Inari to Sandnes by SUP

I accepted the income that summer tourism brings, rented out my home, and flew to Norway somewhat depressed about the carbon footprint these choices would lead to. It is difficult to be green.

At least the real journey started by bus. That delivered us to Inari in Finland, and the south-west corner of an enormous lake system that I had passed on the final leg of a previous journey.

In the back of the bus we each had an O'Shea 13' Explorer inflatable paddleboard. We had a pump too, and were soon ready to head away into what promised to be wilderness.

With the paddleboards we journeyed through lake and forest to river and sea. ~1.5 litres of petrol covered all needs for cooking and hot drinks. Phones for navigation were charged by solar. Food had been carefully chosen to minimise packaging waste and weight. Fish and fresh berries supplemented our diet and kept scurvy at bay.

Helene was new to SUP, although we had done a three-day warm-up trip the week previous. Even so, it was a steep learning curve!

For me, in retrospect, there are many highlights to speak of: re-'discovering' routes that previous dwellers of the region would have known well, Helene's transition to competence and confidence, the fun of descending the river, the first taste of sea air after many days inland...

With the air travel and new paddleboards to offset, it can't be claimed that this was an eco-friendly trip. But at least once underway it did minimal environmental harm, and that is a highlight too.