Värmland

One of my geocaching targets for 2019 was to try to find a cache in each of the remaining boroughs of one of Sweden’s 21 counties. Now, as you are probably aware Sweden is a rather large country and the closest borough where I have not found a cache is about 250 km away from home. I then had to chose an effective route that would allow me to find a few more boroughs I needed before returning home. I had to chose between Södermanland (Gnesta, Oxelösund and Vingåker) possibly with the addition of Östergötaland (Finspång, Söderköping, Valdemarsvik and Ödeshög) at a round trip distance of 985 km

Södermanland and Östergötaland

or Värmland (Hagfors, Munkfors, Sunne, Torsby, Eda, Arvika, Årjäng, Säffle and Hammarö) at a round trip distance of 1035 km or thereabouts.

Värmland

So, two trips of comparable length, one giving seven new boroughs and one giving nine new ones. As my partner has friends in Värmland it was natural that we chose that trip. We were away for four nights but could easily have done the trip in a day less.

On the way to Hagfors I stopped close to Bomber och Granater 2 hoping to see something of the area in the daylight. Unfortunately the road had a couple of huge boulders impeding our progress and my partner wasn’t too keen on me disappearing up the track on foot for an undetermined period of time so we turned around and continued on our journey.

Our first geocaching stop was at Rundhäll / Slab, an earthcache in Hagfors. I enjoy earthcaches but surprisingly there are not as many in Sweden as could be expected.

The slab earthcache in Hagfors

For good measure we also stopped at Hagfors pryl och TB-Hotell in the hope that there may be some travel bugs there. The only one seen was a personal TB in the logbook.

Our first overnight stay was at STF Prästmyren just south of Munkfors. It was very close to a power trail and even though it was tempting I just logged P som i Petrör # 79 before we drove back in to Munkfors for dinner followed by a short visit to the old factory area where we found Power Station.

Old firestation in Munkfors

Dry river bed in Munkfors

The next morning was a cultural one, starting with a visit to Selma Lagerlöfs Mårbacke. Of course, as we passed by P som i Petrör #1 I had to stop and log it. I noted afterwards that it was in the borough of Forshaga rather than Munkfors. The visit to Mårbacka was interesting and the guide was both knowledgeable and clever at pretending to be Selma’s sister showing us around. The only momento from the visit apart från trying the Mårbacka cake which I wasn’t impressed with were a couple of geranium shoots. Hmm.

It didn’t take long after we left Mårbacka before we reached Tosseberg (Gurlitta klätt). My twelvth find way back in 2003 was GC29CA Spruce Island, also hidden by IT-Gubben, so it was fun to find this cache which came from about the same time period. As Gurlitta klätt is in the borough of Sunne that was one more ticked off the list.

B

View from Gulita Klätt in Sunne

Although there were showers on and off all the time we were in Värmland we were luck to miss being out in them. We had just logged Fryksdalsbanan when it decided to rain. Luckily the car was nearby. At first I thought that the railway must be just for goods trains but it seems now that it is also used for passenger traffic.

The shortest route from Torsby to Morokulien on the border between Sweden and Norway in the borough of Eda is through the forests on small winding roads to Charlottenberg. I decided that the slightly longer route over Kongsvinger in Norway would be better. I haven’t been to Kongsvinger since the early nineties so a revisit seemed like a good idea. In each of the small places we passed through I stopped at the Systembolag (State spirit shop) to pick up a few local beers. An average price is 25-30 SEK (very roughly £2-3 or $2-3). I bought a couple of beers in the Vinmonopol (Norways state spirit shop) for 85 – 90 NOK (roughly £8-10 or $8-10). The bottles were slightly larger but what a price!

I only looked for three caches between showers in Norway just because they were conveniently located near to the road and didn’t involve bushbashing through wet undergrowth. The one of note was Masterudkrysset – TB hotell. There was an advert for Forsbacka Värdshus on the notice board! I’m not sure how many people would travel from Norway to the east coast of Sweden to have a meal though.

Advertising a local establishment at the Masterud junction, Norway

Morokulien for those who have never heard the name is a ficticous state between Sweden and Norway since 1959 that is both a republic and a monarchy. Read more on Wikipedia. It is also unique for amateur radio operators like myself in that it has a special status for radio operations. I’m not sure what is happening there now as the mast outside the radio shack was lying on the ground and the antennas propped up by the cottage. No chance to operate from there then. Hmm.

The peace monument in Morokulien

Not much radio happening any more in Morokulien

We stopped at Eda Glasbruk which is the name of the place as well as a glass making factory to see what they had on sale. Even though it came from the factory outlet it was beyond my pockets. At least there was a fun cache nearby It´s All Connected (EC). I have great respect for electrical boxes and even more so when they are this close to a railway. Luckily the cache was rather obvious.

It’s all connected in Eda

Even the next cache, Big Easy #8, had many favourite points and was easy to find!

Big Easy in Eda

Our goal for the evening was Arvika and as luck would have it the hotel price included both an evening meal and breakfast. After dinner we wandered down to a micro forming part of a series of caches about a well known group of local artists. Rackstadkolonin: Christian Eriksson.

View from the cache in Arvika

We were now into our third day in Värmland and had Årjäng, Säffle and Hammarö on the agenda. Of course in Årjäng we had to visit the Årjängtroll. The cache was conveniently located precisely where I sat down. Some times I am lucky!

The troll in Årjäng

A famous Swedish comedy duo, Hasse and Tage, hade a sketch whereby the punchline was a cup of coffee in Säffle, so of course, we had to have a cup of coffee in Säffle before finding Skeppsredarvillan v2.

A cup of coffee in Säffle

From Säffle it wasn’t far to Hammarö where a second earthcache was found and logged. It was St Olofs gryta Earthcache. Usually these glacial potholes are larger but there was a good view over the lake from the cache to compensate for the small size of the pothole.

Pothole earthcache in Hammarö

After an extra day in Karlstad we made our journey home having found twenty five caches and completed the hunt for a cache in all of the sixteen boroughs in Värmland. The route to do this is shown below. Was it worth it? Yes.

Caches found on our trip