Women’s Wilderness Adventure
5 days guided kayaking in Saint Anna & Gryt – an introduction to an outdoors lifestyle! 16-20 Aug
BADASS ADVENTURE LADIES
Join our special guest guide Linda Staaf and Hanna Sluys from Do the North for an all ladies mind-opening kayaking journey full to the brim with passion, know-how and gumption to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life!
THOUSANDS OF ISLANDS IN A MAZE
Nowhere in Europe can you find this many islands and islets clustered so closely together. We get to be true explorers in a stunning coastal wonderland, wild camping permitted anywhere!
WILD INSPIRATION
Work up the courage to actually go for it! Maybe it’s an adventure you’ve always wanted to do, or you simply wish to spend more time in nature. Perhaps you’re even eager to find a way to make a living in the outdoors.
WE'RE IN IT TOGETHER
This adventure is all about a fun communal vibe – enjoying the outdoors and learning new skills while having a grand ol’ time! Relaxing together, laughing together, doing the wild….together.
LIVING WILD
Large or small. You don’t need a big adventure to make your life more outdoorsy. It’s just around the corner, meshed up in your everyday routines.
Being active under the open sky can be a lifestyle, for anyone!
Meet Linda staaf
Lindas’s drive and love for nature is really inspiring! She offers great encouragment to make your ideas doable, whether you can drop it all and go, or more likely, have family, work or other responsibilities that make it trickier.
A true outdoors entrepreneur! Linda runs her own zipline park, leads hiking, kayaking and MTB tours and much more. She loves coming up with an idea and the whole process of carrying it through.
With sustainable nature tourism as her leading star, Linda is also a lecturer, organises workshops and is heavily involved in local sustainability projects.
In her past, she used to work as a volounteer for nature conservation in Australia, and travelled all over the world. These days she has a business and family that keeps her geographically grounded. Linda is a role model for working in small outdoor adventures into your everyday life – You’ll be amazed how easy it can be!
What You'll Get
A Complete Package from Start to finish
This inspirational adventure is a one-off very special trip! Linda and Hanna will teach all the tricks in their bags for kayaking and camping in the wild, along with sharing their fun and super interesting take on the outdoors as a lifestyle.
Included
- Guides Linda Staaf & Hanna Sluys
- Top quality kayaking, camping & cooking gear
- Comfort upgrade – airbed, pillow & chair
- Breakfast, lunch, snacks & dinners
- Soft drinks, coffee & tea
- Detailed guide book
- Return transport Norrköping-Saint Anna
What to Bring
- A couple of sets of clothing
- Shoes for water & land
- Towel & swimwear
- Sunglasses, sun cap, sun block & toiletries
- Camera or battery pack for phone
Not Included
- Flights to Sweden
- Pre-order alcoholic beverages if you choose
Price per person
5 DAYS
9,400 SEK
Trip Information
Dates: 16–20 August
Group size: 8 people
Minimum age: 18 years
Fitness level: Low/medium
Prerequisites: Must be able to swim and have a taste for adventure. Weight limit; 120 kilo per person. Beginners are welcome!
Payment: We charge 1,000 SEK deposit per person at the time of booking. Remaining balance is due 2 weeks prior to your trip.
Day by Day
Into the Maze
Our launch is situated in a sheltered bay and soon a maze of islands is spreading out in all directions. We paddle at a leisurely pace through clusters of forested islets northeast, taking in the beauty and solitude of the area. We’ll probably see soaring White-tailed Eagles as they nest in centuries old trees around here.
We aim for Lammskär, which is a gorgeous atoll formation of islands with lots of shelter and amazing sunset views. We’ll set up camp, cook a delicious meal, hop in the water for an evening swim and simply enjoy getting to know each other.
A myriad of islets bordering on the open sea
Today is a stunning paddle south through the outer archipelago. The landscape out here is much different than the one we left behind – hundreds of tiny barren islets stretching out towards the blue horizon. It’s less sheltered out here and we get to practice our paddling and navigation skills.
After a quite strenuous paddle we head inwards to the middle part of the archipelago and the narrow passages between Missjö and it’s long paralell islands. Camping here is fantastic with lots of shelter and perfect for swimming.
As we cook and hang out, we’ll focus our conversation a little extra on ways to incorporate nature in our everyday life. Linda is a fabulous example of how to live a traditional family life while still getting the most out of outdoors experiences, freedom and dreams.
As idyllic as it gets
We’ll visit a couple of the best points of interest of the archipelago today! First we paddle a short distance east to Kupa Klint. It’s a famous lookout, a cairn on a hill that’s been used as a nabigation mark for seafarers for centuries. The archipelago is generally very flat, so reaching just a little altitude makes for an amazing view of the hundreds of islets and skerries below.
We’ll continue towards Harstena village. It’s an old fishing hamlet that’s as picturesque as they come! It’s truly like stepping into the 1800s with the old wooden houses, pathways and pretty flowers. We’ll visit the museum in the old school, the little bakery with heavenly cinnamon rolls and stroll around this idyllic place.
A quick paddle west of Harstena is Torrön. It’s a large forested island surrounded by hundreds of little islets and very shallow waters, yet another very different landscape than before.
There is lots of birdlife around here and it’s very cool to look down at the bladder wrack forests on the bottom of the sea as we glide across in our kayaks.
A wood-fired sauna on the sea
After spending lots of time in the outer and middle part of the archipelago, we’re aiming west to the larger islands closer to the mainland. The passage between Vaggön and it’s neighboring island offer dramatic scenery with the steep rock walls crashing almost virtically into the water. We round back up to the homestead at Håskö, where we enjoy a wood-fored sauna right on the sea and some more swimming of course. There is a small-scale fishing operation here and we pick up some smoked or fresh fish to use for dinner.
We’ll continue south through a beautiful long passage between Kråkmarö and Armnö and view the idyllic old wooden houses dotted over the islands as we quietly paddle past. After a somewhat open crossing we end up somewhere close the lookout Gubbö Kupa for the evening.
Tonight we’ll delve into doing the wild for a living. There are endless possibilities out there, big or small.
Due west for the mainland
Our last day together in this stunning island wonderland! We walk the path up to the cairn and take in the vista of the surrounding landscape. We’ll hop in for one last dip in the sea and pack up, due the mainland.
We round the Fångö island, paddle through the beautiful clusters of islets to the south, and zig-zag our way northwest between the islands until we reach Fyrudden – the end point of our fantastic adventure together.
No doubt, you’ll leave the archipelago with new friends and full of inspiration and ideas of what you will conquer next!
*Weather conditions will effect our route. We will adapt according to preferences of the group and wind strength and direction.
Getting Here
Getting here
Norrköping is the major hub of the area. We pick you up at 10.00, it’s a beautiful city to spend the night before your adventure. Our closest airports are Linköping and Skavsta, but you can also fly to Arlanda, Copenhagen or Bromma. Arriving by train is an excellent option for the environment!
Please take the time to read Getting to Sweden with less CO2 emissions for tips on what you can do from your end. Hint: offsets ain’t it!
We pick you up either at the train station or at any hotel/hostel/airbnb.
Check out our Visitor’s Guide to Norrköping
We drop you back off around 16.30-17.00 on your last day of kayaking.
This is en excellent option for the environment. If you search for the entire trip, as quick as possible, it may seem like a complicated journey with many changes and no possibility for sleep. But if you divide it, and take some time to visit one or two spots on the way, it’s a fantastic chance to experience new places. An example, London to Norrköping:
London – Brussels, 2 hrs, 0 changes
Brussels – Hamburg, 6,5-8 hrs, 1-2 changes
Hamburg – Copenhagen, 4,5-5,5 hrs, 0-1 changes
Copenhagen to Norrköping, 3 hrs 45 min, 0-1 changes
Each of these cities are very beautiful and interesting, there are plenty of departures and you can puzzle together your journey as you see fit! Search trainline.eu for departures. From Copenhagen to Sweden you can also check sj.se.
It may be worth it to look at an Interrail pass (for European citizens) or a Eurail pass (non-Europeans). For example: an Interrail pass to travel for 4 days within a month is EUR 185.
Your carbon emissions will be around 75% lower than flying.
Note that if you are booking your kayaking adventure far in advance all train departures may not be released yet, or they may have been released but aren’t visible on trainline. All trains from the rest of Europe will go through Copenhagen, so check the Copenhagen to Norrköping portion of your trip on sj.se instead. Trains will leave appr every hour, earliest departure around 5.00, latest departure around 18.30. The train takes 3 hr 45 mins-4 hours.
“Snälltaget” from Berlin to Sweden has daily departures during peak summer (June 24-Aug 18). Leave Berlin in the evening and arrive to Malmö in southern Sweden by the morning, around 12 hours later. From Malmö there are frequent high speed connections to Norrköping. You can use Eurail or Interrail passes on Snälltaget!
Your carbon emissions will be around 75% lower than flying.
Meet us at the launch in Saint Anna. Safe parking available.
Directions (Map):
Aim for our closest town Söderköping.
Take road 210, follow signs to S:t Anna,
Pass the bridge “Lagnöbron“, and take a left after 500 meters by the sign for “Mons Friluftsby“.
Take a right by the next sign for “Mons Friluftsby”.
Drive through the campsite to the waterfront. Parking on the left.
Carbon emissions per person when driving the whole way are a little trickier to calculate. It depends on several factors like how many passengers are in the car, fuel type and fuel effiency. In very broad terms, you will leave around a 50% smaller carbon imprint than flying the same distance.
Bus transfer 55 mins to Norrköping. flygbussarna.se/en/skavsta
Fly from London Stansted, Edinburgh (Mondays & Fridays) and Vienna. ryanair.com
Combining kayaking with a visit to Stockholm? Bus transfer 80 mins to city terminal in Stockholm. Train from Stockholm to Norrköping, 65-90 mins. sj.se
Note! Stockholm Västerås (VST) is not a suitable airport.