Dijle Calf Rescue Action – Media Coverage

Quite fascinating to see how news media work these days, and how a relatively insignificant feel good story gets picked up and spreads. I suppose that due to all the not-so-nice things that are going on in the world these days, people are craving for comforting stories.

The tale of the calf rescue action during our packrafting trip of last Sunday first got picked up by Facebook, then by the regional edition of Het Laatste Nieuws, and finally it appeared on Het Nieuwsblad, WireNewsFax (note the funny auto-translated text), De Standaard, TVNews, NewsLocker, Brussels Times, VRT, and especially also on RobTV, a regional TV station in the province of Flemish Brabant.

After seeing the item on RobTV, the owner of the calf called the TV station to ask for passing on his gratitude to the rescue party (so that’s us, or better Evert and Glen, since all I did was producing video footage).

Only too bad that everyone seems to be referring to us as kayakers, whereas we are of course packrafters!

A Brussels Waste Bag in Jämtland

In the southwest corner of the very sparsely populated Swedish province of Jämtland lies a remote farm by the name of Käringsjön. This farm is the gateway to a complex lake system, and at the heart of the lake system is a wind shelter that can only be reached by boat. Just like anywhere else the idea is that everything that is packed into a place like this, is also packed out, especially garbage.

During my recent visit to the Käringsjön wind shelter I notice a waste bag attached to the shelter’s wall. This is surprising by itself, but what is even more surprising is that the bag appears to be an official waste bag of the community of Brussels, Belgium. Apparently some fellow country men or women considered it appropriate to just dump their waste instead of packing it out as everyone else does. What were they thinking? That a Brussels garbage truck is going to pass by to collect their junk? Really despicable behavior…

GPS tracks uploaded to Wikiloc

I have started uploading some of my GPS tracks to Wikiloc, including those of recent multi-day treks, LLT hikes, solo hikes and packraft trips.

Link > My GPS Tracks on Wikiloc

New Flickr photo site

I have moved my photos to a new site at Flickr. Most foreign trips of the past 12 years are covered (for 2014, 3 trips are however still missing).

Link > My Pictures on Flickr

What’s the plan?

With this new blog site my plan is to publish reports of some of my multi-day treks through mountainous and subarctic regions. Only treks during which I have taken digital photographs will be considered.

I have already uploaded the following reports:

• Report > Greenland 2002: Sermilik Fjord
• Report > Norway 2013: Jotunheimen
• Report > Norway 2014: Hardangervidda

Hopefully the following will follow in the not too distant future:

• Report > Iceland 2013: Kerlingarfjöll
• Report > Iceland 2013: Hornstrandir

For the following treks I unfortunately don’t have digital photographs, these will therefore not be considered:

• Egypt 2001: Sinai Desert
• Morocco 2001: Atlas
• Finland 2001: Lapland
• Canada 2000: Rocky Mountains
• USA 1999: Alaska
• Iceland 1998: Jökulsárhlaup
• Iceland 1998: Laugavegurinn
• Iceland 1998: Fimmvörðuháls
• Germany 1997: Mosel
• Greece 1997: Crete
• Norway 1997: Jotunheimen
• France 1991: Queyras
• Belgium 1983: Ardennes