Rickard Dahl's Blog: Östgötaleden Walk #2: Njärvehult-Österbymo (Tuesday 19/07-18)

After finishing Bohusleden as described in Bohusleden Walk #16 between Porsås and Kasebo I could either continue E1 European long-distance path (more specifically Bergslagsleden) or E6 European long-distance path (Östgötaleden). I decided to continue on E6 and return to Östgötaleden. More specifically I walked from Njärvehult to Österbymo.
In the morning I travelled to Österbymo by car. I then travelled to a place by road 134 near Njärvehult using local traffic (närtrafik). I started the walk at 10:28 and finished it as late as 20:15 (a total duration of 9h29mins). This is despite that the total distance for the walk was only 22.2km. In fact my average speed was only 2.34km/h. This is the slowest average speed so far. The reason for this incredibly slow walking speed was that the this was the walk with the most difficult parts. The first 7km or so were pretty regular and in fact contained some very beautiful segments. However it went downhill from there. The next 11-12km were very difficult to traverse in some places. There were several reasons for this, including: parts of the trail were overgrown and covered by bushes, the trail went through deforested segments with no clear footpaths and in some places it was easy to get lost due to missing or misplaced signs. Basically this 11-12km segment is probably my worst walking experience, possibly only comparable to Hallandsleden Walk #11 between Brännögården and Rydöbruk but at least that was shorter. As for the weather it was very dry and warm. In fact it was so warm that I didn't have any water left when it was 7km left. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you see it) it started raining. It meant that I could get cooled down and didn't feel as thirsty. However, it rained longer than I hoped to and I did get my pants and shoes wet. For that reason I had to change my socks and put plastic bags on my socks. Despite all the issues I had much luck in seeing animals (although not as much luck in photographing them); I first saw one deer, then later I saw another deer, then I saw a moose/elk and finally I saw two young deer. However, what I wasn't so happy to encounter were at least three deer flies. As I've previously mentioned deer flies are like flying ticks except that they want to crawl into your skin and lay eggs rather than suck blood. However, usually they show up in the end of August (that was at least the case in 2016 and 2017). Deer flies showing up this early (middle of July) is weird. I suppose it's caused by the warm and dry weather. Anyway, it's time to show it all, the good, the bad and the ugly. Enjoy!

Used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color. Darkened the sky slightly using the levels tool.

Visskvarn

"River" connecting the lake Östersjön and Sommen.

Fantastic view of Sommen from Kungabordet (the King's table). The place got its' name because king Gustav VI Adolf visited this place in 1953 and denoted the view as kingly (kunglig). Used the levels tool to brighten the sky and the non-sky parts separately.

No, it's not autumn. It's simply so dry that the leaves have turned yellow.

Another fantastic view of Sommen (from the gazebo at Vassviksberget).

Used the levels tool to slightly increase the brightness and contrast.

And so it begins. It could be worse and it certainly got worse later. Used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color. Also darkened the sky using the levels tool.

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Trapping pit for wolves.

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Bulsjöån. Used the levels tool to darken the sky and the non-sky parts separately. Used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color.

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Foundry at Sund's Bruk (Sund's Works).

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Ruins of one of the buildings at Sund's Bruk (Sund's Works). Used the levels tool to darken the sky and the non-sky parts separately. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color.

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