In part two of our blog series from The Rubbish Paddlers, we hear from Charlotte and Neil ahead of this summer’s ambitious journey to the Arctic Circle.
You can track their progress here using this Garmin link.
This summer’s expedition takes us into the Arctic Circle with our Bluefin paddleboards on an epic river journey. Starting at the geographical point where Norway, Sweden and Finland converge, sometimes called the three country cairn or Treriksröset.
From Lake Kilpisjärvi and the three country cairn, we plan to paddle south on the Könkämäälven River, leading to the Muonionjoki river, and finally on the Torne to the Baltic Sea. As we paddle south, on the left-hand bank will be Finland, and on the right bank, Sweden. There will be lots of opportunities to explore Scandinavian sustainability in this part of Lapland.
The river systems used to be run for the ‘Arctic Canoe Race’ back in the ’80s but is not used much by paddleboarders from what we can tell on the Finnish and Sweden blog sites, mostly canoes, kayaks, and packrafts.
This year we will be trying out the Bluefin Cruise Carbon paddleboard and carbon paddle on this Arctic expedition. Our confidence in the Bluefin boards and their robust nature and quality design should help us along this 469km journey. We will be posting regularly from the Garmin InReach mini2 that we have for safety, but also to map share how far we have traveled, how the Bluefin boards are coping with Arctic environments, and any environmental sustainability nuggets.
There should be some beautiful rivers, rapids, arctic midnight sun, amazing landscapes, lots of reindeer, and tons of mosquitos to look forward to and challenge us on this paddleboarding journey. (Hopefully no traffic cones or single-use plastic bottles…)
It’s going to be fun paddling Bluefin boards with 24 hours of daylight!
We look forward to sharing about our rubbish adventures in the Arctic.
Happy Paddling!
Charlotte and Neil (a.k.a the Rubbish Paddlers)