West coast and Norway

After Gotland we went on another car camping trip to the west coast, and also spend a day on the roads in Norway.

Our first stop was at the ski resort Isaberg, in Hestra in Småland. It’s a small hill, but they still have some slopes and get their fair share of tourists. During the summer months they have mountain bike trails, an obsticle course 10 meters up in the trees and other stuff like that. We took a break there for a few hours so the kids could play.

After that we continued west. We used Vindskyddskartan to search for campsites. It’s a map that shows lean-to shelters in Sweden.

We found a place at Hyssnaleden that we could drive all the way up to. It was a really well tended campsite, with a lean-to shelter, several fire rings, firewood and a lot of flat ground to pitch our tent.

We pitched our Lavvu and started a fire. Just moments after the shelter was set up it got covered with flying ants. They were really crawling all over the place. Some of them managed to get inside the tent too, despite the mosquito net.

It was nice to have a fire, but once I started it I remembered that there might be a fire ban, which is common during the summer months. We searched high and low but couldn’t fin any info about it. But just to be safe we led the fire die out.

The next day we drove past Tjolöholms castle, and then drove to Marstrand. Marstrand was a really well tended place just north of Gothenburg, below the old fortress Carlstens fästning. It felt like a place for sailing enthusiasts.

After Marstrand we drove to the island Tjörn to try to find a place to set up camp. We drove down a lot of roads, but there were houses everywhere, and eventually we gave up. We looked at Vindskyddskartan and found a place outside Ljungskile that looked promising. It was a 500 meter walk from the parking lot, but it was a nice place just next to a lake. After we’d set up the camp I drove to Ljungskile and bought pizzas. It was glamping at it’s finest.

The next day we drove to Norway to look at Heddal Stave church. From the pictures it looked amazing, sort of like something from Rohan in Lord of the rings. When we finally got there though, we where disappointed by how small it was. Nevertheless, it was still beautiful.

We found a nice campsite next to a river near the church, but thought it was too early to set up camp so we kept going to find another place. We ended up not finding anywhere to camp, and finally we decided to go back home instead. All of us where starting to get a cold, and it felt like the best plan. The family slept in the car and I drove back. By 03.30 we were back in Växjö.

The camping was nice, but it is harder to find good spots with your car than it is when you’re hiking.

 

Scania

A few days after we were back from the last trip we went to Scania. We where going to Ven, a small island in Öresund between Sweden and Denmark. The danish scientist Tycho Brahe built a castle and an observatory on the island in the 16th century. Ven is a popular place for bicycle tourists. But it is a small island, and you bike through everything in less than a day. Most visitors rent bikes on Ven, and you’ll see their yellow bikes all over the island.

We drove to Landskrona harbor where we got on the ferry. We had pre-booked tickets, but there was a long line of people waiting for the boat.

When we arrived we walked up a steep road to get the renal bikes.

We spent the day biking around the island and looking for Geocaches. We couldn’t find all of them though.

It was a beautiful island, and a nice bicycle trip. But I don’t think we’ll get back here again. You get to see most of the island in just a couple of hours, and it was packed with tourists.

After we took the ferry back to the mainland we drove north of Helsingborg to look for a place to sleep. Using Vindskyddskartan we found a place near the ocean. There was a “No camping” sign at the parking lot, but no information that it would be forbidden on the Skåneleden website that otherwise has info on campsites where it’s forbidden to pitch a tent. We met a few people at the lean-to shelter, who said more people had asked about the sign that evening. They had called the local authorities and apparently it was OK to camp near the shelter. The sign was more intended for motor-homes on the parking lot, she explained.

We put up our tent and had a nice evening overlooking the sunset and the ocean. A few other tents where pitched around us, one of them a Helsport Nordmarka just like ours.

The next morning we took the ferry to Helsingør on the Danish side of Öresund. We had planned to spend the day there, but the rain was really pouring down, so we soon ended up driving home instead.

This was the last car camping trip for the summer. What I like about car camping is that you can bring heavier gear, bigger tent and better food with you. The downside is that it can be hard to find good places to set up camp.