Standing on the ice, or should I say wobbling because I'm a hopeless skier, we prepared for our tenth depth test. A depth test is quite simply a daily check to record how deep the ice is on a lake, this particular lake being Lake Siljan in the region of Darlana in the middle of Sweden. If the ice is at its thinnest 10cm then apparently that's more than enough for a car to drive across, saving commuters a heck of a lot of time. Yes you heard it, ice roads are a thing.
Back to the story, we stood there with our manual ice drill, we found our spot roughly fifteen meters from the last hole and we started drilling. What happened next was not what we were expecting...
The blades took a grip of the ice and the scratching and screeching began, out there on the middle of a huge lake all sounds echo and bounce creating such an eerie atmosphere, not scary but odd. The most important part for a ice road is that the ice is thick where the lake is at its deepest and we were standing pretty smack bam in the middle. We burrow cautiously for about a minute when we hear an all mighty crack in the distance, within seconds the ice had split.
We caused a crack almost a kilometre in diameter. The water forced itself out of the freshly made wound and we felt the surface beneath us shift. We were off, didn't need to ask twice, not even once. Suddenly I could have won gold for ice-skate racing at the winter games - I wish I was making this up but I'm not, this is some of the crazy situations I've got myself into while doing my little rounds around Europe
We caused a crack almost a kilometre in diameter. The water forced itself out of the freshly made wound and we felt the surface beneath us shift. We were off, didn't need to ask twice, not even once. Suddenly I could have won gold for ice-skate racing at the winter games - I wish I was making this up but I'm not, this is some of the crazy situations I've got myself into while doing my little rounds around Europe
My name is Abdurahman Hale. I'm an old friend of Mikes and I've been wanting to start writing about the little things I get up to abroad. I approached Mr Owen about getting myself on Foul Entertainment as I'm, much like him, big into my tech, my gaming, all sorts of films and damn good anime. So, I thought, how about a little blog which combines my travels and all those things we love.
Right now I live in Berlin, it's such a great city and I can't wait to get my teeth into its geek culture. I've already joined a weekly MTG group, so I'll keep you posted on how my trusty black deck does here on the continent.
That's all for now,
Auf Wiedersehen.
Right now I live in Berlin, it's such a great city and I can't wait to get my teeth into its geek culture. I've already joined a weekly MTG group, so I'll keep you posted on how my trusty black deck does here on the continent.
That's all for now,
Auf Wiedersehen.
By Abdurahman Hale
@abshale
The Foul Entertainment off-shore reporter, Abdurahman is currently living in Berlin and has done the round of many European countries. He is currently working on a travel/tech hybrid column for the blogs page.
@abshale
The Foul Entertainment off-shore reporter, Abdurahman is currently living in Berlin and has done the round of many European countries. He is currently working on a travel/tech hybrid column for the blogs page.