SE: Glöskärviken – Rivö

Wednesday, August 29: Overcast in the morning, becoming sunnier during the day, overcast again towards evening, dry

Sea kayaking: 23.8 km

Rivö wilderness camping

My eyes were stuck together for most of the night and whenever I woke up, but the symptoms of itchy eyes and runny nose were resolved by the time I got out of the tent. An attempt to wash my face didn’t remove the last albumin crystals from the eyelashes, but that was going to be as good as it gets.

Breakfast was dealt with from 7:30 onwards; everything is coming to an end as planned. Tent was still a bit wet from condensation despite Kirsten’s attempts at using the sponge to dry the outside.

Time to get into the boats and I attempted a bank embarkation which ended with me in the water/mud. Righted the situation and we were off pretty much on time.

Fairly warm but a bit of a headwind so it took us a full two hours for the 10 km to the next designated campsite for lunch. Then it was further south, threading our way through the ferry lines, and then onto the major crossing of the shipping lanes in front of Göteborg. Reached one set of islands, then the lane itself. I had warned Simon that a large container ship (the Manila Maersk) was approaching but he thought it was stationary for quite some time before it was almost too late. Anyway we let it pass, and were very close, bringing with it wake waves that were well over 1.5 m in height. Philipp and Jan tried surfing them, and were nowhere to be seen as we tried crossing the lane, and we were soon whistled back.

It was another couple of kilometres before we finally crossed the double lane, with a couple of passenger ships from the Stena Line crossing in both directions. Anyway, Philipp determined a point to cross at, and that was almost directly opposite our final destination, so we were soon at the camping spot. Kirsten was almost exhausted by the time we arrived. I found a place for the tent and cleared out a spot (plenty of sheep droppings about) while she got changed into dry gear.

Choreography worked well for the last performance. Then the meal was on the agenda: Rice (still some left), a can each of Mexico Mix and princess beans, spiced as usual and that will be that. Got everyone to write down their contact details in the diary, and we sat around a fire in the designated fireplace for one last evening on the water.

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