I flew to Stockholm and met Ari and Anaïs and with a McDonald’s burger (due to the lack of alternatives) and some cold fries we drove into the night. Our destination was South of Stockholm, the island of Dalarö connected to the mainland by a little bridge.
We spent Friday exploring a bit and celebrating Anaïs birthday by visiting the local bakery for a dose of sugar and then baking a large zucchini chocolate cake with raspberry filling that got slightly out of control but was very tasty.
On Saturday, we arrived by foot shortly before 9 am at the kayak rental and packed two sea kayaks full of our gear. It was a grey autumn day but the wind had gone down compared with our first day in Dalarö, and that had been our main concern. We headed out into the ocean. Anaïs and I were in a yellow double kayak and Ari was following behind in a red single. The kayaks were in good condition, better condition than we were in. We’d borrowed a throw bag from the kayak rental and we used it to attach Ari, one end to herself and the other to my life vest by my shoulder. This worked out well and we soon found a rhythm and were on our way out into the archipelago. There were islands of varying size dotted all over the place. Some were covered in little red cabins and boat ramps but as we got further away from Dalarö there were islands that were completely uninhabited.
We followed a route that Daniel, our kayak rental guy had suggested. It took us South West from Dalarö and then North East through a chain of islands to one at the end where we camped for the night. As we kayaked the weather improved and soon the grey was replaced by blue sky and sunshine. We located a little canal through reeds that took us to an enclosed “lake” where we stopped for lunch, hanging our wet gear between two trees on the washing line I’d brought with us. After a feast of wraps and some sitting in the sun we continued on, leaving the lake by another small canal that took us back to the sea. The wind had been getting up but happily it was at our backs and it provided quite a lot of assistance. Without doing anything we were able to float along at around 3km/h. It would have been fun to have had a sail.
All the little islands looked very pretty in the sun and we navigated with the help of GPS through them. It would’ve been much harder just using the map we’d been given because the perspective from the water was always the same. The islands looked very similar and there are, of course, no hills to use as bearings. We kayaked to our first candidate camp site, a narrow neck joining two blobs of an island. It looked nice but with the wind behind us we decided to go further and instead landed on the farthest island. It was unfortunately much less sheltered but there was a flat area for camping and the ground was very soft. We pitched our tents amongst the trees while the wind tried to make things harder for us. After, we went to explore the island and found that, not far away, on the other side, there was no wind at all. There was a big flat rocky area with a view out to the ocean and we decided we’d make dinner there later.
Later arrived and we cooked up a veggie curry and ate it watching the sun sink into a bank of grey cloud on the horizon. I got my flying camera out and took some nice snaps from the air of some of the many little islands poking out of the ocean. We headed off to bed as the light vanished. It rained a little in the night and the wind continued but at one point when I got up I could see stars in a clear sky above the trees.
We weren’t sure how pleasant the kayaking would be as we packed up our gear the following morning. The wind dropped a little though as we got ready to leave and the sun came out. From the little beach we headed out and got into towing position. After hooking up Ari we began kayaking directly towards the mainland. The wind was constant but ok and as soon as we got to the first island it dropped as we passed into the wind shadow. We crossed back into the wind and then behind another island until we had no choice but to head directly into it. A good spot with a jetty on another island came into view and we stopped there for lunch. Two minute noodles! What a treat. Then it was a couple more kilometres directly into the wind until we rounded the point at the end of Dalarö.
We cruised back to the harbour and unpacked the kayaks. A very nice trip. To reflect and continue celebrating Anaïs’s advanced age, we went out for dinner in the evening at the only open restaurant we could find. It was acceptable.
On Monday we went walking in a national park about 30 minutes drive away. I went for a quick dip in the cold lake and Anaïs was excited by all the fungi we found along the trail. We lazed back at our little cottage accommodation in the evening.
Tuesday arrived and it was already time to head home. We visited Stockholm briefly but were scared off by the cost of parking so only spent an hour there. Instead we checked out Sigtuna, a little town by the sea and not far from the airport. It was quite nice and we dawdled around through a forest, past some ruins to a cafe where we all ate too much food. I was delivered to the airport and it was time to fly back to Zurich.
