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My travels in Sweden:
Lappland tour in Northern Sweden, 2002

Content:

Our own Lappland tour, 2002

Here at Google map you can follow our travels day 4 and 5:

Day 4, Bjurholm, Norsjö, Storforsen, Jämtön

Holmbacka:

The Lappland tour in Northern Sweden, 2002

Rosie at the door and we have just packed and ready for a new day of adventures.

The owner of the place told us that it's their son who is the owner of the caravan in the background. It is an old fire truck that has been rebuilt. The make is International and manufactured in the 1960s.

Balsjö, Moose's house:

Yesterday we got a tips about a moose farm, wow, that's something we must visit. After had studied the maps we find it in Balsjö close to Bjurholm. We arrived very early in the morning and had to wait for 1 ½ hour until they opened the place. Now when they open we just wonder, what are they doing here? A couple of young boys arrived now and they talked about moose riding, hmm ...

More information about Moose's house:

http://algenshus.se/ ?lang=en

Our guide Christer show us the "Moose's house". He teach us about everything worth to know about moose.

Christer shows us how the moose was caught in a moose trap pit in the past. Most often it broke the neck when it fell down in the trap pit, if not it became a long and painful death. These traps were banned as late as in the 1940s.

Moose farmers Christer tells about the moose's 4 stomachs. The moose in the background weighed about 650 kg. Normally for a Swedish moose even though specimens of over 1000 kg can be found. In Canada you find the largest mooses with weights up to 1300 kg, Christer told us that.

Christer tells us how the bear can trap the moose with a blow of the frame and crack the spine of it. Starts then to eat the moose from groin while still alive.

I thinks:
The bear is not nice and there are 4000 of them in the forests here, terribly, maybe best to turn home to Stockholm.

More information about the Moose from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Moose

We got to clap the calves, Rosie takes the temperature on a calf that's not felling good.

After we had visited the calves we went to the bull moose, here is the "freak" (we forgot his real name). A zoo in Norway had bought him but left it back when they thought the moose did not look very wise.

It's not easy to be a moose.

Christer attracts the mooses Charlie and Clintan out of the woods by shouting their names. Then, of course, the mooses knew that Christer had carrots and bananas in the pocket. Here is the moose Clintan, and he gets a banana.

We are standing just a few decimeters from the moose when he passed us, watch out with your toes.

Clintan is the king of the forest with its tall crown. Christer asked several of us if we want to let the children ride the moose, no one did that. I did not want to ride Clintan either. Rosie said: "go there go there go there", didn't she care if I risk my life for a photo?

Norsjö:

Look a reindeer! I told Rosie excited. Rosie looks to be more used to see them and just warning me to not collide with them. The Swedish Lapps has a lot of them in Northern Sweden, in Sweden we call them ren or sarv. We have just arrived here at Norsjö after 55 km of driving on bad roads.

More information about reindeer at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Reindeer

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Storforsen:

Here is Rosie sitting in a part that has been driedout after they redirected the rapid, part of Storforsen. A result of the conversion of Storforsen to allow timber log driving.

More information about log driving at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Log driving

Here I sit too close to the rapid, Rosie nervous screaming to me: "No lockouts or fence out here. If you fall into the rapid you have to blame yourself" explains Rosie. I look excited at all the enormous mass of water that are flowing in the rapid, there is a massive sound from it too.

I walk closer to the upper area of the rapid, Storforsen is one of Europe's biggest rapids. And there are much more water at the Spring compare to what we see now in August.

The timber you see at the other side are reinforcements of the river walls.

More information about Storforsen at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Storforsen

Rosie looking down the rapid, just wonder what she is thinking, maybe it's nice to be back home or at least close to it.

Jämtön:

Finally we arrived at Rosie's aunt and her husband at Jämtön in Norrbotten. We stay here over the night in their caravan. Rosie basted in the sauna while I sat outside and moaned in the summer heat. Rosie yells and comes out red like a crayfish and claims it's nice. Strange with people who like to get into a hot sauna, and that in a time when we have the hottest summer ever! But I had never meet a girl earlier from Lappland either, something new to learn :-)