Hi! We’re Ben and Hugo, two part-time adventurers from the UK. This is our first time blogging on the Craghoppers website but we’d like to keep you updated with what we’ve been up to.
In 2013 we decided to go on a river adventure together, but we wanted to do things in as basic a way as possible. So we headed out to a remote town in the North of Sweden, salvaged some wooden palettes and vegetable oil containers, and tried to make a raft to carry us and our bags down 350km of the Vindel River out to the Baltic Sea.
Amazingly it all worked! Our raft (named Melissa) kept us above the water, and we even managed to take her over some quite ferocious rapids! During the day we would paddle down the river, fish and pick mushrooms and berries. At night we would light a fire from driftwood and fall asleep gazing up at the Northern Lights.
Our pace was slow – after two weeks we had only made it 35km downstream. But this meant that in 2014 we were able to return to where we had hidden Melissa over the Winter and continue our voyage. We met some lovely people on the river, who were both amused and amazed to hear where we had travelled from and what we were trying to achieve. We decided to start a blog and a film of our journey.
We really want to try to spread the philosophy that an adventure doesn’t have to be far away on the other side of the world, or for six months at a time. You don’t have to give up your job or fork out thousands of pounds. Our first year cost us little more than the flights to get there. By going back to continue the journey from where we left off each year, we can keep going until we’ve finished the river, without ever having to take more than a few weeks off work.
This year we will return for the third time, and we wanted to get some better gear to keep us warm, dry and safe. Craghoppers agreed to sponsor us by providing us with some dry bags, two pairs of Kiwi Pro Stretch Trousers, and two Luka II Jackets. We tested them out on a camping trip last weekend in the Gower Peninsula and they’re absolutely fantastic. Comfortable, warm and (most importantly when you’re on a raft) very quick to dry. They also feel like they’ll be very durable, which is ideal as we hope to be using them in our subsequent rafting expeditions and hate to have to buy new gear each year!