Puffins everywhere you look, a grin that will last for days and a memory that will never be forgotten. A moment so indescribable, impossible to put into words or capture in pictures. A feeling which will be untouched and unreached for a long period of time. A feeling of being one with Mother Earth, nature, and the animals around you.
And it all began with the idea of bringing kayaks to a place as remote as few places are these days.
This place consists of a group of small islands, known as the Sleepy Islands or Svefneyjar, located in the west of Iceland within the stunning fjord of Breiðafjörður, surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
The idea of Kayaking around and in between these islands came straight up my mind as soon as I put the first foot on these islands. Kayaking has always been a part of my adventures and travels in the past year, so when I embarked on my official internship adventure in Iceland, it was essential to include it. The internship here is on the one hand about the sustainable use of raw materials in the fashion sector on the other hand it appeared to be way more, including establishing a place to go kayaking in an environment, which is so spectacular barely describable.
Since the work and life on the island are focused on sustainability, it was evident that the kayaks should also have a sustainable foundation.
My work on the island also focused on the use of sustainable materials in products and the accounting of the value chain of these. So when we stumbled upon the Melker brand one evening, it became clear that these kayaks were perfect for the Sleepy Islands, with sustainable raw materials serving as the foundation for high-quality kayaks. It just fitted. And a few weeks later the first two Melker kayaks in the whole of Iceland arrived on the island. And ohh boy, it was a dream to take them out for a paddle. And the dream of paddling here around in between the islands became reality.
Further on, one evening, the ocean was like a mirror, I decided to go for a relaxed paddle and when I started, I couldn’t dream of what I was going to experience on this trip. Close to the so-called puffin island, I suddenly found myself in hundreds of puffins and could hardly believe what I was experiencing. Being circled by hundreds of puffins, like being the eye of a storm and getting as close as a meter to these lovely creatures. Something I never could dreamed of just happened. And this is how I sat as still as possible, observing these wild and curious animals taking a stroll around an unknown object, which they didn’t perceive as a threat.
Since then, I've been drawn out there time and time again, whenever the weather, tides, and time permitted. And beside experiencing these lovely creatures so close, I experienced on these kayaks so many more things I couldn’t think of, and there are more to come. Like seeing whales, dolphins from the Melker kayak or just experience another sunset or sunrise in this unreal environment.
But in the end, it’s all about just living in these moments which are so special and feeling alive and here it is just about sinking into the exhilaration of paddling and the tranquillity of the islands combined with the birdsong and the roar of the sea.
- Stefan Schuster
#anewera #plantbased #melkerofsweden #melkermoment #sustainabledesign #servingnature #lekmer #thefutureisnow