The Kvarken Archipelago, the archipelago located between Sweden and Finland where the Gulf of Bothnia is at its narrowest, is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative list.
I was born and raised out there on an Island named Björkö. My mother is still living there at her own at the age of 85 and I have a small summer-house at the waterfront out there on one of the thousands and thousands small islands.
This landscape is said to be unique and nothing similar is found anywhere else in the world. Or at least we are told so...
This landscape was shaped by the withdrawing glaciers from the last glacial era some 10000 years ago, leaving huge moraine- formations and giant blocks of stone at the rim of the withdrawing ice-masses every summer, later, when the ice had completely melted away, the depressed crust of the earth started to raise again and we still have a raising of the land at a speed of som 8 - 10 mmm/a in this region.
When I was a little boy, we could row a boat in places that nowadays are completely dry!
These watery landscapes are continually changing when the land rises and new islands are emerging out of the water and soon will be populated by grass, bushes and trees.
I have posted some photos earlier and here are some more!
The author "on the rocks" :
A view from the backside of our summer-house:
A view towards one of the neighbour islands, the typical moraine- formations are seen here:
Another view from "our island":
Jonathan Livingstone I presume?:
Another view in another direction:
The flora and fauna is very rich, the dragonflies are common because they thrieve on mosquitos and there are a lot of mosquitos...
Some dragonflies decided to have a lunch-break on my chest and my nose! :)
