Canoeing in Ronneby river

It’s finally summer again! So today I will post about a summer trip me and a friend did two years ago in Sweden. We spent a couple of days canoeing in Ronneby river, a small and calm river that flows in Småland and Blekinge in southern Sweden.

We booked the trip through a company called Paddelkompaniet. We decided to paddle for three days and two nights. Included in the price was the canoe, paddles, life jackets, a small trolley for transporting the canoe on land, tent and a floating barrel to put our stuff in.

We drove to the finish point of the river, Karlsnäsgården (red marker), where we got all of our equipment. From here we were driven to where we would start our journey, which was Korrö (green marker).

It’s possible to start a bit further north than we did too. But we figured it would be long enough from Korrö.

Korrö itself is a beautiful place with a restaurant, café, hostel and a small shop. Here we could fill our water bottles as well before heading out.

The first stretch from here is a narrow river with lots of greens around you. It was such a beautiful and calm day and we really enjoyed this first part.

After 2 km we took a small break for some snacks, mostly because it looked so idyllic at this place Svartabäck.

After paddling for some hours we reached a small lake. We didn’t really know where to go so continued out in the water, but now it had started to be a bit windy so it was hard to control the canoe. We had to turn back and get on land. From here we walked for a while and reached another lake where we decided to camp for the night. We had some troubles putting up the tent but had a nice evening taking a swim in the lake as the sun set. This first day we paddled 10 km.

The second day we got up early after a nice sleep and had breakfast by the lake.

And once again, it was such a beautiful day. It was no longer windy on the lake as the night before and we could just slide on the water.

This is how the days looked like, we continued to paddle on and once in a while we took a break for lunch, snacks and/or a swim. But it wasn’t just fun and game… You can’t paddle all the way without getting up on land. I think it was 6 times we had to bring the canoe up on land and use the small trolley to transport it. On some places it was so steep to get the canoe on land. This was actually really annoying and really heavy. But we managed every time with the help from some swear words…The second night we spent on one of the marked camping spots called Stenladan. We put up our tent and ate dinner. We had brought our own food that we cooked in the camping kitchen. It was a beautiful evening and we sat there and talked for some hours before it was time for bed again. The second day we paddled for about 20 km so it was nice to get some sleep.

And so it was time for the last leg. When the last day had come we really just wanted to get back. Our arms were a bit sore and we were feeling a bit tired. This day the water was much more open than the other days and it was a bit more windy too.

At one point we reached a part where the water was so low we had to carry the canoe. The bottom was filled with rocks so it was quite hard to walk and carry the canoe with all the equipment at the same time.

And so finally after 15 km we reached the finish and Karlsnäsgården, just as towering cumulus started to cover the sky.

This was a great weekend, and we were so lucky with the weather. I imagine it wouldn’t have been so nice if it had been more windy and not so hot. I don’t know if I would plan on doing it again because of all the times we had to take out the canoe. Or maybe we should just have packed less… Anyway, I recommend visiting Korrö and paddle for half a day from there.

This is an activity that you can do in many places in Sweden, there are small lakes and rivers almost everywhere. Despite that I haven’t done it more than a couple of times. But in a couple of weeks it’s time again, if we have the weather on our side.