Ness' bit of everything

I realised I was about to start this post the same as the Hut to Hut blog I wrote last February saying ‘I set off on one of my biggest adventures to date’. You get the theme here…a big adventure and a trip ran by Sidetracked Adventures. I spied this trip after I had finished the Hut to Hut expedition and thought, yes, I have to do that.

So back to Finland I went, this time during the summer season and using a kayak as the mode of transport. This was a women only kayaking and wild cooking expedition. It was guided by Chris Mount and accompanied by wilderness chef William Rhys Hamer.

I got a flight from Heathrow, landing in Helsinki in the afternoon. We were due to meet at 5pm at the Hotel Rantapuisto in Ramsinniemi on the outskirts of Helsinki. I took a train and a bus from the airport, the public transport was incredibly easy to navigate. But due to my delayed flight I missed the start of Chris’s briefing. He kindly repeated the briefing to me after he finished. I then had introductions with Will and the other lovely ladies, Anne, Anna, Char, Helen and Siân.

We all had a wander to the hotels jetty and had a dip in the sea before heading to our rooms excited to kit faff! Running between rooms we were comparing and helping each other decide on which kit options to pack. We laughed at all our varying amounts ‘stuff’ we all had. We could only do that for so long before getting hungry and we strolled to a local pizza place for dinner.

Heading back to the hotel to finish packing, I then fell asleep knowing that the next morning would be the start of an epic adventure.

Day 1

• Highlights: Sauna and skinny dip
• On the menu
  • Breakfast – Hotel breakfast
  • Lunch – Potato Rosti, smoked mackerel, honey mustard dressing and parmesan
  • Dinner – White bait, beetroot and salted yogurt
• Kayak distance: 11km
• Camp Island nickname: Sauna Island

We took full advantage of the hotel breakfast – many waffles were consumed…. Before heading down the the shoreline to pack the kayaks.

We all picked a kayak. The kayak had to carry all of our kit – if it fit… it went. Chris then assigned us certain meals and types of provisions. This was wrote on the front of our kayaks so we were all aware where everything was. For example, I had ‘Far away’ bag, which was for one of the days deemed, you guessed it, far away. That was night 5’s meal. I also had Tea and Coffee, which was the barista and snack bag. Others had ‘Pantry’ and ‘Day 1/2’ etc. We all had water to carry and not to mention the fresh produce for the first few days. I carried the fish box. Yes between my feet, inside the kayak. Which I had a love hate relationship with, but I’ll come on to that later.

Before we knew it we had had our briefing from Chris and we were heading for our first island of the trip.

Will jumped into action making a fire whilst Chris showed us some wood skills that we could practise. We also learnt, we shouldn’t get between Helen and an axe. There was a sauna on the island. It was fascinating to me that in the middle of nowhere on these tiny islands, there were saunas, well looked after, usable saunas. That was the beauty of Finland, been able to camp basically anywhere, with compost toilets (with loo roll!) and even saunas in very remote places.

Will made potato rosti, smoked mackerel with a honey mustard dressing and parmesan. And we enjoyed our first pot of cowboy coffee.

Onwards, and on this leg we paddled through a shipping lane. We watching a container ship go by and once it passed we paddled through its wake as we headed to our first nights camping spot. The boys had already named this island Trek Island, and as we unpacked our kayaks and hiked to the cooking shelter we could see why. We all chipped in bringing our provisions up to the shelter and went off to find spots for the tents. I was tent buddies with Anna. She is a seasoned camper unlike me which gave me a lot of comfort. Just knowing I had someone who was confident and to be frank, her calming personality was what I needed to relax my tent anxiety brain.

We later nicknamed the island ‘Sauna Island’. There was one on the island, Chris lit the fire, stocked it with wood, and it would be ready for us to use after our dinner. Dinner was white bait, beetroot and salted yogurt.

Sauna time straight after eating as there were only the last moments of light left. It was gorgeous to sit in this tiny sauna as us ladies started to get to know each other. Little did I know they had got to know me a little too well that night. In true Finnish style a few of us couldn’t resist a skinny dip and a ‘Finnish’ sauna. I got undressed to take a dip in the sea but I didn’t know there was a tiny window into the sauna at waist height. With my red light on my head torch…you could imagine (try not to) the show I gave the ladies. I was a little embarrassed finding this out, but I thought, we are in Finland afterall! After us giggling into the night, we realised we still had dessert to get back to. Chris and Will had prepared strawberries with Archipelago bread with chocolate spread.

Day 2

• Highlights: Swim and a wash. Long lunch stop making flat breads.
• On the menu:
  • Breakfast – Shakshuka
  • Lunch – Flat bread making with goats cheese, fig jam and charred broccoli.
  • Dinner – Linguine and white bait
• Kayak distance: 12.5km
• Camp Island nickname: Bunker Island

Chris woke us up with a tune on his tin whistle on our first island morning

It was our first island morning and Chris woke us up with a tune on his tin whistle. Much more pleasant than my alarm blaring in my ear. Anna and I stirred as we could smell the fire starting up. “Coffee!” we both thought!

Breakfast was shakshuka, copious amounts of coffee sat on a rocky outcrop looking out to sea and then we packed up camp. This was more difficult than I thought. Re-packing the kayak for the first time was quite stressful. However by the end of the week we had nailed it and become pros at the whole process.

We paddled over to our lunch island which was gorgeous with an impressive cooking shelter. What was even more impressive, was that Will had made dough that morning and paddled with it on the front of his kayak. We all made flatbreads and learnt how to make feather sticks whilst they were cooking. We had the flatbreads with goats cheese, fig jam and charred broccoli.

After lunch we re-packed and headed off. Or most of us did. I, even after listening to Chris’s informed briefing, couldn’t master getting into my kayak. For some reason I wanted to treat it like a paddle board. I put two feet onto the seat, without lowering my centre of gravity and before I could even regret it, I was flat in the water flipping my kayak upside down. In a mad scramble I realised the cool box (remember I was carrying the fish box) had found its way loose and I was franticly fishing out the fish back into the box. I don’t think anyone would let me live it down if I lost our fresh fish for that evenings meal!

Chris came over and calmed the situation, helping me flip and empty the water out of the kayak. I didn’t have time to dwell as the wind picked up and before we knew it we had some pretty high rolling waves coming from behind us. In some sheltered bays, Chris taught us a few more turning techniques that would help us through the conditions on the next crossing.

It was reassuring when Chris showed us how much the kayaks could withstand and how we could use the islands to shelter from the wind. We had some decent side chop most of the way but there was a gorgeous sheltered area, were we meandered between two islands and the reeds. After a chocolate rafted break we pushed on to ‘Bunker island’.

The light was gorgeous when we arrived with the wind subsiding, we picked our camp spots and headed for a much welcomed dip and a wash. Anna and I camped on a rocky outcrop, we favoured this over the forest (less bugs to contend with). Also having Anna’s fancy peg-less fjallraven tent, we seized the opportunities to to be off the forest floor. Anne had opted for a sea view also, with Helen choosing to try the hammock, Char then getting her own tent and Siân opting to bivvy for the night.

I went for a wander to the toilet and realised how it had its name. A large World War 2 bunker was nestled into the island, with nature taking over it was an impressive sight to see.

Linguine and white bait for dinner followed by yogurt and charred apricots. We whittled spoons, did some route planning, tried to fight off the mosquitos and drank hot chocolate and Minttu into the night.

Day 3

• Highlights: Swim, fish filleting.
• On the menu:
  • Breakfast – Eggs with tomato and toast
  • Lunch – Flat breads with smoked reindeer
  • Dinner – Risotto
• Kayak distance: 18km
• Camp Island nickname: Perch Island

We woke to eggs with tomato and toast for breakfast. It was a much calmer day than the day before and we paddled pretty much silently all morning. We got to our lunch spot where we had flat breads with smoked reindeer. We played Boules and all of us revealed our competitive sides. Dessert concoctions where then cooked on the fire for those of us with a sweet tooth. Snickers in a flat bread. It was much nicer than it sounds.

It rained on the next leg but there was something very majestic about paddling in it, looking at the fog and the islands in the distance. The rain cleared and it was a beautiful paddle into the late afternoon, perhaps my favourite stretch, were we also caught sight of an eagle.

Arriving to ‘Mink Island’ we all took a dip to refresh.

There was also a man on the island already who we came to know as Veijo. He was on a little holiday from the mainland on his motor boat. He explained (to Chris and Anne who could speak Finnish) that he had caught some perch and we welcome to some. So we traded beer for perch. He also offered to show us how to kill and fillet them correctly.

It’s not something I’ve ever done, I wanted to see if I could do it and learn the correct method. A few of us went onto the jetty were we prepared the fish.

We already had dinner sorted for that evening, so we decided to keep the fish until the next day, stored in the cool boxes with icepacks Veijo leant us.

Dinner was risotto with seared oranges and melted chocolate to follow.
Because it was ‘Mink island,’ we had to ensure we stored all our food high up, out of the reach of minks, before going to bed. We were treated to a spectacular thunder and lightning show in the distance, which I watched while taking my late-night wild wee.

Day 4

• Highlights: Perch brunch. Boule olympics.
• On the menu:
  • Breakfast – Porridge and caramel sauce
  • Brunch – Perch Tacos
  • Lunch – Halloumi flat breads
  • Dinner – Cauliflower couscous and Apple crumble
• Kayak distance: 13km
• Camp Island nickname: Swamp Island

We had porridge with caramel sauce for breakfast and we had more of a chilled morning. We then had time for mindful coffees in the sun, morning dips, and wildlife spotting. The mink made it’s appearance, running out onto the rocks showing off to everyone. Will then cooked and served up the perch from the night before. We had them with a squeeze of lemon in a flat bread, taco style.

Veijo from the night before had come over to the fire to exchange his old icepacks he had lent us with a bottle of vodka. I insisted we didn’t need a gift of any sort. But with a language barrier he left it on the bench, smiled and left.

We all gathered before we left the island to have toast, only to discover the bottle of vodka was in fact water. He had chilled it to replace the ice pack for us! How was I to know when I can only say ‘Hello’ in Finnish? DOH!

Chuckling away, we got into our kayaks and paddled on. We reached a cormorants colony island. Which was an incredible sight to see, even with no cormorants being home. The trees on the island were completely bare and white with poop.

We made it to our lunch, dinner and camp spot, Swamp Island. It got its name pretty quickly as a number of us slipped getting out the kayaks and when helping others. Including myself, and I confirmed, it even smelt like swamp! We also realised how low lying the island was, surrounded by reeds and not many camping spots.

The group divided, a few staying on the island to set up tents and help Will prepare food. Whilst the others went to a neighbouring island for wood to stock up the islands supply.

We had a late lunch of halloumi flat breads and into the late afternoon we chilled on the island. Although I say chilled, there was a very intense Boule Olympics underway. We actually played until it started to get dark, when we then sat around the fire chatting and spoon whittling.

For dinner it was cauliflower couscous followed by a late night serving of apple crumble.

Day 5

• Highlights: sun bathing lunch, 5 minute silence.
• On the menu:
  • Breakfast – porridge with plum jam and left over apple crumble
  • Lunch – Potato and beetroot rostis with fennel
  • Dinner – Aubergine Parmigiana
• Kayak distance: 20km
• Camp Island nickname: Birthday Island

We ran out of oat milk. As a cow milk drinker you wonder why I was upset by this. But I got very used to oat milk and I thought we’d now be drinking black coffee. However, Anna pulled out what can only be described as… milk dust. This was a oat milk powder, mix with water, shake and boom, oat milk. And to my surprise, it tasted the same. Anyway, after the milk shortage drama was over we had porridge with plum jam and left over apple crumble for brekkie.

We were getting rather good at packing up by now, everyone on auto pilot. It was our quickest departure yet, so we had time for a group photo! We paddled that morning mostly in the rain. We stopped to fill our water containers up and we played games. ‘In my kayak I packed…A….B…’. Also distracting us from the rain – we saw on otter and an eagle on our morning passage.

The rain passed in time for us to nosey at all dreamy beach houses as we neared our lunch spot. This was a super small island and we set up on a small fire on a rocky steep outcrop. Will had his work cut out cooking on a serious angle. We had potato and beetroot rostis with fennel. We sun bathed and managed to dry our wet clothing from that morning.

That afternoon Chris suggested a 5 minute silence on our raft break. It was blissful, the silence was incredible and we just soaked it all in. This was the longest day, and the raft breaks helped ups recuperate and recharge with out taking the time getting out of our kayaks to get onto dry land. The boys attempted to fish again. The fish were all around our kayaks but to their disappointment they were unsuccessful. But to us at this point, it was hilarious. Fish were swimming and jumping out around the kayaks but yet, no luck.

We landed at the last camping island of the trip – Birthday Island. The week before on another trip, Will celebrated his birthday on this island and it so happened that the day after we landed on it, it was Anna’s birthday too.

I can’t say I was thrilled with the sandy beach here. I tried to embrace it…as it found its way into my socks, pants, bags, tent, kayak…

We managed to wade out in the shallow bay for a swim. We then gathered around the table and the fire for our final island dinner. This hit different. Not in a shelter like the other islands, we were on the beach under the night sky. We sat preparing food, chatting, laughing, drinking beer, whittling spoons and each of us putting on our favourite songs to listen to. It was a night I won’t forget.

For dinner it was aubergine parmigiana. We drank hot chocolate into the night. And we could tell everyone didn’t want it to be over tomorrow, we didn’t go to bed until late.

Day 6

• Highlights: Anna’s Birthday, quiet final paddle.
• On the menu:
  • Breakfast – Pancakes and foraged blueberries
  • Lunch – family style lunch with mushroom spaghetti and potato bravas.
  • Dinner – Farewell dinner at the hotel.
• Kayak distance: 16.5km
• Camp Island nickname: Mainland!

Our last day.

It was Anna’s birthday and our wake up call was an original Happy Birthday melody Chris and Will duet on the tin whistle. We started the day laughing as then enjoyed pancakes foraged blueberries for breakfast. We packed away camp for the last time. This time it was easy and the kayaks were so light! We barely had any food or rations left.

We launched the kayaks and we found we were downwind most of the day. We surfed our way to the lunch spot. Lunch was everything we had left in our kayaks. We pooled everything on to the table and as a group we decided what to eat, helped prepare and cook. We made mushroom spaghetti and potato bravas with a honey mustard dressing.

The wind picked up over lunch, with the waves looking rather intimidating from the island.

We huddled for a briefing from Chris. He gave us some tips about our paddling technique to help with the rolling waves and guidance that we should all stay close together. Our water containers were nearly empty as we were close to the end. However, Chris advised we fill them to make our kayaks heavier and we wouldn’t be pushed around so much by the waves.

Thankfully it was more manageable than we anticipated. Still bigger waves we had encountered on the trip, but less than we feared. Our skills and confidence we had built over the week had helped dramatically.

Chris pulled out a bar of chocolate he had saved from the rations on our final raft together, which gave us the last boost we needed.

The sun was out for our final stretch, and there as a stillness in our paddling. Things were calm and so were we. We paddled in silence for the last hour, we could see the hotel landing in the distance. I don’t know if this was the same for everyone else, but I was soaking it all in. Thinking about the last week, what I’d achieved and the friends that I’d made.

We landed on the beach, to unpack our kayaks for the final time. We all washed them down, packed them away and sorted out the kit. The cooking utensils and crockery was washed and dried. Then it was time to finally wash ourselves! We checked into our rooms and all disappeared for showers. The appreciation for a hot running shower, with proper shampoo was overwhelming to say the least!

We gathered in the hotel restaurant for a ‘proper sit down meal’ and we chatted on our reflections. Chris asked prompting questions to each of us about what we had enjoyed, learnt and what we found difficult.

We said our goodbyes that evening as we knew the next day we were all going our separate ways with various onward travel plans.

I find writing about the end of the trip extremely difficult and anti climatic. And maybe thats because it was. This was one of the best adventures I have ever been on, and I didn’t want it to end. I had made incredible friends and memories I will hold onto forever. And when that ends, it does feel flat and ‘oh, suddenly it’s over’ even when for parts some of the trip it felt like I had been away for ages.

The day after

I planned to head to Helsinki, to explore there and also have some solo time. I left Siân, my fellow hotel roomie and headed to the city. I checked in to Noli and a gorgeous studio apart-hotel room. Which if I’m honest, I didn’t know what to do with all the space!

I headed out and spent most of the rainy afternoon in the Allas pool and the several saunas they had.

Before I flew home I walked around the Katajanokka area and where they dock the Icebreakers in the summer, which I found fascinating. I nosied at the cathedrals and made sure I ate several cinnamon buns before catching a very delayed flight black home.

Takeways

• Camping won’t kill me.
• I have to accept different timescales and being flexible with changing plans (I found some of the trip challenging in ways I didn’t think I would. I struggled not knowing when we were going to leave islands or when things took longer than expected. My usual day to day life is controlled and scheduled, I had to learn to appreciate a slower pace and be open to changes.)
• Island life, primitive and sometimes as chaotic as it was, it was glorious and I miss it.
• I can kayak more than I thought. Its amazing what you can do putting your mind too it and being surrounded by supporting people.
• The scenery and landscape was incredible. Even with the weather forever changing, it was always beautiful.
• I loved developing my kayaking skills and I could feel/see a considerable difference by the end of the week.
• An adventure is not just in the milage. I learnt the adventure is in making memories, the moments around the fire, enjoying the food and not just about the miles we paddled.
• I loved the hybrid of this trip, the blend of kayaking and food made it a balanced adventure, going the distance buy also absorbing my surroundings.
• I will treasure the memories of this trip forever.