Trail Information

Distance: 11.6km

Difficulty: Intermediate

Transport: No easy access

Side Trails

Genesmons arkeologiska friluftsmuseum

Well signposted from the main trail, the outdoor archaeological museum is easy to find, though involved walking about five kilometres off the main trail to the forest and beach.

The musuem has two areas. The main being the reconstruction of a Viking longhouse and other buildings, along with a seating area and drop toilet. During certain weeks of the year, experts spent their time here reenacting and living in the longhouse giving a demonstration to visitors of medieval life. Either due to the time of year, or time of day, no one was present but the buildings are still fascinating to see.

The second area is the archaeological findings, five hundred or so meters away from the longhouse, there is much less to see here for the interested amateur, though poles signify where things existed, and there are several boards with more information.

There are signposts to follow back to a side trail which returns you to the High Coast Trail. However, it takes you the full five kilometres back to the point you left, through forests rather than the main road that brought you there. Still, as you then turn around and walk five kilometres south again, I decided to forge my trail along the ocean road and through the village of Paddal, and some lovely views over the ocean. Every home seemed to focus its attention eastward, and the windows back to the road were all small.

The Experience

Day 1

From here, I was back on the main trail and had made a friend—a Turkish video game developer who lived in Stockholm who was also walking the High Coast Trail. We ended up walking together for about two hours, it was a nice break from the silence, but I think we were both glad to go our separate ways eventually.

We passed through Bäck, a village that is barely worth the name Hamlet, it would perhaps be better described as a homestead, a bare scattering of clustered buildings. Other than the map, we would have had no idea it even had a name.

Past Bäck, the trail took on a more earnest woodland nature, as we headed into a nature preserve and towards Sandlågan. The forest is surprisingly thick, considering how close it is to the ocean. From here, you need to pay more attention to your footsteps as branches and stones are underfoot the whole time, and with a heavy backpack, you lose balance easily.