Day 91 – to Ed, Tresticklans National Park, Sweden

I’m back to the lakes and forests of the Swedish lowlands, where I was in August. The mosquitos are gone and the autumn colours make it even more appealing than it was then.

I almost pushed my stay in the Norwegian mountains too far into the winter. This morning as I left, the van’s windscreen and the road were covered with a film of ice from the freezing rain that was gently falling. The road’s aren’t gritted here, as every vehicle switches to winter tyres, by law before 15th November, but most of them already.

For 50 kilometres or so it was necessary to drive with great care, 30 mph, fortunately on a road with few bends, that very gradually lost height heading to Gol, and then teh E16 south to Oslo. The temperature rose slowly, but only to 2C is Oslo on the fjord.

Having the India Pakistan cricket on the radio helped. It was an incredible game, with 90,000 people in the MCG, and a staggering 1.5 billion watching worldwide.

I’m another few hours south of Oslo, and here it’s more like Cumbrian temperatures at this time of year, 10C with mist and light rain, dropping to 2C tonight.

There wasn’t a lot of chance to get out, but we had an hour on arrival. I aimed for the frisbee golf and beach on lake Sagtjarnet, just a couple of kilometres outside the town of Ed, easier to pronounce and spell than many of its neighbours. This is the edge of the Tresticklans National Park, which we will investigate further tomorrow.