Tälje to Lillkrogen - There Were No Bears

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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 climb around the back of a big hill. Today was the first of these.

I had stayed a little off track last night, so there were a couple of false starts finding my way back onto the marked route. It seemed like the next hour or so was one continuous climb around the back of the biggest local hill they could find, Orråsberget. There was a reward at the top, a pilgrimssoffan to sit down on and admire the view.

Then there was a long stretch of gravel with another nice reward, a St Olavsleden picnic shelter at Lombäken at just the right placefor lunch.

But the killer punch came just after the county border, where the walkers route followed what was a former trading road made well before motor vehicles were even thought about.

All up today, there was nearly 530 m of climb, and only 140 m of descent. I have mixed feelings about avoiding the main road.

AND THERE WERE NO BEARS!

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