Blog - Plug Me In

7 August 20168 September 2016 by Wiebe

Day 143 & 144 | Into Helsinki

Day 143 | Thursday August 4

Alba introduced me to porridge in the morning. It’s very common to have that for breakfast here but I still think it’s for babies or grandmas without teeth. It’s probably one of those things you need to be raised with to enjoy it.

Around noon I left to Helsinki and arrived there around 3. My host Dieter was a very tall guy originally from Graz, Austria where I have been a couple of months ago. We quickly had a chat and than he had to go to a meeting and I wandered around Helsinki and sorted out what I still need to do for the Russian visa application. It’s not that hard to get one, you need a letter of invitation from a Russian company which I received from Bellona, the environmental company whom I visited in Oslo. They have branches in Russia too. That’s the most important thing. Then you need a statement from your health insurance to prove that you’re medical costs and repatriation will be covered. I filled out a digital application which was a bit hard to understand sometimes and they request a lot of info. Like where you will be staying from day to day, the purpose of the trip and details about the company who invited you, which was a travel organization in my case.

When I got back to Dieters place he told me that I need way more information and he will explain me that tomorrow.

Day 144 | Friday August 5

Dieter has been to Russia many times and know exactly how to handle the customs, he told me that its not that hard to get one and once you’re inside the country there are not many restrictions, which used to be the case until a few years ago.

I received the letter from my insurance but according to Dieter there was a lot of information missing. I went to the visa center and they indeed told me it was not right. There was no information about which costs would be covered and if I would be repatriated if needed. I called with my health insurance but they said this form normally should do and couldn’t add anything to it. The Dutch seemed to be harder than the Russians in this case. I had to write a special letter to ask for an exemption. At the end everything seemed fine and I can pick it up next Friday, so that’s when I will enter Russia! A new stage of this adventure.

My hosts for today was Seppo who just lived a few kilometers outside of Helsinki. He was there with his son. He was preparing a little party for his wife who became 49 years old today. I felt a bit uncomfortable to be in such a private party but they were very happy that I was here. I helped them with preparing some candles etc. His wife is Russian and teacher at a Finnish- Russian school. The school are starting in a few weeks and to prepare they had a teambuilding day with colleagues in Estonia and she arrived home around 11pm. We had a nice ‘party’ with some Russian delicatessen and she gave me a lot tips for my trip here. Nice to be part of this.

Pictures of today

Dieter

Ahh so cute

The fam

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5 August 2016 by Wiebe

Day 142 | Wrong exit

Day 142 | Wednesday August 3

Today started with a meeting at the city of Tampere, they had a project called ‘Eco 2’. It was a big strategic project which had to achieve the 2025 climate goals: to cut the greenhouse gas emissions by 40%. The project covered various themes like mobility, sustainable energy and sustainable construction. They worked closely together with external sources to gain information. A full report will be online later.

From Tampere it was a 160km drive to Turku, which was my next stop. I’ve could have make that easily if it wasn’t that I missed the exit by a kilometer of 20… So when I found out I needed to do 10km to the next exit and then 30km back, so I lost 60 kilometers. At a supermarket I checked an app and saw that there was a charger in Aura which I could make with the range I had left. When my navigation told me I was at the charger I was seriously in the middle of nowhere and had 4% battery left. I walked around until I found a farm were some people were working. It was no problem to charge the car there for a bit. They were very interested in all the aspects of the car, I had to open the hood and trunk and they inspected it all. It was the firs time that they saw an electric car.

After a short period I had enough power to reach Aura, unfortunately the charger didn’t work with my car but there was a supermarket with open plugs so I charged there for 3 hours and then headed to Turku.

A few weeks ago Alba added me on Facebook and invited me to come over. I saw she was a creative person so was interested in what she’s doing. She does a singer / songwriter study and of course sings a lot. While I was at her place she opened her phone a couple of times and started singing through a live stream on Facebook, pretty funny. She had a friend over who also was an musician and together they were making Korean music. In a few weeks there is a Chinese festival here and they thought some people might be interested in buying their music.

Alba lives right in the middle of the city so we couldn’t charge the car at home. Luckily Turku has many public chargers. The evening we spend drinking beers and listening to music in a park.

Pictures of today

The farm

A night at the park

Alba

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3 August 20163 August 2016 by Wiebe

Day 141 | Ilmajoki to Tampere

Day 141 | Tuesday August 2

In Finland the weather can change quickly, yesterday it was around 25 degrees and deep blue sky, today I woke up the sound of thunder.

Goal for today: Kangasala, close to Tampere, one of the biggest cities in Finland. A 210 kilometer drive which I couldn’t make on one charge. My host Michel had a friend in a town under the smoke of Tampere so he called him if I could charge there. He seemed interested in this project so it was oke to go there. He told Michel that he was at work till 6 o’clock so he couldn’t meet me but his wife was there to receive me.

When I got there around 3 and ranged the bell I was surprised that he opened the door. He left his job earlier just to meet me, cool stuff. Marcus, originally from Amsterdam, had been living in Finland since 1998. He met his Finish wife who worked at the embassy in The Hague. Together they got 3 daughters which where about the same age as the 3 sons of Michel. Marcus used to work for Nokia, the infamous Finish mobile phone maker who are nearly dead. He now does the same work for another big international company, designing electrical parts. I joined them for lunch and had homemade blueberry pie as desert, that was already the third time I had that. It seems like it’s part of the daily routine here and if you ask me it should be introduced everywhere.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/ms.c.eJwzNTQ3NzQ3MLUwMTY3NjPUMwXzjSxMDQ1MDAxMoXxjAwjfGADkaglv.bps.a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/517717058437361/?type=3&theater

Then on to the final destination, Kangasala. There was bit of miscommunication, my host entered his address on the map and left a note that this place was still under construction but I could sleep there or at his current house. I forgot that and drove to his under construction house. I didn’t had enough battery to drive to his house but luckily he had an open CEE-red 16A socket so within 30 minutes I had enough to reach his house. My host was Jarkko, a Fin who lives here with his wife, daughter and son. He told me that the house he is building is supposed to be near zero emission.

Jarkko works as an programmer and seems to be very interested in all kinds of technology. He has some gadget in his house which I had never seen before. He was cooking chicken in a pan with some kind of device which keeps it continuously on the same temperature. He doesn’t drive an electric car yet but is very interested in the technology and developments. Sometimes he has to go to Estonia or Sweden for work and than rents a Tesla to get around and he already pre-ordered the Model 3, he is a wise man.

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2 August 20162 August 2016 by Wiebe

Day 140 | From the beach to the countryside of Ilmajoki

Day 140 | Monday August 1

So July has passed now and in just a month it will get autumn. To only reason that I have to think about this is because I need to be ahead of the winter in Russia. It will get very cold there and it might not be possible to charge the bar then. But I’m right on schedule.

I thanked the nice people from Hotel Seurahoune for their hospitality and left to Ilmajoki, again more into the countryside, my route through Finland has been zigzagging, just as I like it to be. It was about a 170km and here in Finland I am sure that I will make that every time as the roads are very flat, so no range anxiety.

My host was Michel, a Dutch man who found me through a Facebook post of the Dutch Embassy in Helsinki. He lives here with his wife and 3 boys. All big football fans, when I drove up on their road they were playing a game and wearing a Barcelona and Ajax shirt. I felt at home. Michel met his wife in Amsterdam were she was studying for doctor. While in Amsterdam they got their first kid and when she got her master degree they moved to Finland. first they lived a few years in Tampere and later moved to Ilmajoki.

Michel works as an English – Dutch translator. He mainly works from home and tought me how to do this to. Might be useful when I need money some time because you can do this from anywhere you want. Michel does this work fulltime and earns a decent income by now.
His wife just finally finished her doctoral study after 15 years with an specialization in genealogist.

They life in an idyllic place and they space they have here is unimaginable for me. They believe living sustainable is important and are thinking about getting a wind generator in the garden. The heat in the house they produce with pellet fuel, biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Once a year a big truck comes by and fills a huge storage room with these pellets. A cilinder pumps up the wooden pieces and makes heat from it. There is a tiny amount of co2 released by this but its sucked up by the trees surrounding the house so this makes it carbon neutral, an interesting system.

After dinner we played a 2×2 football “match” with the kids. It was a long time ago I played and enjoyed doing it. I realized I really need to start working on my condition, it’s getting worse every week. I lost 4 kilos though but just because of not eating regularly. Russia is going to be topsport so better stay sharp!

Pictures of today

The Fam's house

from the side

Fam. De Ruyter

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1 August 2016 by Wiebe

Day 139 | Pyhäjärvi to Kokkola

Day 139 | Sunday July 31

Last night I had one of the best sleeps. After the sauna and some beers I slept like a rose.

In a few weeks I’m going to Russia and this is the first country which asks for a visa. This means I need money to get one so my idea was to exchange goods for other goods until I have enough to sell it for money and get that visa which is around 70 euros. In my car I have some stuff which I never use and can give away. I showed it to them but there was nothing which was really at use. They do wanted to support me and gave me a generous amount of €25 and a tool to pick berries! So nice! In Germany I received €5 from someone so I have 30 euros in total now which makes the half of my visa. When I left they also provided me with a bag full of noodles, bananas, nuts and more.

I thanked them for their hospitality and nice stories and around 1pm I left. I had no plugger down south which was in reach today so I drove to Kokkolo, which was halfway Ilmajoki were I needed to be the day after.
As I had no pluggers there I decided to test the hospitality of Finland. I walked into the first hotel I could find, Finlandia Hotel Seurahoune. A nice classic hotel founded in 1894. I told my story to the receptionist at the hotel and she could offer me a room, breakfast included! So far Finland has been treating me well.

I tried to use my time in the hotel effective and wrote a blog, searched for sustainable companies to visit and finished a new movie about the GEEF Cafe, have a look at it below and let me know what you think of it!

I am still looking for interesting companies, projects, events or initiatives who are active on sustainability and might be interesting for me to visit during my stay here in Finland. If you know any please use this form to tell me about it.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/videos/517040358505031/

Pictures of today

The Hotel

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31 July 201631 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 138 | Sauna time in Pyhäjärvi

Day 138 | Saturday July 30

Quick flashback to yesterday, I mentioned that I was offered a little tour through Oulu but we didn’t go as there was not much to see. So apparently Teemu’s mother-in-law read this, called and told him we absolutely needed to drive around. So we did. The ride itself was very pleasant, Teemu drives this big fat Mustung GT something which he imported from the US. 300 horsepowers! Everything shaket though, one of the downsides of ICE cars 😉

I have to admit that Teemu was kind of right. Not to say that Oulu is not a nice town, it has it’s charm and feels cosy but it’s missing some highlights like architecture, parks or something like that. There was a festival were The Prodigy was playing, that was a highlight even though I didn’t see them.

So back to today. I went for a run, need to keep my mind and body fixated. When I got back Heli already made a big breakfast. Today I was planning to go to Ylivieska, I had an host there and contacted them a few days ago. When I wanted to leave I found out that they didn’t reply on my mails so I quickly needed to find another place to stay. Luckily I’m well covered in Finland.
I contacted Tony in Pyhäjärvi, he quickly responded that it was ok to come by today.

It was a 180km drive which is never sure if I can make that but the weather was perfect (+20 degrees) and the roads mainly flat so I got there with 7% left. My navigation didn’t find his house number, later he explained that the number means how many kilometers the house is located from the main road. So for example ‘Churchstreet 400’ means the house is 400 meters from the start, if it’s an one-way road.

The house was in the middle of a forrest and they use it for summer holiday’s, christmas and new years parties. Located right on a like and one of the most beautiful places I had the opportunity to stay. So as it’s their summer resort they stay there with the whole family. Toni with his girlfriend Vanessa, the parents and his brother Niko with his wife who I didn’t met unfortunately. Their grandparents are staying at a house next door. Oh yeah and a dog. Think that feels crowded? It definitely doesn’t because there is a huge forrest and a lake where you can jump in to. And we did that. They read on the blog that I didn’t take a sauna yet in Finland and they had to change that quickly. They had a separate sauna building next to their house. I never was a big sauna fan as I found them to hot and steamy mostly but this one was pretty good. Nice temperature and they put some tastes in the water to let it smell like eucalyptus and freshly baked bread.

After the sauna we took a dive in the lake, which was nicely 20 degrees, then we went into the hottub and repeated this process a couple of times. Accompanied with the unlimited beers they offered me, this was a damn refreshing experience!

Pictures of today

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29 July 201629 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 136 & 137 | From Kemi to Oulu

Day 136 | Thursday July 28

Today I finally made it to someone who plugged me in. The last time had been in Badderen, Norway and was already 1.162km ago. All those days I had survived by camping and asking people to help me along the way. Which was good for many interesting stories but I also felt a bit isolated and most of all, hungry! In the last 3 days I had one meal a day at most.

So I arrived in Kemi, a city on the Gulf of Bothnia. Jarno plugged me in here, he found me via a friend of Gregor Terrer were I stayed 2 nights in Austria. Jarno was still at work and invited me to come over there. He works for Polar-Automaatioa, a solution provider for industrial electrification and automation. He showed me some of the work they are doing and it was quite impressive. They have this huge 450 meters wide machines and there job is to make this come alive.

Jarno had booked a hotel for me and after 3 days without a shower that was not a bad place to stay. After I showered he picked me up and drove to a restaurant, I could pick anything I wanted and choose a big pile of meat with red-wine sauce. Damn that tasted good.

After dinner we went for some sightseeing around the town. Funny enough Jarno showed me things which are interesting mostly in the winter. First an huge impressive ice-breaker and then the site were a snow castle is build every year when the snow falls. Jarno asked me if I needed any stuff and told him my toothpaste ran out so the nice guy bought me a new one and also hairgel and mosquito spray! Back at hotel Merihovi I finished the night with a big fat hamburger which was provided by them so I’m all good for the coming days 🙂

Day 137 | Friday July 29

The night in a 2 person hotelroom bed did me well after 4 nights of survival. I had breakfast, did some work and then went back to Jarno’s workplace as he invited me for lunch. He even gave me 200 Russian Ruble (which is about 5 euro) for my trip there in a few weeks. So great!

My next stop was in Oulu, the names here in Finland are pretty funny, especially when I pronounce it with my Dinglish accent. Teemu was the one who plugged me in here, he found me because of an article in Helsingi Sanomat, one of Finland’s biggest newspapers. He lives here with his wife Heli. This was the first time in Finland that I stay at someones home. Teemu works as in IT-specialist and Heli does something with paper, they both couldn’t explain what exactly. They have a sauna in their house, but that’s really common here, every house has one. Teemu offered me to take a ride and show me around but told me that there was nothing to see here, so we didn’t go.

Pictures of today

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28 July 201628 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 134 & 135 | Into Finland

Day 134 | Tuesday July 26

Woke up at camping Karacamp in Karasjov (it almost sounds Russian). While it was 25 degrees yesterday, today it was raining hard. For today I had not a tight plan, I just needed to go south towards Finland.

I stopped in Kautokeino which was close to the end of my battery. It was a quitte town and someone tipped me that I had to go to the Juhls Silver Gallery. It’s a shop where they sell jewelry, made from Sami silver. It’s not only a shop but there also is a museum where they show tools of the Sami people.

As I found a socket to charge the car I decided that I wanted to pass the Finish border today. On the Smart Charging app I found there was a Type 2 charging station in Palojarvi, I was not sure if it would work but it was worth taking the risk. Around 11pm I arrived in Finland! Country #11 already this trip and my first time here. I don’t know much about it except for that my childhood hero Jari Litmanen comes was born here and the legendary Nokia company.
As I secretly expected the charging station didn’t communicate with the car. It was placed next to a gasstation with camping and that was about it here. The camping shop was already closed but luckily there was normal socket used to keep accu’s running in the winter so there I plugged it in.

I could sleep in the car or at the camping but I was not sure who they would react in the morning. At the other side of the road was nothing and why not put up the tent there in stead of 30 meters away and risk getting trouble. So this was the first time I went “wild camping”. The place was filled with mosquitos, like thousands, it made it almost impossible to put up the tent but eventually it stood there.

Day 135 | Wednesday July 27

I counted my mosquito bites, there were at least 25 of them. On my face, arms, back and ass. Crazy how was they can get you.

The car was fully charged thankfully and I continued my way down south. The first biggest “city” i passed was Muomi and there was a charger too, again I couldn’t use it. When I got there I was terrible hungry and while driving I felt not fresh at all. The last time I had some food was breakfast yesterday morning, and that were just some slices of bread with jam. The charger was located next to Hotel Harriniva and the very friendly lady was willing to offer me a lunch. They had a buffet with many thinks and normally I would have gone for croissants and sweet stuff but I choose paste, cauliflower and salade. I could feel the vitamins flowing through my veins, it felt damn good.

I charged a little but and continued driving it started raining heavily and even huge hailstones fell out the air. I ended up in Kolari with 7% battery left. There was a huge building with a big sign “hotel” on top of it but when I entered I found it was now used as a home for refugees. There was a caretaker and I explained him I was looking for a bed and place to charge the car. I felt actually a bit stupid that I came here to ask that while there were so many people here in a bad situation. After all I am in a luxurious position that I can make a trip like this. The caretaker was really nice and thought he had an idea. With his car we drove to a train station nearby, it was only used in the weekend and he thought we would find a place to charge here. There was a press-container and we tried to find some people to ask it it was ok to charge there. There was nobody. On the container was a phonenumber which he dialed. Long story short: it was ok to unplug the container and charge the car there. It didn’t work out well, after 20 minutes it stopped charging and I changed to a normal plug.

Around 4 in the morning I arrived in Pello where I found a plug outside. It was in the city and no place to camp so I spend the night in the car, just like old times.

Pictures of today

This is were I parked the car

Not functioning EV charger

This doesn't look promising

Thanks for the lunch!

Crazy weather

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26 July 201626 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 132 & 133 | Going south from the North Cape

Day 132 | Sunday July 24

On the edge of the North Cape I woke up. When I opened my tent I had an amazing view over a sea of clouds and enjoyed this sight for a while. Andrei, the hitchhiker who I met yesterday wanted to go to a camping 20 kilometers from the Cape and I offered him a ride. I still was doubting what to do. My car was charged only till 40% so I couldn’t get that far, especially in this parts as it’s very mountainous.

I dropped of Andrei and next to the camping was a Scandic hotel, I stayed at them earlier in Bodo. After 2 nights of camping and no shower I could use some comfort (I feel a bit spoiled to say this, my friend Andrei had no shower for a week) and tried my luck at the hotel. They were enthusiastic like always but were fully booked. Luckily there was a room with a broken shower (coincidence?) and I could take that one. I was happy to take it and took an ice cold shower, which felt pretty good! Thank you Scandic Nordkapp!

I worked a lot today, wrote my blog, prepared a press-release with Meltwater and send some emails. I didn’t had breakfast or lunch today and because the hotel already offered me a room and breakfast I didn’t want to ask them for a dinner so I boiled a soup with my gas ring in the bathroom. I had some canned soup left which I got from Karin in Heverlee in the second week of this trip.

Day 133 | Monday July 25

I was woken up by the alarm at 10 o’clock, shit! I though I set it at 8 but probably pressed the wrong button. The breakfast was till 10 so I rushed there to get one.

For today I had not really a plan yet. My goal now is to reach Helsinki and I don’t have much pluggers yet in the northern and middle parts of Finland. So I just started driving south. At 20% I reached Lakselv were they had a public 220v charger. With the Smart Charge app from Meshcrafts I found out they had a Type 2 charger in Karasjok and that was about 70 kilometers away. When I had 50% I started driving there. 50% could be enough to drive 70 kilometers but there were some mountains and I quickly lost range. When I was 20km from Karasjok away I had only 8% and had to look for an alternative. The road was long and deserted but at 3% I passed an house. I saw that there were people at home, knocked on the door and asked them for a plug. It were 2 young guys from Lithuania, really nice guys and it was ok to charge. When I told them my story they even offered me to come for dinner with them. They were working in this house as carpenters and stayed here in the house for a few weeks until it’s finished. They are 2 brothers from 25 & 27 who both have a wife and children. The oldest brother Mantas just had his first child just 4 weeks ago and saw him only 1 time. With the money they earn here they supply their families back home. Everyday the people I met are so different and the stories they share unique. I learned a lot so far.

Now I had enough power to reach Karasjok. I was charged with food too so I just needed a place to stay. At camping Karacamp they were willing to offer me a camping place and I could power the remaining of the car at the toilet unit! Great stuff.

Pictures of today

In the mist of North Cape

Scandic Nordkapp Hotel

The house near Karatsjov were I stranded

Under construction

The nice guys who helped me

Welcome to the camping

Sleep tight.

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24 July 201624 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 131 | Above the North Cape

Day 131 | Saturday July 23

Spoiler alert: today was fucking great!

So I woke up in my caravan and started driving towards the North Cape, which has been my goal since Oslo 4 weeks ago. It was a 240km drive and impossible to reach on one charge but I was very surprised that I could drive 207 kilometers to Honningsvag, with the mountains here that is really an achievement.

In Honningsvag was not much to do, it’s kind of the last stop before the North Cape so lots of tourists go to the supermarket and fill their cars with supplies. I had to fill my car with juice, which wasn’t easy. With SmartCharge I found that there was a public charger in town but it didn’t work with my car. At an industrial area I was lucky to find a normal plug and charged for about 5 hours, during the wait I wandered around the town and talked to some locals.

Around 6 I started driving, the road to the Cape was stunning. Long stretched flats with hundreds of reindeers, like the Santa could touch down here any minute.
It was going up hill a lot, the cape is a peninsula of 300 meters high. The last kilometers I was afraid that I wouldn’t make it but got to the ticketbox with 4% left. I was surprised that there was a ticketbox but you could have guessed it, the entrance is free for electric car drivers!

When I explored the area on Google Maps I thought it was a small village with many shops but actually there was just a visitors center for tourists, and as I had to charge my car here that was my only possibility. Luckily they were very friendly and I could charge the car at the back of the compound.

About the North Cape: it’s symbolic the most norther part of Europe. That’s what I read everywhere and I have no idea what this actually means?! How can a place that’s not the most norther place in Europe (It’s not even the most northern place in Norway and big parts of Russia are more northern too) be the symbolic most northern city? Even when it’s an island and not mainland. It must have been a very creative city marketeer who came up with this idea.

I didn’t expect much of this place as I thought it was just a milestone for many travellers to go to ‘the most northern place in Europe’ so I was positively shocked by the beauty of the North Cape. Especially because you can see the midnight sun in full here. I saw it in Bodo till 11.30 but now I could see it all night long! Weird and beautiful.

Now one of my highlights this trip: I flew in a helicopter over the North Cape!
I got in touch with 2 people who work at HeliTours. With my experiences the last weeks I am starting to feel more free in asking people for a favor, of course a heli flight would be the top of the cherry. I explained them what I was doing and asked them the question. They told me that if there would be a drop-out it might be possible to fly along. After 2 hours I received a phone call “we’ve got a spot left!” Wow!
I had never flown in a helicopter before and it has been a dream for a long time and it finally came true. And the good thing: I was flying exactly at midnight so I could witness the midnight sun from even closer. It’s really a great experience to fly over the mountains, fjords and sea and be above the clouds. I took some great pictures and will upload a movie later on. Thanks again HeliTours!

After the flight I wanted to take some more pictures of the midnight sun and from me above the clouds. I met Andrei, a guy from Romania and together we walked around the Cape to find some nice places to get good shots. We stayed up a long time because I wanted to get a picture from me with the car in front of the globe, that is the iconic statue which symbolizes the most northern point. It was only at 3.30 in the morning that most people were gone and we had time to take the shots, very happy with the end-result.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/514254508783616/?type=3&theater

Then I went to bed. I set up the tent very close to the edge of the cape. It was only the second time that I slept in here and the first time was in heavy rain. Now the sun was shining and I could hear the wind hitting my tent, which made me fall asleep within minutes.

Today was really one of the highlights of the trip, totally unexpected. Maybe because the past few days were a bit shit I start to appreciate moments like these more. What will happen tomorrow?

Pictures of today