Saturday the 26 of April I take the train from Copenhagen to Hässleholm, where I wait 10 minutes until I continue with bus towards Osby. Normally there is localtrain, but this Saturday its not running due to maintenance.
I arrive at Osby around 11am, where I cross the rail line and immediately I am in the center of Osby.
This Saturday it seems like a lively small city with a lot of locals out shopping, eating cakes at a bakery, getting deals on clothes on a shop with a lot of clothes hanging outside. There’s an antique store and a museum for wooden toys (Brio), which the town is famous for.
After buying some beers at Systembolaget I start walk out of the city. I continue to pass people out shopping or just strolling.
From I turn out of the city it takes few minutes before the city noise is gone, all I can hear now is birds chirping. This I have been waiting for all morning, silence!
I walk 2 hours on forest roads before I finally enter a small trail. Rest of the walk towards Horsaskog is like this, shortly into some small trails, then back out on forest road. Skåneledens online description of the route calls it “wilderness hike”, but with the huge number of forest roads and scattered wooden houses I don’t feel like its wilderness. It is quiet though.
The scenery isn’t that spectacular. Maybe I seen too many forests in Sweden to be surprised. Except for the wild anemones I see next to a small creek, there is no wow factor, just walking in silence through the forest. If you haven’t walked in Sweden before the route will be interesting and perhaps fun, and its an easy route, not hard to walk, very few challenging paths.
The delta, which I was looking forward to see (the headline photo on Skåneledens article) turns out to be not exactly on the path. To see it you need to walk away from the route, which I didn’t do coz I was sure it was coming somewhere. I did notice a sidetrack which has orange markers on some big stones, but no signing, and in hindsight I believe this sidetrack probably leads down to the delta.
At 4 in the afternoon I start look for a place to setup camp for the night. I decide on a small old sidetrack walking 200 meters into the dense forest, where I am hidden and the trees next to the track will keep me safe from any wind during the night. When I walk on this track I see hares jumping.
I am very pleased with my relatively new (only used it one time before) Asivik airmat. It is soft and comfortable sleeping on, and very isolating. This night I took advantage of the track and place it in one of the slightly lower wheel tracks to prevent it and myself from sliding, it worked.
In the morning it takes maybe 1 hour before I walk out of the forest and pass Horsaskog. Inside a farm I see an old guy walking around doing his morning routine. When he sees me he yells at me and points to something, I cant see what, until he turns on the water in an outlet on the side of a barn – I can get water there. If he hadnt called at me I wouldnt have noticed and would not have walked into the yard of this farm. Skånleden has a nice marker of it, it is the buildings seen below the marker.
It is the farm on the left in the photo.
After Horsaskog it doesnt take long until I reach Verum, a small settlement that hardly can be called a village. There is a church though. After Vernum there is some steep slopes, nice scenery, but unfortunately the route down go down the slopes, but just pass them.
When I walk into forest again I soon come to a small lake, after which there is a steep climb up. This is probably the hardest climb on the 2 stages, and it feels a bit a shame its there, coz opposed most of the trail this isnt for people with walking difficulties. If you are in group you could probably have one person to climb it and setup a robe to help the next in the group climbing up, or down.
The rest of the walk towards Vittsjö passes some lakes and through more dry like forest.
Finally I pass over some open landscape and fields until I reach Vittsjö right in front of me.
The trail continue left along a small charming country side road. There is some big mansions here, probably due to the closeness and view over the lake.
The lake Vittsjö is surrounded by beech forest which have just sprouted with amazing light green color. I hardly pass any people when I walk here, and if I hadn’t been tired and wanting to go home, I might have spend a bit more time close to the lake, where there seem to be some good birdlife.
Before one leaves the lake and head toward the town Vittsjö there is a shelter next to the lake, with a fireplace, garbage cans up the hill and a dry toilet, and a shed for wood which is empty. If you want continue on Skåneleden 1, this shelter is probably a fine place to stay, although with a tent there’s many nice spots in the forest close to the lake.
The town doesnt have the same nice vibe as Osby. The city center seems to be a wide road with scattered shops and pizzerias and supermarkets.
This trail is not on my “walk again list”. It offers to little excitement, and unless you are new to walking, or just want an easy walk with no humans, then I wouldn’t recommend it.
Public transport: You can reach Osby and Vittsjö with localtrain or bus from Hässleholm.
There is supermarkets in both towns, and a Systembolaget in Osby.
Skåneledens article about the route: https://www.skaneleden.se/en/item/vildmarksvandring-i-nordostra-skane/iefad5wgbqs4ussrylv1nexjspv8owc1
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