Sometimes we stumble upon real gems in the middle of nowhere. Hjortron och Troll (Cloudberries and Trolls) is one such place.
In short, we can say that it is an art gallery. That gives you an idea of what it is. This place is created and run by a man named Kenneth Nielsen. When he retired he realised that he had a lot of time on his hands and plenty of space in his garden around his home. He decided to decorate the garden with wooden sculptures that he creates using a chain saw. Today there are maybe a hundred sculptures in his garden and he keeps adding more.
We loved this place and really enjoyed walking around looking at his art. Most of the sculptures are of trolls and owls. But other kinds of animals can also be seen.
When we arrived in sele town we decided to only stop for a few hours. We needed to buy some groceries and since we were there we also took
We are totally shameless and put a photo of an old steam train in the hope that train aficionados will be drawn to our blog...
We noticed a Smi flag outside one of the oldest houses in the town centre and in a park in town there was a sculpture of supersized Smi hat. That makes us wonder if there is a large Smi population in sele.
The main reason why we didnt stay longer and explored more of what there is to see in sele was that we were on our way to Stockholmsgata Nature Reserve. The main attraction in that reserve is a narrow canyon, carved out a long time ago by a stream that no longer runs there.
The nature reserves name, Stockholmsgata or Stockholm Street, refers to that streets in Stockholm can be narrow and lined with tall buildings making them feel like a canyon.
The canyon is no more than a few hundred meters long. The trail went on and we followed it a bit further. We then came to a few bogs where we picked some cloudberries. We also passed a bog with a small lake in the middle. That lake actually had a shape very similar to that of
This was the only time that we saw cloudberries on this trip (the cloudberry jam we bought doesnt count of course). This is a bit surprising because people told us that this was a very good year if you wanted to pick cloudberries.
Last year we visited the area known as the High Coast. We then spent quite a long time there since there are plenty of interesting places worth visiting in a relatively small area. But two of the most popular sights we didnt get to see. Ulvn Island we had to skip because limitations on the number of passengers the ferries were allowed onboard. Skuleberget mountain we had to skip because of an injury that made such a strenuous hike somewhat unpleasant. But this year the ferries could take more passengers and we were both fit for fight for steep hikes so we went back to the High Coast.
Skuleberget mountain is one of the most visited places in the entire High Coast region. At the base of the mountain there is a visitor centre and at the top there is a restaurant and other facilities.
In short, we can say that Hjortron och Troll is an art gallery. That gives you an idea of what it is.
There are several hiking trails going from the visitor centre to the top and it is also possible to ascend the mountain via climbing routes up the almost vertical eastern side of the mountain. In winter ski enthusiasts go to Skuleberget for alpine skiing as there are four downhill slopes available there. The slopes are not on the eastern side of the mountain...
Ulvn Island is best known for its main settlement, Ulvhamn, which is a small picturesque fisher village. The village actually looks more like a touristy version of a fisher village than the real deal. We suspect that many of the homes on the island are used as holiday cottage/second homes and are not inhabited in winter.
At Ulvn Island the Swedish specialty fermented Baltic herring has been produced for hundreds of years. But today this product is produced elsewhere. Several canneries have their production facilities along the High Coast, but there is none on Ulvn anymore.
