18th August 2016. Dalsland Canal and Tanum, Sweden.

I took the opportunity to edit some more photos before we left the site then we drove to the Dalsland Visitors Centre that we’d been too late to see on our arrival to the area.  This time we arrived at the perfect moment.  We arrived at the lock just in time to see a large boat sailing up to the lock gate.  There was a big change in levels on the canal and a huge amount of water surged through to the lower level making the water foam before they opened the gate.  As the boat moved through to the next lock it almost touched the walls of the lock.

The next level wasn’t as spectacular it just drained through the gates but it was still good to watch.

After the boat moved off we went over to the Visitors Centre and sat at a table in the sun by the water with coffee and ice cream (how predictable!)

We wandered around the museum for a while.  I took a photo of Darren beside a stuffed elk (I’m certain it’s the only elk in Sweden or Norway for that matter!  The Swedish/Norwegian tourist board should have a number of fake elk which they could move to various points beside the motorways.  We tourists would then return home thrilled to think that we had seen one of the wild elk that we keep being told about!).

On our journey round Sweden and Norway we’ve been told by so many Swedes and Norwegians that they had seen an elk “only yesterday” that I have an intense desire to tell them that I have seen the Loch Ness Monster.  He was being watched from the shoreline by Big Foot and a Yeti, who just happened to be at Loch Ness for their holidays!

Anyway I digress, the Dalsland Visitors Centre was a very interesting place it looks like there are lots of lovely places to visit in the area.

It was getting late and I wanted to go and see the Bronze Age drawings in Tanum so we drove there.  In truth we drove right past it.  The only reason we turned around was because I happened to spot some people standing in a clearing looking at something white (which turned out to be the top of the stone that the art was on) and I was just commenting on that when I saw the name Tanum and remembered reading somewhere that the rock art was at actually at Tanum not Tanumshede as our book had told us.  Luckily there was a little lane a bit further along the road and no one on our tail so Darren was able to turn the van round and drive back.

It was so refreshing to see that these wonderful paintings were here for anyone to see at any time of day or night and hadn’t been fenced in, especially considering they were a UNESCO world heritage site.   It was great to be able to read the information on the noticeboards and wander along in our own time looking at all the rock art along the woodland path in peace and quiet without hordes of people milling around.  We made our way back to the van through the woods when it started to spit with rain and as we got back to the van a rainbow appeared over the hills in the distance.

We thought about staying in the car park only there was an eerie feeling about the place so we drove to the ställplats at the rear of the Tanum Shopping Centre (the rear car park of the shopping centre in fact).

It was a surprisingly good place to stay.  There was free electric hook up (as well as the site being free) and it was very quiet during the night.  It was nice to have three other vans there too.  We went into the shopping centre, bought kebabs and went back to the van where we listened to the first part of an Inspector Dalgleish story on a CD and watched a couple of episodes of Vikings (how long IS that series!)  All in all it was a great day.