My last day on Gotland, time for some sightseeing since my orchid hunt is over. I was actually completely unprepared for sightseeing so I hadn’t done any research on what would be worth seeing – I had expected to spend my entire visit with the orchids. So I just looked at my roadmap which had some points of interest marked on it, and headed for one which was advertised as bronze age cairns. I should’ve known better – a cairn is just a pile of rocks, and that’s exactly what this was. A big pile of rocks. But the name is very cool though, ”Uggarde rojr”. Worth a visit just for that.

The southern Gotland is home to Sweden’s biggest wind power plant. I drove to Näsudden to take a look, and eh… a lot of windmills, yes. I decided that I’m better off with pure landscape, so I followed the coastal road up north and stopped at some viewpoints to take a look at the Lilla and Stora Karlsö islands in the distance. If I’d had more time here, I would have included a visit to one of these islands. They have very interesting profiles, cliffs rising up from the sea. Apparently interesting flora, as well.

While in search of a better viewpoint, I ended up at the Klinteberget mountain (peak at 52 metres). The light was all wrong for the landscape shot I was hoping for, but just by a coincidence (and I swear it was a coincidence), this mountain is home for some very rare white helleborine, which I didn’t have on my wish-list so I hadn’t noted down where it grows. I tramped up and down the mountain in search of them, and found none – I did however find loadsa dark-red helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra). This is only the second time I’ve seen any, and this location was far better than the first one. But still, no white helleborine so either I’m too late for them, or they are another no-show.

I then continued up to Visby to have a look around the town. I was well impressed with the old town and the ringwall surrounding it. Definitely worth a visit in the evening light and do some urban photography for a change – I’m no architectural photographer by any means but I do have a bit of a soft spot for old buildings. So while I was waiting for the light, I drove to the Lummelunda caves. I’m not interested in the caves themselves, but the area around the place was supposed to be nice. They even had a marked nature trail, which I happily followed – and found pyramidal orchids, but I had of course seen them elsewhere already so they only got a footnote on my orchid trip as being the last orchid I saw. Which was nice, I had seen enough of the ubiquitous twayblade! I did a photo session though, I had seen this purple flower lining up the roads in great numbers but I hadn’t seen it elsewhere so I could photograph it, not until here, so it was just in the nick of time.

Then it was back to Visby and wait for the light for happen, good plan except the light went out instead. A bank of clouds had appeared all of a sudden, so my Gotland trip ended in a bit of an anti-climax.