Some sightseeing and shortish day

July 18, 2017

Söderasens Nat Park - Markaryd

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I slept surprisingly deeply and was only woken by my alarm clock. The weather looked fine - not as hot as yesterday, but no headwind either. I had some breakfast of coffee and bakery cakes and rather stiffly packed up all my stuff. Overall I'd highly recommend a night in the national park campgrounds - it may not be wildest of camping, but it isn't a crowded commercial campsite either and you can be sure of basic facilities. As a place to crash after my exhausting first day it was ideal.

I'd put in a few more miles than I'd expected on the first day. Rather unsurprisingly, I consistently needed to add a good 10% onto all my estimates to account for meanderings and trips to towns. I was hoping to not exceed 70 miles a day - that seemed to be the threshold for feeling serious after-effects the next day (unfortunately this didn't go exactly to plan). Anyway, I was significantly stiffer and slower moving than I expected. The next stage involved crossing the increasingly wooded country between the national park and the large lake of Bolmen, which seemed to be a natural stopping point before the leg to Jonköpping.

When planning this, I'd had a dilemma: either I could cover it all in a mammoth 100 mile+ day, or (more sensibly) I could break it (somewhere) in the middle. Where to break it wasn't 100% obvious - while the land would get progressively more wooded, this is more the land of small provincial towns around little lakes, so wild camping might not be so straightforward. Given my tiredness, trying to cover the ground in one day did not seem like a good idea. I picked the small town of Markaryd to be the target for the day - I could stock up on supplies there, and the town was surrounded by small lakes and forest that should provide somewhere to camp.

Another benefit of it being a short (<50 mile) day was that I could do some sightseeing in the national park. It's not called the "Southern ridge" for nothing - the park spreads over high gorges which are pretty spectacular. I left the camp, and weaved my way through to the north of the park on the broader tracks (I'd picked up a small map at Dahlbergs). The forest is atmospheric, and densely deciduous which is quite unusual for Sweden. Dotted about are abandoned farm houses, with the stories attached of how they were worked for many centuries until being abandoned as no longer economically viable.

Broad ways you can cycle through Söderasens national park

At the north end of the park I popped out into the main entrance, with a surprisingly busy car park. I decided to head up to the nearest gorge viewpoint. This involved a very steep clamber up the slopes, but it was good to stretch my legs off the bike. Eventually I saw a sign indicating the viewpoint - "Hjortsprånget" - but couldn't see where it might be, until I looked closer and saw that it indicated a little gap between the fence. Peeking through this gap, I was amazed to see the path continuing out onto a very narrow promontary, only a metre wide in places and with sheer drops on either side. There was no fence or barrier of any kind - I very tentatively crept out onto the edge to snap a few photos, but even a few gusts of wind were enough to make me edge back to safety. I quite liked the no-nonsense approach to this - it was obviously kind-of dangerous, so why put up a sign?

View over the side. It's really hard to get a sense of scale - what looks like a branch in the centre is a whole dead tree

Looking over the gorge to some other sighseers

Anyway, I'd spent a good few hours exploring the national park so it was time to start covering ground. I headed out the park and made my way through Ljungbyhed, and kept striking North through the backroads until I had crossed by main Helsingborg road. The weather had come in a bit by this point, and what with my tiredness and the drizzle I made rather slow progress. For the first time, navigation became a bit of a challenge, with me trying to pick my way North East in the many tiny dirt roads between Perstorp and Örkelljunga. Eventually I popped out on the Örkelljunga road and picked up signs to Vittsjö, which was my main destination. A lunch of bread, cheese and Swedish cakes on a picnic table by a school bus stop helped revive me considerably.

As tempted as I was, I don't think they'd fit in the panniers

A very civilized school bus stop where I had my lunch

I got a bit of a second wind following lunch - the weather improved, and the wind was still. Navigation was easier, and I found myself on empty dirt roads through very Swedish countryside, lakes fringed with pines. The only other traffic on the road was a farmer on a tractor, going from trough to trough along the road to refill them with water. He passed me and gave me a cheery wave, then I passed him as he was filling a trough and waved back. Then he started up and passed me again. We leap-frogged each other like this five or six times, and it started to feel a bit like that episode of Father Ted when Ted keeps meeting the woman he's just said goodbye to.

Another school bus stop in the middle of nowhere

Becoming typically Swedish - the last stretch was dirt roads skirting a lovely lake

Dirt roads leading through tiny villages

Before Vittsjö I peeled off to the North, to try to cut off a corner and avoid the main road to Markaryd. After some slightly sketchy navigation I passed under the E4 motorway to Helsingborg and onto what was marked as a small, parallel road to Markaryd. Unfortunately it turned out to be rather fast and busy, but it did at least have a very wide shoulder and was safe, if not exactly pleasant, to cycle along. It isn't marked, but here I passed out of Skåne and into Kronobergs Län.

Out on the main road in the middle of nowhere - why?

Arriving in Markaryd around 5pm and despite the short day, pretty exhausted, I of course headed directly for the Systembolaget (which was conveniently right next to the ICA supermarket). Unfortunately my comparative smoothness and mastery of the Swedish for "please" and "thank you" evaporated in my tiredness, and I proceeded to make a klutz out of myself in every transaction I made. Attempting to pay for more cheese, bread, crisps and chocolate in the ICA, I could figure out where to put the coins (you don't just hand them to the assistant, there's a special slot!) and then proceeded to drop them everywhere, where of course they rolled to the far corners of the checkout. I also got rather confused with the switchable conveyor belts being more Fat Tire beer in the SystemB. On the other hand, they happily sold me booze so all was good.

Rather at the end of my energy, I pedalled South out of town through the skirting industrial estates, looking for a way through to the lakes and a place to camp up. I found a way out to the lakes easily enough, and I wasn't feeling particularly fussy so when I saw a dirt track leading down to one of the lakes I took it. It was a bit exposed and didn't actually go down to the lakeside - but the slope was easy enough to scramble down, and there was a flat (if slightly damp) patch beneath the trees just before the marshes and rushes that fringed the lake. It was a bit dank, and was within earshot of the motorway on the other side of the lake, but I had a lakeside view and it was completely tucked away.

Actually the biggest downside was the local wildlife - specifically the monster slugs. When I first spotted one, I genuinely thought it must be some kind of fungal growth because it just seemed too big. They looked just like stardard black, long slugs that you see everywhere, but - as I saw it uncoil and realised that it was alive - they were about 6 inches long, and more disturbingly had a "girth" of about 3 cm. I'm not keen on slugs at the best of times, and I'm not ashamed to say I spent some time patrolling round the tent, flicking them with distaste into the bushes with my trowel. I'd found a small hole in the tent inner the other night - having nightmares of night-time slug invasion, I sealed that up with Gorilla tape pretty smartish.

Other than that, the mosquitos were surprisingly tolerable given the waterside location. I covered myself in DEET and lit the coils anyway, and didn't have too much trouble. I cooked another meal of pasta (starting to feel quite unimaginative now) and ate it while perched next to the lake, watching the occasional "blup" of a mysterious, large fish breaking the surface. Slugs or no slugs, I was in my tent and asleep as it got dark around 10ish.

My slightly ramshackle camping spot next to Markaryd lakes

Unfortunately the sun was on the other shore

Monster slug! Uncoiled, this was roughly the dimensions of a small Salami

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 147 miles (237 km)

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