Hello everyone,
The last weeks have been really busy with work, talks, planning and saying hello to friends!
I also had a really nice trip to Bergen, my first flight in two years and my second talk about my kayak trips in Norway.
This time the crowd had doubled to 60 people all listening to my tale of the Norwegian coast at Njørd Ro og Kajakklubb meeting.
After 60 minutes of photos and videos there were lots of questions from the crowd and a really good response!
After a week back in the Oslo area I packed my kaya for my earliest multiple days of kayaking of the year, nice and sunny but still cold and freezing at night. I start at Bomansvik in Bunnefjorden and make my way to the tip of Nesodden and head south to an island I have camped before Håøya.
I have made some changes to my camp and instead of using a tent and struggling with broken pooles I will use a tarp, hammock and mosquito netting instead.
The hammock and net are from Ticket to the moon an old birthday gift from years ago.The XP10 tarp is from Hilleberg and ordered from Addnature.no at a cost of 2269nok (237euro) think this will make my camping experience even better!
The next day I make my way down to another island just outside of Tofte named Ramsvikholmen where I had a night in 2020.
The next day we made it to Karlsvik farm where DNT Tønsberg had invited me to speak at their Kickoff with 100 guests.
After i was invited to stay at the farm but i decline and say I need to stay out under the stars to get an early start the next morning.
We get up to an early start due to fog and winds reported from 10am so we are on our way a little before 9am and make it over in good time and it is calmer than what i expected on the crossing.
As i make it over i make a short stop in Engelsviken for a shower and food before i continue to Kråkøy for my next talk at Fredrikstad og Sarpsborg kajakk klubb AKA FROSK where around 60 members was waiting to hear my stories.
Here I got some wood and company around the fireplace before I went to sleep.
It's just days until I start my journey to Tarifa so I asked Sam if he could take care of Ymir in Engelsviken until I am ready to start the adventure and my Mom and Kjell came and picked me up and drove me back to Nesodden.
My new adventure has gotten a lot of reactions mostly positive but as always a lot of fear and worry about my safety is something I am getting used to.
I know the route is extreme with strong currents, winds, waves and tides but I need to give it a try! I have to see it for myself if it is possible! I don't trust people that tell me it is impossible! People have been telling me that i can't do that and that it is impossible so many times in my life and do you know what i found out?
Things that people say you can't do or are impossible are the most magical things you can do in your life.
I have learned to trust myself and not to wait for others to do what you want in life and to ask questions?
When i kayaked Norway in 2019 i didn't know of anyone that had kayaked Norway from border to border but during the trip i learned of others that had done it and of others doing it that year.
I was really happy to know that it was possible other places than in my head!
Along the way I met a lot of people warning me about different areas and telling me tales about how dangerous I can be, at the start it made me more careful but I made it pass one warning after another and I understood that I needed to be more critical and ask more questions.
What I normally ask are: what is your kayak experience? other sea experience? Is it you in your story or is it second or third hand story? Was it in sprin, summer, autumn or winter? And of course the weather forecast?
Some know what they are talking about and I will take your info into account but often the story is not relevant for my trip and I dismiss the information.
PLEASE if you have experience with some of the rough areas i am more than happy for your advice! if you want to join for a day or 10 just write to me!
I hope to meet lots of magical people along my route.
I am not alone! There is a paddler from Cadiz, Spain that will bring his kayak to Antwerp, go down the channel to the sea and follow the same route as me. His name is Jasper and you can follow his adventures here: kayasper.com
I will make a list of what equipment I will bring on this adventure in my next post.
And just to calm you all down, all the people that have predicted my death all say i will die at 92!
Lots of Love
Joachim Larssen
ShibbyTraveler.com