Day 19 – to Ramsele

It’s to the north of the road, the 315, that most of the downhill skiing takes place. As ever in these places in the summer, the mountain looks ruined with the amount of erosion caused. I was high up to the south of the road, amongst the cross country trails, and it was on those that I hiked this morning. The first half was amongst the heather and vegetation gently ascending, before gaining the wide ridge cum plateau and returning at above 900 metres, amongst the boulders in similar scenery to yesterday. A really good morning, two or three hours in fine weather, at about 17C.

A bit of lunch then a couple of hours drive into Östersund, which is pretty much impossible to avoid. It’s the biggest city for some considerable distance; there is nothing of its size further north. I stocked up at the supermarket and with fuel and headed off.

My plan is to return south into the mountains to the north of here, if that makes sense.. and for now, to head to the coast. There are a few National Parks that I’ve heard plenty of positive comments about, that I’m keen to spend some time in, not least, The High Coast Reserve, which Ester and Jonas sang the praises of a couple of nights back. They also warned me about construction work on the road directly east, so initially I headed up to Hammerdal, where I did think I might stop over. But it’s just a town on a busy road, so I headed east, and stopped just before Ramsele, on a track off the main road that leads to a park for the river.

There were some Germans there at first, with young kids swimming. As they were leaving one of the young girls spotted I was English and told me she spoke the language, as well as several others. Impressive for 10 years old, but I do remember my days in International schools where kids that age would learn languages off their friends in a matter of weeks. Speaking to the parents, they had just moved here to live, as a lifestyle choice for their young family. They were really keen to chat, and we sat around for a while, with the children playing with Roja, which was something of a surprise; these days, in his middle age, he is not given to playing around so much, if there are younger dogs and children around he often chooses to sit it out, but not this evening.

In the end, the mosquitos got the better of us, they are numerous here. Dusk is a lengthy affair on these northern nights of August, and generally speaking, it’s sensible to be indoors.