Walking into Lake Vänern

We had reached lake Vänern, in the south-west of Sweden. It is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia! We came here to explore a trace of the ice age which leads into the lake – Hindens rev. (Parking: 58.572910, 12.914454)

Hindens rev is a long, narrow and straight peninsula leading into the lake from east to west. It is an end moraine and is part of a series of moraines that run from southern Norway through Sweden, continuing under the Baltic Sea into southern Finland and Russia where the moraine separates lakes Ladoga and Saimaa. These moraines were formed about 11,000 years ago, when the ice cap from the last ice age temporarily ceased withdrawing for years and rocks and other glacial materials emerged from the melting ice were deposited on this line.

The narrow peninsula is about five kilometers long and never wider than 100 meters, but mostly significantly narrower. The formation continues under water as a series of reefs and reappears twelve kilometres away on the western shore of lake Vänern.

We knew this was a place which required a drone to capture it for real, luckily we have one now 😉

The hike to the tip of Hindens rev and back took about 2 hours. It was weekend and many Swedish families were exploring the headland too. After a quick lunch we were on the road again.

Driving through dusk, we headed further south, on the way to a destination associated with the history of communication – more on our next post!