Kite buggy across Europe's oldest national park

[vindman]

Hi,

I started kite buggying a few months ago. Being a snow-kiter, I picked up the basic skills without problems, buggying on an airfield during weekends. Eventually I booked a trip to Gotska Sandön in July.

Map of Gotska Sandön


Gotska Sandön is the most isolated island in the territorial waters of Sweden and the entire Baltic Sea. I had not visited the island before, but I had heard it is remote, desolate and barren, but at the same time strangely beautiful. The name "Gotska Sandön" literally translates as the "the Gotlandic Sand Island", from the province of which it forms part. As the name suggests, the island is a kingdom of sand, with kilometer-long deserted sandy beaches. The island consists of sand dunes covered by a windswept pine forest.

Aerial view (from Wikimedia Commons)


Gotska Sandön has fascinated visitors for centuries. Because of the sensitive flora and fauna, a maximum of 165 visitors are allowed on the island. The visitors stay in tents or in huts on a camp-site. The only populated place on the island is the camp-site, where the park ranger and some camp-site wardens live. The Gotska Sandön National Park was founded 100 years ago. This makes it the oldest national park in Europe, together with some other Swedish parks. My goal was to explore the island with kite buggy.

I arrived at the island a Friday afternoon in mid July. On the beach the camp-site wardens waited with a tractor and a wagon to transport the luggage to the camp-site.

Arriving the island


The island has no harbour, so the small ferry lands directly on one of the beaches that has deep water. In certain wind conditions the ferry cannot land on the beach, in which case a rubber dinghy goes in shuttle traffic between the ship and the beach. This day the weather was warm and calm, so we could land on the beach.

Tourists entering the island


Upon arrival the passengers are expected to help out unloading the luggage.

Unloading the luggage


While the tractor transported the luggage, I and the other tourists walked to the camp, where we arrived after 45 minutes’ walk. There was a south-westerly breeze – perfect for kiting on the beach Västra sidan. I unloaded my equipment from the wagon and eagerly headed for the beach. It was not a very strong wind but it became a perfect warm-up of the kite weekend. Even though most of the beach turned out to be too soft for the buggy, there was a narrow stretch of hard sand close to the water. There is no tide in the Baltic Sea, so the stretch of hard sand is formed by the waves. I had a fun time kiting back and forth the beach with my 10m foil, along the water’s edge, sometimes in the waves, sometimes dry-shod.

Västra sidan


After many enjoyable runs on Västra sidan, I kited up to the northernmost cape Bredsandsudde. The entire cape had harder sand, not hard enough to tack in the mild wind, but fun to drive on in full speed in cross-wind.

Bredsandsudde

[vindman]

The weather forecast for Saturday morning promised south-easterly winds, turning to the east. This was too good to be true! It meant that perhaps I could go buggying along the entire island, from Tärnudden in the south-east to Bredsandsudde in the north-west, following the northern coast. So I packed kites, food, water and a change of clothes in waterproof bags and left the camp, walking towards Tärnudden on the other side of the island, pulling the buggy and the load.

Pulling the buggy


The inner parts of the island consists of sandy heather-covered heath-like pine forest. I have walked in this kind of forest earlier, but not here in the southern parts of Sweden, only in Lapland in the arctic parts of Sweden. But unlike Lapland, this place was mosquito-free.

In the forest


After a couple hours of hard work, walking and pulling in the soft sand, I arrived at Tärnudden. There I met two tourists on the beach, the first I had seen since I left the camp-site in the morning. The wind had already begun to turn towards the east, so I did not have a straight crosswind, but a little headwind. I rigged my 7m Frenzy, sat down in the buggy and finally sailed away. Despite the slight headwind, I managed to kite along the beach Franska bukten to the cape Kyrkudden, even though it did not go too fast. It felt good to look back on the covered distance.

Franska bukten


From now on, it could only get better, considering the wind direction. But first I had to pass the cape Kyrkudden. The cape consists of stones, gravels and rocks, so I had to pull the byggy around the cape to the beach Källahamn, holding the bar in one hand, kite in the air, and the buggy in the other hand. When I sat down in the buggy and drove away, I now had slight tailwind, so it went like a flash with the Frenzy. I drove up on the soft sand to slow down the speed but the front wheel sliced in the sand, the buggy turned over and I flew out into the sand and dragged about ten meters. Sandy from head to toe and with a minor scrape wound on the arm, I decided to have a lunch and swimming break.

Lunch break on Källahamn beach


It was an incredible feeling to be the only person on the entire beach; 25 centigrades in the air, decent water temperature for swimming, blue sky and a good summer breeze. It felt like being alone on a Caribbean island. I realized that I would sail quickly back to the camp in the tailwind breeze, so I decided to have a long break to enjoy the environment. I spent some hours relaxing, swimming, sun-bathing and beach-strolling.

Beach treasures


Eventually it was time to leave. The wind had increased somewhat, so I changed kite to Access 4m. In the horizon I saw the next destination – the Säludden point.

Towards Säludden


Now the buggy went with express speed. What an experience to whiz on the water's edge, in a spray of sand and water. Just before arriving at Säludden, yellow signs showed up, declaring that the point is a protected area with no admittance. The reason is that seals come up from the water and rest on the rocks. So I had to start pulling the buggy again, rounding the seal rocks.

Sign at Säludden


After Säludden begins the beach Las Palmas:

Las Palmas


I sailed quickly along the Las Palmas beach to the next point – Stora beckrevet. Again I encountered rocks, so I pulled buggy while keeping the kite in the air. Then I continued with a breakneck speed along Norra sidan. Here I was buggying a lot in the soft sand to slow the speed. It was great to skid in the sand, flying out into the water, speeding along the water's edge in showers of spray, and then skid into the soft sand again. At the end of the beach I met two tourists - the only people I had seen since Tärnudden. Shortly thereafter, I met the ranger who came driving on the beach in a jeep. He said that he had never seen a kite buggy before, but he thought it looked like fun. The ranger told me that I would probably have good conditions on Bredsandsudde for my activity. I thanked him for the advice and continued. Between Norra sidan and Bredsandsudde I encountered rocks and gravels. However it did not look like impossible terrain, so I continued in the buggy. It was a rough ride and I almost bounced off from the buggy, but I managed to pass the rocks to Bredsandsudde. Here I had strong wind straight from the back, so I played with the buggy and drove like crazy in zigzag along the sandy cape, until I came to the northern tip of Gotska Sandön.

Bredsandsudde


My little expedition had turned out well, with a few scratches on the arm as the only mishap. I walked back to the camp, fetched a beer from the food cellar and enjoyed the cool drink in the warm summer evening.

[vindman]

Hope you enjoyed the trip report. Here is an attempt to translate the names of the beaches and the capes:

Beaches
Västra sidan = The West Side
Franska bukten = The French Bay
Källahamn = Water-hole Harbour
Las Palmas = Las Palmas
Norra sidan = The North Side

Capes and points
Bredsandsudde = Broad Sand Cape
Tärnudden = The Tern Cape
Kyrkudden = The Church Cape
Säludden = The Seal Point
Stora beckrevet = The Great Tar-Pitch Reef

The names may sound like something from a pirate novel. Gotska Sandön is actually a former pirate's nest

[Rushmore]

Nice strory, enjoyed reading that

[smudge837]

good one, must have been a great trip.

[flyvan]

nice place and nice report...
I told you that this kite it was in perfect shape and very good kite in general...
now i am waiting the frenzy 7m-11m 2010... i will tell you if they are better or not

[vindman]

Yes, it was really a great trip. I like kite touring. I usually do kite touring on snow so this buggy thing is a new experience to me.

Flyvan, the Frenzy 7m has come to good use. I am also interested to hear about the new Manta in due time. I need kites that can double for snow and buggy.

[popeyethewelder]

Fantastic account of your trip vindman, it looks an amazing place.

Thank you for sharing that with us

[mikeymustard]

Fascinating! That was a story worthy of Sand Yeti, must've been a real adventure

[vindman]

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys

I am a beginner in this buggy business, so maybe you can help me with some advice? I used standard dry bags that I tied to the buggy, but it was a little tricky to get the bags neatly fitted. I had to use many straps so it took some time to open and close the bags. I may need to upgrade for the winter tours. Any better alternatives out there?

[jimbocz]

There's always John at http://www.buggybags.co.uk/. I've bought from him and had great service.

[vindman]

Thanks. I contacted them and received prompt reply. Now I have created a new topic regarding expedition bags:

http://forum.kitecrowd.com/buggying/expedition-buggy-bags-170722.html#post2049757