Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Via Francigena, stage 1/3, October 2010

In 58 BC Julius Caesar opened the 'Road of the Sun', the shortest route between the North Sea and Rome. This route was called 'Via Francigena' for the first time in 876 AD. The archbishop of Canterbury Sigeric wrote down the itinerary in 990 AD when he returned home from Rome. The road was used by merchants, armies and pilgrims. As a pilgrimage, this route fell out of fashion around the 17th century. In 1985 Via Francigena was retraced as described back in 990 AD by the archbishop.

The route starts in Canterbury, England but we started from Grand Saint Bernhard in Switzerland. From there it's 1020km's to Rome, on this leg we walked 360km's. The next stages are planned for march and october of 2011.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Huittinen - Pori kayak trip, June 2010

Our latest inland kayaking trip started in Huittinen where we ended up last year. Our goal this year was to finish up in Pori, 85 kilometers away, by the coast. The idea was to leave the car in Huittinen and after reaching Pori, one of us would take a bus back to Huittinen to get the car. This was the last stage of five. Fortunately there are a lot of lakes and waterways to explore in coming summers but there is no way to top the weather we had on this trip.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Riksgränsen, May 2010

This winter has provided very cold temperatures and heavy snowfall, this means it's going to take a long time to melt away.

We spent an extended weekend in May travelling to Riksgränsen, on the border between northern Sweden and Norway, to take advantage of our last opportunity to do some downhill skiing.

The weather was for most parts sunny and temperatures reached above 20 degrees C. The extreme temperature changes also meant there was a chance of fog, which we also experienced.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Pikanto FIN-XX, Winter 2010

After sailing a Triple Crown for over five years (with mixed results) it's time for a new and better designed boat. Click here to see the building of that old boat.

We had initially a lot of designs to pick from, but we chose a modern, Graham Bantock designed, Pikanto-model.

This time we didn't build it all from scratch, we got the hull from the factory of Immanen & Wallin in Helsinki. We hope to trick it out and optimize its performance and handling. This post will be updated during winter and spring of 2010. Stay tuned!