Ragnerud to Oje

 It was a wee bit drizzly in Ragnerud campsite when we woke up, not bad but enough to not enthuse us to get out and do another walk in this lovely area. So, it was a leisurely morning getting the van ready. The boys had another play in the park and we left at about 11am with the aim of getting back onto the E45 Europaveg road. I had set Malung as a rough target for the day...a long day of driving but this is a good road and the scenery is now pretty good.

It's a bit of a balancing act.....how far can we head north that will still allow us an enjoyable journey back south which had to be done, and will be done through Norway rather than Sweden. There's no issue at the moment as we still have plenty time but each day further north is at least the same back south......anyway....

The smaller 172 road and then 164 over to Amal were really nice....it felt like moose🫎 country but no moose's were spotted. The E45 from Amal to Saffle have a green line in our atlas meaning "scenic route" and, although it was nice it was far from spectacular. The same could be said further north where there is another green section on my map but again nice, not spectacular in any sense. 

Things improved a lot after Torsby onto Stollet and over to Malung, this was hillier with nice lakes, and lots of rocks and lichens in amongst the spruce trees...there were also lots of moose warning signs again, but no mooses😅. Which is maybe a blessing in disguise. We took a wrong turn not long after Torsby and after quite a few km's realised something was wrong....we were on the wrong, smaller road, we had missed a turn...too busy chatting. Logan had heard the sat nav lady give us instruction but we didn't, lol. Soon we were back on track.

There were a few signs outside Malung and loads of campervans and caravans at various locations in the town, turns out the is a traditional dance and music festival on for the next week...it starts tomorrow so we are a day early....40,000 people decend upon the small town and lots of dancing, singing and of course drinking takes place. 

We found a wee campsite in Oje and parked up, I called the Swedish number and a lady who spoke perfect English answered the phone and told us just to park and hook up electricity, someone would be along later for us to pay. And sure enough while Joyce was cooking tea the man arrived and took our money, no problem. He said we could fish...normally a permit is required but another local man had also said we could fish...a permit was required but no one would bother. He and his wife and sons had been catching some nice freshwater fish, Perch, Bream and Ide. 

The boys were keen to fish, but we had no bait, so we went and lifted a few stones and found no worms, we moved to a different, damper area, lifted a rolled up tarpaulin and found loads of worms....so...we were fishing, we got the floats and hooks all tied up and soon the boys were catching little perch, Callum caught a nice Ide...and he also lost a much bigger fish which we will never know what it was, there was a good bend in his rod. The fishing was good....but the mosquito and midges were brutal, we were well cover in clothes and waterproofs but still they found a way in...plenty big war wounds were sustained, lol. Fishing over, rain on...too many midges it was bed time for us all. Tomorrow we are moving north...again.