Åland - half swedish half finnish
This summer I paddled through the Archipelago of Åland for three weeks.
It is a perfect paddling environment. Depending on the weather you have the option of either visiting the outer skerries or if it turns out to be too windy, retreat into the lake-like shelter of the Archipelago. You can easily circumnavigate it in 2-3 weeks or just as well take a couple of month to explore the countless remote beauties.
If you wonder whether you should cross by kayak or take the ferry:
In stable weather conditions, the crossing from Sweden to Märket can be done in only two hours in a sea-kayak and therefore is quite safe. Märket is a beautiful place with a lighthouse built in 1885. It is currently being restored by the Finnish Lighthouse Society. Very friendly, helpful people who also assist you in landing your boat and show you the Lighthouse along with many of it's anecdotes. You can easily do the remaining 7 nautic miles to the first Åland skerry on the same day but Märket is also a very safe place to put up your tent on.
The crossing via Lågskär and maybe Flötjan is a little tougher but also possible. It is worth it if you like snakes and beautiful scenery. Because on Lågskär you will find both in abundance. Both the Common European Viper (Vipera berus) and the Grass Snake (Natrix natrix). Sleeping on Flötjan is possible but not necessarily comfy. The island can be flooded in a heavy storm, is hard/ impossible to land on in big swells/ storm. However you can climb a ladder to the first level of the lighthouse where you are safe from waves in case of a storm.
In the Åland Sea, namely around Märket and Flötjan you can be quite certain to meet grey seals that are said to be recovering from nearly getting extinct just a few decades ago and are still and again at risk from diseases caused by the Baltics contamination with certain chemicals as this report shows.
Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) surprised on Flötjan :)
Beginning the trip
Arriving in Hamburg early in the morning because driving at night is less stressful. This is 4am.
A lot of rainy ks on swedish roads later...
Öregrund - 12.06.2010
A grey drizzle. Also the forecast is not what I hoped for but looks manageable. Will be packing tomorrow and leaveing towards the North of the island Gräsö. A friend gave me the possibility to leave the car at his holiday home on Gräsö just opposite the nuclear power plant Forsmark, which in 1986 was one of the first places outside the Soviet Union registering the radioactivity coming from Chernobyl. First it was thought to be a leak in the Forsmark plant until the connection was made.
Still not sure whether to take the laptop. Could be handy for planning, weather forecasts and diary, but then what is a trip into the wild when you're permanently wirelessly wired? I think I just decided. So this will be it for now. Travelling back into the age of postcards and - well - cellphones.
Curious how wet it'll get.
Since I made friends with the rain, it doesn't scare me anymore - as long as there is time to dry in between.
Should I have opted for the french Mediterranean instead?
Gräsö -> Understen - 13.06.2010
The weather is cool but dry today. I pack the boat, then park the car at Lennart's house and walk three Km through beautiful pine jungle to Söderbodaviken where I left the boat. I start at 1pm and after 30 minutes a Grass Snake comes up to the surface right next to the boat. Out on the sea there is big but calm swell from North and no wind at all.
Understen -> Märket - 14.06.2010
