On the same day we travelled to Trosa, we also went to Stendörren Naturreservat. On the way we drove by a big wall of ice that just had to be photographed!

I made C stop so we could go back and take photos. On many occasions I have seen something I want to take photos of on the side of the road, and then either don’t have a camera, or a sympathetic driver willing to stop.

While looking for information about this nature reserve, I found an interesting site, Protected Planet, which collates and distributes a lot of useful information using the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Stendörren is listed as a marine protected area, which then led me to another site, Protect Planet Ocean. As a biologist, this made me very happy that I could visit and share this special place with you.

Stendörren is listed under the Baltic region. The link takes you to more information on the Protect Planet Ocean website. In summary, only 2.3630% of the 449,402 km² area is protected.

It is one of the youngest seas on our planet, emerging fromt the last ice age just 10 000-15 000 years ago. It is a temperate ecosystem, that has gone through dynamic transformations from a huge marine bay to a large freshwater lake to its present condition as one of the largest brackish water ecosystems in the world (source: Protect Planet Ocean).

I invite you in to have a peek at what I was fortunate to see during a time of year when few others visit.

To me a typically Swedish scene. Ice, red buildings, snow

Cold trees

The ice and setting sun, combined with the wind on the water, gave so much texture to this image. Nothing needed to be done to it.