Sweden
by Gwen
Sunday evening (or night as it was 23:45) we started out from the harbour in GrenÃ¥. The Ferry had no good places to sit so we sat on the floor. By and by we all fell asleep though some took more time than others…
It was early morning when we got off the ferry, and still dark. We ate a little of the lunchpack we had, but none was really hungry. After that most of us went with some local buses, but I went with Jakob (my scout-leader) in his old VW van with three others from my patrol (this was an arrangement from the ferry, it was a little cheaper for them).
At 8 or so in the morning we stopped and waited for the others as we from then on were going with a hired bus.
We repacked all our baggage into plastic barrels so that it didn't get wet if it rained. After this everything was loaded into the canoes and we went in after them.
We paddled and paddled and paddled and guess what… paddled! At midday we stopped and ate the rest of our lunchpacks. After that again all we did was paddle. I was in a canoe with Johanne, Mia's best friend. We weren't a good team! We zigzagged all over the place and ended up at the back where it's always “Quick, quick, quick we're behind. We've got to catch up with the others!”.
We set up camp in a clearing in the middle of nowhere. At this point I started to feel sick this kept on until the morning of the last day.
After long discussions of who should do what and where the toilet should be, we finally got the tent up; all four girls had a tent to themselvs (though it was a tight squeeze for the tent was only meant for three). Dinner was bacon and (so-called) curry-rice. It was agony eating it! It was just horrid!!!
The next morning we started off again; this time I was paddling with someone else due to me feeling sick. This went fine until he stopped paddling. Well he started saying don't stop paddling on a corner, don't switch sides and don't take a rest, when he himself stopped on corners (to eat!) switched sides all the time and was nearly always resting. Him being a leader (not Jakob) I felt that saying it to him would be disrespectful. So for the rest of the trip I was the one paddling, not him.
The climax of day two was when a leader and his son fell in. It was a nice warm day so it didn't really matter. Before we stopped for the night we had to pull the canoes up and carry them past a waterfall.
That evening we slept on an island in a lake dinner today was creamy pasta with chicken sausage, that smelled of cat food! Better than before, but…..
For breakfast we had cornflakes (I had this every morning). The tents were taken down and the canoes packed. Off again!
We were looking for a town or village where there was a supermarket as we needed more food and water. We found a town but all we got was water from a little old lady. There was no supermarket, they said, it had closed down. The nearest was 6 km on foot or 12 km in a canoe. So we chose the canoe and paddled the 12 km to Gislaved.
When I walked into the giant supermarket the first thing I thought was:”Back to civilisation!”.
For a greater part of the day it had been raining and still did, so everyone was reluctant to go outside again. We had tied the canoes under a bridge for shelter and many wanted to sleep there. The leader however want to set up camp “out of town” so again we pulled them up and had to carry them as there again was a waterfall. As we were about to get back in the water we were told to put up the tents as it was getting dark and there was no use in going on.
That night we had spaghetti bolognese. Tasteless and dull!
Every night I had woken 3 times or more but that night I woke 11 times (I counted). This was because of the rain, for it is very loud against the tent.
The next and last day brought us quit far and yet it was only 3 or so when we stopped. The rest of the day we did nothing really. We went to the church that was only 500 meters away, we put up the tents, made the dinner (mashed potato and meatballs (Umm)), cleaned the canoes and started a bonfire. That night I slept so well!
The morning came and brought with it a frost. We did get the bonfire started again though and dried off wet socks and shoes for we had until 12 to get packed; and since we had got up at 6:30 we had all the time in the world. When the bus came everything was loaded on and everyone slumped in a seat. At Varberg we first went to the fortress and were then left to our own devises. So we split up and went to various shops. Dinner was nothing.
The ferry awaited us and on it none was ready to sleep for we had done nothing that day. Everyone had eaten millions of sweets and used lots of money. The kiosk on the boat didn't go a miss! Though I bought almost nothing.
In the car park of the harbour all the parents were waiting though one of the scouts in the VW didn't think they would have remembered.