Assignment 5

Assignment 5

Canoeing, Climbing and Biking Trip

  • When: 26.04-29.04.2021
  • Where: Bygland/Evje
  • What: 4 days trip (2 days canoeing with sleeping on an island, 1 day climbing and 1 day biking back to Kristiansand)
  • 3 words, that describe the experience the best: island, clear water, crag
  • My Orange (best moment): waking up under the trees after a cozy and comfortable night
  • My Lemon (worst moment): –
  • What I want to improve on: practising activities over and over again to really remember it for life

 

Life lesson: It is not that difficult to organise a big trip with different activities, if you as a veileder use your experiences and set up good plans!

Perfect weather, days on the water, on the wall and on the bike – paradise !!!

Our whole outdoor education course was devided into two groups, thus only 12 students participated the first week. I really enjoyed being in a small group, because it was easier to bond with everyone. I had the feeling that every individual had more space to show their character. The interactions in our group was really uncomplicated: no injuries and similar fitness level.

We left Kristiansand with a bus around 10am and arrived at Bygland 1,5 hours later. While waiting for Len we ate lunch and enjoyed the beautiful view over the lake and mountains. Before we went of Len showed us some technical exercises next to the shore (strokes, slowing down…). Finally, we packed our canoes and started paddeling.  It was quiet hot so that we only wore our short wet suits and the life wests. I was surprised how easy it felt to paddle throughout a whole day (but okay, we were pretty slow and relaxed :)) and if you were tiered or thirsty you could just drink fresh and cold water out of the lake.

We made some breaks during the day, switched the leader positions and orientated ourselves on the maps. Around 5 pm we arrived on our “sleeping island”. It felt very special to cook and sleep on an island with no other people around. We made a bonfire and fell asleep under the moonlight. I slept in my hammock but I regretted it once again, because my mat  got out of place several times and I could feel the cold air from underneath.

The relaxing mood of Len developed such a nice and comfortable atmosphere and I would love to take over a little bit of his way of teaching as a leader. We changed the canoe buddies at day 2 and i was the first time paddeling in the back. It is ycool how easy it is to steer the canoe if you hold your paddle in the right angle to the water. We made a two hour break at a beach, ate lunch and fell asleep in the sun. After a view more islands, technical exercises and thousands of paddle strokes we arrived at the damn and walked to TrollAktiv to get the trailor for the canoes.

TrollAktiv looked so different in summer and it reminded me a lot of my work in summer camps. It’s cool to see that there are still school classes enjoying the activities together and Corona doesn’t effect it Norway. We took a cold shower, set up  a bonfire next our tipis and had a colder night than we expected.

We met Len in the Coffee in Evje (it’s his favorite one), sat in the sun and made Luca happy because she ate glutenfree cinnamon rolls for the first time of her life.

Next stop: the Climbing Crag Killefjorden. Len took all our gear with him the car so the biking felt pretty easy. At Killefjorden, we brought all our stuff down to the lake and started climbing top rope. After that Len showed us how to do abseiling and we were able to try  abseiling and belaying. Thomas and me started and we chose the wrong end of the rope, so when I was around 1 meter above the ground the rope ended and I needed to climb up again. I think you need a lot of experience to know all different knots and have a clue of the rope management to make sure that everything is safe. We enjoyed the rest of the day climbing and cooking and it was such a good mood within the group at the end of the day. We all decided to sleep up at the crag in the forest and it was the best night I’ve ever had outside. The high gras and trees produced good insolation and except the 30 seconds hailing in the morning I felt really comofortable and cozy. When I woke up with the view on the trees I realized that moments like this make life worth it.

The cycling path back home (around 70km) was  along the old railway and I really enjoyed the scenery. We made a break in a Coffee in Vennesla and I was really sad that this trip already draw to a close. I’m so thankful for the perfect weather, no accidents, good mood and the whole program. I would love to lead an excursion like this in the past and share this joy with so many more people!