1000+ km

We’ve crossed the 1000 km mark today in our travels. Today’s road trip took us from Närpes to Jakobstad. Along the way we took a detour to Svedjehamn which is a small fishing village in the Kvarken archipelago. The Kvarken Archipelago is situated in the Gulf of Bothnia which is a northern extension of the Baltic Sea. This portion of the Gulf of Bothnia is bordered by  Vaasa Finland and Umeå Sweden. The archipelago has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Getting to Svedjehamn from Vaasa included travel over the  Raippaluoto bridge (not my photo below). This is the longest bridge in Finland and was opened in 1997.

Svedjehamn is a small fishing village that is approximately 60 km from the eastern coast of Sweden. It has a large observation tower that provides a panoramic view of the coast, the fishing village, and the surrounding marshland and forests.

Some of the local farms raise  highland cattle (not my photo). Many of the farms also have large greenhouses for raising fruits and vegetables.

The coastline south of Jakobstad is quite nice with numerous small islands dotting the waters.

We finally saw two moose south of Vaasa. They were browsing in a partially cleared forest. We caught a great, but brief, look at them just before they escaped into the forest (too quick to photograph – maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow). Bird photos today were few and far between. I did capture a fleeting image of an osprey with its catch.

And a better photograph of several Slavonian grebes.

That’s it for now. For the Americans reading the blog we wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day.