Valley Nordkapp Experience: Three beautiful days

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Three beautiful days

Me and my friend Christer had three marvelous days crossing the Lake Vänern from Värmrandsnäs to Kollandsö and back. That is the shortest way to cross the lake and its about 23 km (14 miles). But we made a lot of detours and stayed two nights on an island north of Lurö island.
Lurö archipelago is a big fresh water archipelago in the middle of the Lake Vänern with about 250 islands.

We started at Ekenäs on Friday and paddled in the warm sun down around Lurö and finally made camp at Svinön. It was 18,5 km in our T-shirts. And just one and half week ago it was snowing!

After a marvelous night with a stunning sunset and even more beautiful sun-up we continued down to Spiken, the southernmost point on our trip. On the way we met two friends, Michael and Camilla, at Mellskär reef for a coffee break together. They were on the opposite way towards Lurö.

At Spiken we had an ice cream and a coffee before heading back to Lurö. An increasing headwind made the crossing over mostly open water rather long and we were a bit tired when we arrived at Svinön again. On my GPS the track showed 30,4 km for the day (about 19 mi). A bit later Michael and Camilla showed up and we but up our tents (I had my hammock) and had another nice night.

Next morning after breakfast me and Christer continued north while the other two headed back south. This day it was just as calm as on Friday and even warmer. about 20°C, and clear skies. T-shirt weather again! We both had some sun burns by now even when being very careful.
We took a lunch break at the island Vithall, an small island inhabited until 1959. How they could survive on that small island is a mystery.

At five in the afternoon we are back at Eken. The whole trip was 62.3 km long (39 mi) and average speed was 6.1 km/h (just over 3 mi/h). Many times our speed was 7-8 km/h. A very good trip in a nice summer weather.