Wild camping and kayaking

We arrived in Sweden on the 6th June and after one night in a campsite we decided to try our luck at wild camping (Scandinavia is expensive so camping for free will help to balance out the extortionate food bills). Our first attempt although not truly ‘wild’ (we had a scattering of houses behind us and were just off a main road) seemed to go well, at least nobody turfed us out in the middle of the night so we classed it as a success.

 

Feeling pretty smug we headed to Lake Aspen with the intention to find another freebie spot and spend the day exploring the lake. Then we found this…..

 

 

 

Yes it’s a campsite and yes we paid to stay there but look at that location! It was the perfect spot to get the kayak out for the first time (and eat homemade cake in the on site cafe….)

 

 

 

 

 

After refusing the offer of an electric pump from our friendly neighbour ‘nope, we need to get the hang of this thanks!’, we got the boat inflated, the seats strapped in and were all set to go. Or so we thought. Once out on the lake I found that the seating position at the front was far from comfortable, my feet were higher than my bum and I had no way of using my feet to brace myself as I paddled with the result that my legs started to ache. I’d just about resigned myself to the fact that this kayak was crap and poorly designed when we realised our mistake.

It went something like this….’why have you got a see-through section by your feet so you can spot fish and I don’t?’, ‘weren’t there two see-through sections?’, ‘yeah, why is the other one at the back, that’s just stupid’

‘Do you think we may have put the seats on back to front?’