The Update #9 – Things are changing

Before I satisfy your curiosity about our adventures, I want to share what has kept us busy these past few days. Hahah mom, especially for you I will write an extra long one this time (My mother always jokes that the stories are too short). We hardly follow any news but can no longer ignore the fact that the corona situation is changing in a positive way. Jasper can call for his vaccination and can probably get the Janssen vaccine, which is great because it saves us 5-6 weeks of ‘waiting’. It also becomes more clear that the corona passport is in the making in Europe and the government of Canada indicates that they expect Canadians to be able to travel again in the summer. We do not know whether this is also applicable to tourism or only for the necessary travels and whether this is also intercontinental. But secretly, we are mentally preparing ourselves that we could possibly make the big crossing in August. This is purely a feeling and based on a lot of hope. Do you hope for us? We notice that we find it difficult not to let our plans here in Sweden depend on this and maybe that makes sense too. We would like to make an appointment for Jap’s injection, so planning is part of that. Although we also doubt whether it is not a bit unnecessary to make that appointment now. Maybe we should just wait and see what happens in Canada first. And as soon as it opens, we’ll start worrying about that appointment. Hahah you can notice that we want to be ready for the moment Canada opens its borders. Hahaha I think that’s the nature of these two tigers. We love being here in Sweden. Don’t get us wrong. But for us it was and still is really all about the Panamericana as we have really longed for this. Together, we’ve talked a lot about alternative routes and in the end we could really enjoy that too… but if we get the chance we really want to go and drive the Panamericana.

But back to Sweden. Because we really like it here too. Although we sometimes say that Sweden is a bit too much in our comfort zone in terms of culture and things to discover, Sweden really spoils us. It will also be difficult to get used to a country where finding beautiful and free places to stay is not so easy. This week we really had some great ones!

We had stayed at the place near Stockholm, where we had a nice BBQ the night before with our new camper friends. Jap started his day like every day with a cold dip. Hahah he only got a visit from a very curious swan that really came a little too close, so Jap had to flee for a little while. Just to be sure haha. Apparently a small party had taken place at the beach that night. It was completely littered with cans and bags of chips .. Good campers as we are, we threw this neatly in the trash cans for them that was less than 2 meters away from the rubbish. Canan and Sjoerd had other things planned for today so we parted ways here. After 3 wonderful nights at this place, we also went looking for a new place. We set out for Uppsala today, but not before going back to the bakery we visited yesterday to enjoy the delicious tusca bun I wrote about last time and use their wifi to get the blog online. Then we went to Uppsala, where we made an appointment for the next day with Roamingtwentiess, Emma and Quirijn. The rest of the day we read about the next part of Sweden and determined a global route. We made our own pasta and also tested our mosquito repellent device for the first time and it really works. We also tested it by turning it off at one point and then the mosquitoes came back really quickly. A very nice device but expensive to use, I think, because it seems to use the cartridges quickly.

The next day was really all about tackling Bob. We had a lot of chores that we wanted to do but hadn’t taken the time for yet and we decided today was the perfect day for that. In the morning we first went for a run through the forest. Really fun as we had to dodge the stumps and run over boulders. It wasn’t super far but that made it really exhausting and tiring. Good start of the day. And as I wrote. The rest of the day was devoted to fixing things, going to the hardware store, shopping and getting Bob all back in shape again. And not to forget we had fun facetiming with Jasper and Danique for Danique’s birthday and with our dear neighbors. What exactly we did to Bob you wonder: Well we first made a bracket to prevent the table from sliding out while driving, actually an easy solution but very effective. Then it was time to go up on the roof, Kas had altered the roof rack before we left, but it turned out that there was some rust in the tube of the roof rack and because of this, when it rained, streams of rust ran over the bus. We took it off and treated it with anti-rust agent. Meanwhile, Lon has tried to fix the mosquito net with even stronger double-sided tape. The one we used came loose every now and then and hopefully it will hold up better now. Because you really can’t live here without a mosquito net. While restoring the roof-rack we made the holes even more watertight with sealant, hopefully not a stupid decision but we’ll see when we have to take it off before shipping ?.

In the meantime it also started to thunder and even rain, that was a really long time ago that happened. So we put on the awning and sat outside underneath. Towards the evening, RoamingTwentiess, Quirijn and Emma arrived. They live in their bus and have just started an internet company that makes websites. A completely different way of traveling than we have. But also nice to hear what that is like for them and what their reasons are for doing this. Meanwhile Jap lit the BBQ which still didn’t go great, hahah what a surprise. I was done with it and decided to consult mister google for some help for this amateur. Jasper writes: “And then it suddenly became much easier, I’m too stubborn to look it up and I think I can figure it out myself hahah ?.” Hahaha I’m glad he admits this. We had a nice barbecue under our awnings, because unfortunately it was still raining, and we chatted about everything and anything! Owh and what was also funny was that the place where we were standing was used a lot to train dogs. During the day we already saw 4 police officers training their police dogs and later a group of dog owners came with their dogs and a dog trainer to do all kinds of exercises. Which was very entertaining for us.

When we had made a rough route earlier this week, we already noticed that the distances that we would needed to drive were increasing. The next place we wanted to go was Mora on Lake Siljan. The route, therefore, included a 3.30 hour drive, about 300 km. Normally, we try not to drive more than 100 km, but in this country, where the distances can be really huge, you don’t come very far. Along the way we came across the strangest gas station / resting place, it seemed as if we were in China. There was such a high tower and there were all kinds of Chinese statues and Chinese music was playing. Very weird in the middle of Sweden. After that we carried on again and we finally arrived at the place where they make the Dalarna horses. The souvenir of Sweden, these are wooden horses that are painted by hand. And because it is handmade, it is also a pricey souvenir, oughhh. Fortunately, they had a section with ‘rejected’ horses that were on discount, perfect and they even didn’t look very damaged. Okay, hold on, here comes a joke from Jap who will be nominated for worst joke of the year: Then we drove to Mora to see if they make the croquettes and frikandellen that they sell in NL her… haha (probably only funny if you are a dutchie). Okay I admit, maybe it’s a bit funny. But frikandellen were not sold here and it also seemed like a boring town, so we quickly drove to the camper place. The camper place is really great again, it is on a river in the middle of the forest. We immediately strapped up the hammock and after exploring the area for a while, we chilled all evening / rest of the day.

It was such a nice relaxed place here on the river, we felt like staying at this place for a day. We first decided to walk towards a kind of Dam in the river. We were curious what this would be, only when we got there we still didn’t really know hahaha. It was a sort of grid that hung across the entire width of the river. But it was super unclear whether it was generating power or maybe catching fish, we had no idea. Once back at the camper, we chatted with a couple who had arrived yesterday. We already saw that they were from NL, they come from The Hague and are on a vacation of 3/4 weeks. But they do have the plan to go to a northern natural park Sarek NP which is still 1000 km higher ?, so they still have a long way up. After that we decided to do some exercise to get some movement. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were really everywhere and I (Lon) gave up at one point. I was quite heated, but not from the exercise. Our device didn’t work very well because there was quite a bit of wind. We also heard thunder rumbling in the air. After the exercise, Jap went into the river and man that was cold. It really took some perseverance, but he got in. Because of the currents of the water it is really a lot colder than in a lake. In the meantime it started to rain a lot, so we decided to hide inside from the rain and have lunch. Fortunately, it cleared up quickly and we were able to sit outside for the rest of the day. Jap worked on the course he had shot with other Jasper before we left and I looked at Workaway places. In the evening we made a delicious curry with homemade rotis filled with potato and garlic. Really tasty. We still had a roti left over so we gave it to our neighbors who in turn came by with a butter liqueur from The Hague, which went down very well. It was a really relaxed day, we had our batteries recharged before we go to the NP Fulufjällets where I think we will go for a hike again.

The idea was to get up early and drive, especially because we still had a pretty long trip ahead of us and we wanted to do something else besides driving. However, this didn’t really worked out because we forgot to set the alarm, so we woke up at 8.30 while we actually wanted to leave at 9 o’clock. Luckily, the sun hardly sets around here, so we don’t have to worry about having to hike in the dark tonight. We first drove a long way to the Fjulufjällets NP which is located all the way on the Norwegian border. On the way we saw our first reindeer, it was just walking there over the road, so cool. In the NP there is a beautiful waterfall that you can visit and then walk around/above. It is also the first time that we have encountered mountains in Sweden and thus the first time having the possibility of a waterfall. It was not a super long hike but we had to do a steep climb at some points and clamber over stones. It was also quite warm so the sweat was running down our backs. It was a nice high waterfall and it was really good and beautiful to see mountains again, and have look outs. We sat for a while looking at the waterfall and took pictures, after which we finished the loop. Back at the camper we noticed how few mosquitoes there were here, really relaxing, and we were able to sit in the sun for a long time without having to worry about those little annoying buggers. Afterwards we played a nice game of Catan and Jap really won big time.

The next day was a day of disappointment and frustration, it was like a Monday. Sometimes things just don’t go the way you planned and that was the case today. We had the idea to go to Rogen Nature Reserve and see if we could rent kayaks/canoes to explore this park. It all looked very nice especially for kayaking and canoeing. There was very little information available about this but after a long search we found where to go. We really had to go a long way on a dirt road that got worse and worse and as you might have guessed, the road to this place was closed. Grrr it opened in 6 days but we didn’t want to wait for that. First have lunch and see what we could do in this park. Maybe we wanted to take a walk through the park, so we drove to a parking lot with info. However, we had very little use for the maps that were there, there were no marked walks and the names on the signs with distances could not be found on the map. We briefly chatted with a German gentleman who had just spent 10 days here. But instead with his own canoe, and therefore he couldn’t really tell us anything about the walks. It all sounded very nice, but we couldn’t explore this park in this way. We decided to drive further/back to Funasdälen, here you could get a booklet with different walks, which all sounded very nice. When we arrived here, it turned out to be a real ski village and it turned out that a lot of the shops and stores were closed for the next three weeks. We couldn’t really get better info on the internet, .. this didn’t work either .. We did find a bakery and had Fika here and made a new plan. We weren’t going to stay here but headed towards a NP, a bit more inland, which looked nice and had marked trails. Since we were already driving, we went here right away. Another hour in the car. We really didn’t do anything else today, drive a car and look for something fun to do. And it was very frustrating that we didn’t really succeed because we were too early/at the wrong time. What a shame. For tomorrow we have found a nice walk at the NP that will probably last all day. In the evening with fixed the day with a delicious lasagna.

Sånfjallet National Park was not a disappointment, it was a beautiful park where we did a walk of 12 kilometers in 6 hours. It was a varied and beautiful walk, which in the beginning went through a very beautiful forest full of moss. It was very wet in the park because the snow has just melted or is still melting, as a result, it was often a real challenge not to get wet feet. Many of the trails were flooded and the only way to keep it dry was to use fallen logs that acted as natural bridges. This was really a fun way of hiking. In the past, when I went for a walk with my parents, Nienke and I always went looking for the adventure trails, well these were adventure trails the extreme edition. Because it was so very wet, this was also the paradise for those annoying mosquitoes. Taking a break was not really in it because deet or no deet, these mosquitoes were hungry. Fortunately, we eventually got higher up the mountain where there was more wind and therefore there were almost no mosquitoes. The view here was beautiful. We came from the forest to a somewhat more open valley where there were some lakes with mountains in the background where there was still a dollop of snow here and there. Very beautiful. We really enjoyed the views for some time and then walked on to a shelter a bit further, to have lunch. There was also a Polish man who had already made a nice campfire, which helped well against the mosquitoes. We chatted here for quite some time. On the way back we went down very gradually which was great for the legs. Along the way we kept coming across droppings, the droppings were very large so we were curious from what animal they could be. Of course we hoped for the most exotic variants, bear, lynx, moose, reindeer .. Jap also spotted a lot of paw prints and our imagination was already running wild and we were all set to spot real wildlife. But at the end of the walk we found out who those prints and droppings definitely belonged to.. From the goat..

The End

Love, Us

Menu of the week

Spendings of the Week

Budget per day €54 and per week €378 and per month €1700

Route

Driven kilometers: 908