Move over Fiskhålsgraven. I have a new favourite ravine!
My big Messlingen photo project is to document the ravines in the region. Fiskhålsgraven and Evagraven are easy and the rest of the ravines require a varying degree of effort, but they all can be reached during a day-hike in any case. Today’s hike took me to Svartmorgraven, which is easy to reach even if in the end Sportstracker had logged 17 km for me. It’s an easy 17 km though where the hardest part is right at the beginning when you take the trail from Messlingen towards Fiskhålsgraven. But once you get above the tree line, you can start walking parallel with it until reaching the ravine and the ground is easy. The kind of hiking I like the most, actually – I love the wide open spaces in the tundra and here in Messlingen in the oligotrophic conditions, there’s not a lot of growing in the tundra either so it’s easy to navigate around the scattered dwarf birch bushes.
I didn’t know what to expect from Svartmorgraven, I just assumed it would be smaller and less interesting than Fiskhålsgraven. But it really took me by surprise, it’s possible that Fiskhålsgraven is deeper but Svartmorgraven has tons of character and it’s also longer than its more famous brethren in the east. It means that you can walk up and down the ravine and constantly discover new details, one more photogenic than the other. There’s also a brook that runs through the ravine, providing some waterfalls. Would you believe that I didn’t have a tripod with me? I wanted to hike lightly but I guess that’s the best guarantee that you will find tripod-worth subjects, just leave the tripod at home. There’s even a couple of nice small waterfalls above the ravine and it’s possible to jump over the brook so you can explore the ravine and waterfalls from both sides.
What an amazing place! I really fell in love with it and was delighted to see all the greens. There are birches and rowans and other things that will turn colour in the autumn and make the place even better. Today started out sunny but it was mostly overcast when I got to the ravine. A little bit surprising to see that the ravine works even in sunlight, I’ve felt that it’s far too contrasty when I’ve visited Fiskhålsgraven or Evagraven on a sunny day. Not sure how it will look like later in the afternoon and evening light is probably no good, but now that I was there around noon I had no problems with contrast.
One thing is for sure – I don’t care how long the hike is, I will be there in September. I know I’ve said that about a lot of things, but if someone told me that I can only visit one place, then I would pick Svartmorgraven. No hesitation!
