My first time wild camping in Sweden

When I think of Sweden, I think about all the amazing nature here. So, it wasn’t a surprise that me and some friends wanted to go camping in the wild for a weekend, we did it in September when the weather is still perfect for a camping and hiking trip. We took the campus bus to Norrkoping on Friday evening after a full day of class, and there our camping adventure started. In Norrkoping, we took another bus towards Åby to get closer to the nature reserve. It gets dark quite early already in September, so we had to hike a bit faster to reach the shelter before it got too dark to see anything. In Sweden, there’s something called “allemansrätten”, the right that you can camp everywhere in the nature, and in addition there are shelters everywhere free to use.

Our shelter was located near a small lake which in the nature reserve Lunns jöskogen, which is very pretty. There were pans and pots, a fireplace, and a plastic canvas to put in front of the shelter. We brought some sausages, canned pasta, beers, and of course marshmallows (real students ;)). Making the fire was hard, our fire-making skills could use some improvements, but we made it work! The next day, we hiked around the lake and went to Ågelsjön. In this place, you can go for a swim or just enjoy the view in one of the many barbecue spots. You can also find a rock-climbing wall at Ågelsjön, and it was quite crowded there when we visited!

After another night in the cold, we packed our bags and took all our trash (very important!) to hike back to civilization, a.k.a. the bus stop. We took the train back to Linköping, which goes very often and fast so it’s perfect to travel between Linköping and Norrkoping in the weekends. Even though it was very cold in the nights, it was an amazing experience to be away from the city life and spend a few nights in the nature and go back to basic!. I would definitely do it again and would also recommend doing it.

Ps. You might not have brought camping stuff to Linköping, no worries! I didn’t bring my camping stuff either, and there’s a perfect solution for it. In Norrkoping you can find a store called “Fritidsbanken”, it has limited opening hours but when you’re a student you can rent camping equipment there for free! We rented our sleeping bags, some backpacks, a tent, and sleeping mats there.