A leisurely morning - a swim and breakfast- followed by a walk around the town led by Anders. It was a lovely end to the trip. At 1230 a taxi took us to the station so we could catch our train to Stockholm - only one change at Borlange. The trip took @ 3 hours and was relatively easy. When we arrived at the airport and alighted into the terminal we had a mega walk from terminal 4 where we arrived to terminal 2 where we were leaving from. We headed to the lounge...

Anders was always in touch with other wolf trackers so today we headed to the north to see if we could find the tracks of a pack seen on the lake ice north of us. Sadly the snow was melting fast, it was icy under foot and not the conditions for retaining paw prints. It was however interesting to look at the differential freezing of the lake and landscapes it made. After lunch we decided to go to the Carnivore park - a really well designed park with enormous en...

The weather was warming and the snow melting albeit there was a cold wind. It snowed overnight but it was much warmer by day and the snow and tracks disappeared. Today we went to the forest bird feeders - it was off the beaten track and still in snow so we donned snow shoes to reach them. The birds that came to the feeders were all t*** great, willow and blue with one new one for us the crested tit (today's photo). While watching the birds we could hear hunter...

Our first day was a perfect day for tracking - bright blue skies,crisp snow on the ground and the temperature remaining below freezing all day. With all our warm gear on, and with amazing packed lunches in our back packs we headed out into the Swedish countryside. Hunting is still prevalent in Sweden, it's licensed but there is an uneasy peace with people trying to understand each other's perspectives and live side by side. That said the pack Anders used to trac...

We were up really early - 0245 - so we were ready for the car which arrived at 4am to take us to Heathrow for our 5am check in and 6.15 departure to Stockholm (the first flight from terminal 5!) On paper timings seemed tight but we even had time to go to the lounge for John to eat a bacon roll! As luck would have it we met Lisa, a doctor from Lichfield, and our only travelling companion flying with us, in the queue - we stood right behind her and saw the tellta...