The "Viking Run" or Vikingarännet is an annual ice-skating event where the participants skate all the way from Uppsala to Stockholm along the frozen waters of Lake Mälaren - a distance of 80 kms. Do you think they are all seriously mad? Yep, me, too.

When I say "lake", I don't mean a small body of water, either. Mälaren is the third largest lake in Sweden and is 110kms long and about 70 kms wide, though a very irregular shape as you can see from the map here. Its shores are indented by numerous arms and inlets and thousands of small islands. At one time it was actually part of the Baltic Sea, but since the 12th century, because of a fall in the water level, it has been an inland lake. This winter has been fairly mild by Swedish standards, so I wondered whether it would be possible to actually hold the race at all. This thought occupied my mind as we made our way up to see our good friends Lennart and Anna, who live in the northern Stockholm suburb of Upplands-Väsby. We used to live here as well and know Lake Mälaren well, having sailed over quite a lot of it in the summer. In winter, it is usually frozen over, but as there is no ice in our waters I assumed it would be much the same there, but I was wrong.

When we left Nynäshamn it was +2C and when we got off the train an hour and a half later in U-V, it was -3C. Sure, that's only five degrees difference, but it was enough to put a real chill on the air and also enough to keep the freshwater lake frozen to a depth of about 10cm. I am so surprised by the difference in weather conditions between the coast where we live and the more inland areas. It is certainly much milder where we are. Lennart told me that the Vikinarännet is going ahead as planned, but the course will be from Uppsala to Kungsängen, rather than all the way into Stockholm. You can see them on this map. Uppsala is located in the top centre of the map and Kungsängen marked with a blue dot. Just slightly north east of Kungsängen, you will see an area called Munkholmen. That is where we were yesterday.

We all went for a hike through the woods by the frozen lake shore near Sättra. It was clear and sunny, but very cold as you can tell from the multiple layers and extra scarves I am wearing.



I think Swedes are more used to this weather and need less layers than I do. Still, it is lovely to be out in the woods on a cold day and I was surprised that so many people were enjoying the day out as well. Lennart told us that we would stop for a break by a wind shelter that has recently been constructed. They had brought thermoses of tea and coffee, sandwiches and some sausages to grill over an open fire. Along the way we collected wood that could be used in the fire. You can easily tell who is the pyromaniac of the group:



I keep looking at the ice between us and the island of Munkholmen and just can't believe this is where we sail in the summer. It looks so strange to see it as a solid mass. There were several skaters out on the area taking advantage of the perfect conditions and getting in practice for the upcoming race.



We spoke to this couple you see pictured just before they set off. They were easily in their late 60's and were out from Kungsängen for what they called a half-day tour around the area. They made me feel positively lazy with their obvious high level of flexibility and high level of fitness. You can see that they love being out enjoying nature and the winter. Lars-Göran also loved to skate long distance in the winter. He said that it both gave you a different view of the islands as well as made the winter seem shorter and more bearable if you had something to do.

After the couple set off, Lennart started up the fire. He put so much wood on it that I wondered if we were going to spit roast a lamb or something. It was quite a substantial fire.



The sun was lovely and we enjoyed the warming rays while Mr Pyromaniac worked on the fire, adding logs, more logs and rather a lot of greenery that made it very smoky if you stood in the way of the wind. There was only a slight breeze around, which was good as it kept the wind chill factor low. However, it was blowing from the lake and towards us. For some funny reason, nobody wanted to sit in the wind shelter. I wonder why?



Once it settled down, we grilled korv and chatted while enjoying the sunshine and the view. It really does provide a beautiful backdrop to the grilling.



It is hard to believe that this lake has over 1,000 islands dotted along it's 110 km shores. I really love this area for it's beautiful pine woods interspersed with birch trees. It was my first taste of Swedish nature and my first sailing experience in Sweden. Lars-Göran is not as fond of it as he finds it a bit closed in and prefers the more open, stark, barren and windswept landscape of the outer archipelago. Still he enjoyed his tramp in the woods and the company of good, good friends.



And for those of you who were wondering. Yes, Lambi was with us. But as usual, she was more interested in the food, so she was pretty much glued to the container of sausages and not so much attached to us.