From fjords to birch trees

Birch trees all over the place.

After a few sunny and hot days in the Trondheim area we finally say good-bye to Norway and brown cheese. We are heading across the mountain divide to the Swedish region of Jämtland, the land of reindeer, elk and skiing.

The term ‘mountain divide’ has a real meaning. We left the coast at 28°, bright sun light, rocks and pine trees. 100km farther east on 650m elevation, we have grey sky, sporadic rain showers at 16°, a hilly scenery with many birch trees.

We are driving on the main connection between Norway and Sweden which is a small country road with a single lane for each direction winding through the hilly area. A mixture of forests and green bushes, rough rocks like in the Alps, not as smooth as in Norway. A few mountains rise up to 1,500m. The south facing slopes have their trees cut and ski lifts cables replace them. At the lower end of the ‘lift worm’, villages with many apartment houses form the Swedish ski centre. But it is summer, the houses are deserted and a depressing atmosphere surrounds them. At least we can find an ICA grocery shop that is open on a Sunday. ICA is the IKEA counterpart for food and can be found in every Swedish village.

Farm house next to camp site.

We decide to stay in a small camp site at one of the many rivers and lakes that attract many anglers. We enjoy the sunset after a rainy afternoon with about 10 other RVs. The small camp sites don’t have good infrastructure. WiFi is usually “not working because there was a recent thunderstorm”. All of them have shower and kitchen facilities that we only use for dish washing. For showering we prefer Ronda´s facility that is more convenient and often cleaner.

These flowers grow all over in both countries.

Both, Norway and Sweden have vast forest areas. The difference is that in Norway (similar to Switzerland) most of the space cannot be accessed because the rough mountain landscape makes it impossible. So, locals and tourists focus on few locations and it is always crowded. In places like Geiranger, there 100 inhabitants that are flooded by 1,000-5,000 tourists every day in summer. Just imagine a large cruiser releases its load of 3,000 tourists that drown the village like a tsunami.

Sweden is larger than Norway and the landscape smoother. There are less spectacular sights that attract tourist hordes. Only true nature lovers are here for hiking, fishing and outdoor sports. This gives it a real quiet atmosphere. When driving on the one regional highway that has still only 2 lanes we often don’t see any car for minutes.

Solitude has its price. The price that we have to pay is being offline. And we share this burden with our readers who have to wait longer for the next post.

A great place for anglers. Neither piranhas, nor caipirinhas.