We decided that we were well overdue for a relaxing holiday, rather than my usual race to see everything in the entire world in one day. So we thought back to the trip we'd taken to Öland last year when I played rugby in Kalmar. (
Link to the first visit).
My company had a cabin near the beachfront which could be hired for 400kr a night (about $50) and we had a long weekend coming up - the Tuesday was a public holiday, making Monday a "squeeze day" which both the kids and Kristine had off. (In case I forgot to mention earlier, Kristine had picked up a job teaching at a school).
Since the weather was looking to be nice - 22 degrees and sunny, we decided it was the perfect time to head back to Öland.
The previous trip we spent time exploring the south part of the island, checking out the alvar and the prehistoric forts. This time we decided to explore the north part, which held a Trollskogen (troll forest), a light house (Långe Erik) and the Neptuni Åkrar beach.
We started off straight after work on Wednesday, we packed the car Tuesday night, including loading up the bikes on the back. I left work early, met the kids and walked to Kristine's school. After she'd finished, we started the 3.5hr drive to Öland.
We arrived around 8pm, so had dinner and put the kids to bed. When they finally stopped stuffing around and gave in to exhaustion, Kris and I headed out on to the balcony and watched ther sunset over the beach (being the start of summer, the sun set around 10:30pm). With a glass of wine for her and a scotch for me, it was a nice way to unwind with a book.
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| Sunset |
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| Sunset |
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| Sunset |
The next day, after a slow start, we headed out to Trollskogen. Trollskogen is in the northeast corner of Öland, up against the Baltic sea. It is a pine forest and its exposed location lets the wind twist the trees to strange shapes. Its name means Trolls Forest or Enchanted Forest.
Like most of Öland, Trollskogen has a large number of different species of trees and plants, some not found elsewhere. It is borded by a shingle beach and the unique alvar of Öland.
There were three walking paths, an easy one for kids with a quiz along the way, a medium half-length one and the full length (only 2.2km). We started with the kids path and then took the long trail.
When we first arrived at the forest we were greeted by a set of small shacks, each with samples and information on the different ecosystems and terrains within the forest. It was interesting to see the animals and plant types and the kids spent a bit of time running between them.
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| Some of the shacks |
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| Kris and Tom learning about Geology |
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| Cam looking at some of the rock samples |
I came across some examples of the fauna - a wasp making a nest in one of doorways:
After playing around in the shacks for a while (well until the kids saw the wasp and ran off screaming) we took the kids path, finding this sign at the start:
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| Have you seen a troll |
Apparently trolls cant be seen, but you can tell they are there by the bad smell.. After walking with Cameron and Tomas for a while we must have found many trolls...
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| Walk signposts |
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| The beach by the forest with Långe Erik just visible in the distance |
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| Sign about Långe Erik |
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| Långe Erik |
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| One of the quiz posts on the walk (the answer is 2 - Bees) |
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| Tree with ivy |
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| Twisted tree |
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| Twisted wood |
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| Strange tree (and some strange kids) |
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| More twisted trees |
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| Looking through the tree |
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| Uprooted tree |
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| And another |
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| Sign detailing the old hunts wall, dividing the royal hunting areas |
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| Not much of the wall remains |
After walking through the start of the forest we came out on the shingle beach
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| Shingle beach |
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| Tom and Cam |
After the beach we started to come into the start of the twisted trees:
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| Troll Trees |
But we did take a quick detour back to the beach to see the shipwreck of the Swiks.
The Swiks was a three-masted schooner that ran aground on December 21, 1926. The crew of seven was returning from Germany, hauling only ballast when a snowstorm forced them to try to head around Öland look for shelter in Kalmar. They failed and the ship ran aground on sand dunes below the water (known as Änggärdsudden in swedish). The crew were able to safely take a lifeboat ashore and walked through Trollskogen to Grankullavik where they were rescued. All crew survived, and only one was treated for blood poisoning from a rusty nail. A storm in the 1950s pushed the ship ashore and broke it in two.
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| Swiks |
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| A real shipswreck |
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| Us at the Swiks |
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| Swiks |
After passing the Swiks, we came to the Trol's Oak. The tree is over 900 years old and was originally used a seamark.
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| Trolleken (Troll's Oak) |
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| More twisted troll trees |
After passing through the troll trees we came across some viking burial grounds. Because the island sits on bedrock and can't be dug to any real depth, the burials were made in cairns and rock piles above ground:
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| Burial mounds |
There were also fire trenches built in the middle ages when Öland was an important port between Denmark and Gotland Island.
There was an impressive depression in the ground just after this. There is an old story that it once held a ship that was stranded there. There is a well at the bottom that was said to have magic powers. This area was used for storage and meetings during Sweden's war with Denmark in the 1400s.
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| The depression |
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| The magic well |
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| Swans on the calm bit of water between the two northen points of Öland |
After the forest we headed out to see Långe Erik:
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| On the way to Långe Erik |
Långe Erik was built in 1845 and is 27m tall. It was automated in 1976.
On our way out towards the lighthouse, we heard a crashing in the bushes at the side of the road. We wondering if it was a bird or wild pig or something, but nope it was a snake.. obviously it didn't have any worries about being detected - but it was hard to photograph.
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| Our snake |
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| Långe Erik |
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| The shale beach behind Långe Erik, complete with rock stacks |
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| Rock pile |
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| Tom's rock pile |
On our way to the cabin, we stopped just after Neptuni Åkrar, we would come back later and get some better shots of the actual beach, but here's some pics Kris took from the beach to the south:
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| Looking north towards Neptuni Åkrar |
After this we returned the cabin for dinner and the kids rode their bikes around the campgrounds. That night we caught another awesome sunset and relaxed outside with our books.
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