TF4

What would you do if you have one week to relax and regain energy in between a big project where you work 60 to 70 hours every week? Instead of jetsetting between Vienna and Sofia I decided to escape the reality of life and lived a week in the woods in Sweden. If you know 7 vs Wild then I think you can maybe remember where we went to: Naren Lake, pretty much exactly between Oslo and Stockholm.

Day 1 – The Arrival

It was mid of September, the weekend of horrors for Lower Austria. Floods not seen for 100 years, swept accross my hometown. And I? Got an email in the morning that my flight was cancelled – rebooked and changed. Instead of flying 7:20 in the morning, proposed start was at 3 pm. With a connection through Brussels. Bad start, but at least we could get out of this dreadful disaster. Before the holiday we planned not to drink any alcohol on the whole trip, but due to this irregularity – one beer would be fine, we said. At least the coupons we got for the cancelled flight had to be used. Mostly for Leberkas Pepi, but who cares.

Yeah no. It was not just the one beer. First at Vienna Airport, then one on the flight to Brussels. There we had to much time and the airport was not big enough, so “unfortunately” we had 2 more. Since we always like to improve we finished of with 3 beers on the flight to Stockholm. Making friends with the crew, getting many tips where to go drinking in Brussels and starting to get a bit shitfaced. Did I say we finished? Naaaaa. It had to be a final one in the airport hotel in Stockholm because we couldn’t get our rental car until the next morning. So basically we lost one whole day and got drunk instead. That’s a special way how to start your holiday where you want to escape the stressful rest.

Day 2 – The Start

Good morning Sweden! Well, at least good morning headache – thanks beer! Okaaay let’s start with the real part. Getting the rental car – what did we order? Volvo XC60 (or similar…) – but what did we get? Mercedes GLC, oooookaaay we’ll take that. And was it fun to drive, especially in those long roads through the woods without any traffic. More than impressed we started our journey as usual to get some food, gas and some little things. We drove to the next supermarket, nearly took the whole store with us, went to the checkout to pay until Max suddenly started breathing heavily and demanded to get some bread. “Chill Max you’ll get it in a second, let the cashier do her job and you’ll get it on the way to the car”. What was the reaction? Yes quite what could have been expected: “Ok if you want me to puke right here on the floor, don’t give it to me…”. Maybe the few beers weren’t that good for him yesterday? One could only guess.

A dream start to the whole week. Not. Oh and I can add that Max did not really prepare good enough for that trip, so we had to buy him also some cuttlery as well as a new pair of sweatpants. If you read the title you can imagine what comes next. Our target for Day 2 was the lake Naren.

The idea was to have 2 or 3 camps altogether this week and start there. So after a quite refreshing 4 hour drive, we started looking for a camp, first option? Meh, barrier on the road and seemed too busy. The next option was something for the gods. Oh you cannot imagine this campspot, it had nearly everything. Sorry for the rush, let’s hop back a bit. We hiked along the shore, through the woods, tarmac was long gone. The end was a small bay – since it wasn’t even 5 o’clock we had enough time to explore were we wanted to set up our camp. It did not take us too long until we found the perfect spot.

Camp Naren

So then we had to get back to the car and get all our stuff. Food, tent, hammock, sleeping bag, firewood, drone and so on. It was quite a lot to carry since we planned to stay there at least 2 nights. Packed with backpack, shoppingbags, wood we went down there and somehow everytime we went there, we took another path.

Some things we found there: already destined fireplace, logs for us to sit, perfectly flat place for the tent and the best of all the view of a little Island on the lake.

Pierre placed his hammock near the fire pit, Seife and me pitched the tent a few meters away. After that we started a small fire and made dinner. As we are used to from last year, starter was always a cream soup – garlic or cauliflower/broccoli with crispbread. To be honest I can’t quite remember what we had as a main course, probably some canned stew. The rest of the night we just enjoyed the company and the location – basically just being without work stress for once.

Day 3 – The first whole day

Couldn’t imagine a slow morning any better. Crawling out of the tent at around 8ish. Only to find out Pierre has been awake since 5 o’clock because his sleeping pad was damaged and he froze during the night. His solution? Start fishing to get warm. He didn’t catch anything but at least he overcame the cold. As soon as Seife and me were also starting the day, we began to chop some firewood for a breakfast fire.

During the breakfast we complained a bit about our sitting situation, so we came up with a solution. We cut small pieces from the end of the main sitting log to increase the height and stuck sticks in the ground to keep it balanced.

Since it was only noon then, we hat plenty time to wander around and check the surroundings, but always with a purpose in mind. Like making a few drone shots like this.

Apart from the firewood we need everyday now, this time we also checked if we could find some worms as bait for fishing. Thus was the start of an unbelievable story. So you see Pierre had a job offer, way more money, way more responsibility, but also a way bigger workload. But, he couldn’t decide, so he wanted fate to decide for him. If he caught a fish bigger then 60cm he would choose the new job, otherwise stay at the job he liked and was already really comfortable in.

The first catch was unbelievable, not just 60cm! More than 300cm – we couldn’t believe it and I had to get the hook out of it and boy was it difficult. I even had to climb on it to get it out without having to cut the rope, but thankfully in the end I did it. Ah by the way here a picture of me retrieving the hook:

Nevertheless in the end everything worked out as it was destined to happen…

He even nearly lost it again just minutes later. The fish was on the hook and Pierre towed it towards our little beach, Seife had the job to get it in the net, though both of them unbelievably nervous, they nearly lost it already there. Luckily it was already too tired and they pulled it off. Not to forget pictures had to be taken – as you see above, but the fish was full of sand and so Pierre wanted to wash it off a bit. While holding the fish in the lake to get it clear of the sand, it slipped out of his hand and he had to step into the water to grab it again – result: trousers and the one shoe were f*cking wet. So it was the start of borrowing Thomas’ pants this holiday.

What I didn’t think of, was the work that got into preparing it. We had to gut and fillet the pike, before we could think of eating it. So since, apparently, I couldn’t watch them kill it, certainly not gut it, I could at least help fillet the pike. It took us 2 house from the catch until I could throw the filet in the pan. We tried it with pesto and the half with just salt. Pesto war alright, but boy oh boy was it great with just a bit of salt.

Oh! and look at what a f*cking beautiful place we found ourselves in.

Woefully I have to admit, it was not all positive that day. I have a confession to make. I lost it, for real. Hurts so much. So stupid. I’m so mad. So confused. So sad.
Oh was “IT” is you ask? The drone. The f*cking drone. As the boys where gutting the fish, I wanted to capture that marvellous nature we’re in. Look at that miraculous view.

But see for yourself what happend. Some of the sensors malfunctioned right when I was a mere 2 meters above the water.

Emotional day…and we even had to adapt our sleeping situation. Pierre had to join us in the tent, because it was to cold for him in the hammock – really cosy the three of us in a tent for two.

Day 4 – A peak into civilisation

Considering that we decided we will stay at that camp for longer then just the 2 days and expand it to the last day, we had to get some food again. Additionally, due to the drone incident I had to rebuy one, because it was Seife’s and not mine. So next store that had it was 1,5 hours away, in Karlstad.

On the way from the camp to the car, it was peak autumn weather, foggy and a bit wet, additionally the sun came up early and you could see the sunrays in the wood through the fog glancing so beautiful. The lake was like a small valley and when driving the street was a bit higher, thus we could see the fog just lying on the lake, such a tremendous view.

Around 6 hours later, with more food and a new drone, we came back to our camp and first thing was a little swimming and washing session. The lake had around 10 degree, I guess, sun was shining and no cloud was anywhere near. Perfect weather. I even had biodegradable shampoo with me so I could wash in the lake and not pollute it. It smelled so f*cking good, like fresh oranges. First we went into the water with our trunks, but after trying to dry them with this fog every morning, we decided from then on to go swimming only like we were born. I cannot even describe how unbelievably good it felt, with every step more I became more relaxed and happy. Peak nature holiday vibes. The rest of the day we just relaxed at the campfire, ate and discussed what we wanted to do the next day.

Day 5 – Adventuretime

Good morning! Today was the big exploration day. We wanted to find a camp from the 7 vs Wild series. The morning fog had succumed us completely in the early hours so we had some breakfast first. Salami and mustard – champions breakfast so to say. Basically at noon we started our adventure to this small “peninsula”, to one that even made us come to this part of the lake. Usually when we look for camp places on Google Maps we check exactly such places. To get an idea what the plan was – here is the map:

It was really nice the be a bit more physically active and wander through the woods, we even saw a small shelter someone made a while back. As we roamed through the nature, the soil was becoming wetter every meter we got closer to the peninsula. We already saw that the part were we could cross the moor was very narrow and on the other side. We had to be extra careful not to land in the water. The only path we could use was only 1 foot wide and muddy as hell. We made jokes all the time that Pierre already got a wet shoe from fishing and now it’s only time it to happen again. But we made it and could explore this area. Really flat, a sparse wood, many little fire pits, but no shelter against the wind. So for the guy that got this place in 7 vs Wild, he was f*cked. Nevertheless it was unbelievable beautiful, when reaching the target, the beach was pretty nice, I wanted to swim but we didn’t think of towels so that was no option. Instead Pierre started fishing, well only started since the fishing bait got stuck on algae or rocks on his first cast into the lake, and he couldn’t get it out. Then we just chilled a bit, had a snack – found a wooden dildo – which we now have always with us when fishing.

After only one hour there we headed back to our camp, and we had to hike through the moor again, oh were we happy to do that. This time we weren’t as lucky, Seife got caught by the water and completely stepped in, the whole shoe wet as f*ck. Unlucky.

On the way back, we found so many good dead trees that we could use for our fire, so we had to take at least one with us. After a small refreshing swim, the daily ritual started again, getting fire wood ready, preparing supper. I completely cut down the 3 to 4 meter long tree in 30 cm pieces and chop the logs after 3 sips of Nocco. Afterwards drying the wood around the fire so it doesn’t develop to much smoke. The best part of that evening was the dinner. It was stew time again, but a selfmade one. Potatoes, carrots, paprika, onions, corn, tomato sauce and most important sausages. We made a small construction to keep the pot over the fire and let it simmer a few hours – oh and how good it was. Same as everyday, we chilled at the fire until it was time to go to bed.

Day 6 – The bridge day

Well this day started a bit more odd, not as foggy, but more cloudy and windy. The routine started earlier then usual, I was already cutting and chopping wood right after getting out of the tent. We started making our breakfast – and drying Seifes shoe – and while dicussing what we still could do in this holiday, I had the idea to get a small cabin at a lake with a sauna. Since we still had 2 nights in Sweden and we didn’t want a cabin for two nights, this day became the ultimate bridge day. The weather seemed like it knew that and it became more windy by the hour so basically we just stayed at the campfire the whole day. Due to the wind we the position of our tarp, instead of setting it up as a rain cover, we made a windshield in front of the fire pit. Everyone started to keep himself busy, Pierre tried to fish again – without a result, Seife just basically smoked himself like a good piece of meat and I carved a wooden spoon, for a special lady at that time.

Since it was our last day at the camp we decided to make a bonfire out of everything we still had there. We stayed at least until midnight, enjoying the last day in nature, savour the last hours in OUR camp.

Day 7 – Lake cabin day

The day of saying goodbye to our camp. We stayed in longer than usual, but finally got up at 9 o’clock. I checked the fire and we saw that there were still embers in the fire pit. Well not that surprising since the fire burnt at least 20 hours, but it was nice to have a little heat source in the morning. After packing the stuff, tent, food hammock, we headed back to the car on the way to a nice cabin at a lake. After a three and a half hour drive we arrived and were blown a way.

It was such a nice house basically with a small rowing boat and a wood heated barrel sauna. Seife and me were a bit tired from the drive so actually we wanted to sauna and chill, but Pierre insisted of fishing. So we took the rowing boat and started. Thankfully he persuaded us into coming along, because I really liked rowing a boat – plus it was a really nice game of trying to get Pierre exactly where he wanted to be and go after the small waves the fish made while hunting for themselves. It took us about one and a half hours to get a fish and row back, one fish even ate one bait and cut the fishing line so Pierre hat to attach a new one. To be honest, if we stayed out longer we could have caught more, but we didn’t have a bucket or a knife to kill it and keep it there. Additionally we didn’t want to risk our luck and just get it back to the house and have a nice meal.

Seife and Pierre gut the fish, I helped to fillet it and started to cook. We made mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes with onions and the pike as the best part. Oh was its yummy. After that unbelievably good meal we started to heat the sauna. An hour later it was hot enough to hop in.

The rest of the night we just chilled at the sofa, made plans for the last day and then went to sleep.

Day 7 – Stockholm at last

It was a slow morning, we thought about the sauna in the morning, but ultimately decided against it. Had breakfast, packed our stuff and left – for Stockholm. Since Seife and me have already been there, we wanted to show Pierre the city. So we strolled around, showed him where we had been already, were I bought a necklace once for 300 euros once, the Abba museum, the small car in front of a toy museum, and just enjoyed the good weather in the city. A few hours later, we drove back to the airport and headed back home.

In conclusion, this holiday was as perfect as it was not planned at all and we just did. All of us were stressed from our everyday life and we needed this step back and stop the time. Enjoy our freedom, no deadlines, no work, just living. I still miss this camp, especially because how we made it ourselves by building stuff. If I would be there again, it will feel like home. Thank you guys, I am eager to experience the next one.