Friday, August 5, 2022: Storsjoen and Oestersund
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Now we are right in the middle of Sweden. When it comes to size, Lake Storsjoen is number five in Sweden with 450 km2. In the lake there lives a monster named Storsie. It is the result of the cuisine of two trolls, Jata and Kata. In former times it was under special protection. Meanwhile it may be hunted again, but this is of no consequences for Storsie because nobody has seen the monster for a long time.
There are a lot of interesting daytrips you can take in the area. As a passionate hiker I enjoyed St. Olav’s pilgrim path to Froesoen church on the island of Froesoen. If you are interested in history you will like Jamtli in Oestersund. You also can watch moose in Moose Garden near Orrviken. And for people who think that geology is an adventure, the visit of the meteorite center Locknekratern in Aengsta is a must.
In Oestersund they offer a lot of trips to get to know the characteristic of the area.
The town of Oestersund is worth visiting. About 50.000 people live there. King Gustav III. commissioned the town close to the bridge to Froesoen Island in 1786. At that time only very few people lived there. The town was planned by Johan Toersten. The streets of Oestersund are in north-south direction, the lanes lead east-west. It took Oestersund a long time to become a flourishing town. Nowadays it’s very enjoyable to stroll through the city center or along the bank of the lake.
My opinion:
I stayed longer than I had intentioned to do. Especially the Island of Froesoen had a profound effect on me. Moose Garden is really nice, and as I met a (much too large) number of reindeer during my trip, but not a single moose “in the wild”, I am glad that I could watch them there. Being a geology-fan, the Locknekratern in Aengsta was a highlight for me.
This region is exactly as I like it: not spectacular, but quiet and with a lot of surprises!
Diary:
This time I am not sitting at the bank of a lake but at a campground with a grand view to a lake. It’s Lake Storsjoen, and its monster is said to be related to the monster of Loch Ness. Unfortunately it was last seen in the 18th century.
Now there is no reason to be scared of the monster any more, because now I am here. Temporarily. For three days.
I am on a vacation from a vacation. More relaxation does not seem possible. Life can be so easy!
In all this I feel a great thankfulness. There’s a war in Europe, people are dying, the climate is changing so drastically that mankind is about to enter a completely new era. While all this is happening, I am driving through Scandinavia and feeling so good that I could weep for joy. I am fulfilling myself dream.
“This has always been my dream” is a sentence I’ve often heard since I ordered Annie Way last year. It’s interesting how many people dream of leaving everything behind for some time, of reducing themselves and their lives to the essential things and of going out into the world, just following their noses without planning anything. And it’s also interesting, why most of them don’t do it.
In reality it does not work without planning. Especially not, if you want a hot shower and Wifi, like me. Then you have to make reservations for campgrounds during the summer season. But this is not difficult, you just have a look at google maps or at some of the many apps about campgrounds, then you make a phone call or book online – and you know where you are spending the coming nights. Including electricity, shower and Wifi. Somewhen I will get to the point that I won’t need these any more – if I get myself to switch on the boiler. I don’t understand its function although I read the manual 27 times – at least! But so far I haven’t got hot water in Annie Way.
It costs a lot of effort to switch on the gas to prepare coffee or to cook something. I can do that, but I switch off the gas immediately afterwards, including the safety valve. With gas the fun stops. In fall Annie Way is going to get solar panels on her roof. And something for the internet. Then we will be absolutely independent. And we will stay at campgrounds nevertheless. The difference is that it won’t be a must any more, but we still can do it.
Let’s get back to the people who say that vanlife has always been their dream. Today someone said this after admiring Annie Way. This time it was a retired professor of aerospace engineering at a Swedish university who had also studied geology and now works voluntarily for the meteor center in Aengsta. We had a long talk about the huge twin meteorite which crashed into a 500 m deep sea close to Pangea in the southern hemisphare 458 million years ago. If there had existed life on land at that time, it would have been extinguished (again). Anyway, the seabed which was of course quite mixed up because of the impact, is now in Sweden in Aengsta.
Due to my questions the aerospace engineer realized quickly that I have some understanding of geology, paleontology and paleoclimatology, and we talked and talked and talked. When I finally left, he showed me a wall in front of the museum with minerals from all over Sweden, and then he noticed Annie Way. “Something like this has always been my dream”, he said. But his voluntary work at Locknekratern is also important.
Afterwards Annie Way was thirsty. One litre of Diesel was 23 crowns. (Ten crowns are one Euro.) 63.3 litres she swallowed into her 90-litres-tank. Afterwards I was desperately looking for the car key (which was not in my jeans pocket!). I had forgotten it at the tank lock. Annie Way has got a tank lock. For whatever reason.
And there was something else I had forgotten. Talking about the meteorite made me forget to take pictures. But a twin meteorite that … no, that’s enough. Nobody is interested in that. For me it’s sensational. And I was there. Right at the spot where the impact took place. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t got pictures. You can’t see anything, no crater or whatever, it happened too long ago and there was too much movement in the past 458 million years.
Fortunately I have a lot from the place I visited in the morning. Pictures. In the morning I was in Moose Garden.
Many years ago a farmer in the area near Oestersund took two young moose. Their mother had been killed at a car accident. Then he had the idea to found a moose farm. Some years ago his son took over. He called his father crazy. The old farmer examined and studied the moose excretions because he was wondering that they didn’t smell at all. To the great delight of the family he did this in the kitchen using cooking utensils. He found out that the excretions were pure cellulose which was absolutely sterile. So he produced paper out of moose sh…. The milk of the moose is used for producing cheese – the most expensive cheese in the world.
Nowadays lots of people visit Moose Garden to attend one of the daily guided tours during the summer season. And they listen to the story the young farmer tells them. At the end he leads them to the moose. The animals live in a huge enclosure – there’s room enough in Sweden! – and for some buckets of potatoes they come to their feeding place and allow the people to take pictures of them. Or, to put it differently, they eat, and they don’t care at all that they are being photographed and filmed.
The difficulty for me was to produce some pictures which made them look like animals in the wild which were close to me by coincidence. I succeeded. I sent the pictures to some of my friends via WhatsApp, and they were thrilled. Especially when it came to the baby moose with its mother. Although the little one looked as if it had not decided yet what it wanted to become, a moose or a horse. Baby animals are always a hit. In reality there were a mesh grid and wooden poles. Nevertheless: very impressive animals. Meanwhile there are quite a number of moose in Moose Garden. Tourists can rent a cottage there. The view to the lake is outstanding, and the lake is still Lake Storsjoen with a monster whose existence is not proven (yet). Despite of my presence.
Why do I have troubles remembering the name Storsjoen? Froesoen, where the campground is situated, seems easy for me. Yesterday I made a mistake with Oestersund. With all those oes and ues and aes in Swedish I mixed it up and wrote Ostersuend. In German this means “sin at Easter”.
On the whole I had a lazy day today. Not even an evening walk! It would still be possible. Sunset is at 9:44 p.m. Sun rise was at 4:29 this morning.
But I went hiking yesterday. After arriving on the island of Froesoen I realized that there is a church nearby which was built on an old place of worship. And that there is a pilgrim way leading there, which is dedicated to St. Olav. This path starts at the Swedish coast and leads in east-west-direction to the coast of Norway.
Suddenly I realized that I am following an old path in north-south-direction, and that the Inlandsvägen and St. Olav’s pilgrim way cross exactly in Oestersund. So walking this path felt like a must.
Froesoen church is romanic and is situated on the highest point with the most beautiful view one can imagine. What a place of power!
After visiting the church I decided to go down to Froesoen beach. This turned out to be a longer undertaking. To add things up, yesterday I drove 330 km and walked 12.5 km. That will do for two days. Therefore I am lazy today, lying on my bed and writing whatever springs to my mind.
There’s another thing Annie Way and me did for the first time today: She is standing on two ramps because the terrain is sloping a bit. It took us some time to get her on the ramps. Annie Way has got extra mirrors for the blind angle. Nevertheless I can’t see what’s happening with her tires. But we succeeded!
That’s quite mainstream. If we go on like this we will soon use her awning instead of having her stand in the shade. Although today I was sitting in the sunshine wearing jeans and a jacket, whereas at home in Austria people suffer from a long lasting heat wave. As we are going north, Annie Way and me, and are about to cross the polar circle, there’s a chance we won’t need her awning at all. Somehow an awning is as yuck for vanlife as a – Yuck! – mobile home. To my opinion at least.
