A 30km (or so) walk in the Swedish nature

When you think about Sweden, I'm quite sure you think immediately about Stockholm, Nobel prizes, Volvo and IKEA.
If you think a bit more about Sweden you probably also put uncontaminated nature, lakes, forests and wild life in the picture too! And that's what I enjoyed for a whole day while walking from Mullsjö to Bottnaryd.
Somewhere they say the path is 28km, somewhere else 31, anyway trust me: it's quite long!
It's long but at the same time worth a try if you're into hiking and nature walking, but also if you are not a hiking fanatic - like me - and you want to explore a bit more the Swedish nature at a lower speed than traveling around by car.

Just after few meters on the path, you get completely into the typical forest of the region

I really love the way trees are spaced, and those wide areas covered in mosses and lichens, with the sun peaking in.
For the first part of the path, forest alternates with field, and you're pretty close to the lake

Roughly after 5-6km we ended-up in what was the trickiest part of the whole path. You have to know that along the way you don't encounter particular difficulties concerning steepness or dangerous passages, but for a couple of kilometers the path goes in and out oat fields, following the borders of the cultivated lands and forcing you to literately sneak in between bushes and trees branches. For that section you don't really have a clear and clean path to walk on, but following the orange signs you always find your way.
On the other hand, walking this way, you have the chance to get some interesting views you would otherwise miss completely

After a good hour in the fields, the path cleared up and walking became much faster and easy

The path gets very clear, and it's really easy to follow it

More or less at half way to Bottnaryd, you enter Jönköping and the Småland region

At this point you start feeling a bit fooled by the path description. Theoretically the path was supposed to be all the way along the lake, but in reality you're next to the lake only during the first steps. For the rest you can feel that the water is not too far from the path but you don't have a direct view on it. Anyway the forests colors were compensating in full

Looking at the map we knew that we were getting back on the lake side any moment soon.
After more than 3 and a half hours of walking, and thanks to a nice camping station next to the lake, we decided to stop for some water and snacks. In there you could really experience the deep peace of this forest

From there on the path gets really wide and fast,loosing a bit of its charm but still being completely enjoyable.

The really last part is actually on a road. We walked for another couple of kilometers outside the forest before our arranged pick-up found us and drove back to Mulsjö. So in reality we didn't really reach Bottnaryd, and maybe we didn't even walk all the 30km, but i can ensure you that my legs were pretty stiff the day after!