Before you read this update, read the one from Kristoffer from a few minutes ago!

So... We got through day 2! Shouldn't say without issues but at least we didn't injure ourselves... much... Mosquitoes are everywhere, Josh is really sunburnt his legs, and all our backs are sore.

Day started fine. After a nice porridge breakfast we started padding on Rådanesjön. Really tired at the beginning, as soon as the cooling wind hit us we regained our energy. We soon reached Bodaneån where we would spend almost our whole day.

Most of paddling consisted of avoiding rocks and old trees in the water. Had to use the saw a couple of times, and had to pull the canoe over both beaverland and rocky shallow "rapids". After a nice lunch of noodles (again) the trip eventually turned into a nice forested river with not much sunlight. We had no idea what was ahead of us!

While river kept going , both fields and forest disappeared and was replaced by wetland and reeds as far as we could see. Landscape felt wild and exotic,  and the river was quite wide... for a while...

Soon enough it got more and more narrow. The reeds were 6 feet high and we couldn't doing but try to stay on track. At times the river was only three feet wide and so was our canoe. Josh and Kristoffer, who were in the canoe at the time, eben had to walk next to canoe to get it forward. After getting through what felt like an endless overgrown lake, we finally reached a bridge and we were back to normal river. Time for the next setback!

For some reason they were performing repairs on the dam downstream so they were letting all water out which resulted in shallow rocky waters and in the end portage through high grass in the forest to the first place down the dam where we could put our canoes back in. We had a quick dinner with ham and tuna, paddled past more rocks and tree logs to reach a small lake. We quickly passed through it and entered the last part of Bodaneån before reaching the biggest lake of  our trip, Stora Hästefjorden. We were set on finding a place to sleep and soon settled on an island in the middle of nowhere. We ate some blueberries, some mosquitoes ate us, we played some Hanabi and now we're about to go to sleep. The view is nice :)

I didn't hurt myself so badly so we could continue on, pushing the canoes up the shallow stream in the picture.
When we got out on the next lake the wind hit us pretty hard so we had a difficult time getting anywhere.
At the lake we found a little island with a hill on it. From there we had a great view and we cooked some sausages.
After a couple of more hours of paddling, we reached the end of the lake. Time was 6pm and now we had to carry everything, since we had forgotten the cart. It started off pretty good, but we soon got very tired. We realised that it was much longer to the next lake than we anticipated. We had no energy left whatsoever so at 9 pm we called mom to help us bring the canoes with the car over to our next paddling area. We were so thankful! If she hadn't been able to help us out, we would not have been able to carry on.
We put our tent in the outskirts of a little village right next to a lake. It was finally time for some rest.

It's been a good day with a rough evening, we'll tell you more around breakfast. Good night!

We forgot the cart for the canoe,  bad setback! Also, Kris just hurt himself a little moving the kayak on land. We're diing great though, doing  good time and no worries about finishing before Saturday :)

It is finally time for our paddling trip! All the packing is done, though it was more than we thought it would be. Hopefully we can fit it all in the canoe and the kayak. :) Time for bed, early start tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow around this time we'll be in the car on our way to the lake
Vassbotten close to Munkedal to start our big trip. Kristoffer will be here
in an hour so we can finalize our packing. Very excited!

On July 13th Kristoffer and I will embark on our first journey. We will be joined by my brother-in-law Josh and together we will paddle roughly 100 km (60-65 miles) over several days at an undisclosed location. All I can say is that the trip will end somewhere in Vänern, Sweden's biggest lake.

We will be travelling in one canoe and one kayak, taking turns being in the kayak. While I have the whole trip mapped out, I'm not sure what to actually bring on a trip like this. Will most likely result in packing too much, and then we'll learn from that experience!

So, my first three hours of kayaking is behind me. It was fantastic! It was everything I had dreamt of + a great deal of pain that I will learn how to avoid next time.

I absolutely love experiencing nature from this perspective, gliding silently through the water. It will happen again many times!

So, the idea is that Kristoffer and I are going to start paddling. I have never been in a kayak and almost never in any type of canoe. This weekend I will try out kayaking for the first time, it will be an experience!