Blog 6 Ljungsbro to Lake Vattern 20 June - 2015

I meant to tell you how much the canal level is often way above the surrounding land as it winds though the countryside, there are the occasional aquaducts where it crosses a major road but slowly motoring passed houses and farmsteads it is not unusual to be at the level of the roof ridge - shocking to imagine what would happen if the canal bank broke. An overnight stay at Sorby Bridge, a quite rural spot with sun shining through the leaves, cattle in buttercup meadows and pied wagtails everywhere. That was more or less end of shorts and tee shirts weather for the moment.

It has been a funny week, partly because poor weather has limited many activities, more cloud and finally quite bit of rain over the last couple of days. Our Bristol friends arrived on time albeit their bags were left in Amsterdam so it looked like they would have to stay in Stockholm until it turned up - as temporary compensation they were given a tee shirt and a vest each! Luckily it came the next day so no delay in getting to us. We meant to push on out into Lake Vattern which is the deepest of all the Swedish lakes and also the highest, about 70 miles long and not the biggest by any means - however thought it would be good to stay in this medium sized town to see the Mid Summer celebrations which we witnessed last year but great disappointment, everything was closed and not a soul in sight anywhere. Where were they all - probably partying at their Summer houses.

There are some good water birds on Lake Vattern including a Slavonian Grebe which was a bit of a a punk grebe with orange make up - interesting to see something new but with only one hour of sunshine in the last days the visibility was too poor to take a good image for you.

French friends have been sailing their boat with us for a few weeks now and had a new crew this week, a charming French couple who have enjoyed speaking English and trying to get us to do more French in turn. All eight of us went on a bus today to a 15th C castle nearby by way of avoiding sailing or being on a boat in the rain, an entertaining day but poor images again sadly nor any opportunity to sketch.

Turning North after leaving the canal section at Motala, Lake Vattern has a group of islands similar in character to the wonderful archipelago of Stockholm. Again having to weave through narrow rock sown channels which open out into natural harbours where smooth rock faces roll to the waters edge and conifers filter the sunlight onto the lichen and fir cone strewn ground. Boats lay motionless on glassy water, tied to trees or rocks at the bow, close enough to step down onto land and tape anchor lines dived into still water at a shallow angle off the stern. Groups gathered around barbecues along the flat rock shore line to catch the evening sun and share in that special Swedish quality of peace, tranquility and natural beauty. We were joined once more by Cybele who slid alongside late in the day and tied to iron spikes we had discovered set into the rock, and our friends were invited on board to meet Pirate of whom they had heard so much.