April 2002 Common cranes can be difficult to approach in most parts of Europe, but there are a few exceptions and Lake Hornborgasjon in Sweden is one of them.
From the U.K. a visit means catching a ferry from Newcastle to Gothenburg (25 hours) and then a 2 hour drive inland. It is very important to leave yourself plenty of time to find the ferry terminal on your return. It is not sign posted anywhere in the city, although other ferry ports are. It is very difficult to find.
The lake is about 20km south-west of Skovde, which should be easy to find on any road map. From Gothenburg you follow the E20 north-east until just before the town of Skara, where you turn right and head south down the 184. The Vadboden visitor centre for the lake is well sign posted on the right hand sign by Bjurum.
The reserve has six, small, two man wooden hides especially designed for photographers all in a line a few hundred yards from the road. There is a fee of 600 Krones (2004) to use them and they really need booking in advance as this is a popular venue. It is said they need booking a year in advance and this can be done via the tourist office in Falkoping. This office is not open all year so booking in the summer for the following spring would be best. You also need to pay in advance.
I am not so good at booking in advance. What about the weather? What if I want to go elsewhere at the time? What if the birds are not there? So as I usually do I just turned up and hoped. The way I see it is if people are booking up a year in advance there will be a lot of no-shows.
The visitor centre at Vadboden keeps the booking diary and as most young Swedish people speak very good English it was not difficult to get myself booked in, but it was for 6 days after I arrived. I then went seeking the man who looks after the hides. He is a photographer himself and each evening at about 1930 hours arrives at the gate half way between the visitor centre and the church. He waits for the cranes to fly off to roost and then drives sown with his trailer to get the photographers out of the hides and put food down for the cranes. Unfortunately he speaks little English and even using an interpreter I failed to get the message over that I was interested in using the hides if there were any no shows. A pity as I felt that on each occasion I watched at least one of the 6 hides was unoccupied.
Never-the-less I returned 6 days later and had a wonderful time in the hide. The hides are clearly numbered 1 to 6 and you have to be in there before first light, which means 0430 hours. You then stay in all day until he comes to get you out about 1945 in the evening. It is a long day, but the hide is big enough to lie down in and I took my sleeping bag. You also need to take a stool and a tripod. There is no shelf for a beanbag. Inside is a bucket which you can use as a toilet, emptying it out yourself on the night. I took a plastic bottle with me instead and coped.
For such a long stay you also need a book and food.
The cranes are amazing. They come very close (2 metres) and take no notice of the hide at all. You can make as much noise as you like and they ignore it. I used every lens from a 28-135mm up to the 600mm. There can be hundreds of cranes within range and separating them can be difficult.
I was in hide number 1, but think they are all about equal, except for the possibility of backlit pictures when hides 4, 5 and 6 might give shots of cranes on the hill behind the hides if the sunset is glorious. Even so I think you will have to be very lucky.
The hides are designed for 2 people, but for me it would be a bit cramped for such a long period. I would prefer to be able to stretch out. The cost for the day was 600 Krones, about £45 in 2004, and well worth it for the experience. One day was enough, but if booking in advance and having no control over the weather it's a bit of a gamble.
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