Vuoksa, August 2018

Our extended family (9 people!) went on a 3-day kayaking trip on the Vuoksa lake. We only had one folding kayak, so we rented another one and two canoes. We quickly assembled our kayak, packed our stuff in watertight sacks, had a lunch and started rowing!

The blue, red and green lines show our track in the first, second and third days, respectively. The tent icon shows ouro camping spot.

Grey sky and occasional drizzle did not spoil our trip. The water in the lake was remarkably warm, there was a long spell of hot weather in the weeks preceeding our trip.

We got to the other side of the Oleniy island searching for a camping spot. It was a difficult task for Saturday, all good spots were already occupied. Eventually we found two adjacents spots: one for one tent and the campfire, another one for the two remaining tents. At first, we sailed between the two spots but then it turned out that they are connected by a little boggy path.

The rains stopped and the sun came out.

Enjoyable evening.

It rained heavily overnight and in the morning, but then the sun came out again. We decided to spend another night on the same spot, so we left the tents pitched and went to explore surrounding islands.

We stopped to swim in the lake on the other side of a wide stretch of water.

It was very quiet in narrow straits between islands.

Maneuvering the canoe in narrow straits turned out to be a difficult task but we were in no rush.

We spent whole day sailing between the islands, swimming in the lake, cooking lunch, enjoying the wilderness.

The clouds were drifting forming unusual shapes in the sky.

An unconventional application for an enema bulb.

A double rainbow appeared in the sky.

Our last stop for swimming in the lake. Afterwards, we went back to our camping spot.

On the last day of our trip, we started sailing back to the canoe renting place. It became quite windy, and at one point the waves starting overcoming our kayak. We had to stop for an extended lunch break. The wind subsided and we got back to Sinyovo without any problems. As soon as we reached the shore, a thunderstorm arrived. Fortunately, the canoe renting firm had a big tent so we did not get too wet. In the evening we all gathered again at our dacha in Orekhovo.

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