The ice in Uppsala this year was generally trashed by a large amount of snow that fell soon after the ice was formed. Snow is great on land, but on the ice it insulates it from the surrounding cold air- net result, potentially thin ice, and you have trouble guessing how thick it is.

Well a few freeze thaw cycles later we went down to Ekoln (the local lake) to check it out, and mainly to clock a few kilometers in the legs before the up comming Vikingarännet (which never happened anyway..) It wasn't what you would call a great day for skating, but the ice was amazing. rain 2 days before hand had polished the ice into a thick (10-15cm) sheet of verglass. Jenny and i went down with Gösta, who when we got there realised he had left his boots on his bike and had to drive home to get them.

We went out anyway, mobile ready for gösta's call. Skating out into a fierce head wind. Down past hammarskog and then Anke trips on a hole in the ice (from where the rain had drained through). Heading south west into the arm of the lake that feeds to Vik slott, we find a huge Råk, but we can pass around it. Gösta calls, and he'll catch us up. The rain starts to fall. We head on past Vik slott, and then Remco trips on an ice hole. After that we head east and into another arm of the lake, this time towards Sjö slott. It has been my mission to go here for a long time, and despite the increasingly crap weather i was determined to get there. Gösta catches up, and then we skate in formation into an ever increasing wind, the rain lashing our faces.

We get to the castle, which is more like an English Manor, and pose for a photo taken by Gösta. As he takes the photo the ice beneath us makes an almighty CRACK and we scatter. I can't wait to see the photo- look of terror on our faces!. I had achieved my mission, and everyone else is happy to go home. The return journey is a peice of cake- the wind pushing us along at great speed, which is funny, when Gösta gets his skate stuck in a small crack and falls over. Thanks to a good layer of water on the ice he skids along without friction for 10 or so metres. Very funny to watch. We get back to the car, 40 km's stashed away under our belts, go home eat and go to work!.

Overall: Great fun, shame about the weather!