Our
Human Powered "Dra åt Skogen" Tour 2006
After almost
freezing to death on our Easter 2006 Cumbrian
Eco-Tour, then nearly overheating in the record breaking
heat of July at home,
we decided to spend August 2006 experiencing global warming
in one of our clean, green Scandanavian neighbours.
Welcome to the
home page for our August 2006 Human Powered 'Dra åt
Skogen!' tour of Western Sweden.
Two adults, one bike, one tandem,
two trailers, two canoes, two children, a baby and a blow
up shark...
...pedalling and paddling, huffing and puffing their way
around Western Sweden.
750 km by bike, 37km by canoe, 24km by inspection trolley
'Dra åt Skogen!'
is a Swedish idiom which translated literally means 'Be
off to the forest.' It's used when you want to tell someone
politely to leave you alone. When I explained this to
the kids while trying to get some peace so I could plan
our summer tour, they thought it was just the funniest
thing. And so the tour became known as our 'Dra åt
Skogen!' tour and it turned out to be quite aptly named.
It's impossible
to tour the West of Sweden without encountering forest.
In thirty days on the road we sampled the fruits of the
forests of Bohuslan, Dalsland
and Vastgoterland on a human powered adventure that had
us pedalling and paddling in a 750km circle that started
and ended at the ferry terminal in Gothenburg. Aside from
the ferry we powered ourselves the whole way; no flights,
buses, trains, trams, cars or carbon emissions. Just bikes,
boots, boats and a strange day on an inspection trolley.
On the pages here
we hope to share with you a
little of our adventure so that you too might get a feel
for what it means to be off to the forest and perhaps
come to understand as we do the
Swedish passion for herring, nature camping, saunas, trolls,
canoes and jetty jumping.
From the menu below
you can view our inspirational image gallery, read more
about our tour itinerary, or browse some of our writing
about the places we went, people we met or reflections
on life, the universe and nothing in particular. We hope
you enjoy it.
.
