Looking for a nice location in Sweden

[dan_druff]

And all the bugtalk is quit local, too. Last summer we had a normal number of the large forrestmosquitos, appearantly the same for gnats, but a huge number of the smaller mosquitos, which are called, when translated, floodmosquitos.
Quit small, but very agressive and persistent!
as for the cold, try and get hold of some of those old woolen army uniforms. Looks a bit off, but so cosy warm!

i'll have to check them out Ron, at the moment i just use 3 layers... does the job if i keep moving and if i get cold i just make a fire.... i got a pair of those army motorbike gloves that go right up to your elbow.. theyre great for when out on the lake on the långfärdsskridskor... my friend and i actually planned to sleep out the other night in -12c... i set up the tarp and sleeping bag etc but we had to cut it short (much to my frustration) as my friend started throwing up.... after the treck back and a trip from årjäng to arvika to the hospital at 9pm (annoying as we were due to get up at 4:30am to go to gothenburg the next day) it turned out the retard just didnt chew his food properly and it got stuck which meant he couldnt even swallow water without bringing it back up......
'
in england we learn to chew our food around the age of 3.... only a swede' i tell him... he hates when i bring it up

var kommer du ifrån?

 

[Lush]

I thought id get in touch and give my 2 penn'th and suggest the Värmalnds area. I am from East Yorkshire myself but have just moved over to sweden to live with my girlfriend and this is where I am living (blomskog to be precise, right next to the border of norway)... If you made it to Årjäng (close to Karlstad) there are transport links to töckfors where there are many great places nearby to go out hiking, rock climbing, canoeing and fishing etc in the surrounding area. all forested too and easy to make shelters in. There are actually shelters already made in one or two places that you can sleep in.. but you can make shelters too.. its a good route to canoe down from töcksfors to bengtsfors via lennartsfors.. There are often a few norwegian and german tourists doing that route in the summer too but if you come in autumn there is not a soul...this area right now is very very desolate... when not at school and everyones at work if i go out i dont see anyone... sounds like heaven but after months of making fires, ice fishing and skating etc alone the novelty soon wears off.. oh, my girlfriend just told me you would have to make sure you have cash with you in lennartsfors as there is no cash machine nearby and you would need to pay at the loch too as you go through.. also there was a shop in lennartsfors that recently shut down so you'd have to stock up in Årjäng. If you search on a map for Östra silen, Värmlands county then you'll get a good idea.. or click here for some google pics:

(http://www.google.se/search?q=Ö...w=1024&bih=640)

You can go fishing for numerous different fish, last time i went in summer i caught many perch which i then just cooked over an open fire, also if youre fishing deeper you'll get pike and if you are lucky enough rainbow trout... i cooked the trout like ray mears where he takes the whole skeleton out and makes a brace to hold it over the fire... gorgeous! just recently some activists cut the nets of a rainbow trout fish farm nearby and released over 100 tons into the lake.. last time i went (before the ice came) i got 30kg! Some people in another thread said about open flame bans but ive not heard of that before... everyone here makes a fire wherever... no-one cares, to be honest, theres noone around to care... the water is also clean enough to drink form the lake and wash in etc (which im sure you already know as youre on this site) and fatwood and horses hoof fungus/fomes tinder are rediculously easy to find... the forestry here is mostly birch and scots pine... you also see heaps of deer and quite frequently moose... i nearly hit one on the way to Årjäng the other week infact as it was stood in the middle of the road... then a few days later whilst driving through the same area i saw a hunter had shot it and had loaded it into his truck... my friend today even told me that last week he saw a lynx...


anyway, hope that helps, and if you have any questions etc just give us a shout..

your best flying from stanstead to gothenburg then just get the train up to Karlstad and making your way from there... or you could fly from liverpool to olso and get the train to karlstad etc..

Good Luck!

Hej Då!

Damn, that sounds sweet as well! Värmalnds, a very well known area to me. Heard a lot about it. With any luck (and if you choose a good spot) you can build a camp and not get moved on, as I understand? That would be a very pleasant experience. From Google Earth it looks like few roads are in the area and lot's of woods indeed. I saw nice rivers with some sort of beaches. I think I already picked a spot, hahaa...

 

[Martti]

From Google Earth it looks like few roads are in the area and lot's of woods indeed. I saw nice rivers with some sort of beaches.

I do believe that the amount of roads are rather poor indicator of the amount of people that you might possibly bump into at a certain location. I would say around 30-50 % of all roads in Finland are mostly used by logging trucks. There are kilometers of beaches in Hanko region around an hour car ride from two major Finnish cities, but rarely I have seen people visiting them. There are dozens of islands to choose from in that area and a lot less people visiting them! The positive side is also that mosquitos do not prefer open water and sea wind.

 

[Lush]

Yep, and also a bigger chance of spotting bears or being able to hear wolves hauling I hope (and fear) in the area of Kuhmo, Lieksa and Iliomantsi? I like to see bear tracks and spot bears. I don't hope I see one near camp after I finished it! I am going to have a real good look for bear and moose highways before I setup camp. I don't want to disturb their highway's. That would be very unmindful anyway. It's probably very wise to store the food supplies 50 meter or so away from camp I recon. Up a tree.

Would it be a bad thing if I took my beagel along regarding to the possibility of wolves being around . I don't want to disturb them

 

[Martti]

Yep, and also a bigger chance of spotting bears or being able to hear wolves hauling I hope (and fear) in the area of Kuhmo, Lieksa and Iliomantsi?

These municipalities have the highest density of bears and wolves in all of Finland and thus probably all of Europe, minus some parts of the European side of Russia. However, both are naturally quite shy animals and you won't probably see them, only their tracks. Patvinsuo National Park is the largest one in the municipalities I listed, so you might want to investigate your preferenced location from there. There are several location outlined by the trails where you won't most probably be disturbed for several days. Notice that the large portion of the area is consisted of swamps, so bring your rubber boots with you!

Would it be a bad thing if I took my beagel along regarding to the possibility of wolves being around . I don't want to disturb them

It's true that wolves kill dozens of dogs annually in Finland, but all of these cases are when the dog is alone at the yard or when released for hunting in the forest.

 

[Lush]

Can there also be found willow in the Varmland area? Or just spruce and birch without exceptions? I very much like to weave a fish trap. I don't know if young split spruce roots work well for that?

 

[Lush]

Can there be found any willow or is it just to cold? I very much like to weave a fish trap. I don't know if young, split pine or even spruce roots work well for that?

Researchers in Sweden have put radio collars on bears and found that bears kept their distance to humans at about 60 meters or more. Very shy indeed. In one century, in the whole of Sweden only 3 serious accidents with bears happened. Two of them were hunters....

Spotting a wolf would really be awesome! Like I said, even hearing them, but I am afraid they are even more shy. And since I am not going to hike, it's very unlikely that I see one. I guess it would be much easyer to track them after snow has fallen..

 

[Martti]

Can there be found any willow or is it just to cold?

You can find willows anywhere in Fennoscandia, even in the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

 

[Lush]

ok, thanks for all your great answers! And the others of course...

 

[sumodaz]

A bit/very late to the party. Have you considered kayaking or canoeing? We are going with www.kayakbohuslan.com next year to kayak/wild camp along the bohuslan coast. Some people seem to forget that you don't need to go in the middle of know where to practice bushcraft. The coast is a fantastic place also.