Walking the world

  • Sweden: Rörtången – Malmö
  • 5-19 November, 2019
  • 398 km (3110 km in total)
  • Scandinavia

Summary

We are done with Scandinavia! Woot woot! Over the past 4.5 months we have walked 3110 km from the very top to the bottom of the Scandinavian peninsula and in doing so completed the first big stage of our expedition. Now an epic journey crisscrossing the European mainland, plus a short visit to the UK, awaits!

Trail description

Terrain

We leave Karma’s family home behind and enter back into the chilly winds. We make our way through Gothenburg city using small roads, bike paths and even lit up running and walking paths through nature reserves and parks.

Leaving Gothenburg we follow the famous coastal Kattegattleden, Sweden’s first national cycle path and “the cycle route of the year” in Europe 2018, a well marked path leading all the way to Helsingborg. Next we follow Skåneleden, a well marked coastal hiking trail made up of dirt trails, small roads and bike/walking paths. We added our own twist on this incorporating the Sydkustleden, Swedens 3:rd national cycle path, to create a more direct route all the way to the ferry terminal in Malmö.

Next stop Travemünde, Germany!

Gaia GPS track

Trail journal

Day 132: Gothenburg

Distance: 35 km (2747 km total). Weather: partly sunny

After spending a week with family and friends we are back on the road! Well, sort if… we walked to our wonderful friends to be spoiled a bit for one more night. Love you guys! The bonus of walking through your home town…

Day 133: Särö

Distance: 31 km (2778 km total). Weather: partly sunny

A cold but beautiful day walking though Karma’s home town of Gothenburg. We ended up following a bike trail heading south. This trail, Kattegattleden, actually follows the coast all the way from Gothenburg to Helsingborg so it will take us almost all the way through. Nice! We met up with family at the end of the day and were treated to an amazing warm hotel bed for the night! Big surprise!Thanks a million dad!!!

Day 134: Värö

Distance: 51 km (2829 km total). Weather: overcast

Pushing a couple of big days to make it to Halmstad, where Karma’s sister lives, in time for the weekend. A 12-hour day of walking today. But another rest day and some more time with family is a really good motivator! Nighty night…

Day 135: Sandhamn

Distance: 24 km (2853 km total). Weather: overcast

It will be a very long time before we will be back in Sweden next time and we have been prioritizing visits with family and friends on our way through. We are such time optimists though, lol. We were pushing really hard to make it to Halmstad by the weekend but eventually had to accept fact… doing some 170+ km in 3 days is a huge ask and simply not necessary. So we just walked to Varberg and hopped on a train down to Halmstad to visit with Karma’s sister over the weekend as planned. Come Monday we will just take the train back up and continue where we left off. Haha… why was that such a hard decision to make?!?

Day 138: Vesslunda

Distance: 43 km (2896 km total). Weather: overcast

After a couple of wonderful days visiting with family we are back on the road again. We hopped back on the train up to Varberg and resumed where we left off on Friday — again heading south. We made good time and camped up 12 km south of Falkenberg tonight.

Day 139: Sandhamn

Distance: 34 km (2930 km total). Weather: rain

We’re baaack! LOL We walked the missing 77 km between Varberg and Halmstad we did not manage to cover before the weekend… and now we are back with Karma’s sister and her family again for another couple of nights. We just needed to recharge our batteries a bit and it is sooo nice to get some quality time with loved ones before we leave. Thanks a million guys!!!

Day 141: Mellbystrand

Distance: 35 km (2965 km total). Weather: overcast

We finally felt ready to move south again. We continue to mostly follow Kattegattleden cycle trail south along the coast. Pretty nice path as it keeps us off the main roads and many times on a designated bike lane. Sweet! Camped up under a treehouse (!) in Mellbystrand tonight.

Day 142: Vejbystrand

Distance: 30 km (2995 km total). Weather: overcast

Following Skåneleden (the Skåne trail) out of Båstad for a couple of hours today as we make the best route for us using a combination of trails, cycle paths and back roads. Camped up in the Vejbystrand marina tonight. Toilets! Yay! Very windy here on the coast though so we are thankful for our bomb shelter of a tent.

Day 143: Väla

Distance: 36 km (3031 km total). Weather: overcast

Rain, rain, rain all day today! Another milestone though… we passed the 3000 km mark this morning! Wooot! We resupplied at the big Coop in the Väla shopping center at the end of the day and pretty much camped up in the first patch of grass we found south of the madness. Think we are tucked away in the back corner well out of sight though. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Day 144: Landskrona

Distance: 31 km (3062 km total). Weather: overcast

Guess what?! We met our first trail angels on this journey today! Fellow hikers (Gröna Bandare/Green Ribbon hikers) who saw us on trail this afternoon, recognized us from social media and graciously invited us into their home. Mmm a nice hot shower, great company, an amazing dinner and yeah… we are sleeping in a bed tonight!!! Sweet! Thanks a million guys!

Day 145: Malmö

Distance: 44 km (3106 km total). Weather: overcast

As we were walking along making plans for the next big stage of the expedition, mainland Europe (+ the UK), we decided to revise our exit plan from Scandinavia slightly in order to make better use of our time this winter (we’ll do a big writeup here on the blog about this soon). So instead of taking the ferry from Trelleborg, we walked to Malmö tonight where we will catch the ferry over to Travemūnde Germany in the morning. Exciting!

Day 146: Travemünde

Distance: 4 km + (3110 + km total). Weather: overcast

We walked the remaining 4 km to the harbor and boarded the morning ferry from Malmö to Travemünde. A 9 hour ride where we will try to wrap up this epic Scandinavia stage on social media before starting the Germany adventure. Wo-hooo!!!