Sunday Beach Combing

Sundays are quite… so I have been beach combing and found treasure – well perhaps not monetary treasure but enough wonderfully gnarled driftwood to keep a sculptress happy and a wild assortment of floats plus the spine of a sperm whale and disregarded computer equipment – I wonder if Compaq have a CSR programe for sustainable recycling, in which case perhaps they would like to come and pick this up – 69.20094N 15.85626ECan you ever get away from the office

Gudbrandsdalen in the rain

So with midsummer over the days start to draw shorter but yesterdays Norwegian celebrations were extraordinary – beach bonfires and party’s despite the lack of electricity and driving rain – there was no way the party was going to be spoiled. Personally I think Gudbrandsdalen is an acquired taste but when sitting on the beach eating it with some haddock crisps and nuts its a taste which perhaps is growing on me.Mid Summers Evening

Elks on the road

I learnt two valuable lessons today, the first is native Swedish deer are as stubborn as welsh mountain sheep and can appear from nowhere at the road edge – another reason for keeping the speed down, the second is elk are huge and very shy, I was able to spot at around 300m a couple of adult elk by the side of a track just south of Sorsele, coming to a stop they watched me with interest before gently ambling in front of me and disappearing into the forest – a truly magical experience.Elk Road

Dals Långed Revisited

From Filipstad south west around 150km is Dals Långed within the Bengtsfors kommun – a district blessed with acres and acres of clean fresh water lakes and crossed by the Dalslands kanal. The riding here is exceptional as are the lakes – shame I left my fly rod behind as stopping for Fika at the lake edge the fish were clearly rising, might of actually stood a chance of catching something.Dals Långed Revisited