Saturday, August 25: Partially cloudy for most of the day, but the clouds were moving quite quickly
Sea Kayaking: 14.3 km
Hälsön wilderness camping
It rained a couple of times during the night, mostly heavily but briefly. Breakfast this morning was the usual fare and during the course of discussion about today’s destination we decided on two half-days with two different ways of filling the non-kayaking half: Today we would enter the fiord between Orust and Tjörn, Stigfjorden, and find an island to camp on and spend the afternoon exploring; and on another day we would go to a village for a walk around.
Took a 360° pan of the view from the island before we left, as well as a couple of zooms of the nearby village of Edshultshall.
Slide Show
Click on the image to stop/start the animation
Today’s kayaking was therefore brief: Around three or four stops, and the sea was a bit rough. We passed the harbor of Mollösund which also looked quite picturesque, and then there was a passage between some rocks that we drifted through. Saw one of the boats that was anchored at Gullholmen yesterday (the Bavaria). Just into the last section there was a very tempting looking meadow which was however in a nature preservation area. A little further on was the island that Philipp had chosen: Trees were beginning to reappear as we moved away from the open sea, and this was truly a meadow, not only covered with sheep dung but we were also visited later by a smaller herd of sheep that have now moved on.
Interactive Map
The approach over a very shallow bay was soon dealt with and some time was taken in choosing a landing spot and then moving the boats around (I stayed put once I had landed). Then at last the tents had to be set up and some lunch eaten. I finished off a packet of crispbread and had an egg that would otherwise had been leftover.
The day was pleasant enough, and the wind was not chilling, so I decided to try getting some timelapses done of the clouds while the others explored the other side of the island. One timelapse with the campsite, another with what I thought was a wall of rain that appeared to be moving from right to left. The “wall” dissolved after a while, but the play was very good indeed. Both were done won the SX160 with polfilter and rawopint. The first sequence had evaluative metering, the second center-biased metering and the smallest δ was 1/16 BV. Three and a half thousand photos in all in 4 K so that will give me something to do on a winter’s evening.
Youtube Video
I have found a “desk” among the rocks to write this after trying to write the diary lying down last night (not so good).
Plenty of new but not so painful blisters appearing, but the pussed one seems to have been burst permanently and the one on the right thumb looks a lot better when dry.
Looks like there’ll be a camp fire tonight, as a dead tree was found and hacked to pieces. Dinner will be a full packet of spaghetti (slightly water-spoiled, i.e. precooked) with a can of Mexico mix and pesto. Campfire to the sunset, moonrise and the stars becoming visible. Birch bark was used as a firelighter, and around 10:30 most people were ready for bed, the wood that had been collected had turned to glowing coals which were then extinguished in the fireplace that had been built in the course of the afternoon.
Think it’s time for a camping ground again tomorrow.
