Dwti Draig

Hell is most definitely a path of boulders, as my poor legs can testify to. We had left my idyllic beach and drove for about 2 hours to the Kvarken Archipelago, further down the coast of Finland. It’s an interesting place, especially for geologists. It is where the Baltic Sea is at its most narrowest between Sweden and Finland, and there are over 5600 little islands scattered about. 10000 years ago huge glaciers sat on top of this land, 3km thick. When the glaciers melted at the end of the ice age the land started slowly rising back up. It is rising by about 8-10mm here every year. This means that each year the islands get a little bigger, and some that were islands are now joining up. In 2000 years Finland and Sweden might be close enough to form a land bridge!

We started off before lunchtime to take what I thought would be a leisurely, flat, circular 2 mile walk. Nope, as ever Lyn got involved and we took another path. He was sorry 3 hours later though, as we had taken no water, and the only food we had taken was a packet with a few dates in. 

The walk started off well enough, as we walked on a nice, flat gravel path until we got to a huge observation tower. The tower was built to show how high the land will be in 2000 years. We climbed over 100 steps inside to look at the awesome view from the top and then climbed back down. We then started on the trail. At first, it was fun….”look, all these boulders we are walking on were once on the sea bed!”. 3 hours later it was not fun! You had to work for every footstep, unless you were on some of the all too brief boardwalks that had been installed over boggy parts. We took a brief respite stop at a fabulous jetty, where we promptly laid out flat to get some energy back, before doing some yoga to stretch our tired legs. Lyn was tortured by the smell of sausages that some Fins were cooking over a fire. We were starving; it was long past lunchtime now. We trekked on, fighting each boulder. My little legs were protesting. Eventually, we made it back, and rushed to get some food down us and a well-earned cold Pepsi. My watch shows I had burned off 870 calories, which goes some way to show how hard I found it.

 

After we had recovered sufficiently we drove on, looking for another park up not too far away. We missed the turning we needed, so had to drive on and swing around before finding the right place. We pulled in, only to find another little overlander there. Amazingly, they were fellow Brits, and we had a very happy hour swapping stories and showing off our trucks. It’s always lovely to meet new friends on the way, and Kate and Angus in their converted Army ambulance made really good company. We reluctantly left them in their idyllic little camping site, complete with little beach and sauna, as we didn’t want to pay the 35E to stay there, after just paying for the last campsite.

We drove on, heading for a place Lyn had earmarked, trying to get there for sunset. The sun was just setting as we pulled into the harbour, but we missed it, as Lyn pulled over in front of the tiny Kvarken Brewery, right on the harbour front. It was closed, but as ever Lyn jumped out of the truck and approached a window that had a light on inside. Thirty minutes later he came back with 4 bottles of beer and the history of the place. Park up for the night here is only 15E with electricity, so we stayed here and felt so chilled we stayed the next night too. I had a really relaxed day, and Lyn went for a little walk, and watched the boats being lifted out for the winter. 

My chilled day gave me a chance to catch up on my new Duolingo course. I had completed 30 days of learning Finnish, so decided to give something else a go. Estonian was not available, so I decided to try German as we are heading back hopefully via Berlin. I found it quite easy to start, as I had never realised how similar some of the words are to their English counterparts; like mouse (maus) bread (brot) milk (milch) beer (bier) son (sohn) daughter (tochter) mother (mutter) father (Vater). Then, however, you come across some humdingers, like excuse me (entschuligung) or menu (Speisekarte). It’s all good fun, and I’m really enjoying it. I hadn’t realised all nouns in German start with a capital letter. I also have to learn the sex of nouns again; that takes me back to my French O level . Pizza is feminine, cheese is masculine! Of course! Learning German with Duolingo places much more emphasis on the spoken German, so I end up barking gutteral-sounding German into my phone when Lyn is driving, much to his amusement. I didn’t have the option to use any spoken Finnish in the Finnish Duolingo course. In Duolingo you get rewarded with XP points, and can progress through the different levels. I was quickly promoted, but now seem to have found myself battling for first place in the next league with a similarly competitive learner called “MM”, who I have now decided is Meghan Markle trying to beat me. She is currently now 1500 points ahead of me which is absurd, and I’m not happy about it, but I console myself with the fact that she has nannies and cooks etc, enabling her the time to beat me. I will be promoted this time, but next time the top spot is mine Meghan Markle! Naturlich!

We were expecting a good aurora last night, as there had been a major solar flare the day before. I was glued to my app, and could see lots of red pins all around us, suggesting sightings, but the sky only took on a greenish hue; nothing more exciting sadly. The sky was amazingly clear though, and the stars are phenomenal, you can clearly see the Milky Way. 

We moved on further down the coast after a quick dip in the sheltered harbour we were staying at. The water was lovely, and we managed a cool 6 minutes in at 8 degrees. I managed to get another back spasm as I out our handheld hoover over before leaving, which was sobering, especially as I had to climb through the crawl-through,a nd then sit in the cab for the 2 hour drive. I took some tablets and went to bed with a hot water bottle as soon as we got to our park up for the night, and Lyn went out to watch the sunset over the smooth, gentle reflective sea.

Well, that didn’t end well! I write this now, 3 days later and now truck bound as my back went again totally. There is never a good time for anyone’s back to go, but trust me when I say it going when travelling in a box measuring 5.6m long, that you have to physically climb into bed, into the hab and into the cab is probably one of the worst times. I can’t sit without pain, or stand. I certainly can’t bend or twist. Rolling over is totally out of the question. I am not in a good state. 

I rested it totally for 2 days and then ventured out gingerly for a little shopping trip to Prisma. My first problem was climbing down the steps of the cab, so Lyn got me a bright yellow beer crate to stand on to make the step down to the ground less arduous. I then proceeded to walk at a speed of less than 1 mile an hour, hunched over the trolley and shuffling like an old Finnish crone. Oh and I was wearing crocs too as getting socks and trainers on is out of the question. I kept having to stop as I was having the most intense back spasms, which were like red hot knives piercing my back. They were enough to stop me in my tracks and reduce me to tears. Enough was enough; we had to find somewhere with electricity and hole up until I am mobile again. 

It is so absolutely frustrating I could cry. This is not what I intended the holiday to be like. A couple of days ago I was walking 5 miles over boulders and doing yoga on a jetty. Now I need help pulling my knickers up. The ignominy is real. We are just having to stay put until I can move easier, which puts the brunt of all the work on Lyn. Luckily he is patient and non-complaining (most of the time) whilst my emotions are all over the place. One of my biggest problems is that I cannot laugh without having back spasms, and this has led to the absolutely ridiculous scenario that I laugh, get the giggles, have continuous back spasms that hurt like crazy and end up crying with pain, all the time whilst giggling. You could honestly not make it up. I look and sound like a crazy woman, and Lyn is not allowed to look at me or speak to me during these times as he makes me laugh more, which consequently hurts more. Never before have I wished for a marriage in which I laugh less!

So, my days are reduced to trying to get comfortable in whatever way I can. Paracetamol is my best friend, with supporting friends of hot water bottle, freezing gel, CBD oil and gin. I know it will get better with time, I just need to be patient, but I don’t want to be patient, I want to be travelling! Luckily I have a lovely view out of the window, as we are parked up in a marina on an island, so I am looking out at other islands and boats bobbing, before the owners come to take them from the sea before the sea freezes, but it’s not life on the road. We did have a small display of the aurora last night too. 

Still I know that this will pass, and I am not the only one in pain. My sister and my best friend are both going through pain at the moment. It’s only when you are in pain you realise how all-encompassing it is and how your life shrinks until it surrounds you. How much do we take for granted when we are pain-free and mobile? I must admit I look at Lyn walking around so easily and envy him. Time to get serious about getting this obvious problem fixed when I eventually get out of pain. 

In other news, I did get promoted in the Duolingo league, so I am now in the Emerald League, with no sign of Meghan Markle. I had to settle for second place to her, but no doubt she is now too busy in some god-awful dress at some charity ball to bother practising, as there is no sign of her in the Emerald League. Instead, I am now second to a new nemesis called Michelle…. Revenge will be mine! I can also now say confidently in German that my cat never plays the piano, and that the owl often plays chess, which will undoubtedly come in handy. The learning continues despite the pain.