Elks, FINALLY elks!

The day had come, we will see elks. After over five weeks in Scandinavia and numerous warning signs for elks on the roadside, enough is enough.

After some research, we found the Viltgarden, it has to work now. We parked Louise and there it was, a first elk looking at us. Shortly after, we were allowed to feed the proud guy. There is a huge enclosure here where a bull and a cow with their two calves live. The owner is a fanatic elk fan, raised the cow herself, and takes care of the animals intensively. The cow and her two little calves also showed up and were extremely hungry, slurping everything out of our hands carefully.

Elks are extremely shy animals and unlike reindeer, they are often not traveling in herds. On open ground, they can run up to 60 km/h, can jump over obstacles over 1.80 m high from a standing position (which is also about their back height) and lose their antlers once a year. During the summer months, the antlers grow back up to 2 cm/day, madness. The reason why elks are known for traffic accidents, in particular, is their limited eyesight. They navigate according to light and dark, which explains why they run towards car headlights in twilight. What was particularly fascinating, elks don't smell; even after touching them and feeding them, our hands didn't smell like anything.

After a movie about elks, we made use of the many other great things here, such as stilt walking, archery, and axe throwing. Besides a German family, we were the only ones here, and it was really fun to try everything out. After a lunch strengthening, we decided to go on one of his hikes. He explained the way to us and the principle, either there are signs or orange markings on the trees, just look carefully. Alright, good luck, he said. What does he mean by that? When discovering an elk?

Anyway, we decided to hike up to the lake, from there you should have a great view of the surrounding area. The first signposts were already there, and there were also markings on the trees every now and then. It was also very helpful because there is no designated hiking trail, you just walk off the beaten path.

Every now and then, there was a challenging spot, but we always discovered the next orange dot somewhere. The view from above of the surrounding area was fantastic, just as promised. But somehow, from point to point, it became more challenging to find the next one. One of us walked in different directions until the next point was spotted. And now it started raining. We soon couldn't find any more points, somewhere in the middle of nowhere without a path. Luckily, we were not in an area without cell reception and could use Google Maps for help, so off we went, cross-country towards the field path marked on the map. Fortunately, we reached it shortly afterwards.

Now we are practicing a new experience, drying clothes and shoes in the camper, and with the shoes being as wet as they are, it would even be challenging in a shoe dryer room.

Despite the failed hike towards the end, it is a super nice operator here who passionately realizes his dream, laughed heartily about our hiking stories, and promised to renew the markings tomorrow. Good luck to him in finding the way! ;-)