Canoetrip Sweden sept08

[gunnix]

I organised a canoetrip earlier this month. We paddled on the Dalälven in Sweden, upstream.

We start on Sjövik, the tipipoles are still standing from where I and Sarah lived last year.

First breakfast should be good, they don't know yet it'll be porridge for the biggest part of the week.

Adrian and Andreas drove us some swedish miles downstream, here the canoes are ready to be packed.

Arrived on an exotic island, time for inspecting the canoes for damage of the trip that ended just two days before. We didn't have the chance yet to do any damage ourselves.

Duane and Mathias got a nice catch, pike and perch.

Fish fried in butter and salt, yummie.

There's nothing better after sunset then to warm our bodies and souls around the fire.

Our baker tent, besides choosing the most windy spot, we also pulled up the sides so there would be more draft to lessen the amount of mosquitos.

Canoe rescue excercise. It took a while but I finally got them into the water, I don't think I would have succeeded if the sun hadn't come out

A little curious bird found comfort in our camp, eating the peanuts that had fallen on the ground.

Time to break camp, we spent two nights here. The stars had been beautiful.

Lunch break on a little island. There was a lot of wind, a cloudy sky.

Digging up an anthill, but we found no eggs.

This hut sure looked tempting, we couldn't resist and spent a good nights sleep without mosquitos.

Fishing on the lake in front of the hut. We're dragging the lines behind the canoe.

First rapid, we lined it from the side. It took more of us then expected.

Good times in the log shelter, Jan and Niek. The fire in front heats it up tremendously. Mathias kept the fire on all night by throwing wood on the fire without getting out of his sleeping bag. Good for us

The sound of rapids stays always on the background in these couple of days.

Our next stop for the night, in the day we portaged the second rapid. Lined 2 and portaged one canoe over the third rapid which lies next to this log shelter.

Proud of a fabulously good bread baked in the dutch oven, we had a kind of bread baking competition during the trip. At the time Duane and Mathias were leading.

Good stuff!

Tasty fish, the pike was baked in clay. This is our next camp. On the log the new sjövik gransfors axe, a modification of the new axe designed by Lars Fält ordered by Naturkompaniet.

Next evening, a beautiful sunset. Time to fish!

Lasagne baked in the dutch oven.

Men after being out for a week.

The spoons we made and the bread that won the first prize, baked by Jan and Niek. Just before we set of for the last 5 km of paddling. We can't help to show of with our knives again.

Back on Sjövik, the trip is nearly over. Now only a night with songs around the campfire and a breakfast of pancakes awaits us before we all go home again. Or no, they go home again, because I'm staying

We had a good trip together, it was a tough trip tough because the wind kept blowing hard all the week in the wrong direction. And the lining of rapids showed quite difficult for novices. But spirits were always lifted up in the evenings around the campfire with good company. We've all learned a lot on this trip, I learned a lot about fishing from Duane.

All the pictures have been taken by Jan, Niek or Duane.

Thanks for looking,
Gunnar

 

[Sniper]

That looked like a terrific trip wish I had been with you, thanks for sharing with us. I really must save hard for a trip to Sweden someday, maybe when I win the lottery.

 

[pothunter]

Hi Gunnar

An excellent trip and thank you for sharing your experiences, some nice looking canoes and wonderful country, were the mosquitoes very bad. The bread is interesting what was the winning recipe and some nice looking spoons.

What fishing gear did you use?

Pothunter.

 

[gunnix]

Thanks for your replies. The mosquitos were not very bad, there were actually more mosquitos in the trip I did last week trough the area, this time with the class. It was warmer weather now and no wind, so there were quite many, but only until around 8 oclock, then they went sleeping. So it didn't bother us much. There are a lot more mosquitos in June and july.

The bread was left to rise in the warmth next to the fire for an hour, then worked on it again and then left for 20mins before baking, which takes around an hour. Ingredients were something like 1kg flour, yeast, raisins, sunflower seeds, salt, water. But I'm not sure as it wasn't me who made it. It was not the ingredients who were most important though, it was the consistency of the bread that was most important, and if it was burned or not. This bread was baked very well. Some other breads we tried to finish too rapidly, they got burned.

The fishing gear was just some normal fishing rods and mostly rapala fishing bait, mostly Duane's gear, he would be better to answer this question. In the trip after this one I have used a can with fishing line around it to fish, mostly dragging the line behind the canoe. First time I try it and got some nice fish, I like it a lot because I can store the fishing hooks and plier inside the can while carrying in the rucksack.

 

[Nick123]

Thanks Gunnar for the wonderful week. :You_Rock_

We had lots of fun. The recipes you made in advance were easy to cook. The cheese and salami was so great that we run out of it prematurely. The Dutch oven is a nice piece of equipment - although a bit on the heavy side. We used it to bake bread, make lasagna etc. About the mosquito's, I used quite a bit of 50% deet to keep them a bay. Jan, however got bitten quite badly because he did not asked for it until it was too late. Oh, we found out that paddling against the current in the middle of the river is not a good idea, especially with a head wind. Our speed was -3 m/s.

I'm looking forward to another expedition.

Nick

 

[Bernie Garland]

Looks like a fantastic time was had by all,intend to really give my new canoe some stick next year, on the Scottish Lochs.

Bernie