Camping in summer is fun, until you start counting the mosquito bites. I ended up with 10+ bites just from one camping night and little did I know that this was only the start. My partner and I packed up the tent and continued the drive towards the North.

Our next stop on the way to Östersund was the Hamra National Park that is knows for its dense population of bears. I was hoping to see one in the distance or to find bear tracks. Sadly, we didn’t see any bears or any bear tracks! Maybe the next time! We did learn about the local plant and wild life, too. That was pretty interesting!

We continue to drive North and reached Östersund in the late afternoon. Östersund was our first destination where we stayed longer. A week, to be exact. After we arrived, we decided to check out the city really quick. I was tired from driving all the way so we had a cozy first evening at the hostel we stayed at.

My first trip on the next day led me to the Tourist Information to get tips about the area and possible beautiful locations. And maps! If you didn’t know that already, I’m collecting maps of places I have been to. I decided to make this a location-scouting day. I spent some time at the tourist information before I started my journey towards a place called Bydalen, a small place in the middle of the mountains. I remember I wanted to go on a hike deeper into the mountains, but the weather wasn’t on my side at all. A storm was rolling in and it felt unsafe for me to go into the mountains alone. And this will always be my rule number one when it comes to exploring the outdoors alone: if it feels unsafe, don’t do it. Especially because I was completely by my self in a place with no civilization.

I continued and ended up in a place called Vålådalen, which is a big nature reserve in the area and famous for their biking and hiking trails. The hike I wanted to go on was easily 22km (one way) and I was unprepared for a hike like this. So I explored the area within a few kilometers. It was still worth it! What do you think?

The next day was even more exciting! Why, you are wondering? Because it was my birthday! And I decided to go to Sweden’s largest waterfall called Tännforsen. How exciting that was! Find the image here and read the full story behind it. I still feel the waterdrops on my skin and the wind. The weather was great for landscape photography! Dark and moody, I loved every second of it.

The day just began so I decided to explore more locations! The next location I visited was Byxtjänen that gave me an amazing view of Mount Åreskutan in the distance while fog rolled over the mountain top. I couldn’t go up the mountain because of the strong winds. I’m happy I ended up at this location instead! Find the image here. It was a 5km hike uphill, I wasn’t happy with that. But the view made up for that!

The last stop for this day was Ristafallet, another waterfall. I have seen so many pictures from this location and I’m happy I finally have one in my portfolio from this location as well.  It was an amazing feeling to finally be at this place myself. Happy Birthday to me!

I decided to split the week in Östersund into two parts, otherwise this would get way too long! So stay tuned for the other half of the week and all following adventures from the North!