Sweden around in a kayak 2013 - Mårten Wetterberg

A Belsize Park story


Sala - London 1394km

It's been a while since my last update. A lot has happened since, but I have not managed a single minute in a kayak.

I was a bit behind on my work, having been gone for almost two months. Nothing that two months of day-and-night work couldn't fix!

The first week of august had trekking to offer. We took the train to Abisko, or Vassijaure for you who know the area. A very pleasant and somewhat calmer trekking experience, what ended with a three meal course in Abisko. Besides me, my mom, dad lil'sis, big'sis and brother-in-law came along for the trek.

Well on our way south again we got stuck on the train in Gällivare, a heat distotion ruined the tracks. Now, imagine England, a fairly big country to cross. Now look northeast, to Sweden. A slightly bigger country to cross, the distances are just huge there! The railway company SJ tried to get us past these broken tracks by bus, but in Luleå, 400km later, we gave up and rented cars instead. Lucky that, because a railway tunnel was flooded. No wonder when we were travelling on a roughly 2000km long railway.

On the 24 of August, it was time. Time for something that for my sister and her Björn was at least as hard a task as my paddling, namely their wedding. I don't mean the part about saying yes to one another, they did that rather easily, I mean the planning of such a big party.

The party was quite a smashing hit, despite the wedding forgetting their names, and Ida's little brother forgetting his speech. Well, the wedding is a chapter of its own, that's Ida and Björn Wetterbergs chapter, and I am very happy to have been a part of it, as best man.

The jury meeting? That's what interest us paddlers even more! First we walked through my maps, even if I might have had the A4 papers in a rather complicated order. I got to meet the famous litter-pickers Tim and Ulrika, who paddled the same stretch as me. Amazing we didn't meet at sea. We had toast, beer, coffee and biscuits, and chatted for more than two hours, before I headed back to Sala again. The next day, Jim Danielsson called me up, he had read my entire journal and mainly wanted to say how amazed he was of my deed.

Now, a few weeks later, I'm back in London, on Starbucks in Whitechapel after the best summer in my life. I long out at sea again, but at the same time I'm afraid I need at least a week in the kayak to come in the same calm mood again. If not a long paddling 2014, at least a reasonably long trekk or something else awaits. Because I'm definately going out in the wild again!

The new apartment is in Belsize Park, Londons VIP district. The rain is pouring down, just like it shoud. If I find the time, I'm going to write a summary of my adventure, mostly to remember my time out.

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