Friday, January 05, 2007

Next is Nässjön

The following weekend, I decided to reattempt making it to Nässjön. It is perhaps the biggest lake in the area. Translated, its name means Isthmus Lake. You'll see why if you can look at a satellite image. It is located at approximately 56.23ºN, 15.19ºE. It is almost V-shaped, with a big land mass splitting it just about in half. Unfortunately, I can't find any maps with many street names in this area. A general description of the route will have to suffice.
After the unfruitful journey the previous weekend, I decided I was going to attempt this one on foot. I set out northward through the western suburbs of Ronneby, past the industrial area and onto Karlshamnsvägen. This hiking took quite a while, as there is no path, and most of the time I was walking in ditches. About 2 km north of the E22, there is a turn-off for Bräkne-Hoby. I turned left. Here is a view from that road back towards Ronneby. You can see how cloudy it was getting - it was after all coming to the end of Autumn.

This westward-heading road seemed to go on for ages. There were a few bridge-like objects constructed where the land fell away sharply on either side of the road. There were also no streetlights. This meant I needed to keep moving. After a while, I reached a T-junction. Continuing along, I would have eventually reached Bräkne-Hoby. But it would be dark by the time I reached it. Therefore, I turned southward, along the road to Kättorp and Nässjön. Here is a photo taken along that lengthy and winding road. I remember feeling particularly lonely there, as there was no traffic, and not really any noise to speak of.
Eventually, I reached some farming properties which were near the lake. Here is one of the fields which had recently been dug up. A tiny house is visible in the background.
A large majority of the farm houses I saw in Sweden seemed to be painted red. I'm not sure why. Anyway, here is one flanked by two very large and bare trees. The smell at this point was almost unbearable. I was starting to think it was a manure factory.I hurried along quickly to escape the smell, around a corner and up over a hill. And then I saw it. I had arrived at Nässjön. Unfortunately, there were fences everywhere so I could not get very close to the water. In this photo, the main part of the background is the isthmus itself, dotted with trees.
This one is of the western branch of the lake, with some of the isthmus in the background.
Hidden in this photo are a boat and a jetty. I wonder what fish one could catch in the lake?

More of the lake, with some interesting tree branches in the foreground.

This is the southernmost point of Nässjön, looking westward.

The following is the result of my efforts to put together a panorama of the lake. You can see that there are many trees there, and the grass is very green.

I then had a quick bite to eat and headed home quickly before the light completely faded.