As the last big trip of this year’s semester, we spend five days on the island Østre Randøya about 15 minutes away from Kristiansand city. This coastel course took place on an beautiful recreational area, which was in former times a fort with lots of bunkers and observation posts. Unfortunately, it was the first time we had a longer trip together with the Norwegian Friluftsliv students. During this week, the lecturer Len, Svein, Kjetil and Ketil led us by the programme with many different activities on or around the island Randøya. We were divided into four mixed groups and had each day two different water activities in the morning and the afternoon. In the evening we used our freetime for fishing, exploring the island, cooking dinner together, playing Frisbee or card games or just exchange the experiences of the day’s activities. All of us were living in old military buildings and sleeping in shard bed rooms. One night we had also a tour around the island to visit some of the old bunkers from the WWII.

Following water activities took place at the Coastal Course:

• Motor boats

This activity was the most relaxed one. After some theortical information about different motor boats including the most important terms, we started on a tour around some islands in the local area. Seperated into three smaller groups, we were responsible to navigate the motor boat over a certain distance. Moreover we got some information about sea charts and time to figure out some knots with several ropes. During a break on the open water, the participants got the possiblitiy to fish out of the motorboat. Luckily, I fished two smaller fishes with a fishing line.

• Rowing boats

At the beginning of this activity, some Norwegians told us some history about rowing boats and why they were so important to the Norwegian culture. After that we got a very short instruction in rowing and started with some exercises like turning the boat 360° degrees or moving backwards. At the end of this activity, we made a tour with the rowing boats around some islands and partly on the open sea.

• (Sea) Kajaking

Instead of Sailing, which was one of the activities on the original plan (cancelled because of not preperad sailing boats) we had Sea Kajaking togehter with our lecturer Len. First he gave us instructions how to find the right size of your Kajak and how to adjust the sitting position. After some theoretical information about the Kajaks, we started with some exercises to get used to Kajaking. We learned different techniques how to turn, how to break and very important, how to keep the balance to not gonna capsize.We also learned, how to build a raft and rescue a capsized person. As we lerned it a few minutes before, it happens that Moritz capsized so that we tried our best to get him and the Kajak out of the water. It was a good practise for all of us and in the beginning we had some problems with the orientation. During the second part of Kajaking, we went out on a small tour to the open sea, but we stayed out there only a few minutes because the wind was too heavy and one of us had an uncomfortable feeling while Kajaking this day. That’s why we decided to take the safety way and as the last activity of the week, we were supposed to get all of the Kajaks out of the water onto the trailer.

•  Shallow water biology

Together with our biology teacher Svein we walked to a small bay to search for every kind of living or dead species in the water such as shells, starfishs, oysters, seeweeds, crabs, plants or even little fishes. Svein provided us with some kind of (not waterproofed) suits and equipment to catch the animals. We collected all the findings, tried to figure out what kind of species we found and we got the possibility to eat some snails.

• Deep water biology

On Tuesday morning we met Svein again to go snorkeling with wetsuits
in the deep water and having a look for species in the water again. This time, we all had to swim in the cold water for about 45 minutes. We found again some shells, starfishs, plants and a lot of seeweed. Moreover some of us saw some bigger fishes swimming in the deep water, but they were unlucky in catching them. Afterwards we also assessed our findings and got some information from a Norwegian student about different types of seeweeds and other plants.

• Overnighting on island / Island survival

This activity was most challenging for all of our four groups. We were supposed to sleep one night only with your daypack on an island as a scenario that we capsized with our rwoing boats and had to survive on an deserted, lonesome island. Luckily, we could sleep on an island with a toilet, loads of trees and some good spots for sleeping and for a campfire. Due to the fact, that we had plenty of time, we were all fishing the whole afternoon to have a great meal in the evening together. Surprisingly, I caught my first two fishes in my life and the first one was even a big cod. Together with some potatoes and carrots, we cooked a fishing soup around the fire and furthermore we grilled all the other fishes we caught during the day over the fire. We kept the fire going until midnight, which kept us warm for a long time. Our slepping spot was on top of the island underneath some trees on grass. Fortunately, we had some tarps and bivouc sacks to have a more confortable night outdside. Nevertheless, it was quite cold that night and I woke up around 4, when it became brigtly outdoors. Personally, my night wasn’t that good, because I only slept on some life vests and I had nothing cover my body. On the next morning we started the fire again, to get warmer until we were allowed to row back at 7 a.m. to our main island.

• Fishing nets

Before we started fishing on our island survival day, we set out three fishings nets on the waterway, one per rowing boat. Moreover we learned from the Norwegian students some regulations about fishing nets e.g. that you can only set out two nets per boat. The morning after the lonesome night on the island, we had to take in the fishing net. But we caught only one persistent crap and one small fish. After the breakfast some of us were cleaning the fishing nets with our fingers while the others were preparing our catch. Togehter, we ate the fillets in the evening.

Reflection:

This coastal course was one of my best trips during this semester. It was a lot of fun to have all the activities with the Norwegians and we were lucky, that it was mostly sunny outside, although we got wet quite often due to the fact, that all the activites were held on water such as Kajaking or Rowing boats. We got a lot of possibilities to learn more about the coast and the sea. The survival night alone on the island togehter with the group was quite impressive, but it could have been more strictly regulated. Although the whole week was a good experience for my abilites of being out on the water and doing different activities.