The cave of Thief-Ante

When you here about skeletons, hidden treasures and robbers. What can you expect? In this story a  thief plays an important part. The childrens vivid imagination makes this story to a exciting experience. Read about this true story, written by Christine Carrion...

The cave of Thief-Ante

Skeletons, hidden treasures, robbers and what else?

A lot of thoughts seemed to tuble around in the minds of my daughters on our way down the ladders into the darkness of Tjuv_Ante’s cave in the vincinity of Nordmaling. Things got even more exiting because of the fact that we only had one flashlight for the five of us.

Visions created by fairy-tales and legends came alive in our minds and we could imagine Tjuv-Ante climbing down to hide his loot, we could imagine all those who were searching for him too.

The boulders and cliffs gave us an opportunity to try some easy rock climbing that even our three-years-old daughter could handle with only a little bit of assistance. When we had climbed as ahighas we wanted we sat down with our lunch-boxes anjooying the food as well as the wiew.

The pathway down the hill felt like something found in one of John Bauer’s troll illustrations. The short passage between high cliffs and the murmur of an underground stream gave me a fairy-tale sensation as I saw it through the eyes of my children. We stepped into the car, satisfied with our day, as the silent whisper of a warm summer drizzle filled the air.

There are roughly ten more caves in the nature reserve at Storris mountain. The Lidberg caves there are well worth exploring, but we chose to go to Tjuv-Ante’s cave instead. We only had a few hours to spare and we anted to show our children the place we had read so many exciting things about. For me it was an amazing discovery to find caves worth “cravling into” so close to home. It certainly whet my appetite for more.

Text: Christine Carrion
Photo: Antonio Carrion