Admiring the view from the east side of Kärsön, towards Nockeby…

… and doing the same from the west side of Kärsön, towards Drottningholm.

Kärsön is a small island in lake Mälaren, mostly covered with forest. It is easy to get to by car, has a lot of walkable paths, and offers nice views in all directions. All set for a day of great walking.

The kids weren’t super excited about the idea of walking to begin with, but also did not want to stay at home, which was an option for Ingrid at least. They got markedly less excited the longer we walked. So instead of a relaxing nature walk I got about three hours of “are we done yet”. (The first hour was OK, with little to no complaining.) The net effect was a slight negative. So I still need my dose of peace and quiet and nature, so will be going for a new hike next weekend, with no kids.

Eric is away with the kids for three days, visiting his father. I spent the first two days on my own just relaxing, reading and doing stuff around the house. Today I realized it was the last day of my vacation and on my own so it was an excellent opportunity to go out cycling.

Based on a suggestion in a book about cycle outings, I cycled along the northern edge of lake Mälaren, from Alvik to Kanaan. I am not sure if I would recommend it for other cyclists unless they are on mountain bikes. The route was picturesque, true. But many sections of the path were either too steep or too uneven (or both) for normal bikes so I had to get off and walk.

Spånga scouts’ summer camp takes place right next to Tiveden national park. I had two free afternoons, on the days when I wasn’t scheduled to cook dinner, and used them to go hiking in the national park.

Tiveden is described as one of the most beautiful national parks in Sweden. The path I chose yesterday (Stigmansrundan) was nice enough but nothing extraordinary: pine forest, bilberry bushes and mossy rocks and lake views. Seen all of it before, so I was a bit disappointed.

Today I walked in a different direction (Trollkyrkorundan) and had a very different experience. This side of the park was a lot more dramatic and interesting. The landscape was rugged and craggy, with small but steep hills, rocks and roots and fallen trees to clamber around or over. The forest was lush and wild. This is the kind of landscape I was hoping to see in Tiveden – wild and magical. I’m glad I did this walk.

Scouts, building their camp.

Meanwhile the kitchen crew prepared food for 189 people, in relatively primitive conditions.

I have never before cooked on this scale; it was an interesting experience. When tikka masala spice mix is measured not in teaspoons but in cups, and one person can spend almost half an hour just peeling onions, and the end result is served in pots so large that it takes two people to carry them to the serving table.

We went for a walk in another bog, with my father and his wife (on the Riisa hiking trail in Soomaa bog).

The path passed right by several small pools with platforms that made it easy to climb into and out of the water, so we tried out the water.

Bog pool water is brown like Coca-Cola.

Given how small the pools were I had expected them to be warm from the sun, but the water was quite shockingly cold. Only a very thin layer at the top was warm. If I swam very carefully, almost gliding without moving my arms, I could keep in the warm layer. But then I turned back and swam through water that I had churned up with my legs, and it was cold again.

No trip to Estonia is complete without a visit to one of the adventure parks with their treetop obstacle courses. This year Adrian joined us, and had more fun and got further than I had really dared to hope for. Ingrid on the other hand was super disappointed that she didn’t make the length limit for half of the tracks.

Taevaskoda, “Heaven’s Hall”, one of the most scenic spots in Estonia with sandstone cliffs next to a winding river. Do the kids spend any time appreciating the view? No. They found a Pokestop.

We went for a bog/forest walk with our Estonian friends, in Meenikunno bog.

I wanted to take the kids to somewhere typically Estonian. We’ve seen enough forests in Sweden, but there are no bogs around Stockholm.

The first half of the walk went through a bog along a plank path. In the forest it was an ordinary path on the ground. The ground was waterlogged so funnily enough we got through the bog with completely dry feet but got them rather wet and muddy in the forest.

Porridge at the lakeside.

A new attempt at camping today, with more success.

We camped at lake Årsjön in Tyresta, a nature reserve south of Stockholm.

The camping site was a 3 km hike from the parking lot at the end of the road. At first the path was wide and even, accessible even to wheelchairs and baby buggies, frankly rather boring. After a while we turned off onto a smaller path that was more akin to what I expect a forest path to be like: up and down, across stones and pine roots. The path was still very easy to follow with were red markers on the trees all along, so the kids could walk ahead when they wanted.

The forest was full of bilberries. Our hike followed the most popular and accessible paths right near the entrance to the nature reserve, where hundreds of people pass every day, so I would have expected the berries to be gone. But no, the bushes were full of berries wherever we looked. Plump, ripe, juicy, sweet, hanging right there at the edge of the path, they were just screaming at us – “Eat me!” We kept stopping because we just couldn’t pass them by.

When we got to the Årsjön camping site we pitched our tent and unpacked. Ingrid and I decided to sleep in the tent; Adrian and Eric chose to sleep in the lean-to. Ingrid carved in tree bark while Eric made a fire and I walked around taking photos. We grilled sausages and foil-wrapped meals I had prepared at home (potato, salmon, broccoli and bell peppers). For dessert we grilled bananas with melted chocolate, and mini marshmallows.

After dinner I wanted to walk some more so Ingrid and I went geocaching. We quickly got one cache very close to the camping site. Another one was close as the crow flies, but unfortunately on the other side of the lake. We stood on the rocky lakeshore and seriously considered just swimming across – it was at the narrowest part of the lake, literally 20 metres away from us. Had I been there alone I would have done it without a second thought. But with Ingrid, and unknown deep waters, and us all alone in the forest, I didn’t dare do it.

So we did it the hard way – hiked several kilometers around the entire lake. At first there was a path; then the path went off in the wrong direction so we just followed the GPS right through the bush. It wasn’t dense or rough or anything, just a bit uneven ground. Except then there was a bog in our way with no path through. We really, really did not want to go all the way around and were super happy when Ingrid spotted something that was almost a footbridge (two planks and a narrow tree trunk). We took off our shoes, turned up our trousers, and made our way across.

We got the cache in the end but the whole walk took us about three hours instead of the one and a half I had planned. Had it not been a clear night near midsummer, it would have been dark when we got back. We went straight to our sleeping bags. In retrospect, we should just have swum.