Kronoberg agricultural museum

Sometimes writing these posts takes longer than expected. One year has passed since I took the photos below. While they have been sitting there waiting I actually visited these places again while out with my new van (yep, I bought one and converted it – there will be more posts about that coming up!) looking for a future home. Enough said, this region is truly beautiful and I guess something is drawing me there…

On my first trip I was doing my “driving by intuition” thing and just turned in the direction I felt seemed more interesting. First I ended up by the Kronoberg agricultural museum. Unfortunately it was closed (both times!) but I still made a stop there and walked around outside the buildings. If you want a glimpse into the agricultural practices of older times, this place has got some cool stuff standing around outdoors as well.

This building houses a cafe open on weekends.

One of the old barns that are part of the museum.

A stone crusher. If you ever visit Småland, you’ll understand why they can be useful…

A steam powered tractor that must have been quite a sight when new.

More information about this place can be found at http://www.kulturparkensmaland.se 

A cute and curious cow. 🙂

In case you want to visit the Kronoberg agricultural museum you can find it here:

Hultaklint & Singoalla’s cave

Continuing my random drive I saw a road sign saying “Singoalla’s cave” and thought it sounded worth checking out. I didn’t grasp at the time that it referred to the literary classic Singoalla by Swedish writer Viktor Rydberg (the book appears to be available here in an English version) and I must admit I had only heard about it but not read it myself. I did afterwards and that added some more magic to the place.

Next to it is Hultaklint, one of the highest points of the region where you can see for miles on a less cloudy day (like on my second visit).

The path down to the cave is partially quite steep and tricky so proper hiking shoes are recommended.

Since the terrain is quite extreme most of the forest has been left to itself.

Now, the “cave” isn’t that impressive to be honest. It’s more like a large stone slab resting over a crevice, but the path down there and the view over the small lake make it worth the small adventure. If you read the novel you can imagine the young writer making up his story and making the places more grand than they may appear to the modern eye. 

The view from Hultaklint. On a clear day you can see for miles and it’s really beautiful to watch the lakes below. There’s a nice resting area up here and good hiking paths.

The parking lot has a table and barbecue area if you want to stay a bit longer and the second time I camped for the night here, so it’s a good tip if you’re doing some vanlife in Sweden. Very calm, even in the middle of summer.

 

Next to the parking lot is the ruin of an old water mill, including the dam.

As said before, the paths down from Hultaklint to the cave are a bit tricky and the rails are not in the best shape = walk / climb carefully if you visit this place.