{"id":22400,"date":"2026-05-14T10:09:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/?p=22400"},"modified":"2026-05-30T15:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:51:03","slug":"daily_4089_-_navekvarn_to_kolmarden_day_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/2026\/05\/14\/daily_4089_-_navekvarn_to_kolmarden_day_1\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily: 4089 – N\u00e4vekvarn to Kolm\u00e5rden, day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

N\u00e4vekvarn to N\u00e4vsj\u00f6n, 12 km – S\u00f6rmlandsleden stage 36.<\/p>\n

My progress with the S\u00f6rmlandsleden trail is currently limited by transport options. Getting to N\u00e4vekvarn took almost four hours and involved four legs: commuter train, bus replacing ordinary train, train, and another bus.<\/p>\n

For similar reasons, I’m starting this hike in N\u00e4vekvarn and walking backwards to Kolm\u00e5rden. The travel options to and from N\u00e4vekvarn gave me 4 different choices, arriving at three-hour intervals. Whereas Kolm\u00e5rden is a popular destination and has buses at least every half-hour Walking the “right” way and arriving in N\u00e4vekvarn on the last day and then having to wait 3 hours to get on a bus did not sound convenient at all. Now I just had a 40-minute pause in Nyk\u00f6ping, with a view of Nyk\u00f6ping central park.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I didn’t spot the information boards that are always there at the start of each stage of the trail. The first signs of trail markings that I saw was this extraordinarily sad-looking signpost. Would this be symptomatic of the whole day? Scruffy signs along the edges of small-town streets?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed not. Even before I left N\u00e4vekvarn, the trail took a detour to make a loop around the small island of Sk\u00e4ret, just for the scenic views. If you look for N\u00e4vekvarn on a high-level map of Sweden, it’s inland and looks to be far from the sea. But N\u00e4vekvarn (and Kolm\u00e5rden) are situated on the northern coast of Br\u00e5viken, a long and narrow bay in the Baltic sea. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The weather was very changeable, and with the trail going in and out of trees, I was constantly adjusting my clothes. Sunglasses on, sunglasses off. Zipper up, zipper down. Hands tucked into pockets, hands out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After Sk\u00e4ret the trail climbed up onto a high cliff, with even wider views that are marketed as fabulous. They were wide, but not very interesting – there was mostly just unbroken sea to look at, and a thickly forested shore on the other side. The only interesting bit – something for the eyes to catch on – was the old Marviken power station on the other side of the water.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The trail swung away from the coast and into forest. The forests here are protected so it was lovely walking. Never very far from roads, but apart from a few signposts here and there, it felt like civilization was distant.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The forest was all lush and green. May is the most beautiful time of the year. Everything is fresh and full of new life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There were many small rocky streams. A few larger ones had supported small local ironworks in the 17th century. Including the river in N\u00e4vekvarn – “kvarn” means “mill”, and the water mill there used to power bellows for smelting iron.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A cemetery for victims of a cholera epidemic in 1855. Th only signs of it existing were old, hand-made plaques commemorating those buried there. I wonder how old they might be. Not 1855, I guess, but old.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There was a fair amount of the usual S\u00f6rmland pine-and-rock-and-bilberry combination. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since I only started after lunchtime, I walked 12 km today, from N\u00e4vekvarn to N\u00e4vsj\u00f6n. The main trail goes east of the lake, but there’s an extra circuit around the west side, and I was happy to lengthen my hike. Again due to transport complications the sections that I can walk this time only added up to 45 km, which is barely enough for three days. Extras are welcome.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I found a nice flat spot right next to the lake. There was supposed to be a shelter a few kilometres onwards, but this felt good to me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A family of Canada geese – two adults and seven tiny balls of fluff – came up out of the water just as I got there and started nibbling on the grass and the fresh leaves on the bilberry bushes. At first I was so careful to keep my distance and not make any noise when I was putting my tent up, but they didn’t seem bothered by my presence at all, and walked closer to me than I had dared do myself.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

The lake was busy and noisy with all sorts of water birds, big and small, all evening and again from dawn. Geese, gulls, cranes, swans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\u00e4vekvarn to N\u00e4vsj\u00f6n, 12 km – S\u00f6rmlandsleden stage 36. My progress with the S\u00f6rmlandsleden trail is currently limited by transport options. Getting to N\u00e4vekvarn took almost four hours and involved four legs: commuter train, bus replacing ordinary train, train, and another bus. For similar reasons, I’m starting this hike in N\u00e4vekvarn and walking backwards to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,773,789,768,781],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dailies","category-outdoors","category-overnight-hikes","category-photography-2","category-sormlandsleden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22400"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22425,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400\/revisions\/22425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}