🇸🇪 Skåne countryside

Out and About Around Skåne countryside

Our First Outing ….

Apart from relaxing in the cabin, we went out to explore the local area. Kurt and Lis recommended a local mushroom place, and as we are always a fan of mushrooms, we thought we would go and check it out. Lis having had her own restaurant knows good food!! We drove through the tranquil Spring green rural country roads to find Hallestad Mushroom farm cafe in the middle of agricultural farm land.

If you love mushroom and farm fresh local produce on your plate then this is a must. We visited twice- just goodness on a plate!!! We even had tossed rape seed greens to eat. They tasted as good as they looked.

Lund

Our drive to Lund was filled with panoramic jaw dropping fluorescent yellow fields in full bloom with rape seed blossoms.

We explored the town of Lund. We brought fresh asparagus and raspberries at the local market.

Then we explored Lund Cathedral. For 900 years people have prayed here. It is one of the most visited churches in Sweden. We were impressed by the astronomical clock!!!

Måkläppen

We drove on to a small town of Måkläppen. Here we enjoyed a walk along wetlands where we spotted a lot of bird life and happy cows and a nice still water coastline glistening in the hot Spring weather.

Smygehamn

Further on along the coast we stood at the most southern point of Sweden- Smygehamn. This is where we spotted the sign for Sweden’s only venomous snake. The female stops eating in May to make room for her babies but I stomped loudly in case a male Adder was on the hunt on this sunny day for eggs, rodents or lizards.

We have chatted with many people who feel Australia is full of deadly creatures!!! Not something you think about when raised in Australia!!! Even though I have experienced three snakes in my classroom over the years!!!

Our second outing…

After a day’s rest on the Happy Dog’s Ranch we heading out for a two hour adventure rail biking!!! http://www.dressincykling.se

Here an old scenic railway track has been turned into rail biking for pure fun, fitness and pleasure.

We pedaled along a tranquil picturesque 6km return track.

Our pedaling lead us through forest tunnels of green, green and more green.

We spotted a red squirrel running up a tree. We used pedal power to cycle past lush farm land filled with sedate grazing cows who looked fulfilled eating the lush green spring grasses.

We navigated over narrow rural road crossings and had to manually hop off our rail bike to close the road barriers to cross the countryside crossing.

If another rail bike was coming the other way as there is only one track we had to swap rail bikes and also turn them around on the track. The last quarter of the track was filled with large snails which moved slowly across the track. Now snails on a railway track is a recipe for disaster. We tried to stop and remove as many as possible.

Seeing all these snails is a true testament to how few chemicals are used on the farm lands here in Sweden. I think in Australia snails have been wiped out due to so many pesticides. Maybe we can learn a lot from farm techniques here???

This adventure was definitely a highlight of staying here in Sweden. A meaningful quote I found which relates to our experience!!!! When was the last time you learned or did something new in your life???? Travel is full of it!!

We again returned to have a feast at the mushroom cafe as we had burned a lot of calories rail biking and just needed an excuse to devour some more delightfully delicious mushroom treats. There is no real set menu as it changes from day to day.

Ystad

After a bite to eat we drove to the quaint historical town of Ystad and then on to the coastline to see Ale’ Stones which is similar to Stone Hedge in England.

It is a stone ship built 14 hundred years ago on the cliff edge overlooking the ocean. It has astronomical purposes. The view of the ocean and walk through the grazing lands were truly breathtaking. You cannot fault the landscape where green pastoral land meets the sea on cliff tops. The sheep that call this place home have a magnificent view!!!