Day One. Saturday 19th August 2017
0615hrs. Reveille and down to breakfast for toast and
cereal.
0730hrs. Trevor drops us at LHR T2 Departures. The great
thing about having friends scattered around the country is that all they come
in handy as B+B stops. Trevor and Janice do bear the brunt of this as they live
not far from the M25 and conveniently close to LHR. The traffic through the
tunnel under the main runway was pretty horrendous but we had plenty of time. Arriving
at Departures Jackie grabbed a trolley whilst Trevor and I struggled pulling
the KE Adventure bags out of the boot. Bidding him a farewell and thanks we
fought our way into the departure hall and looked for the SAS bag drop. Walking
smartly up an empty aisle to check my bags I was told by a svelte, young
looking blonde check-in clerk with a fixed smile that “Sir is in the wrong line
and I need to self-check and label my bags before returning to the other line,
unless I am of course flying First Class. Back into the throng where another
eagle eyed employee of SAS has spotted me. He approaches and within seconds has
punched in various codes and flight numbers, the machine spews a succession of
luggage tags and labels, these he attaches to bags and passports and we present
ourselves back at the check-in desk. A mere formality and soon we are at Security.
Straight through. Jackie sets off alarm. “It’s my prosthetic hip”. She proudly
exclaims. “No it’s not that lady it’s the silver foil from a blister pack of Rennies
in your trouser pocket”.
0745hrs. We are now sat just outside one of the eateries in
a very comfortable lounge chair drinking coffee and watching the world pass.
All we need now is the Gate Number to be displayed and we can make our way
over.
1010hrs. On board SAS Airlines flight to Stockholm. We
glance arouind trying to spot other Canoe Cornwall expeditioners. It is of
course impossible. Apart from Mel and Les who are flying out of Manchester the
only other two faces known to us are Jay and Johan. Neither of which appears to
be on this flight.
1100hrs. Wheels up.
1402hrs. Landed at Stockholm. This is a short turn around.
There is no need to collect baggage but the crew announcement on descending
seemed to mention something about collecting luggage. That made me think! In
the terminal I could get no-one to confirm this. Slight worry. I was reasonably
confident our baggage would go ‘straight through’. We now need to re-enter
another terminal. Here we face through security and bag scan once again. On
exiting we are immediately ‘confronted’ by Les. We exchanged a few minor
insults as friends do and then walked us the short distance to where everyone
else in the party was gathered. Jay introduced one and all. Despite we being
only fourteen in the group it seemed to be a bewildering see of faces and
names. In some respects we Stopportons were the odd ones out. Everyone else had
either meet on one of the training weekends or had been in communication via
Facebook. (Other social media sights exist) There had been a few drop outs I
believe. Indeed I was close to being one of those statistics. However the
surgeon had passed me as ‘fit to jump’ despite recent surgery in France. Our
attempt at a group photo outside the security hall brought a swift if casual
response from I.S. In his best Terry Wogan voice he said “No pictures” or was
that his Arnie impression.
1530hrs. On board seated. Offered coffee on the short
flight. Very civilised.
1555hrs. Landed. We move into the baggage reclaim hall and
soon all in the party have their kit and we are ushered out to the two waiting
cabs by Johan. It is still raining hard. Jumping aboard the first cab and
ensuring our luggage was on the same bus we were soon on our way to Lits
Camping Site.
Looking out of the window at the
passing countryside could see that the ground in numerous places was flooded
and sodden. Given that Sweden is a land of water this may not have been that
remarkable. The driver a friendly sort of chap who spoke English was at pains
to inform us this weather was most unusual. Oh well that’s OK then!
Arriving
at Lits Camping, a recognized camp site, after something like a forty-five
minute drive we quickly off load the bergans and kitbags and stack ‘em as
directed inside the huge tepee that stood next to reception. The reason being
it was still hammering it down. Once all are gathered inside Jay gives us a
brief on what happens next. Basically we need to double away pick a suitable spot
on the field and get our tents, bivvies, hammocks, etc sorted and stove our
kit. If we wish showers are available and soon there will be a move as a group
to the Pizzeria for, naturally a pizza and a beer. Move out. Construct bivvy.
Still raining. Climb inside await move to Pizzeria. Still raining.
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Inside the bivvy looking out at the rain. Isn't this romantic. |
It has stopped raining and we make our way to the Pizzeria. Jay being a local
language speaker orders the grub for all as well as beer. It is a nice
opportunity to start to get to know one’s fellow travelling companions. After a
nice warm evening and some grub inside we make our way back to the campsite a
short thirty minute walk away.
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Some wag suggested this was the main railway line to Siberia! |
Once back in the bivvy we waste
no time in changing and climbing into our new sleeping bags. This will be the
first real test of these items. We had decided against bringing either our
Arctic sleeping bags or our summer bags surmising that these ranges would not
cover us for the anticipated temperatures we would encounter this week. I had
suggested to Jackie we pack our bergans as per the usual ten day in the
mountains and we would not be far wrong. In the event we were correct in that
assumption.
2300hrs. Lights out. It rained all night. I always find
there is a degree of comfort in this when you are safely tucked up inside.
Having to turn to in the middle of the night for whatever reason of course is a
different story. Will it have stopped by the morning?
