A lot of kayaks

I hurried down from piloting a ship to Karlstad to be able to join "Friluftsfrämjandet" in Vänersborg for the first time this year. (I was with them indoors roll training once). They had a new record of participants this year with 39 kayaks!

We started at Sanden i Vänersborg and paddled to Långa Maja for some "fika" and then back again. Not a long trip but very nice to talk to some of my kayaking friends. And the weather was ok, no rain and not too cold.

All in all a pleasant evening.

Crowded waters

Hunneberg in the background and a weak rainbow up to the left.

Joining for a group photo

And here are all of us (not me) taken from one of the breakwaters i Vänersborg

A queue for going ashore  

Midsummer

At exactly midnight on Midsummer's Eve I set out with my kayak from Fjällbacka, a small Swedish coastal town. I paddled for 45 minutes until I saw the fire on a beach on "Porsholmen", an small island in the archipelago outside Fjällbacka. There 18 other kayakers were having their Midsummer celebration.
Next morning four of us started earlier then the rest to go out to "Lyngö", an island with a lot of reefs and nice passages passable only with kayak. We had a fantastic day with some wind, swell and a lot of sun. Perfect! Unfortunately I didn't catch the best parts with my camera or the GoPro. In one deep ravine I got stuck with the kayak, too narrow to turn and at an other moment a reflecting wave turned me over but I manged to roll up again.
At lunch we met up with the others at "Långeskär" and after we split up in different groups again. Was with some other friends in the afternoon as we took a trip more outside before heading back to "Porsholmen".
Then we spent a nice evening with food and drink on this beautiful place before going to sleep. Some had then already left us but we were about ten of us who stayed the last night at Porsholmen.

A very nice weekend with old and new friends. Thanks to Caroline, Micke and Marina for arranging this.

Our campsite at Porsholmen 

Viewed from the water

Anette, Joakim and Marina.

At Lyngö

Fantastic day

"In the midnight hour". Viewed from my tent.

Afternoon Practice and NOLS blog.

After a long working week and working with seven nights straight I finally got in my kayak again. I had plans to do a lot of roll practice but the very cold water stopped me after about ten rolls.
The practice l I liked to do was to go back to "balance brace" so that I could eventually do a hand roll.
Instead I took a short trip (15 km) in an increasing wind. "Nice" I thought,  "It will be surf back". But after an hour the wind died down again and I didn't get any real surf. But a nice trip anyway.
At a short coffee break I saw some blackberries in full bloom. Hopefully they will have the berries ripe when I come home from Alaska.

I have written a contribution to the NOLS blog. You can read it here.

Blackberry flowers

More blackberry flowers

This was a boat once

My beautiful Anas Acuta

I'm on the right course!

16 kayaks

At June 11 and 12 I had my yearly trip from Yttre Bodane wildlife preserve to Tösse archipelago and back. Previous years we had been maximum six or seven participants but this year we were 16 kayaks doing this trip! All of them were my kayaking friends but some of them had not met each other before. My daughter Paula, who was with me the first "Dalslandspaddling" 2008, was also with us and she borrowed my Anas Acuta. I was in my Nordkapp for the first time this year. Very nice and it felt good to be in a kayak a bit faster than my Anas Acuta.

Some of us were at the parking lot already Friday evening and the rest showed up at Saturday morning. We had to take our kayaks down to the lake on trolleys but soon enough we were all in the water. It was sunny but windy and not very warm but good weather for kayaking. We started to go outside the islands at Yttre Bodane and soon had our first coffee break! After that we continued on the inside of Rotön and then up to Vingens hamn where we had lunch. The sun was still there but it was a bit cold in the wind. After lunch we went into the old quarry at Trollön and I think 16 kayaks in there is a new record. (There are very little information on the Internet about Rotön, Vingens hamn and Trollön)

Late afternoon we arrived at the camp at Storön in Tösse archipelago. It is a great place for camping and I had already been there with fire wood a few weeks before. Some were taking a swim in the cold water, to cold for me, and we made our dinner. The mosquitoes and No-See-Ums are terrible this year so we had the campfire going until it was time for bed.  Some pitched their tents on the wooden jetty and the rest in the garden of the house or in the woods. Me and Björn were sleeping in our hammocks.
(A lot of people are asking me about my hammock. It's a Hennessy Hammock and my model is a Explorer Deluxe Aym Zip. I bought my from Momojord but now you can find them in several stores in Sweden. Also check out Youtube about this cool hammock.)

Next morning I woke up at 06:30 to a lot of bird song. As I was the first one up I started the fire to keep the mosquitoes away and to make hot water for tea and coffee. This day turned out to be even more nice then the previous day with less wind and no clouds. The sun was warming us so we could paddle in T-shirts (or in her paddle jacket, Paula). Magnus and our youngest member left us at Tösse so it was 14 of us going back to Yttre Bodane.

As the wind and sea was a bit less this day we kept mostly on the outside of the islands on our way back. It was only at Yttre Bodane we took a more inshore route. A lot warmer in the water there and Fredrik took the chance to have a swim.

Finally at 18:00 (6 PM) we were back att our starting place. I think this trip was a success again and I am already looking forward to next year's "Dalslandspaddling". That will be the 10th anniversary for this trip and I believe we will be even more people next year.

Thanks for a nice trip Fredrik, Paula, Björn, Hasse, Torbjörn, Andreas, Christer, Lennart, Anders, Kajsa, Mats, Dag, Jonas, Magnus and Karl.

Sometime the next two weeks I hope to have a video from the trip here. You just have to wait for it :)

Our track. 47,1 km and  5,5 km/h avarge

The whole bunch!

On of many breaks

Inside Trollön. New record with 16 kayaks?

On the way

Torbjörn in Rotö strait

Lazy people camping :)

Required photo

Me

Paula

Grass snake (snok)

Guiding

Early June I hade five days guiding with a Norwegian school class. It was 24 students 14-15 years old, three teachers and one parent. This was the forth time I was guiding a class from Steinerskolen at Nesodden in Dalslands kanal. We startled on Monday, June 6th (the Swedish national day) at Kanalvillan where I have been working for about ten years as a guide.
The first night was at Baldersnäs and day two we paddled through seven locks upp to the lake Lelång at Bengtsfors. After a very nice evening we woke up to a rather windy day. As we were on an island there was no chance for us but to wait until the wind had calmed a bit before continuing. Around 2 PM (14:00) I considered it safe enough to enter the canoes and proceed towards Kråkviken. It was a long day before we arrived at Skifors at midnight, everyone was very tired and it was just strait into our tents (and me into my hammock).

The last day I paddled with them was down Svärdlång, one of Sweden's absolutely most beautiful lakes for canoeing, and then onto Laxsjön and the camp at Baldernäs again. During the last night a sudden storm came through our camp and one big tree was boken in half! I had to sadly leave this nice school class an my boss Åke was in charge the last two hours. It was probably the hardest trip I have done with this school but the kids did very well and their teachers should be very proud of them. Once again I met my friend Jonas (PE teacher for the class) and Grace who is the class head teacher. That was very nice to see them again.

Two of the canoes arriving att "Världens ände" at Baldersnäs

One of the kids and Grace is going up the first lock.

Behind me in the lock

Hammock camping at it's best.

View from inside my hammock

Canoes

Lazy paddling 

Nice and warm

Lurö #3

Again a trip to Lurö archipelago. This time we started at Spiken and I was not alone. Eight friends joined me on this extraordinary nice evening. It was Frida, Christina, Per, Eva, Peter, Göran, Lotta and Robin.
The crossing to Lurö was the nicest I have had, sunny and completely calm sea. We set camp at Svinön and had a nice dinner and most of us enjoyed a glas of wine.

During the night the wind picked up and our plans to go to the island Djurö was changed. To much wind and to much open sea. That is about 6 nautical miles across!
Instead we went to Vithall, Aspholmen and Gunnarsholmen. At Vithall I had to do a roll just to cool off.
Back at Svinön we decided to change campsite to Bösshamn at Lurö. Christina, Lotta and Göran changed their minds and started for Djurö anyway, the rest of us went to Lurö where Malin, Helge and Mikael from Värmland greeted us. They are three kayaking friends and later Gregory joined us as well.
Me, Frida, Robin, Per and Eva took a walk to Stenstaka where we had some ice cream, coffee and a beer. Sitting at a cliff watching the sun go down while drinking a beer is as good as it gets.

Next morning we paddled round the island Lurö while our friends from Värmland went back north. Also this a windy day but still very sunny. As we went back to Spiken the wind died down somewhat and the crossing was excellent in a nice tail-wind.

I took my first swim this year at Lurö and again at Lill-Eken. Cold! But some of the others disagreed and said it was very pleasant. Not for me, at Lurö it was supposed to be 18°C in the water. That is not pleasant!

Again a very, very nice trip with some old and some new kayaking friends. Thank you for a fantastic weekend.

Here the video is finally up. 

Our track

• Distance 52,1 km
• Average speed 5,5 km/h
• Max speed 9 km/h
• Time paddled 9,5 hours 

Frida is arriving at our first camp site (Svinön)

Lunch at Vithall

Time to leave this wonderful place

Per and Robin

Göran and Peter

Camping place #2 (Bösshamn at Lurö)

Morning and time to leave

The sauna and wood heated bathtub at Stenstaka. It's on a rather large float.

Frida in her Skim Beaufort 

Robin in his Anas Acuta (totally black compared to mine that got a white hull)

Millesvik archipelago

The last day of May and first day of June were the first real summer days this year, maybe 25°C in the air, a fresh breeze but cold water still.
Me and two friends went to a place south of Säffle (a small town 100 km from my home) where the north end of a fantastic archipelago starts. (Here is the Google Map adress for Hjälleskate ) Perfect place to start a trip in Millesvik skärgård and to kayak south to Lurö, Ekenäs or just to go around all the small islands and reefs in this almost uninhabited archipelago. We did't see any other kayakers and only one sailing boat (a bit out on the lake) and one small motor boat during the two days we were there.

We started on Tuesday noon and paddled south to Sjötungsholmarna where we stayed the night. And the sunset that evening! Marvelous! Just watch the photos below.

After a warm night we then proceeded to Ekenäs, where I was just a couple of days before coming from Lurö, and had a coffee and an ice cream. Then we had a long trip in the afternoon sun back to Hjälleskate.

An amazing place to kayak in. We saw only one person (and a few at Ekenäs) the whole trip but a lot of birds. Sea eagles, ospreys, a heron, storlomm (gavia artica) and heard the great bittern (Botaurus stellaris) and the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Besides those all the normal birds in the area.

The trip:

• Distance traveled 49,2 km (30 miles)
• Time traveled 9h 40 min.
• Average speed 5,1 km/h (3,3 mi/h)
• Maximum speed 9 km/h (5,1 mi/h)

My friends Helene and Björn

Fika! (Coffee break)

Dinner

Sunset

Björn

Helene