May 27th - June 3rd, 2007

Öland and south Sweden

In association with Plantlife

Price: £ 1250

Leader: Bob Gibbons

2007 is the 300th anniversary of Linnaeus’s birth, which seems an appropriate time to visit his home area. After a day in Uppsala visiting his gardens and home, we transfer to the beautiful island of Öland which has fabulous flowers in a remarkable unspoilt limestone landscape.

alvar

We leave Heathrow in the mid-morning to arrive at Arland airport by about 2pm, from where it’s a short journey to the old University town of Uppsala, our base for 2 nights. Here, we’ll visit Linnaeus’s garden and former home, and the excellent Uppsala botanic garden, as well as having a bit of time free to visit the old town.

Field full of early purple orchids

On day 3, we fly to Kalmar and transfer to the island of Öland, just off Sweden’s south-east coast, now connected by bridge to the mainland. Our hotel is perfectly placed at Vickleby, within walking distance of some beautiful flowery alvar, and close to other sites we’ll visit. The alvar lies at the heart of Öland’s special interest – a vast open landscape awash with flowers as far as the eye can see, all designated as a World Heritage Site – and we’ll explore the best parts of it. We’ll also visit some beautiful flowery ancient woodland, and various interesting coastal and wetland habitats. If there’s time, we may visit the northern tip of the island, where there are some fascinating flowery shingle banks – described as Neptune’s ledges by Linnaeus – and some ancient coastal pine forest with a quite different mixture of flowers.

small pasque flower

The flora of Öland is superb, with wonderful displays of orchids (including elder-flowered, burnt-tip, sword-leaved helleborine, lady and military), wild chives, Öland rockrose, spiked speedwell, several species of pasque flowers, common globularia, and many more, often in great swathes stretching away into the distance. There are British rarities such as yellow milk-vetch, spring cinquefoil, shrubby cinquefoil, bird’s eye primrose, maiden pink, Curtis’s mouse-ear and alpine catchfly, as well as more northerly species and Öland endemics. Every season is different, of course, but we should be sure of catching most of the special plants.

Yellow wood anemonies

The birds are good, too, with abundant breeding waders including black-tailed godwit, woodcock roding overhead, and eastern specialities such as icterine warbler, penduline tits, and collared flycatcher. Black terns nest in the marshes, corncrakes still call from the fields, and there are common cranes and white-tailed sea eagles. At night, there is a chorus of thrush nightingales, slightly different from the more familiar nightingale.

The landscape of Öland is fascinating, with the extensive rocky and grassy alvar, small enclosed fields, little seasonal lakes and marshes, ancient windmills and endless historic and prehistoric monuments. It’s also one of the driest parts of Sweden, and the weather in early summer is usually good.

After 5 nights on Öland, we drive back to Kalmar, and fly home to Heathrow.

The tour price includes flights, all transport during the week, bed and breakfast only in Uppsale (2 nights), bed, breakfast and evening meals in Vickleby (5 nights), and services of leader throughout, including pre-tour information and post-tour lists.

Tour code: NHT/07/07

Price: £1250

Single room supplement: £80

Deposit: £150 plus insurance

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