Älvdalen – Chapter 4 – Fulufjället

Oh look, a national park!

“Pretty!” says Isabelle.

“Pretty!” says Flower.

Flower is reminded that water is wet, and this makes her sad.

It looks like there’s some sort of line where trees stop growing.

It looks like there’s some sort of falling water.

It is the tallest falling water in Sweden.

We get up to its level.

Not many trees up here.

But we think there’s a tree this way.

There is. There is a tree.

Old Tjikko, the third oldest clonal tree in the world.

It is 9,562 years old, and it is all alone.

Not much else up here except some heather.

Isabelle forages for something in the heather.

It’s some krummholz blueberries.

Flower poses next to an Old Tjikko imposter.

But wait, what is this!?

A coy little orange berry, betwixt the leaves.

It is the cloudberry of the arctic fjäll.

And we have found their secret lairs.

And we have pried them from their stems.

And we have feasted upon their flesh.

“Huh, whatberries? Where?” says Flower.

But we have more fjäll to see.

The top of that waterfall, for instance.

It’s a bit rocky up here.

We see a fjäll-top lake in the distance.

Past the fields of fjäll-cotton.

Fjäll-cotton must be the “cloud” part of “cloudberry”.

Oh, now Flower sees them.

But… doesn’t know they are food.

Isabelle also sees them.

She does know they’re food.

And she teaches Flower how it works.

Lynx, wolverine, wolf, bear, or dog? We play that game with thousands of prints.

That’s a big… “dog.”

We have a cup of coffee on the lake.

And loop back around to the other side of the fall.

Yes, that is snow. Yes, it is August.

Fjälls are yummy.