Swedish Outback Hiking Experience

(Lake Hårsjön, at 11 PM.)

Here are some pictures from some wonderful days that we spent on the Skåneleden trail in southern Sweden, June 30- July 2. (Visit our photo album to view all the pictures.) We covered approximately 70 kilometers (44 miles) during our three days of hiking.


We started around 9 AM after being dropped off on the western part of the coast-to-coast trail, between point 13 and 12, and started our hike going east.
The sun was already shining bright and the temperature soon reached 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

A very tired Kim can be seen resting (in the photo album) after 8 hours of hiking, at a lookout place north of Åsljunga. From there we had a magnificent view with the forest stretching all the way to the horizon, with a couple of lakes placed in the middle of nowhere.


At 7 PM we finally reached the camp ground Lärkholmen, south of Åsljunga (point 11 on the map above). Tara was in charge of the washing up after Kim made dinner - the luxury menue included Knorr's vegetable soup and coffee boiled on the camp fire. We had a quick swim in the lake and could fall asleep to the sounds of the forest during this warm and bright evening. The photo album shows our beautiful scenery from the wind shield at 11 PM.

Day 2 included a very hard route from point 11 to point 10 (Hårsjön) which is depicted above. We both fell in a swamp and suffered from a tough heat in the low 90ies. When we finally reached the camp site we were soon accompanied by 17 off-road motorcycle guys who were kind enough to share some of their marshmallows with us around the camp fire.



Day 3 started at 6 AM with Kim making breakfast on oatmeal and oranges. We packed our tent and the rest of our things and left the camp ground at 7.45.
Along the way to Vittsjö (point 9 on the map) we found a few cute little cabins in the middle of the forest and stopped by one of them to borrow some water from the well. At around noon we made it to the Ubbalt National Park, by the lake Vittsjön. Here, we had lunch and took the opportunity to cool off by swimming in the lake before we continued to our final destination, east of the lake (close to point 8 on the map) where we were finally picked up and could soon travel back to the summer cottage in Båstad to our first hot shower in three days.


(Day 1. After 2 miles of hiking Tara is smiling on the hillside of the National Park area near Stavershult.)

Below: Kim in 90 degrees (F) weather on the moor in northern Skåne.