Discover The Blekinge Archipelago – Explore The Islands

Blekinge, our part of Sweden, has an archipelago made up of 1650 islands, skerries, and islets.  Since April we have spent 4 months exploring the Blekinge archipelago and in total we have visited 16 islands.  We have caught many boats, and had a lot of fun in the process.  The fabulous summer weather made the adventures much easier for us, but it also meant that due to fire bans, not only in our county of Blekinge but around the whole country, the latter half of our adventures were without our trademark camp fires.

We have visited Aspö, Hasslö, Tjurkö, Långören, Hästholmen-Ytterön,   Hanö, Senoren, Sturkö, Stenshamn and Utlängan, Torkö, Inlängan, Ungskär,   Karön, Östra Bokö, Tärnö, and Tjärö.  We have hiked trails, done some wild camping, visited lighthouses, been to a British cemetery, explored old buildings, Viking villages and a lot of forts, played in nature, enjoyed the Swedish outdoors summer laid back life style, Dadda has done some very high jumps into the water (8m and 12m), we have swum in a quarry, and done a lot of beach/sea play and swimming. 

Lots of memories have been made, along with a lot of learning!!  The photos may show the shiny side of life, but don’t panic, we were not without squabbles, whinges, and strops.  Not to mention the overwhelming tiredness that hits you once you have returned from one of these adventures only to have to sort out all the kit that goes with it.  However, I think all five of us will say without a doubt, that these good and shiny photo memories are the ones that will be sticking with us, and overall the mission of exploring our islands of Blekinge turned out to be a huge success and well worth it! 

If you want to know about the background to these islands, how to get there, where to stay, where to eat, or about our adventures, just click on the links for that island.  I hope I have inspired you to want to explore our beautiful corner of Sweden one day, and I will leave you with some highlight photographs.  Enjoy the rest of the summer as we will be doing here in Sweden, and as my children’s ten weeks of sommarlov draws to a close, I can honestly say we have had a blast, but I may need some time to recuperate from having them home!