Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden. The people of Skåne like to think themselves as different and independent to the rest of the country. The area only became

Autumn colours, Lake Siljan

part of Sweden in the 17th century having previously belonged to Denmark and apparently the people have a strong dialect as a result (it sounded the same to us!) Every year, in order to assert their independence some Scanians start digging a symbolic trench to try and separate them from the rest of the country. Apparently some people come all the way down from Norrdland to help them speed up the process! Despite being a very agricultural region , it does have some of the large areas of protected broadleaf woodland and we visited Söderåsen National Park, at 1625 hectares one of the largest protected area of broadleaved woodland in Northern Europe. We were particularly struck by the abundance of red kites and saw 10 flying over a field as it was being ploughed. Since nearly all the campsites were now closed and, quite honestly, it was not camping weather, we managed to rent a cottage for a week near the town of Hörby and use this as a base to explore the region. The cottage, which was an old farm, was perfect and came with wood fired central heating plus wood burning stove, fully fitted kitchen, apple trees, its

Ural owl

An unexpected boost for our bird list!

own nature reserve, and five Shetland ponies.
Hörby is within an hour’s drive of Falsterbo, another fantastic place to watch bird migration and we made two visits. One of the best areas is Nabben, a headland just south of the town of Falsterbo partly occupied by a golf course. There appears to be an amicable relationship between the golfers and the birders; the golfers have to contend with hordes of people armed with telescopes traipsing across the greens, whilst the birders just have to try to dodge the golf balls ! Both days we visited , sparrowhawks were passing through at a rate of almost one a minute, following the flocks of chaffinches, bramblings, goldfinches and tits as they headed south (over a million chaffinches/bramblings pass through Falsterbo in Autumn). On the second visit, the entire woodpigeon population of northern Scandinavia was streaming overhead. And of course there were loads of rough legged buzzards, barnacle geese, brent geese, wigeon, mute swan..... To watch migration on this scale makes you realise just how vast northern Scandinavia and Russia are!
Our cottage was also within an hour’s drive of the bridge which links Sweden to Denmark, so having thoroughly explored Skåne, we

Falu Koppargruve

At one point, this mine produced two thirds of the worlds copper.

left Sweden intending to spend a few days in Denmark before heading back to the UK. However, if Skåne had been agricultural, what we saw in Denmark was much more intensive. Apart from the coast there appears to be very little semi-natural habitat anywhere in the country. That, combined with the weather, the weight of traffic on the roads, the cost of accommodation and the fact that Denmark was mostly closed for the winter, were pretty good reasons to change our plans and get on the ferry from Esbjerg to Harwich. Before sailing we had time for a walk on one of the fantastic beaches north of Esbjerg, seeing quite a few new birds and sheltering from a snowstorm in a German WW2 bunker...with some Germans! After a smooth and comfortable crossing (we had plenty of food this time!) we were welcomed back to England with a search of the van by UK Border Authority, the most rigorous border crossing since LA! . Once the customs inspector opened the back door of the van and was confronted by a wall of camping gear, waterproofs, bikes , food, wellingtons, bits of wood ,tools and empty bottles the inspection became a bit