Vildmarksleden Walk #2: Kåsjön-Skatås (Monday 15/08-16)

Already in the afternoon the next day I returned to finish the rest of Vildmarksleden. The remaining part of Vildmarksleden from Kåsjön to Skatås is 10km but I also walked 0.8km more to get to the Wellandergatan tram station. In total the 10.8km walk took 2h28min and my average speed was thus approximately 4.38km/h (slightly faster than the first part of Vildmarksleden). This was actually the second time I walked this part because I've walked almost the entire Bohusleden and Vildmarksleden happens to overlap with Bohusleden from Maderna to Skatås.
Pretty much the whole walk went through forest terrain and most of it went on gravel roads. It's in general a quite easy walk and it goes through a region which is quite popular for outdoor activities (and thus there are many people on the way (which is a drawback in some ways (for instance it's harder to take photos without people in them))). It was a pretty relaxing and non-demanding walk but it was still interesting. Enjoy the photos!

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Stora Kåsjön. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Then I brightened first the forest parts using the levels tool and then brightened the non-sky parts overall using the curves tool and increased the contrast slightly.

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish parts of the sky. Finally I brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Not far from Stora Kåsjön there's a forest where there are unusually many roots visible.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color.

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Blacktjärnen. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then for the non-sky parts I increased the brightness using the levels tool. Finally I used the hue restorer plug-in to make the sky less cyan-ish.

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Going up towards Getryggen.

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At Getryggen. From Getryggen you can get a good view of Göteborg and Partille (as seen in the photos below).

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A view from Getryggen.

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Another view from Getryggen.

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At Härlanda Tjärn.

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At Skatås. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky. Then I rotated and cropped the photo.

Vildmarksleden Walk #1: Hindås-Kåsjön (Sunday 14/08-16)

After finishing Hallandsleden it took a bit more than 2 weeks for me to get back to long-distance walking. One of the reasons why the break was so long was because I wanted to rest but the key reason however was that I didn't have any more walks planned. Initially the goal in 2016 was to just walk Hallandsleden. However, at some point I started looking into European long-distance paths. Two of the European long-distance paths go through Sweden, namely E1 and E6. Of course I had by this point walked walked a tiny part of both E1 and E6 since I walked the parts which overlap with Hallandsleden. Furthermore I had already walked the parts from Lindome to Kåsjön in 2015 (although at that point I thought I was just walking Bohusleden, rather than also walking E1 at the same time). Either way, at first the goal became to walk the parts of E1 which are in Västra Götaland, thus walking Vildmarksleden, Sjuhäradsleden and Västra Vätterleden. However over the next few weeks the goal was expanded and now my goal is to within the next few years to walk the rest of E1 and E6 through Sweden (as well as walk parts of other European long-distance paths in other countries, especially the parts in Poland but also parts in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia etc. but that will probably be saved for later).
Either way, now that I've covered a bit of the background it's time to cover this specific walk. So, on Sunday the 14th August I went by bus to Hindås and then walked in total 32km to reach Kåsjön (I was thinking about going 10km more to reach Skatås (and thus finishing Vildmarksleden) but my camera battery was running out and I didn't have extra batteries at that point in time). The walk took 7h47min in total and my average speed was thus approximately 4.11km/h.
This is certainly one of my favorite walks. Unlike most of Hallandsleden, the walks in Västra Götaland (Bohusleden, Vildmarksleden, Sjuhäradsleden etc.) tend to go to a large extent through forests and often on trails in woods rather than on gravel roads. This is very true for Vildmarksleden from Hindås to Kåsjön since almost all of the walk goes through the woods and most of it on trails. Not only does most of it go through the woods but there are also plenty of lakes on the way (and also many different kinds of mushrooms). Furthermore, the trails and the signs are in good condition unlike certain other walks (for instance most of Bohusleden goes on trails through the woods but sometimes the trails are in very bad condition and the signs have fallen off so it's easy to get lost).
Not only did I enjoy the walk very much but I also managed to take a few quite nice photos. So without further ado I present some of the photos!

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The lake in the background is Västra Nedsjön. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Västra Nedsjön. Rotated and cropped the photo and then I increased the brightness slightly for the non-sky parts using the levels tool.

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Långetjärnen

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A birch tree with quite a bend. Removed the cyan-ish parts of the sky using the hue restorer plug-in.

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Blomman. Rotated the photo slightly and then I cropped it. I also used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of some of the cyan-ish parts of the sky.

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An island in Stora Härsjön.

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Beach at Stora Härsjön. I think it's a very beautiful beach. Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it.

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View from a beach at Stora Härsjön. I love the color transitions in the photo, it's like a gradient. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I removed some of the cyan-ish parts of the sky using the hue restorer plug-in.

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This is one of my favorite photos taken.

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Ringetjärnen. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Stora Härsjön at Härsjödamm.

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Hornasjön. Rotated and cropped the photo. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to make the sky slightly less cyan-ish.

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Sandsjön. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I used the hue restorer plug-in to make the sky less cyan-ish. Finally for the non-sky parts I increased the brightness using the curves tool and then further increased the brightness and increased the contrast.

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Stentjärnarna. Increased the brightness for the non-sky parts using the levels tool and the curves tool.

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Lidmossarna. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish parts of the sky. Then I rotated and cropped the photo. Finally I slightly increased the brightness for the non-sky parts using the curves tool.

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For the non-sky parts I increased the brightness using levels tool and curves tool. Also increased the contrast slightly.

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Kåbäcken (near Maderna).

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Maderna. For the non-sky parts I increased the contrast slightly and also sharpened these parts slightly (using unsharp mask).

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View of Maderna. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky parts.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky.

Hallandsleden Walk #19: Ljungslätt-Vessigebro (Friday 29/07-16)

The final Hallandsleden walk took place on Friday when I walked from Ljungslätt near Asige to Vessigebro. Actually it was a bit tricky to get by bus to Ljungslätt since during summers the bus from Falkenberg only goes twice a week and only during the afternoon. Either way, the walk was only 17km and took 3h8min. The average speed was thus 5.43km/h (which is pretty fast).
In general the character of the walk is quite similar to Hallandsleden walk #16 between Hakestad and Vessigebro. The walk went mostly on asphalt or gravel roads and went through quite open landscapes for the most part. It was an easy but nevertheless interesting walk. Enjoy the photos!

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Near Ljungslätt.

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Lunnagård.

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Li. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Ablid Kyrka. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I used the hue-restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky.

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Also brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Skattagård nature reserve
"Welcome to Skattagård nature reserve! A one-hundred year old woodland dominated by oak trees is to be found in the reserve. Species such as the uncommon moss Metzgeria fruticulosa grow in the forest that has been undisturbed for a long time. In the shady deciduous forest alongside the trail Hallandsleden you can find herb-paris as well as whorled Solomon's-seal in large quantities. The rare moss Zygodon conoideus grows on a couple maple trees by the abandoned courtyard of the now demolished farm Skattagård. The lesser spotted woodpecker and the common nutcracker are part of the animal life of the woodland. In the eastern part of the reserve there is a small meadow. The globeflower and the pleasant smelling greater butterflyorchid grow here."

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Skattagård nature reserve.
The ground part of the photo had a quite bad blue cast (too much blue color). I first used the curves tool to reduce the influence of the blue channel for the ground part overall and then I further reduced the effect of the blue channel for the ground part closer to the camera (using curves tool and trying to balance things out so there wouldn't be a weird transition). The ground colors are not yet great but certainly much closer to natural looking than before.

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""Betty's"
You are now standing by the remains of Skattagård or "Betty's" as the farm was known locally, named after its last owner, who lived here until the 1990s. The little old lady lived a very frugal life without running water or electricity in the house. Now the deciduous hardwood forest is slowly reclaiming what was once farm land."
Rotated and cropped the image. I tried removing the severe blue cast (too much blue color in the photo) by reducing the effect of the blue channel (using curves tool) and then equalizing the histogram.

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Darkened the background slightly using the levels tool.

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Jättastenen
There are 10 bowl hollows (skålgropar) on this block. Bowl hollow is a type of rock carving that is sometimes referred to as älvkvarnar. The bowl hollows can be several thousand years old and are linked to several religious rites.
According to the legend of Jättastenen, a giant sat on the stone and drank alcohol. Imprints formed by the giant's bottom, boozeroo, schanps bottle and sugar bowl. The giant also made imprints with his fingers.

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Via Regia
The road you have reached was part of "Halland's Via Regia". It was an important route between not only northern and southern Halland but also between Denmark and Norway. It went on ridges a bit further away from the coast since it was easier to get across rivers that way.

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"The view across Ätradalen
In front of you the Ätran valley spreads its soft contours. The river flows slowly but just a few kilometers upstream it changes character and becomes more "wild". Ever since the Bronze Age people have chosen to settle by the calmer stretches. Along the edge of the river valley are hundreds of ancient graves which bear witness to the fact that it was a densely populated area. Even today the pattern is repeated and present-day buildings are located on the high areas of land."
Rotated and cropped the photo. Then for the non-sky parts I increased the brightness using the levels and the curves tools.

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Vessigebro Church. Rotated and cropped the photo.