Esimese peatuse tegime Skulebergeti mäe juures. See on ümbruskonna üks kõrgemaid tippe ja siit avaneb imeilus vaade Höga Kusteni mägedele, orgudele ja lahtedele.
See koht on omapärane sellepärast, et siin on maailmas kõige rohkem pärast jääaega kerkinud pinnas – väidetavalt üle kahesaja kaheksakümne meetri. Kohe pärast jääaega kerkis maapind umbes kümme sentimeetrit aastas, praeguseks on see stendil oleva teksti järgi aeglustunud üheksale millimeetrile aastas. Aga pinnas tõuseb endiselt iga aasta kõrgemale ja kõrgemale.
We made our first stop at Skuleberget. It is one of the highest peaks in the area, and from here a beautiful view opens over the mountains, valleys and bays of the High Coast.
What makes this place unusual is that the land here has risen more since the Ice Age than anywhere else in the world – reportedly by over two hundred and eighty metres. Right after the Ice Age the ground rose about ten centimetres a year; by now, according to the text on the information board, that has slowed to nine millimetres a year. But the land still climbs higher and higher every year.
Üles tulime suusatõstukiga ja lootsime, et sellesama tõstukiga saame ka alla. Talvel on siin suusamäed – seesama tõstuk, mis talvel suusatajaid veab, toob praegu inimesi mäkke üles ja viib ka alla.
Tublimad saavad siia ka jalgsi üles tulla. Meie lihtsalt ei hakanud oma paksus mootorrattavarustuses seda matka ette võtma.
We came up by ski lift, hoping the same lift would take us back down again. In winter there are ski slopes here – the very lift that carries skiers in winter now brings people up the mountain and down again.
The hardier ones can walk up. We simply did not take that hike on in our thick motorcycle gear.
Teel tegime kohvipausi ühes tanklas. Esmapilgul tundus see olevat täiesti tavaline tankla, aga kui me sealt välja astusime, siis nägime unikaalset lisateenust. Nimelt oli tankla kõrval suusahüppemägi. Eriti kasulik on see elektriautode omanikele – seni kuni auto laadib, saab paar hüpet teha.
On the way we stopped for a coffee at a petrol station. At first glance it seemed a perfectly ordinary petrol station, but when we stepped back outside we spotted a unique extra service. Right beside the station stood a ski jump. It is especially useful for electric-car owners – while the car charges, you can fit in a couple of jumps.
Pärast mäe otsas käimist sõitsime edasi päris kaua – niikaua, kuni jõudsime linnakesse, mille nimi on Skellefteå. Peatuse tegime selles linnas selleks, et vaadata üht vist isegi maailma kõrgematest puitmajadest, Sara kultuurimaja.
Maja kõige kõrgem osa on kahekümnekorruseline ja seal asub hotell ja spa. Esimesel korrusel, kust me sisse jalutasime, on raamatukogu. Päris-päris muljetavaldav hoone.
After the mountain we rode on for a good long while – until we came to a small town by the name of Skellefteå. We stopped in this town to look at what may even be one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world, the Sara cultural centre.
The tallest part of the building is twenty storeys and houses a hotel and a spa. On the ground floor, where we walked in, there is a library. A really quite impressive building.
Kuigi mõnes kohas paistsid juba praod, loodame, et see hoone püsib püsti veel aastaid.
Though cracks were already showing in places, we hope the building stands for years to come.
Selle linnakese kohta, kus muuseas on kolmkümmend viis tuhat elanikku, selgus lähemalt uurides veel üks huvitav nüanss. Nimelt toimus just selles linnas tänapäeva Rootsi kõige suurem pankrot – ja see on selle puidust kõrghoonega natuke seotud ka.
Siia linna üritati rajada Euroopa elektriautode akude tootmise megatehas – Northvolt. Investorid investeerisid sellesse viisteist miljardit dollarit. Kõik muu oli nagu korras – poliitikud toetasid ja raha jätkus, aga probleem tekkis sellega, et ei suudetud toota kvaliteetseid akusid. Kuna tootmine hilines ja kvaliteet ei olnud ootuspärane, katkestasid potentsiaalsed ostjad lepingud. Kahe tuhande kahekümne neljanda aasta novembris esitas Northvolt Ameerika Ühendriikides pankrotikaitse taotluse ning kahe tuhande kahekümne viienda aasta märtsis läks ettevõte Rootsis lõplikult pankrotti.
Looking more closely into this little town, which incidentally has thirty-five thousand inhabitants, one more interesting detail came to light. It was in this very town that modern Sweden’s largest bankruptcy took place – and it is connected to that tall wooden building too.
A megafactory for producing electric-car batteries for Europe – Northvolt – was to be built in this town. Investors put fifteen billion dollars into it. Everything else was more or less in order – the politicians backed it and there was money enough, but the problem was that quality batteries could not be produced. As production fell behind and the quality was not what had been expected, prospective buyers cancelled their contracts. In November two thousand and twenty-four Northvolt filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, and in March two thousand and twenty-five the company finally went bankrupt in Sweden.
Praeguseks on tehas müüdud ühele Ameerika ettevõttele. Nii palju kui aru saime, toodetakse seal praegu siiski mõningal määral ka akusid ja lisaks asub seal andmekeskus. Miks see tehas üldse sinna linna tehti – seal on palju odavat hüdroenergiat. Idee oli selles, et need akud on tõesti rohelised, sest kasutatakse rohelist energiat. Aga noh, kahjuks nii läks. Kui tehas pankrotti läks, koondati tuhat kuussada töötajat; kui ameeriklased tehase üle ostsid, võeti siit linnakesest uuesti tööle kuskil kuussada inimest.
Ja siit tulebki side selle puidust kõrghoonega. Kui Northvolt kahe tuhande seitsmeteistkümnenda aasta sügisel Skellefteå oma tehase asukohaks valis, lubati tuhandeid uusi töökohti ja linn hakkas oma tulevikku planeerima suure enesekindlusega – vald, kus elab umbes seitsekümmend kaks tuhat inimest, seadis sihiks kasvada üheksakümne tuhandeni. Selleks pidi linn muutuma piisavalt atraktiivseks, et uued tulijad siia ka jääksid. Sara kultuurimaja arhitektuurikonkurss võideti küll juba aasta enne Northvolti otsust, aga ehitati ja avati maja kahe tuhande kahekümne esimesel aastal just sellesse ootusesse – kaheksakümne meetri kõrgune, uhke ja kohalikust metsast. Nüüd on tehas pankrotti läinud ja kultuurimaja seisab endiselt – linna kõige nähtavam mälestusmärk sellest, kui kindlad oldi oma tulevikus.
Ja edasi siis viimane etapp täna – sõitsime Luleåsse ja siin ühes väikses majakeses linna servas sättisime ennast tänaseks sisse. Homme peaks hakkama juba tagasi lõuna poole liikuma.
By now the factory has been sold to an American company. As far as we understood, some batteries are still made there after all, and there is a data centre on the site as well. Why the factory was built in that town in the first place – there is a great deal of cheap hydropower there. The idea was that these batteries would be genuinely green, because green energy would be used. But, well, it turned out as it did. When the factory went bankrupt, sixteen hundred workers were laid off; when the Americans bought it, around six hundred people from this little town were taken back on.
And this is where the connection with that tall wooden building comes in. When Northvolt picked Skellefteå as the site for its factory in the autumn of two thousand and seventeen, thousands of new jobs were promised, and the town began planning its future with great confidence – the municipality, home to some seventy-two thousand people, set itself the goal of growing to ninety thousand. To manage that, the town had to become attractive enough for the newcomers to want to stay. The architecture competition for the Sara cultural centre was in fact won a year before Northvolt’s decision, but the building was built and opened in two thousand and twenty-one, right into that expectation – eighty metres tall, proud, and made from the local forest. Now the factory has gone bankrupt and the cultural centre still stands – the town’s most visible monument to how certain it once was of its future.
And then the last leg of the day – we rode to Luleå, and here, in a small house on the edge of town, we settled ourselves in for the night. Tomorrow we should already start making our way back south.
Meie tänane teekond | Our trip today
