avatarAnne Bonfert

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TRAVEL. ROAD TRIP. SCANDINAVIA.

Hiking Through Sweden’s Wilderness

Road trip day two: An adventure in secluded remoteness

Credit: Anne Bonfert

It was such a peaceful waking up. It was slow. My ears were the first ones lifting from a good night’s sleep. I was hearing birds. Singing and chirping. Then I could feel the fresh and clean air. My body felt relaxed. And eventually, I opened my eyes and saw the lake.

Yes, this was the perfect camping spot.

Once we were both fully awake, we quickly got dressed because it was rather chilly outside. I made us some breakfast porridge and we sat in our chairs overlooking the silent lake.

There was no ripple. Not a breath of wind. The water was absolutely still. Just now and then a fish would jump up, catch a breath and cause some tiny waves.

The birds of course were singing in the loudest chorus. It was beautiful.

Just as we were packing up while convincing ourselves it was time to move on and say goodbye to this piece of paradise, my husband said “well, good luck with trying to top this place,” and sighed.

Yes, that wouldn’t be easy.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

But I had already something in mind. The previous night I had searched through my iOverlander app and found a new wild camping spot. We had just about 3 hours to drive and were excited to hit the road again.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

Trees, trees, and more trees. Sweden’s south is surely covered in forest. I don’t know about the north but we always had trees in sight and either on our right or left was a forest stretching for an unknown distance.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

We were nearing our destination as the forest got thicker and signs of civilization got less. We were close to a national park where you aren’t allowed to wild camp but right next to the lake inside the park was a smaller one. Outside of the park and therefore free for us to settle down for the night.

We turned off the gravel road and had just a few meters left up to the lake.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

There it was. Our next piece of paradise. I held my breath. This place might actually beat last night's camping spot. It was difficult to imagine something like that would be possible but here we are.

A small boat was tied to an old pier. A table and fire pit right at the lake and just enough space for us to park the car.

Perfect.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

It was lunchtime and my husband started to prepare a meal while I was hopping around taking pictures.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The sky wasn’t very blue and maybe a little daunting but we aren’t afraid of the rain and just enjoyed the silence. While we had seen a few people at our previous camp and chatted to one of the locals walking their dog, we wouldn’t see, hear or meet another soul until leaving the next day.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

Later in the afternoon, we headed out on a hike. We had seen something that looked like a hiking trail and decided to see how far we’d get. Looking at the size of the lake we thought it was doable to walk all the way around but we didn’t know if we would manage.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

It was an easy trail leading us through fairytale land. Soft moss was covering the forest ground and the pine trees were standing rather far from each other. The lake was to our right and should stay there for the rest of our trip.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

We didn’t get very far on the hiking trail, just after passing one vacation home the path disappeared and we meandered through the bush. We followed what appeared like an animal trail.

At first, it was more like a trail made by deers, then maybe some wild boars which led into a rabbit trail, and in the end, we followed mice tracks. Yes, there was nothing. The bush was thick and we just pushed through the wilderness in between the branches with our hands protecting our faces.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

We turned back to the lake in the hope we would find a trail closer to shore but that only helped us to get our orientation back. We sat down overlooking the lake.

We had hiked for about an hour and didn’t even come close to the halfway mark around the lake. But we had gone through some really rough stretches, thick undergrowth, marshland, and walked through water.

Thinking about turning around and walking back was not an option for us.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

There was only one way forward. To continue what we had started.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

We got to more water. Some with bridges, some without.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

And we walked for an hour through the thickest forest with no trail or signs of human tracks with no camera documenting any of it. We were both too focused to even think about recording any of it.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

After a bit over two hours, we made it to the halfway mark around the lake. We sat down for a rest and drank some water. We inspected the rest of the trip around the lake on google maps and decided to head a bit away from shore to hit a gravel road and finish our hike on some more relaxed terrain.

It took some more walking through water and fighting through the bush before we got there but the first pictures were taken again as I got to the road.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

Blue shining lupine flowers were lining the road lifting our mood after our energy levels had dropped on this challenging hike.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

This was true wilderness we had walked through today.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

Forest all around us.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

And eventually, we got back to the lake and back to our secluded campsite.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The wind had calmed down and my husband flew the drone to give you a bird’s eye view of our private spot.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I had struggled but finally lit a fire with wet wood. It rained not only today on our hike but the entire previous week.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I’m in love with the panorama function of my husband’s iPhone and keep on using it to capture the wide beauty of this wild place in southern Sweden.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

As we were relaxing on the lake we spotted 4 ducklings crossing the water. What appeared to be something dangerous turned out into an animal story with a happy ending.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The lake was flat without a single wave and peaceful. The only sounds we heard were birds singing in the trees.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The clouds were building up on the horizon and lit up in the late sunset light.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

And this was how another beautiful day in southern Sweden came to an end.

We were lying in the car listening to frogs and wild geese on the other side of the lake. It was almost too beautiful to be real. But real enough for me to know I want to experience more of it.

More of Sweden.

More of Scandinavia.

But we still had one more morning waking up in paradise ahead of us…

“The earth has music for those who listen.” — William Shakespeare

Watch the full video of our Sweden trip on Youtube:

More stories about our short trip to Sweden:

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Travel
Scandinavia
Adventure
Hiking
Wilderness
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