Sjuhäradsleden Walk #6: Olsfors-Hindås (Saturday 10/09-16)

On Saturday the same week I decided to finish Sjuhäradsleden and so I returned to Olsfors to walk the last remaining part to Hindås (where Sjuhäradsleden connects with Vildmarksleden). In total the walk was roughly 24.4km and took 6h7mins. Thus my average speed was roughly 3.99km/h. Parts of the walk overlap with Knalleleden.
It was certainly a nice/interesting walk which mostly went through the woods with some small scale farm land on the way. Around the middle of the walk when going from Hestra to Gällingsås the character changed to a small scale farming landscape with some idyllically located villages. Not only did the walk mostly go through the woods but a big chunk of it went on trails/paths (which is nice) and the rest mostly on gravel roads. Well, there's not much else to say except that the weather was good and that deer flies kept being an annoyance. I will let the photos tell the rest of the story. Enjoy!

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Sörån

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Sharpened the photo slightly using the unsharp mask.

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I darkened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Darkened the non-sky parts using the levels tool and then brightened it using the curves tool.

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Then for the non-sky parts I increased the contrast slightly, decreased the brightness using levels tool and then slightly increased it using curves tool.

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Gesebols Sjö. On the lake there is a ship transporting logs. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then for the non-sky parts I slightly increased the contrast and also increased the brightness using the levels tool.

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The photo had low contrast and was pretty bright, so I used the brightness-contrast tool to slightly decrease the brightness and more importantly to increase the contrast quite a bit.

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Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Abborrsjön. Sharpened the image using unsharp mask. Then I increased the contrast for the forest part in the back using the levels tool. Finally I increased the contrast and brightness for the non-sky parts using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Nolån

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The water in the lake appears to be slightly green-ish for some reason.

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Hagalund. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the brightness-contrast tool and then further increased the brightness and contrast using the levels tool.

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Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Västra Nedsjön. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I brightened the non-sky parts using the curves tool.

Sjuhäradsleden Walk #5: Brunns Kyrka-Dalum (Wednesday 07/09-16)

The next walk took place already on Wednesday. This time I went back to Brunns Kyrka near Ulricehamn and tackled the segment from there to Dalum. The walk was 22km in total (out of which the last 4km were needed to get from Böne Kyrka to the bus station in Dalum) and took 4h26min. Thus my average speed was approximately 4.96km/h.
Compared to the previous walk, this one was quite opposite in character. The walk went for the most part on gravel roads, asphalt roads and tractor roads, rather than on trails. A big chunk of the walk went through small scale farm land terrain. A small part of the walk also went through the town of Ulricehamn. Even the forest parts went mostly on gravel roads or tractor roads. Either way, when I checked the weather prognosis some days before the walk (including the day before) it seemed as the weather would be fine (maybe a bit cloudy but not rainy at least). However, in the morning at home it didn't seem as if the weather was fine and when I arrived at Brunns kyrka it was confirmed that the weather for the walk indeed wasn't fine. However, it wasn't too bad since it was raining just a bit and I always carry a raincoat with me on my trips so I took it on. The worse part of it raining or more generally the ground being wet is that the shoes can get wet. While the shoes I use for the walks are made of gore-tex and are thus relatively water-proof, they don't protect against getting wet from above and I don't remember exactly but I think I did manage to get my shoes wet this time also. On the other hand the rainy atmosphere made some of the parts of the walk more interesting, especially in one place where the woods were extra dark (so in that sense I was lucky it was raining). As I've mentioned in the blog post for the previous walk; deer flies were an annoyance that occurred. This walk was no exception. There was one place in the woods where it was especially bad, with maybe 5 to 6 deer flies attacking at once. Another thing to note was that I ran for parts of the last 4km, partially to get on time for the bus (I didn't want to end up waiting for the next one) and partially because it started to rain more. Finally, it should be noted that the trail partially overlaps with several other trails, namely Åsundeleden, Redvägsleden and Dalumsleden. Either way, despite some of the inconveniences it was a pretty interesting walk. Enjoy the photos!

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"Brunn's church ruin
The church was probably built in the 12th Century. In 1893, a new church was built only a couple of hundred metres from this site, and the medieval church was abandoned. The historic ruin is well worth a visit. When the new church was refurbished in the 1920s, the gallery from the old church was added. The old altar and altarpiece has also been moved to the new church."

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Brunn's church ruin

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"The railway embankment
A few sections of the Sjuhäradsleden long-distance hiking trail run along the old railway embankments between Borås and Falkenberg, which carried trains until 1986. The embankments have now been converted into excellent cycle paths which are popular with both local residents and visitors. They also form part of the Sjuhäradsrundan cycle route and other facilities."

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Lekstaden

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"Prehistoric farmland
At the equestrian centre, the hiking trail passes several prehistoric fields which are kept open by grazing horses. This is an area of arable land which has been permanently abandoned but which was shaped by prehistoric farming methods. There may be clearing cairns made up by stones collected from the field. There may also be traces of the edges of terraced land. Fields dating from the Bronze Age are mostly round or oval, sometimes bowl-shaped, and were farmed using mattocks. When the field was cleared, the stones were moved to the side. Square-shaped prehistoric fields are slightly younger, dating back to the early Iron Age."
Slightly brightened the non-sky parts using the level tool.

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Brightened the non-sky parts first using the brightness-contrast tool and then using the levels tool.

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"The dug-out
The dug-out is an emergency shelter from the early 19th Century, and people lived here until 1885. The dug-out is situated in a beauty spot in the Fredsskogen forest, between Timmele and Dalum. The shelter is open to visitors and there is a campfire cooking area with tables and benches in front of it. There is also a shelter for overnight stays."

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Sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Böne church. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Back in Dalum.

Sjuhäradsleden Walk #4: Björbostugan (Borås)-Olsfors (Sunday 04/09-16)

Already on Sunday I returned to the Sjuhäradsleden walks. I traveled to Björbostugan in Borås (where I started last time also) but this time I went in the other direction towards Olsfors. In total the walk was roughly 25.4km and took 6h29min. My average speed was thus 3.92km/h.
Overall it was a nice/interesting walk with plenty of walking on trails in the woods and also with small villages and small scale farm land along the way. It can be noted that Sjuhäradsleden has much more walking on trails in the woods compared to Hallandsleden (not to mentioned Gislavedsleden, which I will get to at a later date once the Sjuhäradsleden blog posts are finished) and for this specific walk it is especially true. In that sense it is quite similar to typical Bohusleden walks, however Bohusleden is harder in general. One thing I forgot to mention when writing the blog post for Sjuhäradsleden Walk #2 between Brunns Kyrka and Brämhult in Borås was that deer flies started to appear around that time. Deer flies (or älgflugor as they are known in Swedish (which can be translated as moose flies)) are more annoying than ticks. While ticks attach to the skin to suck blood and spread diseases that way, deer flies are like flying ticks that try to crawl into the skin and lay eggs. Sure, they can't fly far but that doesn't stop them from being very annoying and disrupting when walking. In some places there are especially many of them. In fact when I walked Vättlefjällsleden in 2015 there was a stretch where I got attacked by several deer flies per minute for maybe up to 20 minutes. Thankfully none of them attached to the skin. Anyways, the point is that deer flies are annoying and it makes walking less enjoyable when they appear. They appear during late August and during autumn and with the exception of Sjuhäradsleden Walk #3 between Björbostugan and Brämhult, in all of the walks in 2016 after Sjuhäradsleden Walk #2 I had at least some encounters with deer flies. Deer flies seem to appear especially in the woods and near bogs. Either way, while deer flies are annoying they didn't stop me from enjoying this walk and the rest of the walks in 2016. Without further ado I present some of the photos from this (in some ways very beautiful) walk. Enjoy!

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

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"Björbo Hage
This is an ancient landscape, with a long history of habitation. The large cairns created when the land was cleared for farming can still be seen, as can the clearly-marked field boundaries - terraced edges."
Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Then for the non-sky parts I increased the brightness slightly.

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A residential area in Ekås. In the next residential area I passed through I managed to get a bit lost actually but it wasn't too bad, just lost a few minutes. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I increased the brightness for the non-sky parts using the levels tool.

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

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"Peat cutting
Traces from a small area where peat was cut."
Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky parts. I also darkened the photo slightly using the levels tool and increased the contrast slightly.

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"Långemossen
The path crosses the Långemossen wetland area. It can be difficult to negotiate after heavy rain."
For the non-sky parts I increased the contrast slightly.

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Långemossen. Using curves tool I first increased the contrast slightly and then brightened the photo slightly.

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Remains of a mill at Kvarnbäcken Brook. Reduced the blue cast by reducing the effect of the blue channel using the curves tool.

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Sharpened the image slightly using unsharp mask.

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Brightened the photo slightly.

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"Mölnebäcken
The Sjuhäradsleden long-distance path passes Lake Mölnesjön and carries on across Mölnebäcken Brook. Mölnebäcken has a Class II rating - very high eco value - in the City Of Borås eco system assessment. It is also historically significant since, for many hundreds of years, several small mills operated here."

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Mölnesjö

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Mölnedal
Mölnedal's croft was inhabited from 1866 by the crofter Sven Magnus Johansson and his wife Anna Stina Svensdotter. They married on New Year's Eve in 1864, however they lived separately until 1966 when they moved in together.
The same year they got their only child, the daughter Amanda Sofia, who however became only roughly one week old.
Sven Magnus was born in Vimmerby and one can wonder how a man from Vimmerby ended up in these regions. In Vimmerby, Sven Magnus was a stooge for the merchant Anders Alexander Ählström who in 1850 bought the farm in Hällered, a couple of kilometers north of Sandhult. In connection to Ählström's move to Hällered, Sven Magnus was one of the six stooges and skivvies who followed along. The Ählström family moved to Göteborg after just two years but Sven Magnus decided to stay in Sandhult.

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Anneberg
In 1865 Andreas Eriksson and his family moved in to Anneberg. Andreas had previously been the owner and farmer at one of the farms in Torp, but for some reason had to move from there and instead became a crofter at Anneberg.
Andreas was married to Anna Britta Andersdotter and together they had the children Emil, Adolf, Mathilda, Ludvig, August, Emelie and Albertina. The croft was abandoned at the end of the 1800s after both Andreas and his wife died and all of the children moved out.
Rotated and cropped the photo.

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View of Sandared. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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"Håmossen
The large Håmossen wetland area is to the north of the Sjuhäradsleden long-distance path. It is rated a Class I site (Highest possible eco value) in the City of Borås eco system assessment."
Rotated and cropped the photo.

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View from a gazebo. The lake in the background is Viaredssjön and parts of Sandared can also be seen. Rotated and cropped the photo. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky parts.

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Another view of Viaredssjön.

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Near Fjälla I went in the wrong direction, got a bit lost and came across Fjällsjön. For such a view it was absolutely worth it to get lost. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Olsfors church.