2220 Expedition - Round Sweden 2005
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On the evening of Sunday 31st July 2005, Louisa and John Paul Bichard pulled into the Swedish-Finnish border town of Haparanda to complete their 2392km journey around the entire coast of Sweden. After 56 days of paddling, around 1.5 million paddle strokes, 5700 documentary photos and dozens of mosquito bites, they were lean, tanned and in surprisingly good condition.
"We encountered winds over 12m/s, seas of over 3m, people who were kind and generous to us and all sorts of wildlife: harbour and grey seals, a snake and a toad, horseflies the size of bumble bees... we were surrounded by a flock of sheep, invaded by a herd of wooly cows and came across the jumping pike of Haparanda!".
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They paddled in everything the wind and sea offered them: from chilling out on glassy seas, coasting on long rolling swells, to navigating in thick fog, battling for hours on end into strong headwinds or slicing through high fast waves. They were soaked, chilled, baked, wind dried, tumbled about in confusing roller-coaster seas and enjoyed hours speeding down surf waves. At times, after days of paddling into the wind, the journey seemed endless, then a strong following wind, a breathtaking sunset or waking up on a beautiful sun-drenched sandy beach would make it all worth it.
There were a few close calls: a night paddle when the skies darkened, the wind picked up and they had to head out around a breakwater; the longest 5km ever paddling along the sea wall in Helsingborg harbour amidst ferries, currents, a strong side wind and big refracting waves; there were a few near misses with dozy speed boat drivers and two flash gales when in force 6 winds the paddles felt like they would be ripped out of their hands.
When it was good it was very very good and when it was bad they wondered why they weren't in the tropics sipping margaritas. 2220 was an amazing adventure: surprising, gruelling, thrilling and very demanding.
Find out more about the 2220 expedition, Louisa and John, their generous sponsors and their ongoing story at the Hydropia 2220 website www.hydropia.org
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