The last official trip together, 5 days on the island in old millitary barracks.
Area: East Randoya
Distance: every day some other distance
Task: kajaking, hiking, biology, fisching, rowing, net setting, survival on a lonly island for one night,…
Equipment: like every trip, additional kajaks, life wests, row boats, wet suits, nets, etc
We were splittet up into groups of 10-12 people, locals and international students. In this groups we did all the activitys together. It was really nice cause in the normal course program we did’t spent that much time together with the norvegian students. After this great time it’s a bit sad. It woud be nicer to have a few more trips with the norvegian students. So we would have a better chance to learn more about their culture and way to live. It was very interesting to see that we were able to work together very well. I really like to work with people that know what they need to do in different cases. By example our survival night…It was the second night and our group was quite fresh together, but we worked so well together.
Survival night:
Okay what does it means? Imagine, you are on a day trip with your row boat and you crash your boat on a rock that was hidden by water directly under the surface. Before you sink you are able to jump on an lonley island and you decide to stay the night there to wait for help. You are on that island with 9 friends and you only have daypacks and fishing equipment. That means, no sleeping bag, no sleeping mat, not much food, not much clothes and less fresh water. We had 1 pot and 4 fishing rods, also we had some vegetables and 3 Tarps. Normal stuff you can have on a boat for a daily fishing trip.
My bagpack: rope, knife, extra jumper and exrta pair of wool socks, extra pair of long underwear (in case of capsizing), sheep skin, 1l water, 2 energy bars (each 520kcal), 2 kvik lunch, medikit, drybag, a bit bread and some cheese, nuts, rainponcho (cause of weatherforecast said rain possible), 1 Orange, compass, firestarting set ( vaseline, tampon, magnesia, flint, matches, birch paper and a dry piece wood).
I know its much stuff, but this is my normal daypack. The good thing is, that it doesn’t matter if I am out for 1 ore three days, I just add food and sleeping stuff like bivi etc..
It was not that hard survival, but it was a minimalistic night and a special aim. I think i was one of a few guys that had a very warm night cause of the skin. The night itselfe was rough and with less sleep. We decided to sleep in an old gun emplacement of WW2. No roof, hard but clean and dry ground and shoulderhigh walls around us. Not perfect, but the best place for the whole group on that island.
Groupwork during the survivaltrip:
was really good. We arived on the bunker and split up the group in fishing and fire/camp groups. The weather was windy but sunny and so it was a really nice start. Everything was working good and we had time to lay in the sun and enjoy life. After a few hours the fishing team came back with 13 ore more fishes (torsk, sei and one lovely makrel) So everyone was in a good mood, the fire was going, the vegetables ready and the fish prepared for a nice soup. I tryed to make drinkwater out of saltwater, but with less succes. I also build up a hammock out of my rope. It was warking and much better than the hard concret ground.
For the makrel we build up an oven. Made out of stones. It tooks long time to heat it up, but in the end we had some lovely fatty makrel and a good fish soup with some seib, torsk and snails.
We had a nice time on the fire and were watching a beautiful sunset. Everyone was in a really good mood. It was a good group. For the night we used the tarps as a blanket and try to get some rest. In the middle of the night it starts to rain and a storm increases. So wee need to build a emergency shelter in the night. Noone was sleeping that much in the night, but at least it was dry and windsheltered. Next morning we heat up on the fire and collected our fishing nets. We had lots of flatfishes in the net..YESS! food. 😀
Biology:
We were snorkeling in a little bay and collect seeweed and plants. Also crabs, shrimps, oysters and snails. We learned what is good to eat and what not and some medical uses for it. We also talked about the fishes in south norway. Torsk, Sei, Makrel, flatfishes, steinbit and a poisen one (Fjesing).
Seakajak:
We did some really nice trips with the kajak and talked about the rules on sea etc.. Also about the signs on a seacard about lights on a boat and lighthouses. We also visited a nice an popular lighthouse (Gronningen). There lived two familys and one teacher together with more than 12 childrens. You may think..what the f…? but I ‘ve been on that tiny isand and I can say you, there is nothing. Just a lighthouse and a little concrete place. The rest is rock and water. So the only thing you can do on that island is….whatever 😀
Final words…
It was a really nice trip. I learned so many new things and the weather was okay, two days sunny one day a bit rain, thats okay 😀 I really enjoyed this last trip. It was a perfect end of the semester. Thank you to my group and the lectures. You made this semester awesome. I will never forget anything of this time. Thank you norway, you know I will come back someday 😀