"The Crazy Viking"

First of all; yes! this guy is Crazy! He looks scary and he is a Viking, for sure!

I prefer to call him "The Crazy Viking", but his name is Joachim and he is actually a really cool dude! Same age as me, born in 1986, but he sure is much wiser!

The ShibbyTraveler aka Joachim

Let's go back to 2019.

I heard some rumors about this guy kayaking from Oslo to Kirkenes, and he had taken a stop here at Leka. People also talked about him walking around barefoot. *HA! Yeah, right! What kind of weird guy is this?! I have to see this with my own eyes!* - yeah, that was my thought🙈

My niece and I decided to play some Pokemon GO, and on my way to pick her up I drove past this one guy walking barefoot on the shoulder of the road. (oh-okay, so this is true?!)

Then, while I was at the local store, this hairy dude came walking in BAREFOOT! (this have to be the guy! - I said "hei" as I always do to tourists).

My niece and I drove around, and had to go down to the harbor to catch some Pokemon's, and I had to go inside the info-centre to use the restroom..
Guess who were sitting in the open area at the info-centre? Did you guess it? I bet you did, cause it was the hairy, barefoot dude.
We started chatting; he told me about other journeys he've had in the past, and I promised I would follow him on his journey. (when I came back to my car, my niece wasn't too happy with me taking so long)

Fast forward 2 years, and for some crazy reason this guy decided to kayak Norway again, but this time: south to north and back south!
One thing was sure: I had to offer him a place to set camp at my family's property.
And when he came closer to Leka, me and my mom got in my car and drove to a bridge(we knew he would pass under it) and stood there waving with the Norwegian flag and welcoming him to Leka. We drove home, and my mom made waffles for me to bring Joachim when he came into camp.I shot some photos of Joachim, and we spoke and laughed a lot before I went up to the house.
The next day I got up early so that I could catch him before he left - luckily we could see his camp from the livingroom so I would be able to see when he started to pack down his camp.
I drove down to his camp to meet him, and we took a short hike around the northern part of my family's property before he continued his journey north.

A few months later, Joachim was south bound, and I told him he could use the same camp site if he wanted.
He would arrive at Leka so early that it didn't make sense to set camp here this time - and I understood. The funny thing is that my mom was supposed to make him pancakes or waffles, but because he texted me that he were getting closer to Leka while my mom, my oldest brother and I was working in the forrest I just had to jump in my car and drive as fast as I could (note: my car's top speed: 45kmh/ 28mph) to the south side of Leka.
I caught up with him at the popular beach at Haug, and had a blast! We were chatting and laughing as if we've known each other for years!

In 2022, Joachim was supposed to kayak from Norway to Spain, but he had to change his plan due to some unexpected issues. He therefor ended up kayaking to Haparanda/Tornio on the Swedish-Finish boarder, but he kayaked around the Danish island "Sjelland" before he changed his route.

Guess what?!
This guy is nuts! (but that's one of the reasons why I'm so happy I can call him my friend) 

On March 1st 2023 he started on another kayaking adventure: Norway from south to north, but also as deep as it is possible to kayak into the 10 longest fjords of Norway! -> Norway 2023

I'm almost counting down nautical miles till I will meet him again! The laughter, and the conversations - I don't know, they just give me so much energy and joy!

Joachim; please, stay safe! See you in camp at Leka! Enjoy your adventure!
BTW, should I meet you with waffles or pancakes this time?