N 60° 16' 0'' E 18° 42' 0''
60.26667 / 18.7

Yesterday at 15h I started of for my expedition to the small island of Ljusklubben north of the main island of Vässarö. I had a two person canoe at my diposal.

Ljusklubben is only about one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide. It's uninhabited.

The goal of my expedition was to scout the island for next year. Next year I want to have a small bushcraft camp withsome friends for about 10 days on that island.

I had two Swedish lists of edible and medicinal plants. The first one was from the military handbook Överlevnad (see Downloads at Bushcraftuk.com) The other one was from a the course I followed with the Swedish Survival Guild (www.overleva.se).

I first circled the island with my canoe. After that I went ashore at a lagune in the north.

I found 24 edible and/or medicinal plants in total. I also found some rabbit holes, old swan nests and squirrel tracks. I saw a heron and a flock of wild swans.

The island should be perfect for fishing since it had three or more bays. I saw loads of tiny fishes while I was doing the dishes. I could literally grap them.

I should extend my knowledge of plants to seaweed soon. I know there are quite a lot edible species ... The island was surrounded with seaweed!

I guess the best plant I found was the reed. There was a kind of lagoon on the island, quite nere to the place I made camp. It was full of reed! The roots make excellent eating.

The strange thing was that the blueberry and cranberryplants weren't carrying any berries yet. The same plants on the main island however were full of them! Anyone knows why?

I was also hoping to find some drinkable water on the island. There was some rainwater to be find on the rocks but nothing more. The lagoon was brackish water. I will need some kind of destillation apparatus next year. I could also collect rainwater in my basha or poncho. However, it doesn't rain that often here during the summer. I did manage to get 10 liters in one night on my basha. However it took a whole week to rain like that again.

The camp manager told me there are 4 wells on the main island (Vässarö). They are all man maid. They drilled them in the rocks in the early 19th century. This means that Vässarö used to be an uninhabitable island to, like Ljusklubben.

I went back to camp before sunset. I collected enough firewood to be able to see what I was doing. I also made some excellent pine needle tea! I tried to boil water in my survival kit tin. Even though it was pretty light from my fire, it was still to dark for that.

I gave it another go in the morning. I then succeeded. I used a green forked twig. I used my snare wire from my survival kit to attach it to the twig. I got the water boiling in less then 10 minutes.

I then enjoyed the last dip in the sea followed by the now traditional doing the dishes in the sea.

After I came back to the main island I prepared my last bannock and warm meal. I then finished all the odd ends I had been doing since I arrived and broke up camp.

Tomorrow off for home. I will be passing Stockholm where I will buy a new carbon knife and a book on carving. I think I will go for a Sami design. (Sami is the political correct word for the native people of Lapland) .

Soon back home ...