Spring comes, temperatures are rising and are double-digit during the whole week we had to do self-organized trips from Wednesday to Friday. On Wednesday the 16th some of the class met in front of Konsgard Alle and the first thing we did was celebrating Saedis because of her birthday. After that we headed towards Baneheia to hike there for a while. Like described above, the weather was really good and our mood was according to that very good as well. Moreover, Baneheia is a lovely place to hike due to its lakes and all the small trails and paths. The best thing about it is that the forest is next to the city, so you can go there by foot without problems. The walk from the student housing took us about 20 minutes. Our plan for the day was having a hike at Baneheia, find a nice spot to cook and walk back. Therefore, my backpack contained two camping pots, a lot of water for cooking and as well for weight reasons because of the coming mountain safety trip, noodles, tomato sauce and spices. After a while we found a nice and sunny spot near the lake and decided to have lunch there. First we collected a lot of dry wood and started a fire. Caitlin was very helpful and gave me a lot of advices how to prepare before and what kind of sticks/wood is perfect for starting a fire. Soon, we collected enough wood and started the fire – of course only fit a flint. Just some minutes later we had embers and I could start cooking. I love cooking outdoors, it is so relaxing because you can listen to nature, listening to the birds and in addition there is a nice view. My Spaghetti with tomato-carrot sauce tasted really good, so good that Adam wanted more after tasting it. So we had Spaghetti together. After Lunch we all were relaxing in the sun, some of us, including me, did a nap in the sun. In the afternoon the wind increased and it started to be colder, wherefore most of left to hike on. I wanted to stay a little bit longer at the spot but I left about an hour later as well. My aim was to discover Baneheia a little bit more and as consequence, I chose another way home. I found some nice viewpoints and arrived home a couple of hours later.
The next day I hiked to Odderøya in order to go geocaching there. Eleven boxes are hidden all over the island. I arrived at Odderøya and noticed that I forgot my GPS gadget at home what made me a little bit angry. I made a list with all the hints, uploaded all coordinates and checked if every box should still there and then this… Shit happens but I decided to hike and discover the island without GPS and caching. After walking uphill for a while I decided to turn left in front of a kindergarten and entering the woods. Suddenly I spotted two deer just a couple of ten meters away from me. I observed them for a while and they stayed calm but always had an eye on me. Soon, I left the forest and entered on of the bunker areas of the island. This one on the south-west was a perfect spot for lunch because on top of one of these bunkers I had a perfect overview of the harbour and the coastline. After lunch I started bouldering for a while at a crag right next to the bunker. Following to this a hiked to the lighthouse and from there rubbed around the big crag where I also found climbing signs to the south of the island. I would love to come back with my climbing gear to go climbing at Odderøya and maybe one of our outdoor climbing spots is there. The view in the south of the island was even more impressive than the one of the lunch spot. Next time I will probably make lunch there. Nevertheless, I continued my hike through the woods and batteries and I was surprised about the quantity of the batteries. It was quiet impressive to see all this thing but for me it was hard to do a time shift back in the early 1940s because these days all this things seem out of place. Everything is calm and except of these buildings there are no signs of war anymore. Hopefully, we can say these for a long time in the future! Instead of war and military it seems like artists and creativity took over here. Unluckily, I was not able to find a box without coordinates even though I tried to find one. I definitely have to come back and this time with my GPS gadget. After a long day I finally left Odderøya and enjoyed the sunset while walking along the beach towards my dorm.
One Friday I chose Jegersberg because of yesterday I wanted to go caching. This time I had my GPS gadget with me but no list containing all the hints of the hiding places. In retrospective this was a bad decision because I was able to find only half of the boxes I was looking for. The ski track was my main or orientation path and from time to time I entered the woods to look for some boxes. In the end I spent most of my time “off piste”, so left and right of the track. I had lunch near Holmenkollen with a beautiful view over Lake Stitjønn. On my back to the clearing I decided spontaneously to make a fire there because I found a lot of dried out grass and ferns. Moreover, I found a lot of sawed off branches which I also collected. I followed all the advices Caitlin gave me two days ago at Baneheia and voila I had a fire in a couple of minutes. I must have sit in front of the fire for one or two hours watching all these joggers and listening to the songs of the birds songs because the sun started to disappear behind the trees. Therefore, I decided to go home have a shower and preparing food for my girlfriend who arrives this evening at Kjevik. Her arrival was the perfect ending of three wonderful and relaxing days with nice hikes and a lot of sun.
