(journal entry from August 29, 2019)
When we got to Gryt, We dropped my parents off at their Airbnb (because they weren’t interested in kayaking with us) and Jershon and I drove over to the kayak rental place.
We were a bit nervous about the weather because it looked like a thunderstorm was coming and we (mostly me) didn’t want to be out on the water in a thunderstorm.
We got all of the gear that we needed – a kayak, life jackets, the tree tent, sleeping bags, a mini propane stove, a flashlight, some toilet paper, a cooking pot, some dishes and utensils, etc.
We packed everything (plus our clothes and such) into the kayak (luckily there were a couple of waterproof compartments) and then got into the kayak.
About 2 minutes after we started kayaking (we were still in the dock area), it started raining… and then down pouring. So we docked the kayak again and ran under the shelter nearby (the little roofed, open sided shed thing where the other kayaks were being stored) so that we wouldn’t get soaked. The rain poured down for about 20 minutes or so and when it looked like the clouds were moving and the sky was clearing (at least in the direction we were headed), we decided to head out again.
Our seats were soaked, so our pants got pretty wet when we were sitting down in the kayak. Haha.
I was sitting in the back so it was my job to steer. The kayak rental guy had told me that I could steer by pushing on the pedals with my feet. I tried this, but it wasn’t doing anything. Jershon kept trying to give me advice about it but it still wasn’t working and I was just getting a little frustrated with him (mostly because I just wanted us to get to our island before another storm came). So I just gave up steering with the pedals and steered us the way that I steer when I am canoeing (which I am pretty good at, by the way. haha). Yeah, it slowed us down a bit, but it worked and got us to where we were going.
We decided on an island that wasn’t too far away since the sun was already starting to go down and we still needed to set up the tree tent. So we found an island, docked the kayak on some rocks and then hauled our stuff up to where we wanted to set up the tree tent.
Neither one of us had ever set up a tree tent before (or slept in one… or even seen on in real life) but we got it figured out and all set up.
Then we walked around and explored our island for a little bit.
The sun was setting so we decided that we should go cook/eat our dinner. We sat on a big rock, at the edge of our island, looking out to the water and some other islands (there are over 5000 islands in this area) and cooked our jar of soup on the little propane burner. It was so beautiful and peaceful.
After we were done eating, Jershon washed our dishes in the Baltic sea. … and then he washed himself in the Baltic.
It was getting dark by this point so we got everything cleaned up and put away and then got in our pajamas and got in the tree tent. It was a little strange to be in a tent, but be hovering a few feet over the ground.
We had had the rain fly off but decided to put it on just in case and about a minute after doing that, it started raining. Luckily it wasn’t a thunderstorm this time and the rain was over within 10 minutes or so.
And now we are going to sleep.
(journal entry from August 30, 2019)
This morning, we woke up in our tree tent. Surprisingly, I actually slept really well… better than most nights when we go camping. I think I slept better because I actually felt safer than other campouts. I was 99% sure that the only animals on our island were insects and the occasional bird. And not having animals there helped a lot with lessening my anxiety levels.
After getting up, we decided to go on a walk around our island to explore. It only took us about 15 minutes to walk around the entire thing. 🙂
After our walk, we cleaned up camp, ate our breakfast (some fruit and muffins) and then packed everything back into our kayak.
We got in the kayak and started heading back to the dock. This time, we figured out how to put the rudder down and that helped a lot. haha. I was able to steer really well this time. 🙂
It only took us about 20 minutes to kayak back to the dock and then we returned all of our gear and got in the car and headed over to the Airbnb to pick up my parents.
