We have so many people we need to thank that we decided to dedicate a blog post to it.  We really would have had a hard time on this trip without the amazing people who helped us a long the way!  We are very sorry if we’ve missed anyone out.

Firstly there is no way we would have been able to complete this trip without the help and support, before and during our trip, from our amazing coach Roger Chandler!

The three of us and Roger about to cross the channel!

Also big thanks go to Roy Farrington from Leamington Canoe Club for helping improve our technique, we definately needed all the help we could get in that area!

Then we have so many people to thank for helping us along the way in our journey, by giving us a place to stay or some food and most importantly, brilliant company!  So firstly thank you to Ellen from the Netherlands!  Hope you enjoyed your copy of  ’Shadow of the Wind’ (we had to throw ours out when Mark left and we ran out of space…).

Mark, Ellen and Erin

A big thank you to Phil and Dietke (and Mimi!) on Norderney!  We loved our time on Norderney, even when it was longer than expected!  Good food, company and amazing music…we had certainly never had a song written about us before!

We enjoyed our stay on Norderney!

Thanks to Martin Vogt!  You gave us a taste for becks green Lemon, we brought some later in Fehmarn when we had a day off due to high winds.

Us on ‘Seija’

Thank you to Bjorn and Hao, for giving us the largest steak EVER on a BBQ and for a beautiful afternoon swimming in a lake on such a hot day.

Erin, Bjorn & Hao

Thanks to PieterJan Spijkerman  & wife for giving us tea and biscuits whilst in the Kiel Canal!

Our friends from the Kiel Canal

Thank you to Tom, for being our temporary third member!  It was nice to have your company through Denmark, we missed you when you left.

Tom, our third member for awhile

Thanks to Janne, for taking pity on us hitch hiking to town…and then giving us amazing food and company, we are looking forward to coming back to see you in Denmark!

Janne & Erin before we crossed to Sweden

Thanks to Steen, for being our number 1 fan in Denmark and then for coming to paddle with us in Sweden.  The army blanket came in handy, we are keeping it safe till we see you next!

Steen joined us for a nice sunny morning in Sweden

Thank you to Nils, for taking us for the best lunch we had in Sweden!

Nils and Ziggy the boxer

Thanks to Lars and family, for a great dinner and for giving us a taste of Sweden- blueberry soup is very nice, cavier paste…not so much (this came back to haunt us in Finland).  The plums from your garden were also good.

Blueberry soup

Thank you to Goran and Agneta, it was so nice of you to take us in and we appreciated the food, and we also appreciated the washing machine! (We didn’t get the opportunity to wash our clothes again on the trip…).

Erin and Agneta

Thanks to Asa and Kenth for taking us in, for the delicious food and for the much appreciated Thermos flask!  We certainly got a lot of use from it.

Asa and Erin

Thanks to Ulla for letting us stay in her holiday home, and for the fairy cakes, they were great!

Ulla and I

Thanks to Anneli for taking us in and giving us tea and sandwiches!  It was really nice to meet you, we saw some of the mushrooms you mentioned!

Thanks to Karls! For letting us stay in his cottage room, after a long day crossing from Kokar to Korpo against the winds.

Thanks to Sarah and Einau, for saving us from a very horrible evening in the pouring rain!  And for good food and company.

Sarah, Einau, Tindra and Erin

Thank you to Jerry and Tula, for letting us stay in your sauna house on a miserable evening and for the wonderful tea.  It was nice to meet you both.

Thanks to Pertii Eskola and wife for taking us in and giving us dinner on a cold evening!

Thanks to Arja and her family for giving us a place to stay and great food and company, it was really nice to meet you all.

Erin and the Lindholm family!

Thanks to Timo for being an amazing contact for us in Helsinki and for organising a great welcome party for us when we got there!

Us and Timo in Saariston Kauppa

Thank you to Jussi for taking lots of awesome photos and being generally brilliant!

Thanks to everyone who turned out to meet us on our arrival in Helsinki, it was really appreciated!  It was amazing to see all the paddlers out on the water to greet us, so thanks to everyone who came out to meet us.

Also we would like to thank the British Ambassador, Matthew Lodge and  Johan Holmberg, the chairman of expedition kayaking, for their warm welcome.

Thank you to all of our parents for their support throughout the trip; Marks dad was brilliant at keeping us updated on the weather in the North Sea and mine and Erins mums for coming out to meet us at the end.

Thank you to all our friends from home who have sent messages of support before, during and after the trip!

And thanks to everyone who has been following our blog, we have appreciated some of the messages of advice emailed to us throughout the course of our trip.

Finally, last but not least, thanks to everyone who has sponsored our chosen charities; Macmillan Cancer Support, Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Alzheimer’s Research UK!  They are fantastic charities and being able to raise some money for them means a lot to us.

When Mark, Erin and I set out on this expedition we had white water kayaking backgrounds and were relatively inexperienced in sea kayaking.  I had done a week sea kayaking in Sweden with friends and then the three of us did about 8 days sea kayaking in Anglesey, with our coach Roger in preparation for the trip.  The idea of going on a long sea expedition was mine, as I was graduating from university and I wanted to do something big.  I had enjoyed my previous sea kayaking trip in Sweden and it was actually my boyfriend who suggested kayaking from England to Finland, a suggestion he later regretted when I decided to take it seriously and go!  Fortunately, I had some friends mad enough to come on board.  We each picked a charity that we were keen to raise money for on the expedition.  Moreover, we managed to secure some sponsorship for some of our equipment and also acquired some university funding to help cover some of the costs involved in such a long expedition.  After we prepared ourselves as much we could through training and planning we set out from Folkestone on July 6^th.  This trip then proved to throw different challenges at us throughout, which kept it interesting and forced us to learn a lot through experience.

When we set out in the North Sea one of our main challenges through France, Belgium and the Netherlands were the arduous carrying of our kayaks up massive sandy beaches.  On the first day after crossing the channel we were all exhausted and carrying the boats up a huge stretch of the beach between the three of us felt cripplingly difficult!  So much so, that we had to empty some gear out of them.  This continued to be hard work through Belgium, the Netherlands and the start of Germany.

Another problem we faced pretty much immediately was trying to cross really busy ports, particularly whilst trying to avoid being stopped by the port authorities!  We had experienced one small port before the trip, and suddenly we were faced with Calais on our second day which had ferries coming in and out every 15 minutes.  We got stopped on our first attempt at crossing, as we edged up to the breakwaters the police took us off the water and we didn’t know what to do.  We tried to formulate a plan and the next day we went to talk to the police, who told us to cross further out from the breakwaters, which was more risky for us as the shipping lane was so much wider further out, meaning more time for us in the danger zone!  However we worked up our courage and went out, watching the ferries go in and out, and then when we felt comfortable we went for it, got across the shipping lane going into Calais and the police still came out to make sure we knew what we were doing.  We were so happy though to have crossed Calais that day though, we felt jubilant!  After Calais, ports continued to be a bit scary with us nervously crossing Dunkirk, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, and we still felt victorious each time we safely made it across them.  They did get easier though, as with time we built up experience and knew what to expect.

On this trip of course we also had to get to grips with working with the tides.  As any seafarers know in the North Sea the current flows one way for 6 hours, then turns and goes the other way for the next 6 hours.  This means to make good progress it is best for sea kayakers to get on when the current starts flowing in the direction you want to go, but this time changes by an hour each day.  This meant that sometimes we would have really early starts to try and get on the water when the tides were going with us.  Then sometimes we would be able to go with some of the morning flow, have a break in the middle of the day, and then get back on for the afternoon flow.  Mark was the first one to really get to grips with looking at the tidal constants for us getting on and was very good at sorting this aspect of the trip out.  We didn’t always get it right with tides, sometimes the tide would be unexpectedly flowing against us, which it was when we crossed Zeebrugge, but a lot of the time we managed to make good progress going with the tide.  But even with the tides on our side, the weather was not.  We were very much delayed by howling winds very early on in the trip which was demoralising.  It is hard to be in a situation where progress is out of your control.  When we had bad weather in both France and Belgium right away it was really frustrating.

Something we found hard right from the start of the trip was getting along as a group.  The good thing about being a group of three was that when things were going well it was great; carrying the boats and doing chores like cooking were easier when there were three of us to share the load.  It also meant that if someone wasn’t feeling well or had a problem the other two could do a bit more that day to give the person having a hard time a break, a luxury that we couldn’t afford in the second half of the trip.  However, as a group we often didn’t function very well.  Expeditions are hard and under the trying circumstances of exhaustion small disagreements often escalated into larger rows.  This meant that the atmosphere in the group could be awful at times, leaving everyone feeling glum.  In the North Sea we didn’t meet many people outside of the three of us till we reached the second half of the Frisian Islands and stopped on Norderney, a German island where Erin had some family friends.  Up till Norderney we were quite isolated, meaning we started to long for company outside of the three of us.  Getting to Norderney did provide us with some light relief as we got to spend time with other people and seemed to lighten everyone’s mood a bit.  As well as good company the Frisian Islands also added massive swell, surf and some tidal races to our experience!

Then we got to the Wadden Sea and wow!  That was certainly a new challenge.  We had been warned about the huge mudflats, but nothing quite prepared us for them.  One moment we were paddling in the middle of the sea crossing to mainland Germany, the next moment we couldn’t put in a proper paddle stroke because the water was too shallow, then we were stranded in the middle of a muddy desert with nothing for miles!  It was bizarre.  Then we started getting to grips with the fact that there are deeper channels marked by sticks which you can follow into harbours when things get shallow, but we followed one and still got stuck.  The Wadden Sea was a mad experience and we were fairly happy to see the back of it!

Then Mark left us due to work commitments and three became two.  Erin and I continued through the Kiel Canal, a yachtsman had told us ‘once you reach Brunstbuttel you’ll be on holiday,’ and it was true that the Kiel Canal seemed blissfully simple after tackling the German mudflats.  Erin and I adjusted to being a two and jokingly referred to ourselves as the ‘dream team’ (or somewhat jokingly, we were pretty good!).

Then we came out into the Baltic Sea and we had new problems to deal with; one of which was firing ranges!  There are firing ranges throughout the Baltic, some of which proved interesting.  At our first firing range in Germany we radioed in to ask about crossing, but then almost entered too early due to a confusion with timings, we stopped when we heard shots!  The next firing range we knew we had the time right and thought we had enough time to get across before the military started firing, but we got taken off the water by the German military who disagreed.  Then later on we came to a less active firing range in Sweden…and camped in it.

I had a rather large amount of misconceptions about what our time in the Baltic Sea would be like.   The first of which was that bad weather would not be an issue, as there were no tides so there would be less waves.  To some extent waves are very different in the Baltic Sea, but we still experienced some rather big waves and there were still days when we were stopped by high winds.  The second misconception I had was that we would have plenty of daylight hours as we went further north.  This might have been true at one stage, but we were so delayed by the time we got there it was September we didn’t have as plentiful daylight as I first envisioned.  Finally, we had some issues with our gear.  We didn’t really have the right gear for when it started to get colder.  Having started in July we had gear to keep us warm on the water, but not so much to keep us warm in the tent at night.  Subsequently we had some bitterly cold nights in our tent, with just our summer sleeping bags, wearing all the layers we owned.  Fortunately, Steen a sea kayaker we met in Denmark gave us an extra blanket and we purchased some extra fleeces to make nights more bearable.  We also had a few issues with our cooker and our tent towards the end of the trip.  In Sweden we also had some issues finding Trangia fuel to start with, so we started cooking on fires.  Then someone brought us some fuel and our Trangia lid became too stiff for us to open at all so we only had a Jetboil and fires for the rest of the trip.  When we got to Finland someone stronger than us did manage to open the Trangia lid!  As well as the Trangia issues we were also unlucky that just after crossing to the Aland Islands our tent, which had been our home for three months, started to give way with one of the poles breaking in some strong wind.

Moreover, as weather conditions and the cold got tougher we also needed to start pushing longer days as Erin needed to get back in time for university at the start of October.  This meant that our schedule got tighter and tighter in the Baltic, which is why we had to turn down some kind invitations to stay with certain people.  Where we stopped in the evenings was based on how far we could get before it got dark, or in some cases, where we could pull in when it did get dark.  Our days towards the end went from 8 hours up to around 12 hours on the water with no significant breaks.  These long days meant our bodies started to suffer from wear and tear; we both had very achy shoulders and I had some nasty sores on my hands and feet which could have been caused by the salt or the cold or a combination of the two.

One thing I did know about the Baltic Sea from my short experience of sea kayaking in Sweden was that it was very beautiful, and its beauty was certainly something we appreciated on this trip.  Both Erin and I really enjoyed our time kayaking in the Baltic as it was fantastically scenic.  Through the Baltic Sea we kayaked along high cliffs in Denmark and then round beautiful islands through Sweden and Finland.  We also saw amazing wildlife as we continued to see lots of seals as we had done in the North Sea, and Erin and I also saw wild eagles for the first time which was just amazing!

The great thing we didn’t necessarily anticipate was how many amazing people we would meet in the Baltic Sea.  We did meet a few nice people in the North Sea, but we didn’t really get to spend much time with them, other than on Norderney.  However, the Baltic seemed to be a whirlwind of us meeting fantastic people.  After the Kiel Canal we met up with kayakers Bjorn and Hao who took us for a BBQ and a swim which was great.  In Denmark we then met a kayaker Tom from Germany who kayaked with us for several days and we actually learnt quite a lot from him; like that we should be hanging our clothes out to dry whenever we got the chance.  Then in Denmark we met some more sea kayakers, Janne and Steen who were the first strangers that took us in, fed us and gave us a place to stay when the weather was too rough!  Then towards the end of Sweden we met a lovely couple, Goran and Agneta, who invited us into their house to stay without knowing us or having any particular interest in sea kayaking.  This was so kind of them, and it also the start of something new.  The morning after we stayed with Goran and Agneta we managed to get on the water so early because we had been able to leave our boats packed with the tent and our sleeping bags left in them.  It also meant we got up feeling warm and ready to paddle, as oppose to our usual sluggish wake up in the freezing cold tent.  This was when we got the idea to start thrusting our company upon people; we started knocking on doors and asking for a bit of floor to sleep on or a place to stay.  This was awkward for us, as we really didn’t like the idea of intruding on people.  Yet this then opened the door to us meeting a whole range of people, who will be outlined better in a ‘thank you’ blog post.  So many people took us in and went above and beyond just giving us place to stay.  We really could not have done the trip without all the people that took us in through the end of Sweden and the start of Finland.  At the start of the trip we only had one contact in Finland who our coach had put us in touch with; Timo Monomen.  Timo was fantastic, he really urged us on as we got closer to Finland and also arranged an amazing welcome for us at the end which we are really grateful for and we were so grateful to all the people that did turn out to meet us at the end of our trip too!

I think we were ambitious with our aim to kayak from England to Finland considering how little sea kayaking we had done when we started this trip.  I’m sure when some people heard about it they probably thought we were a little mad.  And we have made mistakes; we will certainly never be excepting a tow from a drunken yachtsman ever again!  We’ve also accepted and sought out a large amount of help along the way.  But then we have also learned a lot, gained competence in certain areas of sea kayaking and have definitely built up strength and fitness throughout the trip.  Although some of the trip was really hard I don’t have any regrets about the task we set ourselves.  It was a tough journey, but then it needed to be for us to raise money for our charities; we knew from the start it would be challenging.  Ultimately we made it to Finland, having seen some amazing places and meeting the most incredible people along the way!

Thursday 27th September (Continued)

 We left Sara and Einau’s house later than usual due to high winds forecast for the morning.  Despite this late start we still did a pretty awesome day, paddling around 48km as we did a whole day, with no stops till it got dark, in fairly miserable weather.  As it got dark we saw some lights on in a dip in some islands that we were paddling a long.  We decided to kayak towards the lights in hope of a floor to sleep on as our tent pole was held together by duck tape at this point and we didn’t fancy testing it out.  We got to a big house with lights on and we got out of our boats (with difficulty as the rocky banks were pretty steep) and went and knocked on their door.  A man (Jerry) answered and we explained the situation and he said we could change out of our wet gear and sleep in their sauna house, which Erin and I were very greatful for!!  Jerry and his wife, Tulu, then let us in and gave us tea and supper, which was awesome and we talked to them for awhile.  We then went to bed in their sauna house.  We were both exhausted and dreading the 5am start the next day…

Friday 28th September

We got up early and heated some water for soup and got our gear ready to go.  We were on the water before 7am, me and Erin were very tired.  Our contact in Finland, Timo, had told us his club, Merimelojat, were having a party on their island Skorvo on Saturday so we decided to put in a very very long day to try and make it in time!  We did over 40 miles.  It was a very tough day and the weather was miserable, continuous rain.  We did see a very impressive rainbow in the evening though!

By the end both of us were so tired.  We pulled up on a grassy bank near a harbour at the end of the day went and to the nearest house to try our luck at finding somewhere to stay.  Fortunately we were lucky again as a man Pertii and his wife let us stay in their holiday home with them.  They also gave us pizza and cookies, which was amazing after a painfully long day.  Erin and I had a look at the distance left to Timos clubs island where the party would be- we decided that realistically we probably couldn’t make the distance in a day, as we had a lot of aches and pains and it was still a very long way.  We  went to bed.

Saturday 29th September

In the morning Pertii and his wife put out breakfast for us which was really good.  They also came to see us off, it was a bitterly cold morning, but the sun was out!!!

For most the trip Erin and I take turns at leading when on the water and we don’t talk much, because if we kayak alongside each other and talk we slow down.  However, this day we kayaked together.  We were both in lots of pain and didn’t need to put in such a long day, so we talked about lots of things and took a bit more of a relaxed pace.  We were aiming for a place 49km away that was marked as having a road- wanting to find somewhere else to stay that night.  As we hit the 47km mark that day we were slowing down; we ate lots of energy sweets!  The weather had turned bad again and it was raining and pretty cold.  We continued on and although it wasn’t dark yet we spotted a house with lights on.  We pulled up and  a lady came out to talk to us.  The house was occupied by Arja, Sebastian and their family, who let us in when we explained what we were doing.  They gave us food and a place to stay in their sauna house which was fantastic.  We really enjoyed talking with them.  Their daughter Emy is also visiting Warwick University in a few weeks, where we study/studied which  was a funny coincidence!  Having a place to stay this night was really good as we knew it was the last night that we would have potentially had to camp in our broken tent, but we didn’t have too.

Sunday 30th September

We got up and Arja gave us loads of food for breakfast which was so nice of her.  We knew we only had a 6 hour day to get to Timos clubs island, Shorvo, so we left a bit later than some mornings.  It was really pouring with rain early on in the day, but by the time we got on around 9 or 10am the rain had stopped.  Arji’s family came to see us off which was really nice, they were all very nice and interesting to talk to.    Again, Erin and I had lots of aches and pains, paddling was starting to get very uncomfortable.  I had salt sores on my hands and feet which were getting very painful and we both had achy shoulders.  We took it fairly easy and for once the sun was out and it stayed out, which was amazing.

We reached Timos club island, Skorvo, and Timo came to welcome us, we were happy to finally meet Timo after having lots of emails & texts from him through the trip!

Timo gave us food and drinks and let us use the sauna.  It was funny because Timo had sent us texts telling us to go for a swim in the sea after a sauna, and Erin and I after having lots of cold days on the water had both been like ‘theres no way we are going in the sea, its freezing.’  In fact I think my words to Erin were something along the lines of ‘I didn’t go in the sea in Sweden when I hadn’t washed for over a week and needed to, I’m not going in the sea now.’  Timo had other plans…we went in the sea.  But after a sauna it wasn’t actually (so) bad.  We then went to bed in their clubhouse, which was lovely and warm.  They have a new heater apparently which is fantastic timing.

Monday 1st October- our final day!

Erin was meant to be back at university, but instead we were setting out to our final destination, Helsinki!  Timo made us porridge and we went for a walk around the island.

Erin had a sore throat, and my salt sores were hurting, but other than that Timo was surprised at how healthy we were!  We set off from Skorvo and paddled to Saariston Kauppa where we met Jussi   from Timos club and Rune, chairman of another club and lots of other nice people.  It was all a little overwhelming as Erin and I had been alone together for such a long time, spending evenings with a couple of people  who had our company pretty much thrust upon them unexpectedly and suddenly we were being greeted by lots of people who were very enthused by our trip and actually expecting us!

Last stop before Helsinki- taken by Jussi!

At the cafe we had a latte and some Finnish fast food, a kind of donut-like pastry with minced meat and some sausages, followed by a very chewy lollipop.  Then all-to-soon we had to get back on the water, as Timo was anxious to get us to Helsinki for a 5:00pm.    When we got closer Timo stopped us for a chocolate bar break and took some photos.  Then we rounded a corner and we were met by some people on a bridge who had come out to meet us! There were some reporters and the British Ambassador in Finland, Matthew Lodge, with a rather amazing Union Jack umbrella.  Then we continued under the bridge and on the horizon we saw some kayakers heading towards us.  As we started chatting to some of the kayakers that had come out to greet us, suddenly loads more kayakers (and an open canoe!) appeared on the horizon, all coming out to meet us…it was amazing!  It was so nice to see so many people out on the water to great us.

Coming in to land- (photo by Jussi)

We then followed the large group of paddlers into our final destination and it was mad! Waiting to greet us were reporters, our relatives, the chairman of expedition kayaking and the British Ambassador and more!

An amazing welcome (photo by Jussi)

Erin and I were immediately interviewed by reporters, then we got out our boats and hugged our mums and my aunt for the first time in three months!  We then went and got changed quickly and then went to a hall where the both Matthew Lodge and Johan Holmberg made speeches and we drank champagne!

Speeches and paddlers (photo by Jussi)

We then got a chance to chat to some of the paddlers who had come out to meet us, but I think me and Erin were still in shock at how many people had turned out to greet us.  It was an amazing end to our trip, we were so pleased that so many people had gone to the effort to turn up, it really meant a lot to us.  Kayaking to Finland was certainly a good decision, as the Finnish are amazing people.  We were s0 happy that we had such a great end, particularly as the last few weeks of our trip were incredibly challenging and we can’t thank everyone who was there at the end enough for making the last day so amazing!

Timo our contact in Helsinki (photo by Jussi)

Special thanks of course go to Timo Mononen, the only contact in Finland we had at the start of the trip, he told us in an email- ‘everyone knows your coming!!!’  and he certainly did not disappoint!

Finally, we have a new page for some of our media coverage, so be sure to have a look: news

Well as a lot of you may know, me and Erin made it!

I am just waiting for my flight home to England now and Erin left very early this morning.  This is just a quick note to say we will be posting some things up here later today.  We intend to finish the posts to outline the highs and lows of our last few days, and then we have so many people to thank we want enough time to do it justice!  We also have lots of photos that we have not had time to upload throughout the trip.  This has been an incredible experience and we have enjoyed our time here in Helsinki and all the people we have met have been amazing.

Saturday 15th September

We got up early at 5.30am to leave the hostel we’d been staying in.  We had a long walk to our kayaks as we’d left them in the furthest away marina, not realising at the time we could have left them alot closer!

We made good progress, but we were pretty cold and tired at the end of the day.  We stopped nearby a few houses after looking for a while for somewhere good to land.  We got out our kayaks quickly to get changed in the hopes to get a bit warmer as soon as possible, when a woman called Anneli came out her house to talk to us.  She said we looked cold and wet, and said we could use her tumble dryer to dry our clothes once we got changed.  We were very grateful for this offer as putting on wet clothes in the morning is one of the worst things on this trip!

So once we got changed we went to her house and she made us some tea and brought out some bread and things for sandwiches.  We both tried some horse meat for the first time, and really appreciated the hot drink!  She then offered us a warm shower, which was great and we both finally felt warmed through afterwards.

She asked us what our plans were for the rest of the evening.  We said we’d need to go find somewhere to put the tent, although we were both feeling very reluctant to leave the nice warm house!  She said she couldn’t let us do that as we just looked “so tired and cute!” and made us up a bed upstairs.

Sunday 16th September

After a good nights sleep inside we had another early 5.30am start.  Anneli said we could help ourselves to whatever we wanted for breakfast, so we had some yoghurt and muesli.

We kayaked over 30 miles, and stopped at someones holiday house.  No one was there so we camped on their grass and left them a note.

Monday 17th September

We got up really early as the winds were meant to be high later in the day.  We kayaked 3-4 hours before stopping at another holiday home when the wind got high.  We went to knock on the door but no one seemed to be in so we went and got changed.  We thought we’d try seeing if there was a nearby town we could walk to, and it looked like there were people in the house this time.  We knocked on the door and they said it was fine that we left our kayaks there.

After no luck with finding a town nearby we walked back, and the people in the house invited us in for a hot drink.  It was actually a couple of people working on the house and not the owners.  They were nice to chat to and made us tea, and it was nice to be inside instead of sitting outdoors all day!

Unfortunately they had finished their work and had to leave so we had to go back outside.  But there was some shelter near our kayaks we sat in.  We had a quick nap on the floor there as we planned to get back on later when the winds died down and were pretty tired!

We then kayaked until it was starting to get dark and pulled up at a marina.  It had toilets and showers open which was really good after another fairly cold day!

We then met Kjell who was there overnight to guard the boats.  He let us into the kitchen so we could use the kettle and have some soup.

Tuesday 18th September

Got up around 8am, overslept a bit.  Kjell let us into the kitchen again so we could use the kettle and fill up our thermos.  We had over 60km to do before our crossing point to the Aland islands which was too far to do in one day.  So we decided to do two shorter days instead.  Alice’s back was hurting and we stopped to try sort out her backrest a bit.

We stopped on an island and it was raining heavily.  We set up the tent outer straight away and sat in it for a while until the rain stopped enough for us to quickly get changed into dry clothes and put the inner of the tent in.

We briefly saw a man who was leaving the island, and there were some people doing some building work nearby.

Wednesday 19th September

Before we set off from the island the next day, Alice went over to the builders to see if she could fill up her water container.  After she had done this and they wished her luck we left.

We stopped on an island for lunch.  It was difficult to light a fire as everything was slightly damp and it was quite windy.  We thought it might be quicker to use the trangia instead, but when we went to use it the lid wouldn’t come off the fuel burner.  We tried several times but couldn’t get it open.  We managed to get the fire going eventually though and had some lunch.

When we got back on the water the waves were pretty big despite a force 3-4 wind forecast.  We looked for somewhere sheltered to pull in, and found an old pier.  It was very cold and windy but we found somewhere fairly sheltered to set up the tent.

Thursday 20th September

We were now in the place ready to do the crossing to the Aland Islands.  However the wind forecast was force 5-5 which we felt was a bit too high for a 20 mile crossing.

Alice went for a walk around the island and could see a big lighthouse on a nearby island.  Kjell we had met a couple of days before had mentioned we might find a room to stay in on an island with a big lighthouse so we decided we’d paddle over there.

When we got over there we saw most of the houses seemed to have lights on in the windows, which seemed a bit odd since it was still very light outside.  We went around the island knocking on every door, but no one answered anywhere.  It felt very odd, we didn’t understand why all the lights would be on if no one was there!

One of the doors had a sign saying Valkommen! and through the window it looked like a guesthouse, so we knocked there and tried the door.  It was unlocked, so we stuck our head inside and shouted “Hello?” to see if anyone was there.  A blast of heat came out, but no one answered.  Which seemed even more strange, for someone to leave lights and heating on if they weren’t there.

There was another door to the same house, so we tried going to that one and knocking and ringing the doorbell.  Again there was no answer, but we heard some yowling from inside.  I thought it was a cat, but Alice thought it sounded like a baby.  We weren’t sure what to do at this point, and were a bit worried maybe someone was here and was in some sort of trouble.

We went back to the other door with the Valkommen sign and opened it again and tried shouting again.  Still no answer.  We noticed a door the the right that would probably lead to where the yowling came from so we opened that and tried shouting inside to see if anyone was there.  Then a cat appeared, which we were fairly relieved about.  There was clearly no one here so we closed the door to that bit of the house.

We were still fairly confused to why there were lights and heating on if no one was on the island, and the bit of the house we were in was clearly a guesthouse.  All the beds where made up with towels on top.  We decided to stay in the guesthouse, and leave the people some money and our email address incase we hadn’t left enough money.  We thought maybe these were the rooms Kjell had mentioned, and maybe the heating and lights were left on incase people arrived late when the owners were not around.

Friday 21st September

We got up early the next morning and left the island ready to cross to the Aland Islands.  The weather was good and sunny and the wind was ok.  The crossing was 20 miles, and we made fairly good time.

We stopped on the island for some lunch, and I checked my phone.  We had a text saying welcome to Finland! Which was a pretty good moment.

We set off again to get a bit further.  It was starting to get dark when we arrived at the next island, and the sky was very red.  We ended up camping on a big rock, there was a pool of water on one side but we sorted that out with a sponge!

Saturday 22nd September

We got up a bit later than we planned as it was raining alot in the morning.  It was a long miserable day, and we didn’t leave our kayaks other than for a quick toilet break.  We used the thermos on the water for the first time to have some soup.  The rain got very heavy 5-6 hours in and visibility was low.  We tried to aim for an island Alice’s gps said was occupied, but when we got there it didn’t appear to be.

We ended up camping on another rock, we were very cold, wet and tired!

Sunday 23rd September

We kayaked a short distance due to high winds and landed on Kokar, with very big waves as we came into land!  We tried to walk to what looked like the biggest town and then had to walk back to find guesthouse 3km wrong direction, whilst it poured and poured with rain.  Eventually we reached Antons guesthouse, where a nice man Gunnar who owned the guesthouse let us in and showed us to the sauna.  Unfortunately we then had to brave the rain again to pick up some food from our kayaks.  We then got parts of an email in a text from mark (phone was playing up- large chunks of text missing) about lighthouse island- from what we could gather the owners are unhappy we stayed there, so we need to sort that out!

Monday 24th september

The winds were too high to paddle, so we hired bikes and cycled into town to bank, post office and shop to top up supplies!  We cooked a massive meal  of sausage and mash.

Tuesday 25th September

Winds were still pretty high,but we battled against them to get off of Kokar.  We had a very long long day on the water fighting the wind all day, going north east to get to Korpu to get more shelter from the wind.  We reached a military area, got passed this and pulled into somewhere with lights on.  We found a long cabin and a very nice man called Karls let us in and gave us food and a place to stay for the night, which was very much appreciated! (especially since our tents abit broken now).

Wednesday 26th September

Had a long bad day wet and cold, wind came down the channels against us still.  We kayaked till it got dark and pulled into a place with a light- we were very lucky to knock on a door and met Sara and Einau- who let us in from the pouring rain!  They have been great to us.4

Thursday 27th September

We stayed with Sara and Einau in their spare room and they gave us breakfast this morning! The winds should be changing soon to go with us, so fingers crossed for better progress from now on!

Thursday 6th September

We sorted our stuff out at the marina after a bad day.

Saturday 8th September

We left Kalmar, went under a very long bridge!  It was pretty windy but we did manage a really long day.  In the evening we met up with Steen, a sea kayaker we met in Denmark!  Steen gave us a blanket which is brilliant as nights are getting very chilly now!  Also a big thanks to Steens canoe club for giving us some food.

Sunday 9th September

We paddled with Steen for a few hours, it was very nice to have some extra company!  We paddled till it got a bit dark, then a nice man, Goran gave us somewhere to stay for the night!  Goran and Agneta were really nice, and gave us good food and good music (They’ve seen Munford and Sons live!).

Tuesday 11th September

Due to not having to unpack the boats so much (got to leave the tent stuffed at the back of Erins boat), we had a really early start on the water.  Had a brilliant 30 mile+ day.  We stopped on an island for lunch and cooked on a fire. We also saw an eagle which was amazing!!  In the evening we pulled into a small harbour and decided we liked our stay in ‘the great indoors’  so we tried our luck asking for some floor space at a house.  This turned out to be great as, we got floor space and dinner from some lovely people Kentk and Asa and their son, Herman.  They also donated us a much apreciated thermos flask!

Tuesday 12th September

Another long day, Erin wasn’t feeling too great, but we still did a really long day! Managed to stay in another house with a nice lady called Ulla, who let us watch friends, and a programme about dog training.  I guess I can go home and try and sort my dog out…

Wednesday 13th September

Again, a long day.  This time we didn’t do so well at finding anywhere to stay, had a chilly night in the tent!  The sky was clear where we camped and the stars were amazing

Thursday 14th September

We stopped at Oxelosund due to bad weather forcast predictions for the next day.

Friday 15th September

High winds- 7-8!  Had a day off, managed to pick up a few extra fleeces and things to make staying in the tent a bit warmer.  Staying in a great Hostel, not looking forward to the early start tomorrow!

Wednesday 5th September

We knew the forcast winds this day were high, so we tested out the conditions in the morning.  The winds were high, but managable.  However the winds picked up throughout the morning, and when we went around the outside of an island we found that the conditions were probably a bit too bad for us, so we pulled into a little harbour.  We went and got some lunch and saw that the next part of the route was not sheltered enough with islands, so we would get the full force of the wind and decided to stay there.  The weather was meant to be slightly better the next day, so we thought we’d get up early and have a better day then.

Later in the day I met a man, Magnus, and his dog who invited us for a coffee on his yacht.  Magnus seemed very nice, but did not speak English very well.  We agreed and went and had a nice coffee and some biscuits.  Magnus then offered us a place to stay that night on his yacht, we were really pleased because it meant we could pack our boats and be ready to leave in the morning, as well as the fact we could sleep on a yacht which was bound to be warmer than our tent!  Erin and I packed our boats ready to get up early and paddle and went back to the yacht.  Magnus made us some dinner which was good.  We then went to sleep in the spare room on the yacht, but it turned out to be a rather restless night as we could hear Magnus on the phone  till very late.

Thursday 6th September

Then things took a turn for the worse.  At 3am Magnus woke us up and told us the winds were too high for us to paddle, but he could tow us to a more sheltered place about 6km up the coast so that we could paddle.  Erin tried to explain that part of our expedition was that we paddle it all ourselves, so to be towed was no good.  Magnus said that he had just been listening to the forcast and the winds were going to get worse and worse, but he could tow us to a better place…if we didn’t go with him we wouldn’t be able to paddle.  We did not want to take a day off and we trusted what Magnus said, so we accepted the tow, as 6km seemed like a reasonably short distance, and meant we could paddle later on that day.

We got off the boat and got into our paddling gear, feeling exhausted.  Magnus put a line on our boats and we got onto the yacht.  At first we were fairly happy to be on the yacht, thinking we would get a short ride up the coast and due to our unpredicted 3am start we would be on the water very very early.  However, at some point Magnus said the forcast was too bad for the whole day, and we wouldn’t be able to paddle.  Both Erin and I were exhausted, we hadn’t had a day off since Denmark, and we had barely slept the night before.  Erin tried to ask exactly what the wind forcast was, and Magnus kept repeating that the weather would get ‘worse and worse,’ there would be ’2 meter swell’ and it was ‘the most dangerous water in Sweden,’ so he wanted to take us to Kalmar.  He said we would be there in a few hours.

At some point, Erin noticed that my boat, which was being towed by the front grab loop, was no longer attatched to the yacht.  I was very stressed, and Magnus stopped the boat and turned round.  The front grab loop on my boat had given way.  I had to climb down and reattach my boat by the deck lines, and expressed concern to Erin that these might give way too.  Magnus told us to go to sleep for a while, and we rather wearily did.  About an hour later Magnus woke us up and said our boats were now ‘submarines.’  I looked grimly at our boats, our decks were full of water, so our boats were riding a lot lower in the water than they should be.

Then my decklines gave way.  Magnus had to turn the boat round and we went back for my boat, again.  I told Magnus that we would be best to get back into our boats and paddle ‘this is damaging our boats!’  Magnus said the weather was too bad, it was going to get worse, and we couldn’t paddle.  Me and Erin looked rather helplessly at each other.  At this point we attached my boat by the metal grab loop.  It started going sideways, and I made Magnus stop, as I was worried about the pressure on my boat, being dragged sideways through the water, I was very stressed and drew a picture of a kayak snapping in half and said ‘This is going to break my boat!’  To which Magnus replied ‘take it easy!’  I went back out and threaded the rope through the grab loop at the back of my boat and it started going straight again.  At the start of the day Magnus let me and Erin have a go at driving the yacht which we initially though was really funny, then for most of the day we took it in turns as the journey turned into a long ride.  At one point Magnus went for a nap, whilst I drove the yacht- on the right of me I saw a container ship approaching, and I thought that the day was rather like a bad dream.  We had been going approximately 10 hours at this point, which is longer than it would have taken us to kayak ourselves…and much more stressful.  During the course of the journey it also became apparent that Magnus was drinking.

Then the back grab loop on my kayak broke.  I asked Magnus to pull closer into land so we could kayak, but he refused, saying he needed to tow us to Kalmar.  I asked several times for him to take us in to land and he could carry on alone, but he repeatedly said it was too dangerous.  At this point Erin had been feeling sea sick for some time, and we were both extremely sleep deprived.  Magnus said he would pay for any damage to the boats…and started to speed up.  Both me and Erin raised our voices and told him to slow down.

Magnus said he would call for help from another boat, but we had to go fast enough to get near Kalmar.  Erin and I were very stressed, and told him he really needed to go slowly.  Then the metal grab loop broke.  Magnus said we would go back and get the boat, to tow it and Erin and I said that there was nothing left to attach it by!!  Apparently we were wrong, as Magnus found a deckline left.  He kept reassuring us that he would pay for the damage, and Erin explained that it was not just the damage we were worried about, it was getting the kayaks fixed as we were on a tight schedule.

Then the final decline snapped as a boat appeared to help us, the boat that Magnus had called out!  They managed to get my rather waterlogged boat out of the water and then came for Erins.  The guys on the boat asked us if we were ok, and we said yes, we were just pleased that our boats were safe at last.  They said our boats would be at Kalmar marina when we got there.  Erin and I went to sleep and Magnus drove us the rest of the way into Kalmar.  When we got there Magnus took us to McDonalds, as noone from the Marina was about, and we hadn’t eaten or drank anything for the whole of our 14 hour ordeal.  Then a man from the marina, Friedrich, came and found us and took us to our boats.  My boat looked pretty naked as it was missing most its decklines, and had a patch of gel coating missing where the metal grab loop had come off.  My back hatch had also filled with water during the tow, so my laptop, sleeping bag and roll mat were damaged beyond repair.  We went back to sleep on the yacht with Magnus and he left a Johnny Cash CD on loop all night.  I never want to hear Johnny Cash again.

The next day Friedrich fixed all the decklines on my boat, which was great.  We also filled the patch where the grab loop had been with epoxy resin gel.  Magnus did pay for the damage, but also told everyone he ‘rescued’ us from the water where we were swimming!  This annoyed Erin a lot, and put everyone straight on the matter.

This was the worst day of the trip, but every things been resolved as best as can be.  Kalmar marina and Kalmar tourist information were very good to us, after this incident.  Erin and I have learnt to not to make decisions at 3am and won’t be accepting any more tows!

So since Denmark we’ve had alot of interesting days in Sweden, meaning we’ve been finding it quite difficult to update our blog.  Unfortunately our laptop has now been water damaged so our blog posts may be even less frequent.

The day of the crossing to Sweden we woke up in Janne’s lovely warm house at about 5am to give us lots of time.  It was very foggy, but it was meant to be a sunny day so we hoped it would clear up!

We had our kayaks all packed and ready, so it didn’t take us too long to get on the water after Janne made us breakfast and drove us over.  It was still looking very foggy, but we still expected it to clear up a bit later as it was still very early.

We started off at a good pace, but after the first hour or two we decided to slow down a bit.  The fog still hadn’t cleared and we didn’t want to be crossing the shipping lanes going to Copenhagen in the fog.  We checked Alice’s GPS to see if they were marked as we expected them to be about half way, but it looked like we had already actually crossed a shipping lane.  We thought it was a different smaller shipping lane, as we thought we had heard some ship engines from what sounded like ahead of us.

Alice couldn’t see anymore shipping lanes marked infront of us though, but we assumed the gps may just not have them on as they don’t always show up.  We didn’t want to cross the lane in the fog so we thought we’d wait around and hope the fog cleared up.  After waiting for a while we thought we’d re check the gps for shipping lanes incase we’d missed something.  We were considering returning to Denmark at this point as we didn’t think it would be safe to cross.  However as we rechecked the gps we realised we had actually crossed both shipping lanes.  Probably not the best way to do it!  But since we’d crossed them already we continued to cross over to Sweden.  It felt like a long crossing, it was just 15 miles but we couldn’t see land till we were about 20 metres away!

We had hoped the fog would clear overnight, but unfortunately we woke up on a beach the next morning to more fog.  We were expecting Sweden to be a very scenic place to paddle, so it was a shame we couldn’t see much of it!  This is when we started our search for trangia fuel, which we had been running low on for a while.  We managed to find a massive supermarket called Maxi in Trelleborg, but unfortunately no luck with the fuel.  I did however have some Swedish meatballs!

The rest of the day we fairly uneventful, and continued to be foggy.

The next day the fog finally started to clear up a bit, and we started to actually see some of Sweden!  We paddled about 15km in the morning and then took a break in a town called Ystad.  We found a cheap thai buffet place to eat which was very welcome, we’re always very hungry on this trip!  Continuing our search for trangia fuel we walked around the town and tried a camping shop.  The shop sold trangias but no trangia fuel unfortunately.  Later in the day we also stopped at a campsite and tried the shop there and still had no luck!   We were starting to run out of places to look.

A habit we picked up from Tom, we try to hang up our clothes at every opportunity now!  The mornings are getting colder so it’s good when we don’t have to put on soggy clothes.

We had camped on another beach that night, and in the morning we met Nils and his dog Ziggy.  He joked asking me if we had paddled over from Scotland, and I’m not sure he initially believed me when I said we had paddled from England!  We chatted for a while though, and he said he lived about 10 miles up the coast.  He then gave us his phone number and said if we gave him a call when we arrived in that town he would take us out for lunch!

We sometimes find mornings quite hard to get into paddling, but the promise of lunch was really good motivation.  It didn’t take us too long to get to his town, Simrishamn and give him a call.  He took us to an awesome lunch buffet place which we really appreciated as there was lots of fresh vegetables – something we don’t get enough of on this trip.

After a good lunch we had a good amount of energy for paddling, so we took advantage of it and paddled until it was starting to get dark.

We camped on a long sandy beach in the middle of a firing range (this one was definitely not active during the time we were there we double checked!)

The next day as we still didn’t have trangia fuel we stopped in another town after a few hours paddling in the morning.  There wasn’t any nearby supermarkets so we went to a restaurant and had pizza.  Swedish pizza is a bit different and it had lots of tzatziki on it which was very good!

The second part of the day was a fairly big crossing.  There was a bit of swell, which made the paddling a bit more fun for a while.  The swell got bigger as we paddled, but still stayed at an ok level.  We were getting towards the end of the crossing when the swell really picked up, it was getting to be well over a metre high.  We were getting a bit uncomfortable with the waves as we were worried it might pick up even more so we looked for somewhere to land.

Alot of the coast was looking very rocky, but we found a gap in the rocks leading to a small boat platform and what looked like some holiday houses.  We landed and knocked on their doors to see if anyone was in but there was no answer.  With no other option we decided to camp there, but set up the tent just outside their gates.

The next morning was really cold, we can definitely feel summer ending now.  We stopped on some of our first islands that day, having our first fire on one in the middle of the day, which worked really well with the lack of trangia fuel.  We then camped on one in the evening.

The next day we saw alot more islands.  We spent the day surrounded by them on both sides, which was good because it was pretty windy.  It was a very scenic day, and we stopped in a town called Karlskrona which was a beautiful town.  As well as trangia fuel we’d also been looking for breakfast bars, which we eat alot of as snacks in our short breaks.  We had another look in a supermarket but with no luck, it seems to be something Sweden doesn’t do so much of.  So we’ve been trying to find other replacement foods.

At the end of the day we stopped in a campsite, our first campsite since being in Sweden.  This was very very welcome as it had been a while since we’d had a shower!  We met some very friendly German guys Alex and Flo who shared some of their wine with us.  It was really nice to have some company in the evening.

That’s all we have time to write about for now, the next day was a very long, bad day and we think it deserves a full blog post to itself.  So hopefully we’ll get round to doing that soon!  We’ll try get some more photos up at some point too.

Wednesday 22^nd August

Unfortunately the winds were too high for us to do the large open crossing to Denmark.  However, we did kayak 10km up the coast, in 4-5 winds.  The waves were pretty big and all the windsurfers were out.  As we paddled along, aiming to get to Puttgarden, a big storm came up behind us, it started hailing and some lightening struck fairly close to us.  We reached Puttgarden a few hours later the weather brightened up and we walked to find a campsite and aimed to head into town and ended up hiring bikes because the nearest large town was actually about 8-9km away.

Thursday 23^rd August

The winds were still really high so we decided to have a day off and had another long cycle into town in very strong winds.  We sat in a cafe mostly to use the internet to do some planning.  Had a lovely Choco Frappe!

Friday 24^th August

On Friday we did a long crossing to Denmark, which was a massive 30 mile crossing the way we did it, with no landings.  The most eventful part was crossing Puttgarden port, when we had an interesting moment with a ferry coming out of the port towards us, and one from out to sea coming towards the port, whilst crossing the shipping lane.  After that the crossing was rather dull, we passed lots of wind turbine farms.  However, we did see a seal, which Bjorn told us was rather rare in the Baltic, so we were lucky!  When we got to our ideal destination there was nowhere good to land, so we decided to go round the headland.  There we saw a tent, with what looked like a long yellow line next to it and we thought it was possibly a kayak!  We decided if it was a kayak, which it was, that we should pull in and see if it was someone to chat to.  It turned out it was Tom, a German kayaker from Lubeck, with his bright yellow point 65, ‘Banaani’ (the Finnish word for banana apparently).  It was nice to have someone to talk to after a long and hard day.  We ate dinner and then Tom provided us with some peanuts and a beer and lit a fire.  Tom told us he was aiming for Copenhagen, going a similar route to us.

Saturday 25^th August

On Saturday Tom kayaked with us!

Unfortunately Erin and I were very tired after our long day previously, so probably not on best form.  Also there seemed to be fairly strong cross winds, which made our kayaks turn a lot (we’ve both had some skeg issues with our boats for awhile).  We stopped at a harbour for lunch and Tom had a sandwich and we cooked lots of pasta on the Trangia.  The packets come in 500g,which when we had Mark with us we divided that by three, now me and Erin just eat massive bowls of pasta!  We offered some to Tom, but he declined.  Tom met a yachtsman from Lubeck, his hometown.  After this we got back on the water and continued paddling, as we cut behind the Danish island Mon.  We were headed towards a campsite, when a storm started closing in on us, but fortunately I think we missed the worst of it.  We pulled up to a nice Danish campsite and we all had a beer, some food and then went to bed.

Sunday 26^th August

Tom kayaked with us again.  It turned into another long day to get to an ideal place for crossing to Sweden.  We did a fairly large open crossing near the start of the day with quite a big following sea, from Sjaelland to Ostbanen.  Once we finished the crossing we pulled into a harbour for a break, and decided to get some lunch at a restaurant that sold fast food.  Being pretty hungry, me and Erin asked for large drinks and chips, as in some countries through Europe we have found drink sizes to be fairly small.  These however, were not small drinks.  We got the most massive cups of coke ever (just under a litre).  Tom was more sensible and had a medium size cup.  After that we got back on the water and went past some pretty cool cliffs.  By the time we reached a place to pull in, where the cliffs ended, we were all pretty tired…I felt like I could barely paddle any further.  When we finally got to land we set up camp, had some winegums Tom provided, had a look at the stars and then went to bed.

Monday 27^th August

The winds were too high to cross to Sweden, so we are having a break here with Tom.  Me and Erin decided to walk into town to get supplies and Erin joked about hitching a ride to town, as it was going to be a fairly long walk.  After that we actually thought ‘why not?’ and stuck our thumb out to one car, a bit late, and the next car we heard coming we were more prompt with and couldn’t have been more lucky as we got picked up by a Danish sea kayaker Janne!  She let us use her showers and gave us a lift to a supermarket.  Janne has the most awesome house, very light, with lots of balconies, I think it is perhaps the coolest house I’ve ever been in- some photos from my Bullet HD camera:

Janne said she would pick us up later in the day and would cook us dinner- with Tom as well!  Janne then dropped us by our boats and Tom had a go at fixing my skeg.  It seems to be working better which is great!  After a more relaxing day Janne picked us all for dinner at her house with her friend Steen.  The food was amazing! We had a really good meal of pork and mushroom sauce with salad and rice.  It was absolutely delicious, I ate tonnes.  And we had some beer.  It was really interesting to talk to Janne and Steen about sea kayaking, as apart from Tom we haven’t seen many sea kayakers along the way for long. Steen has 6 kayaks, based all over the world!  Steen said we need as many kayaks as pairs of shoes- I have two kayaks at the moment so I guess I need to throw out some shoes, or pick up some boats!  For desert we had pancakes with, icecream and rum & then we had our first autograph request of the trip from Steen!

Tuesday 28^th August

Unfortunately the winds were too high for me and Erin to feel comfortable doing the long open crossing to Sweden.  On the other hand, Tom got up early and left for Copenhagen.  I was very sad to see him leave, having had Tom for an excellent companion for all our time in Denmark.  Although I was soon cheered up by Janne bringing me and Erin an excellent breakfast of coffee, warm bread rolls, butter, cheese and jam!

Today we have been sat in Jannes kitchen sorting out all we can!  Janne has been brilliant to us, and even drove us round Denmark till we found some postcards (as some of you may know I have been sending postcards home religiously from each country to some very important people- I was disapointed that I wouldn’t be able to get any in Denmark, but now I have).  Also we have also been fed well with some delicious chocolate and banana cake, and Janne is cooking dinner as I type, Erin and I are very lucky to have met her!  The weather is looking better tomorrow, so we are preparing ourselves for a very long day.  Sleeping at Jannes tonight though, which is great, nice to spend a night inside!

So the next two days included a couple of firing ranges.  Because of this we needed to make good progress on the first day to put ourselves in a good place to cross the second one.

The first firing range was at Todendorf and is active from 9am – 8pm.  We made it there pretty early due to the winds creating a following sea.  We thought not having tide we wouldn’t have much helping us in the Baltic, but the winds really did help us pick up a good speed!

We radioed in at Todendorf to see if they might finish firing any earlier.  We still ideally wanted to cover another 16km after to put us in a good place to cross the next firing range the following day.   Unfortunately they were still active till 8pm, so we stopped on a stony beach for some food.

At 8pm we got back on and started paddling towards the firing range.  We were just entering the area when we heard shots ahead, so we quickly retreated.  It turned out not to be 8pm, but 7pm the time on Alice’s gps was an hour ahead of what we thought.  Something I think we’ll both be more cautious about in future!

Finally after stopping for another hour we managed to get past the firing range with no issues.  With sunlight rapidly disappearing and 16km more to go we tried to keep a good pace.  We paddled the last bit of the day in the dark, but we made our target, covering about 30 miles that day!

The next morning was an early 5:30am start, as we wanted to get past the next firing range before 9am.  We ended up leaving a bit after 7am which we thought should give us enough time to cover the 9km.

It was a bit of a slower start than the previous day, the winds were no longer helping us and were now against us.  We tried to radio in a few times to check it was ok but got no response.  As we were definitely there before their active hours though we decided it would be ok to cross and continued.  Our progress was a bit slower than expected, but we still appeared to have enough time to make the crossing.

Unfortunately the German military didn’t agree!  We noticed on the shore a vehicles lights flashing, we weren’t sure if they were for us until they moved closer and continued.  We paddled over to see what they wanted, worried they were going to send us back.  It turned out to be the German military and they didn’t think we had enough time to make the crossing so we were stopped there.  We were worried they were going to send us back, and we’d have to wait till 4pm at this point, which would really set us back.

Luckily they turned out to be really friendly, and said they had a truck coming over.  Our kayaks rode on the back of what they said was their oldest vehicle, and me and Alice rode in the fire truck.  We apologised a few times for the inconvenience, but they were very  happy to help and just concerned for our safety.

It’s a shame a couple of them couldn’t come with us to help carry our boats!

We were both in a pretty good mood after this rather surreal experience.  It wasn’t long till the tiredness set back in though after a long day before and an early morning.  The rest of the day was a bit of a slog, but we made it over to Fehman Island ready for the crossing.