Skåneleden Walk #2: Löberöd-Ludvigsborg (Wednesday 26/07-17)

After finishing the Höglandsleden part of E6 European long-distance path my next goal became to finish the Skåneleden part of E6 European long-distance path. See this blog post for a short description of Skåneleden and how I organized the walks. As I've mentioned in that blog post I stayed at a hostel in Malmö on two separate occasions and during each occasion I went on four Skåneleden walks. The first of these walks was between Löberöd and Ludvigsborg. But before I go into the specifics of this walk I will describe the character of the Skåneleden walks in general.
The Skåneleden trail has many similarities with Hallandsleden and also some similarities with Gislavedsleden and Höglandsleden (which are the E6 trails going through Småland). As you might have guessed the trail went to a large extent through quite open terrains, often in the form of small scale or large scale farm land. Deciduous forests is the most common forest type. Coniferous forests are more common in the northern parts of Skåneleden. In general the southern parts of Skåneleden go to a much larger extent through open landscapes while the northern parts go mainly through forests. Another characteristic of Skåneleden is its' lack of lakes compared to other trails such as Höglandsleden, Bergslagsleden or even Hallandsleden. Similarily to Hallandsleden, Skåneleden goes through some beautiful beech forests. Another characteristic of Skåneleden to note is that you rarely go through desolated areas; usually Skåneleden goes through or nearby areas with relatively high population density. This isn't strange considering that Skåne has a population of 1.3 million and also has a lot of farm land. For comparison the population density in Skåne is 121 per square kilometer while in Småland it is 25.7 per square kilometer. These and other characteristics of Skåneleden that I haven't mentioned will become apparent in the blog posts. For now lets focus on Skåneleden Walk #2 between Löberöd and Ludvigsborg.
I originally planned that my first walk during the stay at the hostel would be between Åsljunga and Bjärnum (the northernmost remaining part of Skåneleden). However, the previous evening the weather prognosis showed that it was going to rain there (and also at the other locations for the walks). In the morning it turned out that it was not going to rain at Åsljunga or Bjärnum but I had already woken up too late to be able to make it on time for the public transport to Åsljunga. Instead I decided to walk between Löberöd and Ludvigsborg which is Skåneleden segment 4 of 8 in the south to north direction (according to how I divided it). In other words I started off near the middle. The weather was quite cloudy as expected but it didn't rain. The travel duration to Löberöd was only 1h4mins and the travel duration back from Ludvigsborg was 1h33mins (it could have been shorter by up to 20 minutes but I made a quick visit to a grocery store in Malmö before going back to the hostel).
In any case, the walk was 36.2km in total (the last 2.7km at the end were required to reach the bus stop in Ludvigsborg). The total duration for the walk was 10h28mins. Thus my average speed was approximately 3.46km/h.
Overall, it was a really interesting and enjoyable walk, possibly one of my favorite Skåneleden walks. The terrain/environment is quite varied and includes small towns, large small farm land, small scale farm land, meadows, deciduous forests and coniferous forests. It was one of these walks that felt like quite a journey (partially because of how long it is and partially because it took over 10h to complete).
The walk starts of in Löberöd which is a lovely small town with a specific "farm land town" character and then continues through large scale farm land. After that the trail enters Rövarekulan nature reserve which has a beautiful beech forest among other things. The trail continues through large scale farm land, eventually reaching Gudmundstorp. It then enters the beech forest in Pinnedalen. Eventually the trail reaches Östra Ringsjön (which is the next largest lake in Skåne) and it goes through neighborhood areas near the lake. After Ringsjöstrand (which is a resort that includes for instance camping and cabins) the trail continues on a cycle path. The trail goes through a (relatively uninteresting) part of Hörby and then through the Hörby fälad nature reserve. Shortly after that the walk continues through the Fulltofta nature area, which includes both deciduous forests and coniferous forests. Eventually the trail reaches Kvesarumsån and shortly thereafter it reaches Bjävröd where I continued towards the bus stop in Ludvigsborg rather than continuing Skåneleden. Ludvigsborg is a small town south of Höör which is a larger town in comparison.
There are a couple of other things to note. Firstly, I managed to get wet shoes shortly before Gudmundstorp as I walked through a field covered with grass. I got even more wet shoes shortly before Östra Ringsjön due to the trail being in bad condition. Another place where the trail was in bad condition was when walking near Östra Ringsjön as the trail was overgrown in one place. In any case, I did change my socks a couple of times and I also put plastic bags on my socks to reduce the effect of my wet shoes. Furthermore it can be noted that I saw one hare and one squirrel but I didn't manage to photograph them.
Enjoy the photos!

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In Löberöd. This is a lovely small town in the middle of Skåne surrounded by farm land. It really feels like some of the small towns in Västra Götaland, for instance Vedum. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also brightened the photo slightly using the levels tool.

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In Löberöd. The house on the right has a style that is quite common in Skåne. It is however pretty uncommon in the rest of Sweden (as far as I know). It probably has to do with the danish influence in Skåne.

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View of the farm land landscape near Löberöd. Brightened the photo slightly using the levels tool. Also rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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In the Rövarekulan nature reserve. It goes through a very nice beech forest.

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In the Rövarekulan nature reserve. The river Bråån is shown in the photo.

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In the Rövarekulan nature reserve.

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This rune stone is actually not that old, it's from 1844. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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This bridge in the Rövarekulan nature reserve was built in 1870.

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A nice-looking stable. The stables I've previously seen have almost always been made out of wood but this was is made of stone. Maybe this is more common in Skåne compared to other places in Sweden. Used the levels tool to darken the sky slightly and brighten the non-sky parts slightly.

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The King's Spring (Kungskällan)
It is said that during king Karl XIV's visit to Gundmundstorp he drank from the spring, which explains the name. Another famous visitor to the spring was the poet Esaias Tegnér. The marble plate commemorates his visit.
Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also darkened the photo slightly using the levels tool. Furthermore I increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool. Finally I sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Gudmundtorp's church (Gudmundtorps kyrka). Rotated and cropped the photo. Also increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Beech forest in Pinnedalen. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Östra Ringsjön. This is the next largest lake in Skåne. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the levels tool to darken the sky slightly and brighten the non-sky parts slightly.

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Pump body (pumphus) in Fogdarp
The pump body was built in 1896 and its' task was to provide water for the steam locomotives which frequented the railway line between Hörby and Eslöv. The line was opened in 1897 and the steam locomotive traffic ceased in 1961. The line was frequented by railcars until 1967 when the line was discontinued.
Darkened a segment of the sky slightly using the levels tool. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Ringsjöstrand (cabins, camping etc.). Sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask. Also increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Stone arch bridge in Osbyholm
This well-built bridge made of chiseled greystone was constructed sometime before 1890. The bridge was used until 1952 when the section of the road was re-built.
Equalized the histogram. Then I increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool. Finally I sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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This is one of the four places in Skåne where I saw giant hogweed. As I've mentioned in some previous blog posts: By touching giant hogweed you can get severe burns that last for years and get worse with sunlight exposure. Brightened the photo slightly using the levels tool. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask. The river in the background is Hörbyån.

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Lake in the Hörby fälad nature reserve. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the curves tool to darken the sky slightly. Finally I brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Grazing cattle in the Hörby fälad nature reserve.

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Kulleröd. Increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the levels tool to darken the sky slightly and brighten the non-sky parts slightly.

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Vasahus. Sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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"In Swedish streams many vulnerable and endangered species exist that, in many aspects, are dependent on good water quality. Species that live their entire life in the stream are especially vulnerable to pollution, mills and power plants creating fluctuating water levels and obstructing migrations for fish and benthic fauna. Here in Kvesarumsån several mills closed the path for migrating trout for centuries. In 2003 several fishways were constructed by funding from Region Skåne and Länsstyrelsen. Now trout can migrate from Kvesarumsån up into Kvesarumssjön as well as down to Ringsjön."

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On my way to Ludvigsborg.

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At the bus stop in Ludvigsborg.

Introduction to the Skåneleden Walks

After I finished the parts of Höglandsleden which belong to the E6 European long-distance path, my next goal was to finish the parts of Skåneleden which belong to E6 European long-distance path (refer to the map of the European long-distance paths through Sweden). This is the southernmost part of E6 through Sweden. It starts in Bulltofta in Malmö and ends in Koarp in southern Halland. The relevant parts of Skåneleden are stages 1 to 18 (without stages 3A, 9A, 13A and 15A) of Nord-sydleden and stages 11 to 13 (without stage 12A) of Kust-kustleden.
I began Skåneleden last year when I walked from Åsljunga to Koarp, however, after that I focused on various other trails such as Sjuhäradsleden, Gislavedsleden and Västra Vätterleden as these trails were more accessible (easier to travel to). After one whole year it was time to finish the remaining parts of Skåneleden (the parts which belong to E6). One possible approach could have been to go on day-trips by traveling to the walks from home and then back home once the walk was finished, i.e. as I've been doing up to this point. However, the major problem with this is that the Skåneleden walks are so far away. The resulting travel times would have probably been at least 4h in each direction. This could however work if there would be buses or trains going to the travel destinations quite often but that's not always the case: some buses or trains only go a couple of times per day and by traveling from home maybe I wouldn't be able to start a walk in the morning. Obviously there's also the issue that a walk (especially if it's over 30km) can take even longer than 10h. That means there's a risk of not making it on time for the bus or train in the evening. Furthermore, each walk of this kind would be very exhausting as I would have to wake up early in the morning (maybe around 4am) and come back home late in the evening (maybe 10pm, 11pm or 12pm). Finally, I would probably have to buy a monthly card that would cover not only the travels in Skåne but also the travels from/to Göteborg by train. This is expensive to say the least (I'm not sure exactly how expensive but I would guess at least 3000kr). But what did I do instead?
Well, I decided to stay at a hostel in Malmö on two separate occasions. On each occasion I went on four walks (one per day). The first time I arrived at the hostel on Tuesday June 25th and went back to Göteborg Saturday June 29th (the same day as the fourth walk). After that I took a week's break, partially to rest and partially because the weather prognosis showed bad weather. I returned to the hostel on Sunday August 6th and went back to Göteborg Thursday August 10th. To cover the costs for the travels in Skåne I bought the Skånetrafiken summer card which was valid until August 15th. If I remember correctly it cost around 650kr.
There's much that can be said about the stay at the hostel but I won't bore you with too much detail. A short description is in order however. To make the trip as inexpensive as possible I stayed at a dormitory. This came with the major disadvantage of not getting enough sleep in many cases. Another thing to note is that since I walked several days in a row it was important to charge my cellphone and camera batteries every day. Another consequence of walking several days in a row and not being home was that I often needed to buy food and water to make sure I had enough for the next day. Furthermore, I also couldn't pick to walk on days with good weather (since I walked several days in a row). In either case, the benefits of this arrangement are clear. The travel times to/from the various locations for the walks were in most cases 1-2h (sometimes even less than 1h). It should be noted however that it was still exhausting to walk several days in a row, mentally exhausting rather than physically exhausting.
Well, this should suffice as a "short" introduction to the Skåneleden walks. I didn't mention anything about the character of the Skåneleden walks in general but I will do that in the blog post about Skåneleden Walk #2 between Löberöd and Ludvigsborg.

Höglandsleden Walk #7: Måletorpet-Eksjö (Thursday 20/07-17)

After a day's break I returned to finish the last remaining part of Höglandsleden: from Måletorpet to Eksjö. The reason I waited so long before doing this walk is because of the complicated travel. The walk starts off near the border between Småland and Östergötland (also the border between the Eksjö and Ydre municipalities). This is a distance of over 220km from home. There is a bus that goes from Eksjö to Måletorpet (which is the bus stop closest to the trail) but it only goes there in the morning and in the afternoon. And basically if I would try to go there from Göteborg I wouldn't be able to make it on time for the buses in the morning (well, later I found an alternative way to get there in the morning, which might be useful for when I start Östergötaleden). Well, the way I got there was by first getting a ride by car to Jönköping (04:42 from home and at the train station in Jönköping at 06:55) and then traveling the rest of the way to Måletorpet using public transport. From Jönköping I took the train to Nässjö. Then I took the bus to Eksjö. In Eksjö I needed to wait almost 1h for the bus to Måletorpet. I finally arrived at Måletorpet 09:37.
The walk can be divided into three parts. To reach the start/end of Höglandsleden near the lake Västra Lägern I first walked 2km of Anebyleden. Then I walked 1km of the Höglandsleden trail to reach the location where there is a division between Östgötaleden and Höglandsleden (this is where Östgötaleden starts/ends). I then walked approximately 26.9km of Höglandsleden to reach Eksjö where I had started Höglandsleden Walk #1 between Eksjö and Nässjö (thus I ended the Höglandsleden walks at the same place I had begun them). Thus in total the walk was approximately 29.9km long. The total duration for the walk was 7h30min, which means that my average speed was approximately 3.99km/h. I walked slower in the beginning but near the end I sped up my walking as I was trying to make it on time for a specific bus. However, I was 39mins early for that bus, so obviously I didn't actually need to hurry as much as I ended up doing. Either way, the walk went to a large extent on tractor or gravel roads rather than on footpaths.
The travel back was also somewhat complicated. I first took the bus from Eksjö to Nässjö. In Nässjö I was supposed to wait almost 1h for the train to Falköping. However, for some reason the timetable didn't show that this train was coming when expected. What I did then was to take an earlier train that went only to Jönköping and wait there. Strangely enough the timetable in Jönköping did show that the train I was supposed to take from Nässjö to Falköping was coming according to the expected/regular schedule. And so I waited in Jönköping and took the train to Falköping. Then in Falköping I took the train to Göteborg. The total duration for the travel back was 5h3mins.
This walk might be among my top 4 Höglandsleden walks. However, similarly to Höglandsleden Walk #1 between Eksjö and Nässjö there are some interesting parts going through beautiful terrains but the rest is not very interesting. In this case the interesting parts of the walk are between Måletorpet and Försjön (the first 14km of the walk) and between Hunsnäsen and the bus stop in Eksjö (last 3km of the walk). The remaining part, i.e. between Försjön and Hunsnäsen, is not as interesting. As it happened the weather was also the cloudiest during this part of the walk. Other than that the weather was pretty nice, it was somewhat cloudy but it was also sunny and quite warm.
In any case, the trail goes mostly through coniferous forests but there is also some small scale farm land and meadows on the path. There are also several lakes on the path, including Västra Lägern, Stensjön, Försjön, Gåren and Hunsnäsen. A very interesting highlight of this walk was Skurugata nature reserve, which is quite unique as described below. Except for the Skurugata mountain formation the nature reserve also contains the Skuruhatt gazebo. Going through a part of Eksjö was another highlight of this walk. As I've noted already during Höglandsleden Walk #1 between Eksjö and Nässjö, the town has some really interesting parts in it with nice aesthetically pleasing architecture (unlike most modern architecture, which is trash for the most part).
Enjoy the photos!

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Måletorpet. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Decreased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Västra Lägern. Used the brightness-contrast tool to slightly increase the brightness and slightly increase the contrast. Also used the levels tool to brighten the photo slightly. Finally I used the hue restorer plug-in to reduce the cyan-ish sky color.

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I think I read somewhere that there used be a railway on this road.

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Narebogölen. Darkened the sky using the levels and curves tool. Also increased the contrast slightly for the non-sky parts using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Stensjön. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color.

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Skurugata nature reserve
"Skurugata has been described as the strangest natural phenomenon in southern Sweden. No one knows for sure how this remarkable cleft in the rock was created. The mystery surrounding the site has given rise to stories of trolls and thieves who ran riot between the cliff walls. A walk through the cleft is a memorable experience that is highly recommended.

Thiry-five metres deep
Skurugata consists of an 800-metre-long cleft in the rock that is between 7 metres and 24 metres wide. The vertical rock walls are up to 35 metres high in places. Clefts of this type are known as gorges and several others exist in eastern Småland, although Skurugata is the largest of them all.

A glacial river through the rock
There are many theories about how Skurugata was created. The most likely explanation is that the gorge was formed by a glacial river when the ice sheet melted. Others believe that the gorge is a crack in the bedrock or a fault trough. The bedrock is mainly porphyry.

Skuruhatt
There is a lookout point in the reserve called Skuruhatt, which at 337 metres above the sea level is one of the highest points in Småland. A memorial stone has also been placed here for the author Albert Engström, who played in Skurugata as a child. He wrote about the Småland landscape in many of his books.

Mosses and forest birds
There is high humidity in the cleft creating a favourable environment for many moss species, both common and rare. The reserve also has interesting bird life. Crested tit and ravens are common birds. If you are lucky you can encounter the great forest bird species capercaillie. In addition to the common mammalian species there are also ermine and marten in the area.

Explore the reserve
Stout shoes and durable clothing are recommended for anyone who plans to walk through the area. There are lots of rocks, large blocks of stone and fallen trees along the paths. The temperature difference between Skurugata and Skuruhatt can be up to 20 degrees in the summer."
Increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Skurugata. Sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Skurugata. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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View of Eksjö from Skuruhatt. Increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Skuruhatt. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Also darkened the sky slightly using the curves tool. Finally I increased the contrast slightly for the non-sky parts using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Brightened the photo slightly using the levels tool. Also rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Försjön. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to reduce the cyan-ish sky color. Finally for the non-sky parts I slightly increased the contrast using the brightness-contrast tool and slightly increased the sharpness using the unsharp mask.

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Brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to reduce the cyan-ish sky color. Also darkened the sky slightly using the levels tool.

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Gåren. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Then I used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask. Then I used the levels tool to darken the sky slightly. Finally I used the brightness-contrast tool to slightly increase the contrast for the non-sky parts.

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Mallards

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Hunsnäsen. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also darkened the sky slightly using the levels tool. Finally I increased the contrast slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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The old water tower in Eksjö. It was built in 1896 and was used until the 1970 when it was replaced by a new water tower at Kaffekullen(which looks very ugly as can be seen here).

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A nice old building in Eksjö. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also darkened the sky slightly using the levels tool. Finally I increased the contrast for the non-sky parts slightly using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Another nice old building in Eksjö. Brightened the sky slightly using the levels tool. Then I brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the curves tool.