Hörlick grottorna

When I think of a grotto, I think of a heavily vegetated cavern behind a tropical waterfall, probably with a deep clear pool at the bottom.

We drove out to the beach at a nature reserve called Hornslandet to go for a walk. We drove all the way to the area at the tip of the peninsula called Hörlick, looked out to the sea, checked out the old church, took a bunch of photos, ate our cheese sandwiches and decided we still needed a real walk in the woods. We hadn't driven out into the Swedish countryside for 45 minutes just to head back without any real exercise.

After a brief false start we found a good trail head and thought we could take the 7km walk if we moved quickly and possibly stop at the caves (grottorna in Swedish). Well, we moved awfully quickly and found ourselves at the caves after less than ten minutes in the woods. We weren't really sure what to expect, so we started up the small rocks and chatted amongst ourselves as they got larger. Tom darted ahead to see if there was anything we should continue climbing to see (we'd hit some pretty big rocks). "I found a ladder down to a cavern!" came the cry.

He poked around long enough for Elaine to pull out her map and convince herself and me that if we continued across the rocks we would come to the other path and could cut back. That seemed like a better option to both of us so, trusting Elaine, I headed after her with only a moment's hesitation. By the time we caught up to Tom, the rocks were clearly boulders and we couldn't really see where the ended. We headed off in the same trajectory toward the trees on the other side with Tom leading the way, Elaine stepping carefully in the middle, and me bringing up the rear taking photographs.

At some point, Tom disappeared into the trees. We hoped he was looking for the path. Elaine and I continued toward the vicinity where he had disappeared. Eventually he called back that he had indeed found the path and could see Elaine. He guided her in to him with his voice and some banging of smaller rocks together.

I had fallen behind due to my photography, so it took me a while longer to reach the trees. Elaine advised me to head to my left and downhill and I would find the path. I made a few attempts, but wound up approximately where I thought they had disappeared (I hadn't really been paying attention). I was one rock away from the path, but I just couldn't make it to either of my options. Both of them were a little too vegetated and a little too far away for me to trust on a downward lunge. Tom came out and rescued me; with a steady hand on the other side I had no trouble making it across the minuscule abyss. (I should have taken a picture of that!)

We were practically running back down the trail out of the woods, when a little voice said 'maybe we should stop and look around.' It was really beautiful out there. I'm so glad we went. From the sea (always my favorite), to our adventure across the stones. Elaine said it reminded her of a Swedish movie she saw many years ago - The Apple Tree War (I think).

Elaine and I got some driving practice in on the way home, but Tom didn't get a nap. As the experienced driver, he still needs to be alert to assist us with any sudden changes. We stopped for gas and $100 later we were finally on our last leg of the day.

At 10:45 we pulled into Tom's driveway, took down our laundry, and Tom started the soup. I had a cup of hot chocolate before the soup was ready, made with cubes of chocolate and whole milk on the stove; it really hit the spot. Once all our phone calls were made we tucked ourselves into bed at about 1:30 and boy did I sleep well!