Self Organised Forest Field Trip Winter

Location: Forested Areas In Southern Norway

March 11-14 (Tuesday-Friday)

 

Describe the area in which the field trip took place: geography, flora, and fauna. 

Our 9-person group consisted of Arjen, Kevin, Manuel, Nayara, Nick, Olly, Sara, Simke, and myself.  We had met together for several days prior to the trip so we could organize where we planned on going, how far we felt like walking, what goals we wanted to achieve, what things we wanted to learn, who would undertake certain roles and what gear needed to be collected.  Once we had all agreed on a final plan, we were now able to set off.

We met at Arjen’s house, about a 10-minute walk from the university into Jegersberg.  The weather was beautiful and sunny.  The weather was so perfect that some of us were able to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts.  I wore shorts, a long sleeve thermal, a hat, sunglasses, wool socks and hiking boots.  I felt perfectly comfortable for the weather temperature and didn’t need to add or remove layers over the whole day until we arrived at camp.  As the task constraints described, we decided to arrive at camp and spend 2 nights, before picking up camp and moving to another location for one final night.  Everything was natural with beautiful green trees, creeks, lakes and birds surrounding us for the whole trip.

–       Did your plan comply with the practical outcome?

From our days of planning prior to the trip, we soon realized that many of us had different opinions on the length of the trip and the workload we should all have to put in.  We negotiated and found a midpoint where we all agreed that our trip should consist of:

• enjoyable hikes
• beautiful views
• 2 different camping spots
• fly-fishing lessons
• bush-craft
• different fire building methods
• natural shelter building

There were members of the group who wanted to make the hikes more physically demanding but for a course designed on education rather than fitness, we shortened the trip to give us time for these activities.  We were not sure we would learn as much if we just walked for hours with a lot of time spent with our heads down staring at our feet.

I feel we mastered a nice balance of hiking with educational activities.  We hiked approxiamately 5 kms to our designated camp spot of the total 12kms for the whole trip and immediately began setting up our shelters.  We had discussed in the planning that the first night should be an easy campsite with quick set-up shelters.  We had also hoped that as we were staying in that location for the entirety of the next day, we might be able to work on building some natural shelters.  On the second day, we all got a chance to engage in all of the activities we had hoped for, except the natural shelter building.  This seemed a very difficult goal to reach but as we had accomplished so much and learnt some invaluable skills we will cherish for the rest of our lives, I don’t think we could possible come away too disappointed with the fact we couldn’t construct a few stick huts.

 

 

 

 

–       How did your equipment work, what was missing, what was redundant?

For the trip, we agreed it was important that the group was able to take:

• Food
• Maps and compasses
• Trangia
• Gas
• Fire cooking equipment (pots, pans)
• 3x Groundsheets
• 2x Tarps
• 1x Lavvu
• 2x Fishing rods
• Ropes
• 2x Saws
• 2x Axes
• Personal equipment such as sleeping bags, medication, clothes,etc.

Of all of the equipment we brought, I would say that the trangias and gas were the only items we could consider as having been redundant.  I believe we either brought all of our meals pre-cooked from home or we cooked the meals on the fire.  Even when we had very strong feelings that we couldn’t catch any fish through the layer of ice ontop of the water, we still used the fishing rods to practice our fly-fishing technique.  I genuinely think we used every piece of equipment we took but I can really only speak for what I consider as the group equipment and my own personal equipment.

 

–       Nutrition, what did you eat, how did you function on this food, was it sufficient?

The food was perfect.  Not only did we eat like Kings and Queens for every main meal of the day but we also all took our own snacks to keep sustain our energy levels.  We also learnt a great deal of different things we can take on camps.  We certainly did not struggle with this menu at all:

Tuesday

• Lunch                        Spanish omelettes
• Dinner                        Lovebirds’ stew
• Desert                        Aussie’s Damper with nutella and strawberry jam

Wednesday

• Breakfast                   Swiss Fotzelschnitte (Like a bread porridge)
• Lunch                        Cocos Soupe (Soup)
• Dinner                        Lovebirds’ Chicken Tikka Masala
• Desert                        Smores (Biscuits, Chocolate & Marshmallows)

Thursday

• Breakfast                  Olly’s Baked beans and eggs
• Lunch                        Nick and Aussie’s Sandwiches with Ham, Cheese and Lettuce
• Dinner                        Spanish Enchiladas
• Desert                        Bananas with chocolate wrapped in Alfoil

Friday

• Breakfast                   Banana + Chocolate Porridge

 

–       What kind of shelter did you use, how did it function?

Arjen, Nick and Simke set up their tarp with a lean-to shape, but with half of the tarp acting as a flat roof.  I really liked how tight and tidy they managed to make their shelter.  Sara and Nayara slept in a lavvu and that left Manuel, Kev, Olly and myself to sleep under the second tarp that was tightened totally in a lean-to fashion.  I wanted to try and tighten up our tarp without looking at Arjen, Nick and Simke’s.  We threaded ropes through the loops on the top and sides of the tarp and tied them to trees.  This gave us a great chance to work on our knots.

–       How did you cope carrying all the necessary equipment, what would you do differently?

Coming from Australia where you can walk past some dry and spiky shrubs, it is important to keep as much as possible within your bag, otherwise you will soon find ripped up plastic bags hanging from all of the branches above the trail.  Due to this experience, I always do my best to pack my gear neatly into my bag.  As we were leaving Arjen’s place, there were some moments where we were not sure who was taking more weight than they needed to but Arjen brought out some handscales and weighed all of our bags.  I think my bag weighed 25-27kgs and that’s still less than I have carried in the past so I didn’t mind.  We made sure that the weight for each member of the group was fair and that no one would carry a weight that would cause them to struggle in any way.  We based it on their ability and their strength, rather on whether they were just a girl or boy.

I’d like to think that we could have saved weight somewhere by swapping over the glass jars for a substitue container, but I’m not sure we would have been as confident in trusting our dinner to stay fresh where we put it.  As I mentioned before, I don’t feel that any of our equipment was redundant besides the trangia and gas so they might be the only two objects we could have left behind in terms of saving weight.  However, if the weather changed suddenly or we were unable to build a fire for cooking, we could have been in a lot of trouble without the emergency cooking equipment.