There’s Something About Mongolia
Six years ago my wife told me, “Let’s go somewhere you have not been to.” I said, “Let’s go somewhere I don’t need to meet crew members…
Slowly Getting Back to Normal, COVID Series
The house arrest has finally been lifted in Baja and it didn’t take too long for us to take off for a 2-night camping and fishing trip. We took the opportunity to get out of the house and away from Netflix and social media.
Kayaking from Sweden to Africa: 1001 Ways to Fail (Chapter One)
PART ONE: FALSE STARTSPART ONE: FALSE STARTS
CHAPTER ONE
THE BIG IDEA
Why did I start to paddle? I have always been interested in water. Crazy about fishing since I was 2 years old, I learned to swim and build rafts early. Rubber rafts were excellent for fishing raids on the ponds of Jamtland, where I come from. My first kayak was a self-made white-water kayak that I bought when I was 15 years old. Some years later, I made long trips through the jungle areas in Honduras and Nicaragua on balsa rafts that I learned to tie together.
Getting Busted by the Police, COVID Series
I wanted to give fishing another go when we got home from our camping trip, so we went on my motorbike to save fuel and go off-road to a remote beach. We were alone. Tanya went for a run, while I went fishing. I had a good feeling about it; the tide was right, the moon and the stars were aligned. This was going to be my catch! On my fifth cast I heard a car honking. I looked up to where my motorbike was parked. There was a police pickup truck with its blue light on and a policeman waving at me.
What now?
The Great Escapade, COVID Series
It has been two months since the WHO declared this coronavirus as a pandemic and the last time we saw the world making sense. Luckily, we live in the countryside and manage to take a break from the Martial Law status that is taking place here in Baja.
We packed the truck to get away from people and be out in nature, with the plan of getting some free food: fish! I have always regarded myself as an excellent fisherman, at least when it comes to brown trout and arctic char in Sweden. However, I haven’t done a lot of fishing in the Pacific (or Baja) because I work in the diving industry. It gets a bit complicated in an environment where fish are friends.
I grew up fishing and hunting, and found it more natural get your own food than gobble up a can of tuna. (We can discuss this forever, but I prefer to catch my own food.) The idea was to get free food, save some money, and get away from Netflix; instead, be out in nature for some food for our drained souls. Things did not turn out as planned…
Setting up a Mongolian Ger
Altai, Mongolia, 2016. We have been camping in our tent the past few days. On this month-long visit to Genghis Khan’s home country, our accommodations have ranged from hotel rooms and hostels to lodges and tents.
We are walking out of a valley and looking at our map to decide our next destination. Suddenly, we see a minibus similar to the Russian marshrutka from World War II approaching down the road. It’s loaded with stuff and amidst all of it a man and a woman are squeezed in.
Officer by Day, Gigolo by Night
It was the year 2000 and I was done running a dive center in Stockholm.
One day I received a telephone call. “Hi, I’m Ann Krafft. We are looking for a Watersports Manager on the cruise line Royal Clipper.”
“A cruise ship? Hmm, I’m not sure,” was my quick reply.
“Please check out the website before you say No,” she said.
I did. And I saw her… She was a beautiful 5-masted 400-foot ship built that year in Gdańsk, Poland.
So Ann Krafft and I talked again. She mentioned that it was a high-standard boat and the crew can’t have tattoos, piercings or long hair.
“Those are exactly what I have! And I’m missing a front tooth…”
I Stared Death in the Face and Lived to Tell the Tale
Belgrade, 1999. For most people, January is a time for beginnings and transitions, an opportunity to look back to the lessons of the past, and forward to a positive outlook in the year ahead. It seems that I wasn’t around when the gods were handing out the optimist gene. While everyone else was busy starting on their new year’s resolutions, I was still intent on getting to Africa in my kayak, aiming to finish the journey that I had embarked on the previous year.
Buck Naked with a Burglar
La Paz, 2002. I had recently arrived in La Paz for the first time and was looking for a new place to live. After sleeping on the street for a while, I found an upstairs room with a refrigerator, a cooking stove and a shower, even a television.
It was summer and it was hot in La Paz, so I slept naked on top of the sheets. Sometime later I was woken up by a sound. Someone was in my room. When I yelled the guy ran out of the room and jumped over the balcony. I grabbed my machete, went after him on the balcony, down the stairs and out to the street. Buck naked…
My Extra-Marital Affair
Socorro Island, 2006. Here I was, single and unattached, and living the bachelor’s dream. I was sailing to exotic places, meeting women, getting free meals, having a roof over my head and, at the same time, earning a bit of money to save up for a rainy day. Or so people thought. Real life is a little different. I had to work my butt off 16 hours a day on the boat that provided my board and lodging in Mexico, and I was only meeting females of the animal variety.
One seemingly ordinary day, while I was setting up a buoy for a dive site, I fell in to the water with my dive gear. Captain Dave called out: “Dolphins!” For me, it was more like, Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen them before.