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A trip report by Olle Persson, shared by Långholmen Kajak – the Swedish part of Northkayak.
Vänern is the largest lake in Western Europe and the third largest in Europe – only two Russian lakes are bigger. It holds a third of all the fresh water in Sweden, and here you will find Europe's largest freshwater archipelago, with thousands of islands and skerries.
Vänern's vast surface lies mirror-smooth before us as we take a compass bearing from Stångudden lighthouse on Lurö to Gisslan, the southernmost island of the Djurö archipelago – the remote national park in the middle of the lake. We can just make out the low islands as a line on the horizon, eleven kilometres away across completely open water. It is a summer evening in early August, with the evening sun at our backs. The temperature is pleasant and we are completely alone, apart from a cargo ship in the distance steaming south towards the Trollhätte Canal, the Göta River and, beyond them, the great oceans.
After a good two hours we arrive. All of nature seems to breathe an almost magical calm. The scent of pine forest from the islands is strong even at a distance, and the warm, lingering evening light creates a glowing world of shadows around us. A few motorboats lie at anchor in the natural harbour of Åran. We probably attract some attention – few people expect canoeists in such an exposed place as Djurö. Before dark we pitch our dome tent on a warm rock ledge at the natural harbour of Malbergshamn, the only place where camping is allowed in the national park.
The next morning we continue with an almost equally long crossing of open water to the north-western part of Brommö in the Mariestad archipelago. Just before we pass Djurö lighthouse, two fallow deer – one a buck with magnificent antlers – come down to the shore beside us to drink. We rest on our paddles and take in the sight, gliding silently closer until they notice us and flee.
We started our tour around Värmlandssjön, the northern half of Vänern, almost a week earlier in Kristinehamn. With the kayaks on the car roof, we followed a road sign saying "Skärgården" ("the archipelago") out to Vålöfjärden – and found that from there you can see the archipelago, but to actually get there you need a kayak or another boat.
We learn on the very first day that Vänern is an inland sea, with everything that means in terms of wind and waves: we fight high waves from the side for most of the day. The Northern Vänern Archipelago is scattered but widespread, and reaches far past Karlstad to Slottsbron in the west.
Outside the lighthouse at the entrance to Karlstad we look out over a mirror-smooth inland sea. Sky and water merge, no horizon can be seen, and it feels like sitting inside an endless globe.
We paddle into the large delta of the Klarälven River from the east. Karlstad is built in the middle of the delta – the largest in Sweden outside the mountains – with countless river channels to get lost in if you do not follow the map carefully. The river is in flood and the current against us grows ever stronger. At the old stone bridge near the city centre, people gather on the bank to watch us struggle in vain for quite a while, until we find calmer water close to the shore under one of the arches. Where the river divides at Sandgrund – once a well-known dance hall, now home to the artist Lars Lerin and his art – we turn to port and get a real boost from the current out towards Skoghall and Kattfjärden. We literally race through the centre of Karlstad, with the grand city hotel on our left.
Onö, a well-known island in the Mariestad archipelago, has a namesake in the archipelago west of Karlstad. There are several sandy beaches here where it is easy to find a camp spot.
The large peninsula of Värmlandsnäs – locally just "Näset" – which together with Kålland and the islands between them divides Vänern into two roughly equal halves, is long both on the map and in reality. We paddle a whole day here with high swell from the side and recurring showers. The rocky, inhospitable coast is broken in a few places by sandy beaches lying deserted in the rain, and bays and skerries to shelter behind are few and far between. On many rocky points facing the lake stand old, half-overgrown stone cairns – sea marks from the busy shipping on Vänern in earlier times. In the distance, a black-painted, heavily loaded cargo ship steams north towards one of the Vänern ports.
As we approach the southern tip of Näset, the wind and waves have died down. A magnificent moonlight shimmering on the water heralds the coming high pressure as we rest on a rock ledge after the day's efforts. In the moonlight the Lurö archipelago seems to float in the air ahead of us, and in the distance across the water we can even make out the cone-shaped summit of Kinnekulle, the highest point around Vänern.
The Lurö archipelago has its own museum – the old fisherman's cottage on the island of Vithall – and a hostel with a restaurant on the main island, Lurö. A cold beer and a well-cooked hot meal taste best after a few days of hard paddling. But you do not have to paddle here: passenger boats run from both Ekenäs on Näset and Kållandö. There are also hiking trails and many traces of an old cultural landscape.
We rest on the sun-warmed rocks beside Stångudden lighthouse on Lurö. It has the typical look of many Vänern lighthouses: a keeper's house with the lighthouse tower on its roof. And this is where the story above began. Now that we have been lucky with the weather, made it across the vast open water and reached the Mariestad archipelago – a paradise for kayaking – we can relax. Being stuck on Djurö in bad weather is no fun. We swim from both rocks and sandy beaches in the pleasant summer weather. We are not alone, but it is not crowded either.
We drag the kayaks through the shallow passage between Hovden and Brommö, chatting with cheerful visitors who want to know more about our trip. The water here is noticeably warm, as it is so sheltered. We treat ourselves at Hamnkrogen in Laxhall, next to the ferry terminal for the Brommö ferry, then navigate through Dillönoran – the narrow, reed-lined channel between Dillö and Torsö – and come out into Mariestadsjön. Ahead of us, with spires, church towers and harbour quarters, lies our destination: the charming town of Mariestad.
Text: Olle Persson
