Woke up in the middle of the night yesterday dreaming I was paddling :-). Pitch-black, I could not get my head around to where I was and what was happening. Feeling the matress with my hands I was clearly not in the kayak but this was not the tent either. After a confused couple of minutes I finally realised I was at our summer house, sleeping in a normal bed, the blinds pulled down. Being so used to the tent and it never being dark up north it was really uncomfortable not seeing anything and not being able to orient myself. Guess it will take a couple of days before my mind is back on track (have also been able to convince my husband not to pull the blinds all the way down for a while).
Trying to summarise the trip is not easy, it has been a very varied experience in every sense but mostly a very positive one. To see the entire Swedish coastline and how nature changes along the way in regards to both flora and fauna, with salt water on the west and south coast to gradually go over to fresh water far up north and the alteration that comes with it in architecture of both houses and jettys has been facinating. I've seen so many beatiful places and camped at so many fantastic islands.
The more challanging days have forced me to find mental strategies to just keep going and I've come to realise how much you can choose your attitude. Your mind (at least mine) is easily fooled and choosing to rethink a situation in a positive way will affect the way you intrepret it. When having bad weather like fog, hard winds or rain it's so easy to just think "That's so typical! Fog, when the sun is shining back home!" but I've instead chosen to focus on how lucky I am to have this weather today and not for example four days ago when I did a big crossing. That has made a great difference for me and stopped a lot of negative thoughts and sulky behaviour while paddling. Distractions are also good, listening to music or singing or just trying to think of something completely different. When having strong head wind I've tried to think that every paddle stroak will bring me forwards, if just a little bit, while sitting on the beach or in the tent won't.
The good days I've just had a sense of complete happiness and harmony and have relished every moment. There has been quite a lot of these days and I've come to realise I really like being able to have everything with me that I need and to just pack it all up in the morning and continue without leaving any trace behind. It's such a nice contrast to everyday life when stuff and gadgets are plentyful and almost seem to consume us, you don't need that much really to live comfortably. With that said I don't deny I've highly appreciated being able to stop at nice restaurants or cafes and enjoyed the comfort these places have provided. The contrast though between this and the simple life in the tent have made these experiences so much more memorable and brought the enjoyment to another level.
I've also been very lucky with not having any physical pains or problems during the trip except from swollen and stiff fingers and a rash on my butt :-) (probably from sitting in damp or wet clothes all day every day) but nothing that have affected my ablilty to paddle.
So when you finnish something like this you always get the question if you'd ever do it again and well, yes I think I could and would appreciate a repete run along most of the coast if I could only skip the coast of Halland and Skåne. I found this part boring and monotonous to paddle and way too overcrowded to comfortably be able to sleep in a tent, extremely shallow water hundreds of meters out from the shore (standing in knee-high water in the middle of one of these bays having lunch next to the kayak, not being able to get ashore will stay in my memory forever) and just beach after beach most of them very similar looking. I think this part is better enjoyed from land.
In this last post (there might be one more when I hopefully get approved by the HBB jury sometime during the upcoming autumn) I would like to thank everybody that has followed my journey here on the blog or on Facebook and all the great inspiring comments you've given! Everybody I know and don't know, all friends, family and colleagues.
Special thanks to:
All the people along the way that offered me a place to stay the night and fed me delicious food. Highly appreciated!
Joe, old friend from New Zealand who visited us last summer and whos inspirational motorcycle journey around the world got me thinking about this trip again and made me realise that it is possible to follow through on desired projects. You just have to decide to go for it.
The two Annas (Anna D: personal trainer and Anna G: physical therapist) that kept my body in shape and got me ready for this trip.
Kajaksidan and Jörgen Kard for help with finding a suitable kayak and paddle and a lesson improving my paddling technice.
And last but definitely not least, my family, Erik, Carl and Ebba for being supporting from the start of the idea that I would be away from you for such a long time to do this!!! I owe you big time!!!
Some final statistics:
Total number of days: 61Active paddling days: 55
Total distance: 2416 km
Of those 55 days I had:
Tail wind: 21 daysHead wind: 23 days
Side: 6 days
Mixed winds: 5 days
Days with no wind or winds below 2 m/s: 0 days
Mostly sunny: 28 days
Mostly rainy: 4 days
Days with thunder: 6 days
Curiosities
Total hours spent in the kayak: 388 hoursAverage speed: 6,2 km/h
Approximate number of paddle strokes: 1 490 000 (based on 64 strokes per minutes)
Har läst hela din blogg i efterhand, mycket trevligt med alla bilder och att du tog dig tid att skriva så insiktsfullt varje dag! Du verkar ha klarat av HBB med klockren planering och exemplariskt genomförande. Ett sent men ändå stort grattis!
ReplyDeleteHej! Kul att se att det fortfarande är någon som är inne och läser bloggen och tack för dina uppskattande ord!
ReplyDeleteJag hade en fantastisk tur och runt Sverige och kan mycket väl tänka mig en till sommar i kajaken när barnen vuxit upp :-).