25-Dec-2000 -- Christmas Eve is the day when we celebrate Christmas in
Sweden. Therefore Christmas Day was a very good day to rest from the
celebrations and make an attempt to visit the confluence. The first snow
had just fallen, and temperature was about six centigrades below freezing.
Also, for the first time in quite a long time, we could see the sun in Stockholm.
I could go by car to a point about 1,5 km from the confluence. From there,
I used my GPS to direct me towards the right spot. After a short walk on a
private road, I went into the wood. There was a new, thin layer of snow that
made it fairly difficult to walk, since you couldn't see small pots and stones
and other obstacles on the ground.
With about 500 m to go, I reached a recently clear-felled area, which made
walking still more difficult. However, it was not as dark there as in the wood,
and the GPS reception became much better.
Unfortunaltey, the clear-cut area didn't reach all the way to the confluence.
The reason is that just before the confluence -- and possibly around it -- there is a
small swamp that makes it impossible to use the cutting machines.
Since it has been raining almost all the autumn, there was quite a lot of water
in the swamp. To make it even more difficult to approach the exact spot, the snow
made it impossible to see how deep the water was, and if there were any tussocks
or other spots of solid ground to step on. Since the weather had been so mild, the
ice was not thick enough to carry the weight of a man.
So I reached a point about 70 m from the exact spot, at the edge of the wood.
On the other hand, there was proboaby not too much to see and photograph there,
except for trees. Also, there was probably no GPS coverage there, because of the
very dense and wet wood.
In picture 1, the confluence is situated behind the single fur-tree, about 70 m
into the wood. The direction is SSE. Pictures 2 and 3 show how dense the wood is.
Between the trees, there is still-standing water that has been collected from the
surrounding hillsides. Pictures 4 and 5 show the clear-cut area, in directions west and
north. The remaining pine-trees are probally left to generate seeds for the re-growth
of the forest.
Picture 6 shows the GPS display. Unfortunaltey not exactly on the spot, but very
This kind of nature is very common in Sweden. Most of the country is covered with
forests, mainly with spruces. By legislation, the land-owners have to fell a certain
amount of the forest regularly, so these clear-felled areas are quite common.