Tyresta National Park, Stockholm, Sweden. #LowCostWeekendHammockChallenge

[AVatorL]

My new #LowCostWeekendHammockChallenge trip. The idea of the 'challenge' is pretty simple: why hang a hammock in the nearest forest (we have nice places here anyway) if I can do that in so many amazing places abroad. We have a couple of low cost airline companies here and it's almost always possible to get round trip tickets for just $50-70 including 10 kg baggage to Sweden or Norway.

This time got tickets to Stockholm Skavsta airport and visited Tyresta National Park..

I slept 3 nights in my new hammock and had two and half days of hiking through a fairy tale. I'll write more about the trip later this week, when I have time, for now just want to share some photos of the beautiful forests, mosses, rocks and lakes: https://1drv.ms/a/s!AlNacqlfl8x_jq4VOwQCF1p3KXe2XA

My Prior Trip to Sweden: Gothenburg, Sweden. 3 days/nights at the end of the January 2019

[ofuros]

Very coool...& piney.
Nice.

[s martin]

Thanks, nice to see somewhere fresh. Reminds me of Central/Northern Ontario. I know we were all jointed at the hip however million years ago. Seems by the trees they have a few beaver there too. The waters frozen up nice but didn't seem to have much accumulation of snow all in all. Is the winter camping free? Register there and envelope cash? I would take advantage of the cheap airfare and roll with it....cheers Steve

[LazyBee]

Nice looking countryside, and the “ cheap” airline tickets make it all the more desirable. I just need to find a cheap source of transportation across the big pond to get there! Perhaps one day, but until then, thanks and keep posting so we can enjoy the exploits.

[AVatorL]

Thanks, nice to see somewhere fresh. Reminds me of Central/Northern Ontario. I know we were all jointed at the hip however million years ago. Seems by the trees they have a few beaver there too. The waters frozen up nice but didn't seem to have much accumulation of snow all in all. Is the winter camping free? Register there and envelope cash? I would take advantage of the cheap airfare and roll with it....cheers Steve

Dozens of trees along one of the lakes are totally destroyed or at at least damaged by beavers...

No snow accumulation at all, except small patches in shady places. Before my trip there was at least a week with above freezing day and night temperatures. As I was told it's not usual for this palce to have no snow at the end of February. Nice weather during two first days of my trip, a few degrees below freezing at nighttime, but it was raining at the early morning and then snowing (while it was above freezing and really wet) later at the last day of my trip... I went to the airport and slept a part of 4th night in a hotel. The idea of sleeping half of the night in a hammock near the airport and then packing up under rain at 4am (because of early flight) didn't excite me

And it was a first time in my life when I spent a day and nigh by a frozen lake that is cracking and singing. I was impressed by sounds of cracking ice

>> Is the winter camping free? Register there and envelope cash?
Not sure what are you talking about. I think you have somewhat different rules of camping in your national parks. In Sweden you have a right to camping anywhere including private land, but except national parks. In national parks you can camping and make fire only in designated places, but no registration and no fee.

I assume the are many people around a camping fire in summer (because it's just one camping fire place per camping site and just a few camping sites). I had no camp fire during first night (but it was before I entered the national park). I was alone during second night, and 3 people during 3rd night.

[AVatorL]

Nice looking countryside, and the “ cheap” airline tickets make it all the more desirable. I just need to find a cheap source of transportation across the big pond to get there! Perhaps one day, but until then, thanks and keep posting so we can enjoy the exploits.

I just need to find a cheap source of transportation across the big pond to get to your side of the pond And I'll need a really long vacation to visit all places that I want to visit in United States. Maybe in the future Elon Musk's rocket will fly from Europe to US in 30 minutes and will be cheap like a bus. Then I will have new level of #LowCostWeekendHammockChallenge

[AVatorL]

I promised to write more about the trip. So, this is it.

I started my trip from a mistake It was very warm and I put my membrane jacket between my backpack and ventilation mesh on the back of it when I went out of home to take my Uber. It wasn't fixed well, but I was going to take the jacket out in the airport. And I totally forgot about it and registered the backpack as my registered baggage with the jacket on the back. I rarely (almost never) loose or forget at home my stuff, but this time I was a little bit nervous until I got my baggage back on arrival. But nothing happened with the jacket. Lucky me

And then everything was exactly as planned. Planning is very important thing when you have less than 3 days for hiking in another country. First of all I have a table in Microsoft Excel with a list of all my traveling staff, every item is weighted, so I just enter 'x' in a column for everything that i'm taking in a trip and I can see a total weight of my backpack. This helps me to be sure it weights less than 10 kg (22 lbs). I don't want to carry more on my back and this is the limitation of cheapest baggage option the airline company offers. Then I enter 'xx' when an item is already in my backpack so I can be sure I won't leave it at home

When arrived to Skavsta Airport I went directly to a bus, 80 minutes in the bus and I'm in the Stockholm city. It was about 11pm by this moment. And this is where planning helps. 6 metro stations (paid with a card I already had after my previous visits) to a nearest gas station with a store opened 24/7 to buy some fuel for a stove. This time it was butane/propane canister. But I always take my fuel bottle and a pump for trips like this because never can't be sure I'll be able to find butane/propane canister at the nearest gas station. With a bottle and a pump I always can use any kind of liquid fuel. During my prior trip it was a bottle of kerosene from a gas station.

Then one metro stop back (I just walked there) to take a bus to the end of the city and to the Tyresta National Park. And this is it. About 1am and I'm in the amazing night forest. I didn't enter the national park yet, so I can hang anywhere. I walked around and it took time to find a good place and good trees. I wasn't tired, it was nice forest and there were a lot of dead trees and widow makers. These are the reasons I spent a lot of time looking for a place. Then I cooked something to eat and went to a hammock at about 3am



First day of the trip:

Amazing lakes and pines


Old trees, mosses. I think the trees are old. See the next photo for 20 years old forest.


This is how a places where camping is allowed look like

Some of them have just a place for campfire, some of them has this small shelter. But I have a hammock It's allowed to put a tent a to hang a hammock in the are near the fire place. You don't need to register and there is no fee. But in dry summer time they can forbid campfires at all. But you can use metal stoves anywhere anytime.

A long lake and dozens of trees that look like this

Hello beavers!

And this is my hammock again


I'm alone here tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday and I'll see more people around.


Second day:
Good morning, beautiful trees and pines again


And this is how forest look 20 years since forest fire


To many rocks to allow trees to grow faster... I'm afraid even it 200 years forest on this place will look different compare to an ancient forest that wasn't damaged by the fire.


More lakes and more pines




And my hammock again:


Two nights it was a few degrees below freezing at nights. Just rare and small patches of snow because it was warm (above freezing even at nighttime) here for a week or even more before my trip. Lakes are still under ice. The ice is cracking. Sounds fascinatingly.


Third day:
Warm morning. Above freezing. The weather is changing. Pretty well predicted by weather forecast. Raining while i'm in a hammock. Then snowing. Wet snow... Same lakes and pines. Totally different landscapes:


My flight at 7 am. Have a bus to the airport either at 5 pm or at 3:30 am. Really wet snow... So, I'm deciding to go to the airport earlier. It's raining now. So I just went to a hotel by the airport. There is no sense in sleeping in a hammock and then packing up under rain in the middle of the night. I have to work tomorrow.

And I'm on my way back to home...


I'm in Krakow Airport. Never waited more than hour for my baggage before... They didn't tell what happened. Just asked us to wait...

Finally I have my backpack. Opening my Uber App... WTF? My card is declined. Well, my bank informed me a few days ago that on Monday morning they will have problems with ATMs. It went worse. Can't use a card in other banks' ATMs, can't pay online, Google Pay doesn't work as well with my cards. I have some euros (just for a case like this), but no polish currency because I used to use Google Pay at home. And Airport is not the best place to exchange currencies... The worst rates ever. But finally I was able to get a bus ticket. The only device that accepted my car was a ticket machine... Well, 1 hour in buses against 20 minutes in Uber and I'm at home Good planning helps. But don't forget about possible force majeures

All photos are here:
https://1drv.ms/a/s!AlNacqlfl8x_jq4VOwQCF1p3KXe2XA

My next #LowCostWeekendHammockChallenge trip is in April to Norway...

[infrastellar]

very nice area ! must be fun to buy a ticket and go ...

[ThreeTracks]

Nice pictures. I live only around 100 km from Tyresta, but I've never been there.

Just one thing though...

But in dry summer time they can forbid campfires at all. But you can use metal stoves anywhere anytime.

Alas, that's not so. Last summer, which was extremely hot and dry with forest fires raging all over the place, all use of fire, including camping kitchens, were forbidden. Not only in Tyresta but in large parts of the country. It happens now and then.

The problem is that when there is a burning prohibition order the information from the authorities is often lacking... The info can say for instance that "open fire" is forbidden. But what is that? A a log fire on the ground, surely. But is the flame from my Trangia to be considered open fire? There were a lot of discussions last year about if camping kitchens were allowed or not in different counties. Most often it turned out they were not. It would be a good thing if the County Administrative Boards would list explicitly what's allowed and what isn't. It shouldn't be open to interpretation.

All in all, in dry weather camp stoves aren't always allowed. Beware...

BTW, those cheap airline companies, can flights with them be booked from Sweden too? ;-)

[AVatorL]

Thank you ThreeTracks. Useful information. Yeah, it looks like extremely dry weather is becoming a real problem. As I know Polish firefighters were helping to fight forest fires in Sweden last summer. And once I was helping to fight forest fire in Ukrainian Crimean Mountains (before the annexation). It was just a few burning trees but it was in the middle of a night during very hot and dry summer and we had to bring water in backpacks from the sea. Some drunk tourists started the fire... And I know how fast it can become unstoppable.

About the airline companies... last my visits to Sweden it was RyanAir. WizzAir also has goof offers, I think I'll try their new route Krakow - Turku, Finland this summer. I used WizzAir to go to Sweden in the past.