Södra öarna - The Southern Islands

Today we had a full day out at Södra öarna - the southern islands off the coast of Gothenburg.

 Firstly we caught a tram for the half hour journey to the village of Saltholmen, and then we walked to the harbour to choose our first island.

We have bought a three day public transport pass and had spoken to a lady at the Tourist Information Centre who told us that all of the islands are beautiful, so we should jump on any ferry that was due to leave shortly.

We decided to try a four island trip, so initially caught a ferry to Donsö.

It took about 40 minutes to get there and as we got closer we could see people zipping around on bicycles and golf carts. Cars are banned on the islands and everywhere is so peaceful and relaxed.

We walked around the island and then crossed a bridge to Strysö. 

This is a slightly bigger island, but we managed to walk from one side to the other in just over an hour.

We initially reached the wrong harbour and had a bit of a dash to the right one about a kilometre further along the coast, and caught another ferry across a short stretch of sea to Brännö.

This island had wilder terrain and we picked our way around the coast, stepping from rock to rock.

We then came to a signpost, where the only words that we could understand were 'at your own risk', where we traversed a slightly rickety wooden walkway.

We crossed most of this island to reach the bridge to Galterö, which is a beautiful and almost uninhabited island.

We followed a triangular route over huge rocks and along a tiny pathway, taking in beautiful sea views.

Then it was back over the bridge to Brännö, and a quick hike across the island to pick up our final ferry back to Saltholmen.

In case you are interested, this was our route. We started in the top right hand corner, red is for ferries, purple was our walk - approximately.