Tuesday July 12, On HW 360 at Tanntrask

July 12, 2022

Tuesday July 12, On HW 360 at Tanntrask

10.30pm and some colour tonight, although
it will be twilight until the sun rises soon
after 3am

…well Tanntrask is what the weather forecast calls this area! And the forecast from tomorrow is looking wet for the next few days!

After the really amazing scenery of the last few days, today was a bit lower key. Felt in no hurry to leave this morning with a clear blue sky and warm temperatures it was very inviting. Said goodbye to our fellow campers who were heading along the Wilderness Route and we headed East for the last hour to Vilhelmina passing a number of lakes and rivers but we have been spoilt and they were more ordinary.

VIlhelmina is not a big town but it is at the end/start of the Wilderness Route and on the road north to Norkap so is quite busy. The town has a number of gas stations, two supermarkets and some eating establishments, as well as a very good fishing store. Wandered around for awhile to stretch our legs then picked up a few supplies. I was interested to find chickpeas and lentils in tetra packs. The rotisserie was going in the deli, but not with the chickens we normally see but pieces of well salted pork belly. They looked so good, but the guy said the needed another hour, maybe a good thing!

In the carpark we saw a vehicle with a red triangle on the back, something we have passed on the road previously going very slowly. Did a google search and found out a rather interesting story behind them. They are a Swedish invention called A-Tractors and were originally developed when agricultural vehicles were in short supply, so the government decided to make it legal to alter standard cars so they were able to be used as tractors. They have a maximum speed of 30 km/h, cannot have a back seat and must be able to tow agricultural equipment. The gear box is limited, meaning the driver can only use first and second gear. Now days they have become popular with teenagers who can drive them from the age of 15, the minimum age for a normal driving licence is 18. Many of them are hand-built and are often personalised by the owner. They evidently are notoriuous for having loud stereo systems, and consequently are subject to many complaints!

Fuelled up and were also able to fill our water tank at the garage.

We have decided to forget going to Finland, the Baltic States and Poland, it really is not the right time to do it. So, plan B at this stage is to travel south through Eastern Sweden then cross over to Easten Norway and visiting areas that we hadn’t seen in 2016, across the Malmo Bridge to Denmark and back to Germany. Well, that is the plan at this stage, which could easily change!

We took the lesser road from Vilhemina, HW 360 towards Lycksele, with a stop in a delightful church carpark for a very late lunch then an hours drive to this spot, another cracker from Park4Night. It is on a layby above the road overlooking a lake and we are the only ones here. Ian put up a clothesline between some trees and I did some handwashing. We are loving this Freedom Camping way of life in Sweden, its about 10 days since we have paid for a camping spot and really enjoy searching out good places to stay.

…and just noticed that this is my 1002^nd blog since I started writing them during our travels in USA in 2008!!!