I’ve been in Sweden for a week now, and apart from the first couple of days when I had courses, I’ve been working twelve hour shifts . When I finished early after my courses though, I took the opportunity to have a look around where I’m staying.
My accommodation is a “Coastel”, a floating hotel (that may actually be too grand a word for it) that’s towed around to wherever the client wants it, in this case on the coast of Halland County, Sweden.
I’ve wandered around the Biskopshagens Naturresevat twice now, taking different routes each time. The first time was a beautiful, sunny, breezy evening, and the second time was overcast, blowing a hooley and with rain on the horizon. That’s the time that I remembered to take my camera.
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=57.250731,12.098179&spn=0.011677,0.038495&t=h&z=15
The coastel is parked up on the eastern side of the small harbour on the satellite picture, and I walked along the harbourside towards the knoll to the west.
A quick but enjoyable scramble got me to the top, the rock being very similar in colour and texture to that on Grey Crags, Buttermere. I’m sure that quite a few folk on this forum will have climbed there and be familiar with it.
On the way up I passed these, so it looks like Sweden will have a good harvest of sloes and crab apples this year.
There is also lots of juniper in the reserve, and chewing the berries as I went along gave me a very nice tang of gin. This was welcome as there is no alcohol allowed on board. Some of the German lads get around this by having “car boot” parties, where they fill their boot up with beer and have a party in the carpark.
From the top of the knoll you can see most of the peninsula,
Unfortunately there was a lardy bloke there spoiling the view,
From there I rock hopped my way to the sea battered western side (I got to the sea just opposite the small island on the satellite picture).
Looking south
Looking north
I continued north along the coast, scrambling around and jumping gullies,
until I went inland slightly to have a look at a small crag. It was made of the same, excellent rough rock as the knoll, and I had a little boulder about on it. Nothing too hard however, as I was in walking shoes and the landings were terrible. I didn’t want to get flown home with a broken leg after just a couple of days.
There is evidence of glaciation everywhere, including grooves and ruts carved by boulders caught in the ice. Unfortunately, non of those pics came out very well.
Regaining the coast, I went north to the smaller peninsula,
passing some rock shelters on the way.
These would have been great if they weren’t facing the correct way to catch the worst of the gales straight off the sea, and if they weren’t inhabited by monster spiders.
In reality, they look like a particularly muscular version of a British garden spider. Their silk seems really strong though; I could feel it tugging on my legs if I walked through their thousand of webs in the heather.
Another short scramble got me to the top of the small peninsula, where the geology changed to a fine textured, fairy hard sandstone.
After a good look about and throwing some stones into the sea,
I turned southeast to return to the coastel. I crossed some more rocky / boggy terrain, where I found this cool dry stone wall ( I really like drystone walls, although I think that some of the farmers that I know won’t think much of this one. It certainly seems to suit the local conditions though ).
I got back on the track at the circular carpark and walked though the birch woods and past smallholdings, with the smell of the trees and woodsmoke in the dusk rounding off my evening nicely as I strolled back to the harbourside.
My accommodation is a “Coastel”, a floating hotel (that may actually be too grand a word for it) that’s towed around to wherever the client wants it, in this case on the coast of Halland County, Sweden.
I’ve wandered around the Biskopshagens Naturresevat twice now, taking different routes each time. The first time was a beautiful, sunny, breezy evening, and the second time was overcast, blowing a hooley and with rain on the horizon. That’s the time that I remembered to take my camera.
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=57.250731,12.098179&spn=0.011677,0.038495&t=h&z=15
The coastel is parked up on the eastern side of the small harbour on the satellite picture, and I walked along the harbourside towards the knoll to the west.
A quick but enjoyable scramble got me to the top, the rock being very similar in colour and texture to that on Grey Crags, Buttermere. I’m sure that quite a few folk on this forum will have climbed there and be familiar with it.
On the way up I passed these, so it looks like Sweden will have a good harvest of sloes and crab apples this year.
There is also lots of juniper in the reserve, and chewing the berries as I went along gave me a very nice tang of gin. This was welcome as there is no alcohol allowed on board. Some of the German lads get around this by having “car boot” parties, where they fill their boot up with beer and have a party in the carpark.
From the top of the knoll you can see most of the peninsula,
Unfortunately there was a lardy bloke there spoiling the view,
From there I rock hopped my way to the sea battered western side (I got to the sea just opposite the small island on the satellite picture).
Looking south
Looking north
I continued north along the coast, scrambling around and jumping gullies,
until I went inland slightly to have a look at a small crag. It was made of the same, excellent rough rock as the knoll, and I had a little boulder about on it. Nothing too hard however, as I was in walking shoes and the landings were terrible. I didn’t want to get flown home with a broken leg after just a couple of days.
There is evidence of glaciation everywhere, including grooves and ruts carved by boulders caught in the ice. Unfortunately, non of those pics came out very well.
Regaining the coast, I went north to the smaller peninsula,
passing some rock shelters on the way.
These would have been great if they weren’t facing the correct way to catch the worst of the gales straight off the sea, and if they weren’t inhabited by monster spiders.
In reality, they look like a particularly muscular version of a British garden spider. Their silk seems really strong though; I could feel it tugging on my legs if I walked through their thousand of webs in the heather.
Another short scramble got me to the top of the small peninsula, where the geology changed to a fine textured, fairy hard sandstone.
After a good look about and throwing some stones into the sea,
I turned southeast to return to the coastel. I crossed some more rocky / boggy terrain, where I found this cool dry stone wall ( I really like drystone walls, although I think that some of the farmers that I know won’t think much of this one. It certainly seems to suit the local conditions though ).
I got back on the track at the circular carpark and walked though the birch woods and past smallholdings, with the smell of the trees and woodsmoke in the dusk rounding off my evening nicely as I strolled back to the harbourside.
