Near Death Experience
15 August 2010
16.08.2010
70 °F
Early this morning Curt and I got on the bus at the Slussen station to ride 45 minutes to the archipeligo where we were going on a kayaking trip. We got off the bus and met up with the ferry that was going to take us to the start point. At the dock I was interested in the gas stations on the water.
gas stations on the water
After a short ferry ride we met up with our guide Michael who gave us a little class on Kayaking before we got started.
start point
The worst part of kayaking is getting in and out of the thing but somehow I managed that just fine. We were riding out to the islands through pretty calm waters at first.
getting in kayak
After we were out about an hour the waves started to pick up due to the wind. It looked like it may storm at any moment. This archipeligo has about 2400 islands and most are not inhabited. The ones that are have mostly summer homes. In the winter most of the water is ice so people can't even get to their houses.
On the island for lunch
We hit an island and got out for lunch of potatoes, herring, salad and cheese. Cinnamon rolls are also important to the Swedes so we had those too. Now it started to rain a little bit but we still weren't soaked.
Curt and I kayaking
The way back was much harder. We were going against the wind which had become pretty strong. The kayak didn't feel like it was turning at all so I was asking Curt if the rudder was down. At the same time I turned to look and fell in to the water. I came right back up and didn't have to use any of the info from the safety class but my adrenaline was going for awhile. After I managed to get back in the kayak we had to row super fast to get back in time for our ferry boat back to the bus. I was still soaking wet when I got back on the ferry, bus and even when we got back to the hotel.
Tonight we were trying to make up for the wildlife safari we had missed Friday night. We rushed to shower and find some pizza before being picked up. Our guide drove us just outside the city to look for wildlife.
Our first stop though was at some ancient ruins. They had giant rocks called ruin rocks that were placed to mark important events.
Red deer
Once dusk had settled tons of red deer came out of the woodwork. It was the start of mating season so the males were chasing around the females and we even watched one sniff out the trail of a female that had ran that way a few minutes earlier.
traditional red house
Before the night was over we saw many more families of deer, 2 foxes and one moose. by that time it was too dark to take a photo and the female moose was very skittish. She ran away from the car very gracefully. We also passed a bunch of giant highland cattle which the Swedes have a special agreement to keep. And last but not least many more of the red buildings with white trim. The red paint is a by product of copper plants that the rich people started painting their houses. Eventually everyone could afford it so the red house became prevalent. Naturally the rich people had to change it up and paint their houses yellow at that point.
Posted by ErinDriver 12:40 Archived in Sweden Tagged living_abroad
