Sea Kayaking in the Sankt Anna Archipelago: Aspöja and the Central Islands
Day 4
This would be our final full day in the Sankt Anna Archipelago, so after a chilled breakfast we packed up, left the cabin behind us and wandered across to our kayak, where we replenished our fresh water supplies and slipped back into the calm waters.
The wind had dropped off even more now, so our plan was to explore the islands to the north-east of Aspöja and then make our way down the north-west side of it, before heading first west and then south so that we could camp not too far from Mon. We needed to be back in Mon by 11am the following morning and didn’t want to be rushing.
That’s exactly what we did, exploring the more interesting-looking channels and inlets as we went. We stopped alongside a lovely sheltered channel on the west side of Aspöja, where fish, jellyfish and shrimp could be seen going about their business in the clear waters. I jumped in for another skinny dip and then dried off on the rocks in the sunshine.
Things started to get a little busier with sailing boats and other craft as we headed across the main boating channel, but it was never that busy. We stopped again on the northern tip of an island for lunch, where I had a little stroll to the top to take in the views.
We then decided to head south and a little east again to another nature reserve that we thought might be a little quieter and feel more private. To be honest, anywhere would have felt like this, but we wanted to be completely out of sight of any signs of human activity.
We eventually stopped on a little island called Kålskär, where we set up camp at the top of a rocky platform, with trees behind us to shelter us from any wind.
Anna snoozed for the afternoon. I think the longest day of paddling had tired her out a little. I went exploring the little island we were on and went for a lovely swim.
We then finished off the last of our supplies for dinner and headed to the top of a rocky cliff on the west side of the island to watch the sunset.
Day 5
Another good night in the tent, which had been positioned to catch the morning sun, was followed by breakfast overlooking the sea.
It was our last day, so we packed things a little differently to make the changeover back at Mon easier and then set off in the kayak once more. It was quite a lot easier to manhandle now that we had eaten all our food and used up most of our water.
The paddle back to Mon was fairly short and easy. We did stop on a little island so that I could have one last skinny dip and took some little detours to waste some time, but soon found ourselves back at the KajakParadiset HQ.
We handed back our kayak and kit, had an ice cream, bought some snacks and waited for a taxi back to Söderköping.
What a holiday!
It had been so nice to get away from it all and just watch the world go by. The islands were beautiful, and kayaking was the perfect way to explore them. We could go wherever we fancied, find our own little campsites and simply adapt our plans according to the weather and how we felt.
And, of course, the company was as good as it gets.
We were already thinking about when we could return, or perhaps do something very similar in a different archipelago. There was something about the combination of kayaking, wild camping, beautiful scenery and complete freedom that really suited us.
The holiday wasn’t quite over yet, though, as we now had a couple of nights in Copenhagen to look forward to, along with a complete change of pace. From the quiet, slow pace of island life in the Sankt Anna Archipelago to the thriving cosmopolitan hubbub of Copenhagen.
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Hmm getting concerned about this skinny dipping malarkey! Not sure what Ynyslas will think about that