Örö kayaking trip

The fortress island Örö was opened up to the public in 2015 as part of the Archipelago National Park. Incidentally, I was one of the four first persons on the Örö national park, in a group of four that paddled there immediately on the New Year's Day. Örö was also a natural destination for a trip by the local paddling club, and Esko was the natural choice to lead such a trip, since he had worked with preparing the island national park for quite some time. He asked me to be his assistant guide for the trip, which suited me fine. The date was set to the last weekend of September. A few weeks earlier we had a meeting with the participants to plan the trip. The trip would eventually have a total of 13 participants, including Esko and me.

The Outdoor Guide to Turku

Turku is the oldest city in Finland, and was the most important one for many hundred years, which is reflected in a rich cultural heritage. It also has a lot to offer for the outdoor lover. You can go hiking, trail running, mountain biking and paddling right from the middle of the city. There are a number of outdoor shops where you can complement your gear and then there are also the cafés and pubs along the river where you can meet outdoor people over a hot brew or cold beer.

Tarptent Double Rainbow five year review

In July 2010 I decided to sell my Hilleberg Akto tent and buy another solo tent better suited to my needs. The Hilleberg Akto, which generally has been considered to be one of the absolutely best solo tents, simply didn't do what I wanted. The weight (1.5kg) was ok and it definitely was ready for just about any weather, even up in the mountains, but for ordinary forest use it wasn't optimal. The bug netting only covered the upper half of the small door and provided no view towards the beautiful summer nights. During the summer the weather is mostly great in Finland, and all you really need is good protection against the bugs as well as the occasional rain shower.

Short canoe overnighter

It was time for a long due canoeing overnighter with the kids. I'd like to do more canoeing, but there really aren't any lake landscapes very close to Turku. The closest ones are about a one hour drive away and they are not big enough for more that a day or two on canoeing. Still, even shorter trips are nice and it is easy to bring the kids in a canoe. The 11 year old had some other activities planned, so I only got the 10 year old with me this time. The target was the Västerby area, which I knew from my childhood and youth.

Vigu Sea Kayaking II

In the last week of August it was finally time for the Vigu Sea Kayaking II course. I had looked forward to it for quite a while and looking at the list of participants it seemed that we would get a good group with most people having kayaked quite a bit earlier. Eva-Lotta Backman, one of the foremost paddling instructors and coaches in Finland, would be our instructor. Check out her blog (in Swedish) here.