FAMILY ADVENTURES IN SWEDEN--PART 6

STYGGFORSEN NATURE RESERVE

SWIMMING OFF THE RATTVIK PIER

MIDSUMMER IN SJUBERG--JUNE 25, 2010

After a good night's sleep back in our lovely barn red cottage on Lake Siljan, we enjoyed a French toast breakfast, thanks to Chef Dug...It's one of his specialties!

By early afternoon we were on our way for today's hiking adventure to Styggforsen Nature Reserve, which has a beautiful tumbling waterfall at the end of the trail. This area was made a reserve to protect sites of major geological, botanical and cultural interest.

There's an amazing story about the formation of this area. About 360 million years ago, a meteor hit the earth here creating a 50 km wide circular formation in the landscape. The meteorite collision caused massive movement in the earth's crust turning the horizontally sedimented rocks on end! As we hiked the rugged path up to the waterfall and later ambled down to the river, we were able to view sandstone, limestone, schist, breccia and granite walls along the way.

                                                  

There are many stories and legends and superstitions about the area. At the bottom of the falls is a cave called the Troll Hole.

There was once a miller, they say, who used to go to get his water and often saw little people with red caps and beautiful faces looking out of the cave. These "tomtar"or gnomes appear in a number of legends surrounding Styggforsen. When we came upon a small watermill, Maia scurried to hide inside the building before Dugan and Sage reached that point. Dick and I told the kids that we had heard strange noises, maybe trolls, inside the little house and that they should go and knock on the door. Dugan bravely went down and knocked on the door, but Sage was very frightened when she heard the strange sounds. When Maia opened the door, they both had fun joining her in the little mill.

After our long hike we had the picnic lunch that we had brought with us at a small restaurant in the park. There were no other patrons, so the owner said it was O.K. to use one of their tables. Of course, we decided that we had to buy ice cream afterwards!

Returning to Rattvik on Lake Siljan, some of the family members wanted to swim in the very cold lake, so we began walking out on the 2050 foot long Rattvik Langbryggan--Rattvik's Long pier.

Maia, Dugan and Sage tried to get enough courage to jump into the shallow water. Maia went in first, and eventually all three were in the lake--Sage on Maia's back! The rest of us walked on the pier to the small park at the end, enjoying the changing views of the town. 

Being Thursday of Midsummer weekend, some of the small towns held their Midsummer celebrations this evening. Our cottage was actually located in a tiny village called Sjuberg, which we cannot pronounce correctly in Swedish! We thought it would be a fun introduction to the festivities of the Midsummer to join the local people in their small Maypole raising and dancing around it. Tina came back from Uppsala to join us here for the rest of our time in Sweden, and we were happy to be together again.