Breaking barriers - 14 km on Skåneleden; Torna Hällestad to Knivsåsen*

I have always said, and really do believe, that Sweden is a lovely country to be outdoors in. Any which way you look, there is easy access to unspoilt natural beauty and a lot of it. It is one of the things that I love most about Sweden. There are 3 national parks and supposedly over 250 nature reserves in Skåne or Scania, alone, all of which, by and large, well maintained and with good facilities for hikers and campers. Of course, the best walks and hikes, however close by, do not start in the middle of the city. One would, at the very least, have to get oneself out of the city limits. Because of this I had really only ever tagged along when others planed a hike, provided always there was available car space for me.

Because of this, and partly because I never really bothered, I have not had a very good grasp of the geography of Skåne and the surrounding regions. I think I actually have a better grasp of the Sweden north of Stockholm, having had to plan the route for our Road Trip three years ago (has it really been that long??). Whenever I have been out in the forest in South Sweden, I had left all sense of direction behind and trusted in my companions.

Of course, my hiking activities have also been somewhat hindered by my dodgy knee which sometimes hurts if I walk too much. What is 'too much' varies from day to day, and walk to walk, depending on what else I had been doing in the days before and sometimes for no apparent reason. Since I hurt it again a few years ago, I flat out refused to go for any walk or hike of more than 10 km. That 10 km was of course an arbitrary limit which I had plucked out on the air. TOUGHEST, even though I did not actually take part, changed that. Of course it wasn't just that. I had taken a great deal of care to build up the muscles around my knee and all that, so my knee has been really quite strong for a while, but I never pushed the limits. And of course I had to with the training for TOUGHEST. Having pushed myself more than I had ever before with my workouts, and more importantly, to run more than I ever had before, it began to dawn on me that my knee would probably take a lot more than I thought it could. Whether it is the training, or the chiropractor treatment, that 10 km barrier is broken. Running the Malmömilen last month confirmed that. If my knee can withstand running 10 km, it surely follows that I must be able to walk or hike more than 10 km.

Aside from that, for a while leading up to last weekend, I had been feeling somewhat trapped. There seems to be much in my life which I have no control over right now, and I find myself waiting for others to decide which direction my life will lead. This coincided with the summer season when almost everyone around me was heading off for one vacation or another, and as I had had my vacation in May, I looked to be stuck at work and in Malmö for the whole summer. The need to get out was getting stronger and stronger and I longed to be out in the nature.

Resolved, I put Google to work to find me a hike out which good bus or train connections. I knew it was possible because I know people, well one person really, who does it on a regular basis - hop on a bus and head out to the forest for hikes on her own. It turned out to be as easy as anything. I found a suitable hiking trail on the first place I looked: on the Skåneleden website. Skåneleden is a walking / hiking trail, or rather 5 separate trails of more than 1000km in total, going through Skåne. The one I chose tackles a small part of the North-South trail, and was infact the most of part 13A of the North-South trail, beginning at Torne Hällestad and ending at Knivsåsen and with good bus connections at both ends. I chose this, because it goes through a popular nature reserve which I was vaguely familiar with (so I did not feel like I was venturing off into completely unknown territory) and because there were several options along the trail where I could easily abort the whole thing in the event I have problems with my knee or indeed problems of any kind. Also, the entire trail is close to where a good friend lives, and I had warned her in advance that she might have to come a-rescuing if anything unexpected happened. In any event, I planned to end the hike at hers and got a dinner invitation for myself and the friend who was joining me on the hike.

In Trollskogen

The adventure began with getting the bus to Torna Hällestad. The first part of the journey, from Malmö to Dalby, was your typical bus ride. The second part however, from Dalby to Torna Hällestad, was something new for me. The online journey planner stated that that leg of the journey would be by taxi and we were to ring at least 3 hours in advance. Since I was planning for a relatively early start and I was not prepared to wake at 7 am just to ring for a taxi, I booked it the night before. And when we eventually got off the bus, there is was! A little ochre or amber or whatever-you-want-to-call-it-yellow mini van waiting to take us from Dalby to Torna Hällestad. He delivered us unceremoniously at the other end- no, he did not know where the walking trail begins, have a nice day, goodbye!- and drove off. How did people get around before smartphones?

We found our way and within a few minutes, we left civilisation behind. That was my favourite part of the hike, that first part. That forest was called Trollskogen (literally, trolls' forest, or enchanted forest) and so it was indeed. There was really no one else around and barely any sign of civilisation. The little orange markings on random posts and trees to guide us, thankfully, did not fail! We did eventually have to climb over a few fences and cut across a farm or two, but for the most part, the first bit of the hike was just out there in the forest. It was so lovely! Half an hour into the walk, I was more relaxed than I had been in a long time. Life, and all its issues were still there, but it all no longer mattered as much, and felt much more manageable.

(Not) staring down the cows. When checking the write up of the hiking trail
later on, I came across a photo of these cows, whether the same ones or no,
with a comment that they are much friendlier than they appear. We were
neither attacked nor chased, so I guess I believe it.

There is a woodpecker
somewhere in this picture,
trust me!

And so we carried on, through forest and across fields, stared down a cow or two (well no, we avoided eye contact and made soothing noises, more like) and eventually arrived at Skryllegård, the more popular and easily accessible nature reserve where an explosion of people awaited us. We hurried through as quickly as we could out of it again and away from the picnicking families, joggers and trail runner and other riffraff. We found a spot in the sun where we lunched and rested; and continued on our merry way. Once or twice, we had to stop to check our maps to decide in which direction to go, but for the most part the orange markers were reliably present.

I feel that in one fell sweep, I have broken many barriers. I know my knee can cope with a lot more than before. I know that I do not need a car to get myself out there. And I know that just because I have never been somewhere, does not mean that I can't find my way. I can't wait to get out in the forest again. It is like I have been bitten by the hiking bug!


Date: 11 July 2015
The trail: http://www.skaneleden.se/vandringsforslag/hallestad-knivsasen-via-skrylle/
*Delled; Etape 13A, SL2: Nord-Sydleden; Torna Hällestad - Knivåsen