1. Auckland, Mission Bay

Saturday, February 9: Some rain on the approach, a couple of showers on the way into town otherwise becoming sunny and hot

Nadia’s (airbnb, $62.1)

Spent some time watching the flight path while listening to the music, and tried to decipher the Arabic signs for what are almost always transliterations of the Latin alphabet. Sunrise was becoming visible as we flew over Kingsford-Smith itself. Then after a longer lull there was a rush for breakfast (I had the scrambled eggs) and the collection of all of the used equipment before landing. My English neighbors were going on a cruise; apart from that they had owned a house in Spain for some period of his retirement, and so were obviously Brexit opponents. Anyway after landing they were keen to get off & I wished them well, then looked for and found the pen I needed to fill out the entry form in the top compartment of the pack, and not in the satellite vanity bag where it should have been. Anyway there was enough time to fill out the form while I waited for people to actually move forward. In doing so I had dropped the passport into the chunderbag pouch and everything had to be systematically searched before the pack could be closed, and by then movement along the aisle was possible. Read more…

0. Hannover – Frankfurt – Dubai

Friday, February 8: Cloudy, then fine, not really cold

That was cutting it a bit fine. Up at 8:30, then off to the office for a short chat with Joy. Was trying to finalise things back here in the flat, when I heard some scratching at the front door, and Jennifer and Theresa had come early with all of their belongings. Jennifer had taken the day off and was keen to move in at the noon mentioned in the contract. Anyhow I still had a good hour and forty minutes to do, including a shave and a shower, taking out the rubbish, filling in a last couple of boxes, removing my smelly old clothes, and trying to find a way of packing the boots, a pair of shoes that can be thrown away, and the paddling clogs. In the end wore the shoes, put the boots in the backpack and the clogs dangling off the backpack with the bed roll and the ratsack. Read more…

SE: Rivö – Göteborg – D: Hannover

Thursday, August 30: Rain overnight (one shower), overcast during the day

Sea kayaking: 4.9 km

Home

The plan was for an early start: Up @ 7:00, leaving by 9:00, with the hope of reaching home some time in the night.

All of the coffee, sugar and milk were put into one cup; Kirsten offered her milk as well, but by the time I had put it into the coffee I noticed that it was curdled (hardly detectable smell of lactic acid). Then everything was packed up for the last time and we were away half an hour before plan. Read more…

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. Read more…

SE: Klädesholmen – Glöskärviken

Tuesday, August 28: Cloudy to begin with but calm, becoming sunny & warm

Sea kayaking: 26.1 km

Glöskärviken wilderness camping

Time to get back onto the water today, and that meant an early rising for everyone from about 7:30 onwards, breakfast with the luxury of a table, and packing away everything and carting it all down to the boats, which were quite full of water after yesterday’s storm. Once the hut had begun to empty somewhat, some cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming could be done, but all were very enthusiastic again after the day off, and we were ready to go by 10:00. Read more…

SE: Hälsön – Klädesholmen, storm day in Klädesholmen

Sunday, August 26: One shower in the night, otherwise quite cold; a couple of clouds remaining in the morning, clearing in the course of the afternoon; fresh sea breeze

Sea Kayaking: 24.4 km

Holiday home for six at Klädesholmen harbor

The cheese had lasted well (the same cannot be said of the crispbread which was rapidly becoming soft) and was now finished. Still a lot of coffee & sugar to go and the milk may well last the length of the trip. Anyway, breakfast was dealt with, the tent packed up and we set out on our hardest day, which was planned to be a lot of paddling into head winds or along the coast with side winds and parallel waves. Read more…

SE: Bråtö – Hälsön

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. Read more…

SE: Ellös – Bråtö

Friday, August 24: Still a bit of rain in the morning, clearing rather quickly, one or two showers along the way, sea breeze

Sea Kayaking: 17.2 km

Bråtö wilderness camping

We were up before the others as usual but not so early and had our breakfast in the well-hung mess. Not much of the clothes had become dry and the tent was still very wet despite the increasing wind. The quarry next to the campground was operating from fairly early on, including a couple of detonations with acoustic warnings that sounded like car alarms.

Everyone else was up as soon as the rain was over and a lot of stuff was hung over fence posts in an attempt to dry. The boats were also fairly full of water so my bailing device came into good use. Eventually the mess room was cleared out and the boats were ready to go. As the ramp was too slippery to attempt an entry into the water, I had fixated the pontoon so that the boats could be let down the slip and forwarded to the pontoon where they were entered. Read more…

SE: Brattön – Ellös

Thursday, August 23: Rain starting just before dawn and continuing as showers throughout the rest of the day

Sea Kayaking: 24.6 km

Malö Familje Camping, Ellös

We had gone to bed fairly early but the onset of rain meant that we slept in until after 7:30. After that there was not much to do except try to have some breakfast during a break in the rain. But by the time we should have been leaving it had started to rain again and the tent had to be packed up in a completely wet condition.

Anyway we were off, and for the first couple of kilometres it was at least fairly calm. A double sea kayak turned up close to the shore and was seen once more briefly but most of the views were much greener than at the beginning, with higher hills. At one point it looked like we were in a dead end but the fiord arm did continue on, but it was very shallow so that we got out for a pee before continuing on. Read more…

SE: Stenungsund – Brattön

Wednesday, August 22: Very cold in the night, rain towards dawn, and overcast and windy (south) for most of the rest of the day

Sea kayaking, 31.8 km

Brattön wilderness camping

My stuff was almost dry by the morning despite the overnight rain. There was a bit of a loud disco on last night and we were up about 45 minutes later than usual but no one else was up. Breakfast was quickly dealt with and everything was packed up, except for the tent, which we allowed to dry for as long as possible.

As we were getting into our boats I noticed that my spray skirt was inside out, had to get out of the boat, put it on the right way and back into the boat and then we were off. Read more…

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