Hi Kaisa, Christoffer, Jonne & Miikka
I found one of your messages in a bottle. Well, I did not find it yesterday, but already on 18. October, today exactly two month ago.
Why did it take me so long to send you an answer? You know how life is. Always obligations, always things to do, and to be honest, over some period of time I had just forgotten about your bottle.
But think about it that way: if you had consigned a REAL message in a bottle to the sea, you might have waited for years eventually to get some kind of response – if ever…
Now I am on vacation and there is plenty of time to dedicate myself to your message…
I found your bottle on the beautiful little island ”Gressholmen”, being situated in the Inner Oslo fjord, just outside the city of Oslo. Here the exact location where I found it: 59.879554532244974, 10.715278076089671
The bottle had been hidden within a bush of dog roses growing on the beach in a small cove. You will find attached some pictures of me posing with ”the treasure” and of the cove.
Under normal circumstances, I would not have discovered your message in the bottle, I suppose, since it was hidden very carefully. It was by pure chance, because me and my family (Susanne, my wife – visible in one of the pictures, Ronja and Cato, the ”kids” both in their twenties), all of us being nature lovers, took advantage of the fine weather that day and were combing the beaches to free them from plastic debris and other garbage.
It`s always extra satisfying when you can combine pleasure with doing something useful…
..and sometimes you even find something extraordinary like your message.
I was reading your log with interest and eagerness and even followed your journey on google maps. What a brave and exciting venture!
I shared the ups and downs of each single one of you, your mental ride
between both confidence and despair,
between hope and despondency,
between cheering enthusiasm and bone-crushing misery,
between glorifying self-confidence and nagging doubt about your social adequateness.
In a way, it was quite an emotional experience for me as well, since I was able to detect bits and pieces of myself and my own character in every single one of you.
In addition, your journey reminded me of a similar adventure I participated in myself a long time ago. As a student in my twenties, during the course of one week, a couple of friends and I crossed quite a stretch of the Swedish wilderness by canoe.
It was quite a soul-mining experience and I can only agree to Kaisa´s quote about such a journey exposing all our non-desirable characteristics. And, yes, this can be very painful indeed. For yourself and for the others.
During the lecture of your diary, I increasingly evolved a special sympathy for Kaisa in that way, that I also have to live with a handicap. About 2 years ago, I had a serious prolapse of a spinal disc. I have learned to live with the pain, which is fortunately low-level most of the time anyway.
Much harder to accept is the fact that I since lost a good part of my former strength in the small of my back and my legs, which makes me tired and nerveless after relatively short time. As mentioned before our family is very fond of nature and we like to go on long hikes.
But ever since my incident I am quickly falling behind and more often than not only see their backs in the distance. That makes me quite acquainted with Kaisa´s concerns and line of thoughts during your trip.
When coming to the end of your log, I was glad to read that your strenuous efforts, combined with a good portion of luck finally enabled you to accomplish your goal to everybody’s satisfaction. All’s well that ends well.
In my experience, when looking back after having spent more than two-third of an average lifetime, there are relatively few things in live which finally will stick to your memory. I very much assume that for all of you this journey is one of these rare experiences.
May be your efforts will be reciprocated, as Kaisa is putting it. May be not.
More important is that you paddle on. And most important is that you all manage to keep your friendship alive. There is not much more of higher value in life than good friends who will stick to you through thick and thin.
I had a good time reading your travel log. Thank you for your message in a bottle!
In spite of the adverse conditions currently dominating our lives I wish all you a Merry Christmas and, hopefully, all in all a much better New Year 2021!
May be your next project will be kayaking all the way to Oslo…? 😉
Let me know!
