15.04 (Wednesday)
Bird Watch 16:30 with Svein
Today we met Svein, a biology teacher at UIA. He took us to Søgndalen to watch capercailzies. We walked to a specific area where it looked a bit like in the desert. We built a huge shelter where all 12 of us were able to fit in. We used branches and rope and tarps. Svein gave us a little tour around, showed us trees and plants, explained and made us listen to different birds. It was really interesting and motivating to be with him. To not scare the birds away we went to bed early. Svein said that the capercailzies would come around 5 o clock. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to wake up at this time. But at 7 we were able to see one the capercailzies. It was sitting in a tree and looked like a black chicken. But we could hear the typical birdcall all the time. Even we didn’t see a lot of birds I really enjoyed the overnight trip.
17.04 – 22.04 (Friday – Wednesday)
Self Organised Trip – Snowboarding and Hiking
Snowboarding
Friday to Sunday (17.04 – 19.04) Moritz and me went snowboarding in Røldal. We imagined it to be a bigger skiing area than Hovden, but this turned out to be a mistake. The area was really small and after the first day we thought it wasn’t worth it to drive all the way up for such a little area. But then we talked to a men from this region and he recommended us to make a tour around the mountains off-piste and then come back to the lift. After the second night in Moritzes Van we tried out this tour and it was amazing. We had perfect weather on both days but on this one we had a wonderful view and nice time in the mountains.
Planning:
We compared the skiing areas Røldal and Rauland on the internet, and they seemed to be quite similar regarding the length of slopes. What we didn’t realise was that we just compared the open slopes and not the whole area. The weather was nice in both areas, but Røldal was further to drive. We decided to go to Røldal finally because it was colder there and it is higher. In the end this was the right decision because Rauland is a really small skiing area and we would have been really disappointed.
We planned to leave on Friday afternoon because the drive was around 5 hours and go snowboarding on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday evening we wanted to drive to Dirdal and meet the others. Sleeping was not a problem as the two of us could easily fit into Moritzes van. The same was about food we were able to cook inside and just prepared lunch for the mountains.
We had a really nice time and everything worked out as we planed it. We found nice places to park the van and sleep there. In comparison I think that the ski pass for this area is way too expensive for what you get. But we had the chance to have the nice day off-piste.
For me it was the first time I walked uphill with the snowboard to have a nice route. Moritz and me had a lot of fun and decided together where to go and what to do. I really enjoyed the day and I think I learned more about my own abilities and that it is sometimes important to dare something and to be more confident.
Hiking trip
We drove to Dirdal and stayed at a wonderful place right in front of a lake with a great view. In the morning we prepared our bag packs and our lunch for the hiking trip.
This was done quite fast as I had to plan and bring the things before we left to go snowboarding. Adele, Os and Jochen came to Dirdal with my car and we started our trip at around 1 o’clock.
Planning:
We planed two different possibilities previously so we could decide on Monday when we were all meeting.
- Possibility: Hike the DNT route, camp two nights in tents, on the second day climb up to a mountain top and leave the campsite for a second night. On the third day hike back on another route back to Dirdal and the cars.
- Possibility: Hike the DNT route, camp for one night in tents and take another route back to Dirdal. Driving to the coastline and have a day hike there on the next day (there and back)
Actual trip:
On Monday morning we decided together to make the second possibility. The weather was supposed to be very nice on Wednesday at the coast so we wanted to go there, and we would see diverse areas.
Although we checked the contour lines the beginning was quite hard. We walked uphill for around 1,5 hours and had to climb up stones and rocks. This was quite hard with the big backpacks and we had to make more breaks than we planed to. But we just had short drinking breaks where you could put your backpack down which helped to restart with a better feeling.
Luckily we had awesome weather and were able to hike in t-shirts. After climbing up the terrain was more or less even. While one break we lost Os who climbed up a mountain top and we didn’t know where he was gone. We looked for him and shouted but couldn’t find him and he didn’t answer his phone. Then Moritz decided to look around without his backpack and fortunately he found Os on the top. This situation was a bit scary because we realised how hard it is to find somebody. If something happened to Os and he couldn’t respond it would have taken ages to find him. So it is really important to stay together as group and let the others know when you’re going somewhere even if it’s not for long or not far away.
The terrain on the mountain was swampy and hard to hike. We crossed a lot of passages with snow and water. It was not possible to keep the boots out of the water. This made walking demanding and it was a challenge for me with the big backpack. Adele and me were always a bit behind the boys and we felt that we were simply not able to keep up with them. But we managed to walk in a good pace and they boys were waiting for us.
It was hard to find a good camping spot because the area was not really flat. But we found a nice place not too far away from the lake to get water. We had a comfortable night but on the next day the weather changed and it was fogy, rainy and cold the whole day. So we were happy that we had already decided to go back.
At the junction where to two different routes go back, we decided to take the shorter one to be back a bit earlier. We thought about splitting up in boys and girls in case the boys wanted to go the longer way. Luckily we didn’t do that because it turned out that already on the easier way we had to cross deep snow passages. On the other way that leaded through even higher terrain it could have been impossible to walk.
I think we had a really good teamwork on decision-making. I wouldn’t say that we had one leader. More or less different people took over leadership in specific situations. But we always agreed as a group. We took care of each other and Jochen did a great job in stepping back and adapt to group and the pace.
Hike at the beach
As we hoped we had wonderful weather at the beach and decided to have a nice walk along the coastline. We didn’t do all the 30ks of the walk but had a great time. At a bunker we had lunch. Adele and me enjoyed the sun and the boys were building stairs up to the bunker. We ended up with having a short swim in the sea.
Thanks for the nice trip guys 🙂
27.04 – 30.04 (Monday – Thursday)
Mountain to Fjord trip
We took the bus and met at Byglandsfjord on Monday morning.
We started with paddle training and I was in a canoe with Adele.
In a tandem canoe there is always a bowman in front and a stern man in the back. The bowman paddles normal the most of the time and keeps the pace of the canoe going. Both people should paddle at the same time while the bowman is setting the rhythm. The stern man is responsible for the steering and keeps the canoe on course. We learned the J-stroke and the steering while holding the paddle in the water. But its recommended to use the J-stroke because it doesn’t break the canoe and can be done while the usual paddling. Both people can do the sweep stroke. To move to the side both paddlers pull the paddle towards the canoe on that side where they want to go. To turn the canoe the paddlers paddle in opposite directions (one forward one backwards).
We packed our stuff waterproof and started our tour. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very pleasant and we had rain, wind and even hail. It was quite hard to move forwards at some time. I tried to steer at some time and Adele helped me really well but we had to keep up with the others and didn’t really have time to practice the steering. So I spent the most of the time in the front of the canoe and only improved my forward stroke.
Another bad thing was that I didn’t bring rain trousers so I got really wet. The group decided to camp earlier than planned because of the bad weather. So we set up our shelters in the rain and got changed quickly. Later we met at the fire by the beach and even the weather got really nice and sunny. At least we had dinner in the sun.
On the second day we made our way back to Evje, still with rain. Adele and me had to separate and make tandems with Jochen and Os because we were faster and could save a bit of energy. Unfortunately steering with Jochen was impossible because he was too heavy in the front and too strong while paddling. So I couldn’t train steering at all on the second day.
The last bit was in moving water. That was quite exiting and we learned to break out of moving water into still water over the eddy line. In this case the bowman had to put the paddle into the water in 45 degrees while “looking on the watch” and hold it there. This makes a turning point for the canoe in front. The stern man makes a big sweep stroke on the opposite site to turn the back of the canoe.
At Troll Aktiv we had the chance to go rafting. That was really funny and our boat capsized and Will and Kirby fell into the water.
The night in the huts was comfortable and recovering. At the same time we felt a bit like in a holiday camp.
On Wednesday we got our bikes from Tim and drove around 20ks to Kiele Fjord where we set up our shelters again and climbed for the rest of the day.
Moritz’, Jannis’ and my shelter was really nice and it was nice to see how fast we are now in building one and finding a good place.
The routes we did for climbing were not too hard and we could improve our technique. It was enjoyable to be only 12 people so were able to climb a lot and didn’t have to wait too long.
We also learned how to set up an abseiling area and how to introduce kids to it.
We had a security rope with which you could get to the edge without any risk. The belaying person also is secured with the rope and overtakes the person who wants to go down.
On Thursday we had our biking tour home. We cycled about 60ks from Kile Fjord to Krisitansand. We didn’t have too many or long breaks it was still raining and really cold while not moving. The group didn’t drive together. As we had big differences between the levels of biking abilities the group split up quickly into two smaller groups. To reinforce the group cohesion Len talked with us and decided to have a group leader who sets the pace. After that we cycled together as a big group and were able to talk while cycling. To finalize the trip we decided to have a coffee in Venesla, unfortunately Jochen didn’t want joint us. We came back to Kristiansand at 15:30 o’clock.