010 Walking The Walk

New: Now with Photos as well

Random excerpts from my minutely held diary. All factual and accurate, like you are used to from your trusted correspondent in the field.

Wednesday, August 10th (Star-date unknown)

Left for the woods today. I took the bus to Karlskoga, and from there the bus to the Leken Lake. This is the point where the Bergslagsleden long distance path crosses the big road. This is where I will walk off the radar and into the unknown wilderness of Central Sweden.

I found the trail right away, and after about 10 minutes of walking, I couldn't hear the road anymore, and my adventure had started.

After about an hour, I came by a hut. Because I left by bus in the afternoon, and it took me some time to get to this point, I decide to stay. I walked a breathtaking 4 kilometres. I am proud at myself.

The hut is perfect, it's a half open affair with a fire place in front of it, situated at the shore of a beautiful lake, surrounded by dense pine forest. The hut is well maintained, and a little bit back along the trail stands a shed with dry firewood and a forest toilet (exactly like a normal toilet, but without the water, with a hole in the ground, and, obviously, in the forest). I make myself a nice campfire, eat some spaghetti bolognese, and fall asleep

Mosquito bites: 1 (one)

Thursday, August 11th

Today I walked a bit further. The path is very well maintained and excellently signposted. The path is marked with orange rings painted on trees, and almost always the next ring is in sight so you know you're not lost. On the very wet parts of the route, the path consists out of wooden boards to provide a dry walking area. Unfortunately, these planks are quite old, so they are worn smooth, and after a bit of rain they get very slippery. It feels like walking on a ice-skating rink.

Today, I sleep in my tent, near a hut that is already occupied. For the rest I met hardly anyone today, it is apparently not a very popular route.

Mosquito bites: zero

Friday, August 12th

Woke up in the middle of the night. Not because I was done sleeping, but because it was so incredibly cold. It was a clear night, and although it is still August, there is a strong chill in the air. I slept with my clothes on, and with my jacket over my sleeping bag. In the end, I did sleep for about 11 hours, but that usually happens the first days when I'm out hiking.

Today is the second real walking day, and that's always the hardest day. Your legs are not used to the walking, and yet you tell them to walk another day. I reached the next hut after 14 km, and called it a day.

Walking on my own is actually quite nice, sometimes I walk completely lost in thoughts, and at other times I marvel at the beauty of the forest. I can stop when I want to, keep my own pace. If you walk with someone else, you do walk further, because you push each other. But I'm still not talking to trees or seeing elves, so I'm save

Mosquito bites: zero

Saturday, August 13th

Another fine day of walking, and a nice lunch in a small restaurant that I passed by halfway through the day. This was nice, because the track goes through some quite remote area, and I hadn't encountered any shops yet, and so had not had the opportunity to purchase new food. Also another great hut to stay in for the night. This one looks out over a large lake, which is half covered with a thick layer of plants. If you step on it, it carries your weight, but it feels like a sponge, and if you stand on it for more than a couple of seconds, you slowly get sucked in. Probably you would survive if you run over it very fast, but you cannot stay in one place.

Mosquito bites: two

Fingers burnt while making campfire: one

Sunday, August 14th

Walking through the thick pine forest, I notice how in this part, the trees stand much closer together than elsewhere. I've been walking for a couple of hours now, and haven't met anyone. Signs of civilization become less and less. Suddenly, when I walk around a big outcrop of rocks, I enter a small open space in the forest. And there, just fifteen meters away, three grey mountain wolves are waiting for me. they must have heard me coming, must have smelled me and the food I carry with me. I stand there, paralyzed, frantically trying to recall the survival lessons from my time with the boy scouts. What was it again, am I supposed to stand still, so they can't see me? Or make myself big and make a lot of noise to scare them away? Or maybe back of slowly, whilst never stop staring back at them? I opt for the last tactic, mainly because I want to get away from them. I didn't travel al the way here to end as a banquet for these vicious animals. They stare back at me, growling, with salvia drooling out of the corners of their mouths. When I step back, they step forwards. Slowly I try to increase the distance between us. But these beasts are to smart to be fooled by such simple trickery. My mind is racing, how can I distract them? without making too much noise, I start groping  around in my backpack, to find something, anything, to get me out of this predicament. Then my hand stumbles upon half a sausage, left over from yesterdays evening meal. I throw the meat behind the pack, and for a few moments, they focus on that. At that moment, I drop my bag, and run for my life, only stopping when I cannot run anymore, but still too afraid to look back.

Sunday, August 14th (what really happened)

Today I walked a bit more than the last couple of days, maybe 20km. It is still not that much, I guess I could walk more than that. But the cabins along the way are so nice to stay in, that it is hard to walk by them and sleep in the tent. It's so much fun, to cut the firewood and get a nice campfire staring again, I feel like a boy scout all over again.

Today I walked through slightly more inhabited area, and got to eat a warm lunch again. The, walking in the woods again, I stumbled upon about a hundred cars, all parked around a small building in an open space in the forest. In the cars, people were sitting and looking at pieces of paper. It turned out to a venue for drive-in Bingo. People would sit in their cars, staring at the bingo forms, and a guy in the small building would read out the numbers through a sound system. When someone had a full card, he would honk the horn of his car, someone would run over to check the card, and hand out the price.

Only in Sweden.

Mosquito bites: zero

Monday, August 15th

Today, the weather changed and now we have rain. This has, besides the obvious disadvantages, advantages as well, in that it is a lot less cold during the nights. Something with the clouds keeping in the heath of the day. This is the sixth day of walking, and  I can notice my body is getting used to walking for a couple of hours each day. The bag pack seems to be getting lighter as well. Its nice to know that you somehow just adapt to the new normal.

Mosquito bites: one

Tuesday, August 16th

Today is the 7th and last day of walking. I finished my book, and ran out of food, it's time to head back into the modern world. Today I walked another 10 km to get to a place where the path crosses a road where supposedly busses stop. It turns out that they do, just not very often. So I had to wait an hour for the bus. And then another hour because I found it said in Swedish on the sign that the earlier bus didn't actually go today. But after 5 hours in public transport limbo, I reached Karlstad.

Mosquito bites: zero

In total, I walked about 100 km, through nice hilly woodlands. I met just a handful of people, and was alone most of the time. I found that being on my own for a while was quite nice, especially if I'm busy with walking and setting up camp. But I am happy to be back amongst people again.