Vänern is Western Europe's largest and Europe's third largest lake. Only two Russian lakes are larger. Vänern's water volume constitutes one third of all freshwater in Sweden. Here you will find Europe's largest freshwater archipelago with thousands of islands and skerries. The Northern Väner Archipelago, mostly a nature reserve, stretches from Kristinehamn at Vänern's northeastern corner to Slottsbron at its northwestern corner. Vänern can be said to consist of two roughly equal parts: Dalbosjön to the south and Värmlandssjön to the north. Between them lie the two delimiting peninsulas Värmlandsnäs and Kålland, and between these the Lurö archipelago. Out in the middle of Värmlandssjön lies the Djurö archipelago, isolated from surrounding mainland and archipelagos. The Djurö archipelago is in its entirety a national park and completely uninhabited. The magnificent lighthouse on the main island is automated. Outside Mariestad there is also a large archipelago. The lake's greatest depth is 106 meters. The total shoreline length is approximately 2,000 kilometers.

Across the open inland sea to the Djurö archipelago

Vänern's vast water surface lies mirror-smooth before us as we take a compass bearing from Stångudden lighthouse on Lurö to the southernmost island Gisslan in the Djurö archipelago, the national park remotely situated in the middle of Vänern. We can faintly discern the low islands in the distance as a line at the horizon. It is eleven kilometers across completely open water. It is a midsummer evening in early August. The evening sun is at our backs. The temperature is pleasant and we are completely alone, apart from a cargo ship that in the distance steams southward toward the Trollhätte Canal and Göta Älv, and then the great oceans.

After a good two hours, we arrive. All of nature seems to breathe an almost magically surreal calm. The scent of pine forest from the islands is strong even from a distance. The warm, lingering evening light creates an illuminated shadow world around us. A few motorboats lie at anchor, swinging in Åran's natural harbor. We perhaps attract some attention; one probably does not expect visits from canoeists at such an exposed place as Djurö. We manage to pitch our dome tent on a warm rock ledge at the natural harbor Malbergshamn, the only place where camping is permitted in the national park, before darkness falls.

Mirror-smooth inland sea

The following morning, we continue with an almost equally long crossing over open water to the archipelago at the northwestern part of Brommö, part of the Mariestad archipelago. Just before we pass the Djurö lighthouse, two fallow deer, including a buck with magnificent antlers, come down to the shore beside us to drink. We rest on our paddles and soak in the sight. We glide silently and gently close by until we are discovered and they flee.

We started our touring kayak trip around Värmlandssjön, the northern half of Vänern, almost a week ago in Kristinehamn. By car with the kayaks on the roof, we followed the road sign "Skärgården" at a crossroads out to Vålöfjärden. It turned out that from here you can see the archipelago. To actually get there requires a kayak or other watercraft.

That Vänern is an inland sea with everything that can entail in terms of waves and wind, we learn already on the first day. We have to fight against high waves from the side for most of the day. The Northern Väner Archipelago is sparse but widespread, mostly a nature reserve, and reaches far past Karlstad all the way to Slottsbron in the west.

Outside Söököjan lighthouse at the entrance to Karlstad, we gaze out over a mirror-smooth inland sea. Sky and sea merge. No horizon can be discerned, and it feels like sitting inside an infinite globe.

Strong headcurrent

We paddle into Klarälven's large delta from the east. Karlstad is built in the middle of the delta, the country's largest outside the mountain range, with countless river branches to get lost in if you do not follow the map carefully. The river is in high water and the counter-current grows ever stronger. At the old stone bridge near Karlstad city center, people gather on the shore to watch us struggle in vain for quite a while until we find a calmer section close to shore under one of the bridge arches. We turn port where the river branches at the once well-known dance palace Sandgrund, now housing the artist Lars Lerin and his art, and then get a real boost from the current out toward Skoghall and Kattfjärden. We literally rush through Karlstad city center with the grand city hotel on the left side.

Onsö, a well-known island in the Mariestad archipelago, has a namesake in the archipelago west of Karlstad. Here there are several sandy beaches where it is easy to find a campsite.

Magnificent moonlight

The large peninsula Värmlandsnäs, colloquially called Näset, which together with Kålland and the archipelago between them divides Vänern into two roughly equal parts, Värmlandssjön and Dalbosjön, is long both on the map and in reality. Here we paddle a full day with high swells from the side and recurring rain showers. The rocky and inhospitable coast is interrupted in a few places by sandy beaches that lie deserted in the rain. Bays and skerries to seek shelter behind are very few and far between. On many rock outcrops facing the lake stand old, half-overgrown stone cairns, sea markers, reminiscent of the lively shipping on Vänern in earlier times. A black-painted, heavily loaded merchant vessel steams in the distance northward toward some Väner harbor.

As we approach the southern tip of Näset, the wind and waves have subsided. A magnificent moonlight and shimmer on the water herald the coming high pressure as we rest on a rock ledge after the day's exertions. The Lurö archipelago seems to float freely in the air in the moonlight before us, and we can actually make out the conically shaped summit of Kinnekulle, the highest around Vänern, in the distance on the other side of the water.

Museum on Lurö

The Lurö archipelago can boast its own museum, the old fisherman's cottage on the island Vithall, and a hostel with a restaurant. The latter is on the main island Lurö. A cold beer with an accompanying well-prepared hot dish tastes best after a few days of intense paddling. But not everyone needs to paddle here. You can get here by passenger boat from both Ekenäs on Näset and Kållandsö. There are also hiking trails and many remnants of a former cultural landscape to experience.

We rest on the sun-warmed rocks beside Stångudden lighthouse on Lurö. The lighthouse has the characteristic appearance of many Väner lighthouses: a lighthouse keeper's residence with a lighthouse tower on the roof. And it is here that the story above begins. Now that we have been lucky with the weather and made it across the vast open waters and reached the Mariestad archipelago, a paradise for kayak paddling, we can relax. Being stranded out at Djurö in bad weather is not pleasant. We swim from both rocks and sandy beaches in the pleasant summer weather. We are not alone, but neither is it crowded.

We drag the kayaks through the shallow passage between Hovden and Brommö, chatting with cheerful visitors who want to know more about our paddling. Here the water is noticeably warm since it is so sheltered. We treat ourselves at Hamnkrogen in Laxhall next to the ferry terminal for the Brommö ferry and navigate through the reed-lined and narrow Dillönoran that separates Dillö from Torsö, emerging into Mariestadsjön. And before us lies, with spires and church towers and harbor quarters, our destination -- the fine town of Mariestad.

Olle Persson