Anna S. E. Lundberg

Coach, Speaker, Writer

Adventure is Out There: Into the Arctic Wilderness

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I finally got around to writing up my experience of travelling into the Arctic Circle back in March; and what an experience it was…

Dog sledding
Just us and the dogs…

It was the stillness that took me most by surprise. The only sounds were the panting of the dogs and the pitter-patter of their paws on the ground, the crunch of the snow against the runners of the sled. A blanket of granulated sugar lay around us, broken up here and there by the evergreen trees. Branches bent over our path under the weight of the snow, creating a portal through which we entered another world; then the landscape would open up and we would be crossing a vast frozen lake. When we arrived at camp, the wilderness cabin where we would be staying for two nights, I was stunned to find out that we’d been going for more than three hours.

We had flown into Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town, earlier that afternoon. After a hot lunch and a quick briefing, we were kitted out in our Arctic gear and given a little scrap of paper with the names of our dogs. I was given Miki and the oldest and loveliest of the dogs Tofa in the front, and in the back I had Toby and Balto; before I knew it I was standing on my individual sled with four impatient huskies pulling eagerly at the reins. I lifted my foot off the brake… and we were off! Now, I’m really not a dog person, and I must admit that this was the part of the trip that I had thought the least about (except to imagine sitting down in something more like Santa’s sleigh) – but after this first afternoon of sledding through the frozen landscape of Narnia, I mean Kiruna, I would have happily ended the trip there with no regrets.

Husky
The dogs were beautiful and tame on the one hand but their howling when they were hungry or when they wanted to get going made them seem much closer to their wolf cousins on the other.

That night, we fed the huskies and then ourselves, rewarding ourselves further with some relaxation in the sauna hut. We alternated the roasting inside with sprints out into the snow to cool down, hesitant at first but getting more and more daring with each go, eventually frolicking freely in the snow before heading in to get warmed up. When we were once again fully dressed, we headed back out into the snow for what we had all been secretly hoping for: a chance to see the northern lights. There are trips that focus only on this, chasing the aurora borealis with experts who will all but guarantee a sighting; for us, though, this would be a bonus, on top of an adventure that had already more than delivered.

Northern Lights
It’s impossible to capture the majesty of this phenomenon but a photo gives you a little taster of what we witnessed that night.

The night was clear, the stars much brighter than what we are used to back home with all the industrial light pollution that comes with living in the city. Someone spotted a hint of something at the horizon. A cloud? It’s nothing. Then… maybe it’s something? A swirl of light getting slowly brighter, a hint of green, reaching up into the sky. Suddenly: yes! Not a cloud after all. We’re actually seeing them, a whirl of light dancing across the sky, vibrant and alive. Science may explain it all with particles and cosmic rays and solar flares but whatever the cause it is in awe-inspiring sight, a magical moment in the depths of the Arctic wilderness. A short flight and yet a long, long way away from home…

cross-country skiing
The skis were old school military skis, a couple of pieces of wood basically with some straps. How are you supposed to ski on these long thin slippery things?!

On the second day, the dogs got a break as we went for a cross-country ski. Now I may be Nordic but I do not have a whole lot of experience of Nordic skiing, having only been once, many years ago. Things were made more difficult by the fact that the snow kept freezing on the underside of my skis, providing some welcome traction on the uphill bits but being less helpful when I was trying to actually ski on the downhill stretches. Once I had managed to knock all that ice off with some very aggressive kicking and stomping, it was smooth sailing. Well, not quite… After we’d finally made it to the top of a big hill it turned out that downhill was even trickier. We fell like dominos, laughing with increasing hysteria as we went. How are you supposed to ski on these long thin slippery things?! By the end of the day, some of us having also chosen to do the longer route, we were losing control of our poor fatigued limbs, and having run out of water early on we were eagerly munching on snow just like the huskies. On finally arriving back at the cabin we had a much-deserved sauna and some more arctic rolls; after an also-much-deserved shot of vodka to revive the spirits!

The next morning, we had our second and last day of dog sledding. This time, we were responsible for gathering and harnessing our own dogs, and I think we were all feeling a whole lot more comfortable knowing more what to expect. In fact, when we were nearing the end and travelling through a narrow and windy bit that had thrown a lot of people off their sledges on that first day, this time we glided through like pros. I love how a group of amateurs can get to a sufficient level of skill to enjoy something as random as dog sledding within just a couple of days, or even hours, of picking up those reins.

Cocktails
Cocktails at sunset [Photo credit: Gaynor Whiting]
We finished our weekend with a trip to the Ice Hotel, a complex that is re-designed and re-constructed every year after the “snice” (what an awesome word! It’s a mixture of snow and ice) thaws and melts in summer. We didn’t spend the night in the -6 degree rooms but we did manage a few cocktails from the Ice Bar; a month later, we were drinking from the same glasses in the Ice Bar in London (ice from the Torne River is shipped from Sweden to London for this purpose) where we had an Arctic reunion. It wasn’t quite the same – but the cocktails were still tasty! And, of course, that’s the other thing about any adventure like this: the people you meet are inevitably kindred spirits.

The wilderness weekend was organised by Madoc of Secret Adventures. If you’re tempted, and how could you not be, there will be a new Arctic adventure 21st-24th January 2016. This one is in the middle of winter and likely to give you a more authentic Arctic experience than our blue-skies-and-warm-sun experience in March! You’ll fly to Kiruna via Stockholm with either Norwegian Airlines or SAS and the rest is all organised by Madoc and the team.

Adventure is Out There: Night-time kayak under Tower Bridge

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So who knew that you could kayak on the Thames? Just amazing. So much fun simply to be doing the kayaking itself, and then endless opportunities for selfies and Instagram shots as we passed various London landmarks. What more could you ask for?!

Limehouse
Do you think that penthouse flat is available…?

The evening was organised by Secret Adventures. I discovered them early last year, and went on my first adventure back in September. That really was a super-secret adventure, with a group of us meeting up at a building in London and then cycling out to an undisclosed location, hiding our bikes in the bushes, and swimming across to a teeny-tiny island where we then spent the night under the open sky. Then a few weeks ago I went on a spectacular adventure up in the Arctic Circle – more to come on this soon! And now this night kayak on the Thames.

Kayaks on land
Feeling just a little foolish as we got into the boats on dry land in order to adjust the foot rests…

We met up under the bridge at Limehouse, which is in itself a gorgeous area of London that I’ve never explored, with some very nice flats positioned around the little harbour. We were given waterproof jackets and not-so waterproof trousers (I had a VERY wet bum when I returned…) along with life vests and lights for when it got dark. Oh, and a paddle each, very important. We were shown the basic paddling technique and then trouped on down to the water where the boats were waiting for us.

The water was surprisingly choppy, and every time a large boat went past, the waves would roll towards us. The boats, though, were very stable and we were assured that we would only tip over if we really tried hard to do so. Phew! But I put my iPhone in a ziplock bag just in case…

Pointing towards Tower Bridge
Destination: Tower Bridge!

We paddled away from Canary Wharf, getting into a sort of rhythm until we started to approach Tower Bridge, at which point the pace of the group slowed as everyone got out their phones and cameras. What is an adventure if you can’t take photos to put on Facebook, eh? After getting some good shots, we were told to keep paddling so that we would make our dinner reservation at The Mayflower. We tied up our kayaks and precariously climbed over and up the fire escape to this restored public house that dates back to the 16th century. There we had a well-deserved stodgy meal and a drink out on the terrace with views up and down the river. The journey back was a little tougher, as we weighed down the boat after the meal and went back up to Limehouse against the tide. Trying to paddle onto the narrow ‘beach’ was a hilarious exercise in itself, especially as we’d been told to keep the noise down due to an angry neighbour…

Tower Bridge
Actually going under Tower Bridge, as promised in the name of the adventure! We also went under London Bridge which, thankfully, was not falling down…

“Sa, say pour lay tourists sa,” said a man disdainfully when we entered the pub. (I can only assume that he was, in fact, talking to tourists, unless he just likes to speak bad French to his fellow Londoner friends.) Well, lucky tourists, then, I say! It’s such a shame if you don’t explore all that your city has to offer simply because you’ve been living there for so long. I’ve loved rediscovering London these past months. I even took a rickshaw on Friday night, so there!

Kayaking under Tower Bridge
Just… spectacular.

The other great thing about these types of activities is the people you meet. By definition, and, yes, I may be biased, the people who go on this kind of adventure trip are incredibly lovely. They’re open to doing new things, often alone without knowing anyone else, and just generally interesting, friendly people. Something that is very important when you’re out in the Arctic wilderness, or spending an evening paddling a twin kayak together…

Adventure is out there! You just to have to go out and find it…

 

Check out Secret Adventures for the next night kayak and for other trips including canoeing on the canal and a wilderness survival weekend! These adventures also fund adventures for inner city kids to escape London with the children’s charity Kids Company, so there is the extra bonus of contributing to a good cause.

Adventure is Out There: Wild camping north of the M25

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I feel like I used to be more adventurous than I am now. I tried windsurfing and waterskiing on holidays with my parents. As a teenager, I did hiking, caving, white water rafting and kayaking… I went skydiving and even completed the A J Hackett trilogy of bungee jumps including New Zealand’s highest, Nevis, from 134m over a ravine … Now, after a decade of pretty mellow living, I’m finding that I have a renewed sense of adventure and a desire to try new things.

So it was on a bit of a whim that I signed up to a secret adventure via meetup.com. Although I’d joined the group months ago, and seen many events without signing up, something about this one drove me to click that RSVP button. The description of this Tiny Island adventure included escaping London, cooking round a campfire, and a special reading from a Guardian journalist. With that brief information, I bought a place on this ‘literary adventure’ and on Saturday I suddenly found myself on a train to London equipped with a bike and a bag full of kit.

Bikes by the river
Now, let me be clear, I’ve never been much of a lycra fan, preferring instead a more leisurely approach to cycling while singing Do Re Mi and ringing my pink bell. This was a mainly flat ride along the canals of London, so perhaps not the biggest challenge, but it was definitely the furthest I’ve ever ridden.

The adventure began with a 20-mile bike ride out of London. We stayed together as a group, waiting for punctures to be fixed, brakes to be adjusted, and the whole ride took three, maybe four, hours. When we reached our secret location, we locked our bikes together behind some bushes, put our belongings into a dry sack (a miraculous bag that floats in water and keeps your things dry), and swam across to our tiny island that would be our home for the night. I felt just like in The Beach, except without Leo DiCaprio and that handsome French actor…

Tiny island
Okay, so there was 3G so we weren’t exactly that remote, and we even had planes passing over us… but we did have an island to ourselves, and how often do you wake up to a view of the open sky above the treetops and get to go for an early morning dip?

As the Guardian journalist and author Dixe Wills writes in his book Tiny Islands (for some reason, he has developed a passion for all things tiny), “islands imbue their visitors with an immediate sense of escape, of getting away from it all, and the tempting if possibly fanciful notion that if you came to live here you could start your life all over again with a fresh slate”.

The organiser was Madoc, a qualified youth worker and expedition leader who started Secret Adventures in January this year. He runs it from Bathtub 2 Boardroom, a charity start-up incubator that offers a creative working space to entrepreneurs in London. (Although I do love a good Starbucks, and I’m planning on leaving London soon, I must say that I’m tempted…) I thought Madoc could be a great candidate for my Fearless Fridays interview, where I talk to people who’ve left a corporate job to pursue their passion; but when I asked if he had ever had a more traditional job, Madoc replied matter-of-factly, “I never considered doing anything I didn’t want to do.” It really is that simple…

Campfire
Madoc already had the fire going by the time we had swum across to the island. We ate a nutritious meal of couscous and chorizo followed by grilled banana and melted Dairy Milk, after which we passed round a bottle of whiskey – I never drink whiskey, but somehow it seemed appropriate! – and listened as Dixe read from his book and we shared our tales of adventure from around the world.

And, as you would imagine, the group was lovely. Almost all of us were there alone, which always helps to make everyone open to talking to everyone else. “Assuming for a moment that we are what we do”, as Dixe writes on his website, there was a graphic designer, an app developer, a BBC researcher, a photographer, a manager of a drug and alcohol service, a journalist who works on a solution-focused newspaper called Positive News… Again, a reminder of all the different paths you can take!

Wild camping is strictly speaking not allowed in England and Wales (it’s not like the Eden that is Sweden where we have allemansrätten, the right of public access, which allows us to stay on any land for one night without permission). It’s usually not a problem, as long as you remain discreet and clean up after yourselves. On this occasion, though, our adventure was made all the more exciting as we heard angry voices coming from the mainland and torches flashing in the dark. They left us – well, they weren’t about to swim across, and apparently they didn’t have a boat – with a sinister warning, “See you in the morning!” Luckily, when morning came, there were no angry farmers and no policemen waiting to arrest us for our heinous crime, only a lovely if slightly racist man who was pacified when he heard that we were all English. My imagination ran wild as I pictured my new friends handing me over as a foreigner, but they remained silent as the man grumbled about the Poles who had a cannabis festival on the island last year…

Group photo
In the morning, we swam back across to get our bikes, finding a nearby café where we could gorge ourselves on a big English breakfast before continuing on to our different destinations.

I heard somewhere that you should buy experiences instead of things, and I’m all for that! I managed to scrounge together a lot from my parents’ attic, but I had to buy a couple of extra things for the sake of this experience (that dry sack and a bivvy bag). Of course, now that I have all the kit, I need to do more wild camping to use it all!

So what’s next? Madoc is planning a visit to one of Dixe’s tiny islands, so I’m hoping to join that one. I definitely want to go kayaking, maybe next summer in the Stockholm archipelago. I’d like to cycle around Gotland, a not-so-tiny island off the south-east coast of Sweden. And… well, let’s see what other adventures the future may bring!

 

Read more about microadventures on Alastair Humphrey’s blog, and join Madoc on one of his upcoming Secret Adventures (he has kayaking, camping and canoeing trips still happening this month, as well as a once-in-a-lifetime Arctic Biathlon in December).