Day One

The day started bright, sunny and promising. Unfortunately, we got off at the wrong bus stop.

Anyway, once back on track we headed to our starting point in Byglandsfjord and unloaded the canoes. We would be canoeing all day and then spending the night on an Island. We had to make sure all of our stuff was waterproof just in case we accidentally took a swim. In the morning we practiced basic skills, going forwards, backwards and turning the canoes.
One efficient way of turning a canoe is by putting in a stern rudder. The person at the stern of the boat places their paddle perpendicular to the boat behind them in the water. The person at the bow provides the power and continues paddling. This will turn the boat towards in the direction of the paddle at the stern. I was in a canoe in a girl called Janna and between us we had a basic knowledge of how a canoe worked and were quite happy with the skills being taught. Our instructor showed us how to perform a rescue and we broke for lunch. During our morning session, the sea gulls had come in and stolen some peoples lunch, it was hilarious!

After lunch we spent a few hours paddling to our sleeping spot on the Island. We made sure we stayed fairly close to the river bank and took it in turns leading the group. Once there we went for a freezing cold swim, people hung up their hammocks and we made a fire. It was a very pleasant warm evening and I decided to just bivvy on some rocks next to the fire.

Day Two

On the second day we started around half nine, the weather once again was perfect and we worked our way slowly down the river to Troll Activ where we would be spending our second night. Again we took it in turn to lead the group and learnt some techniques to tow other boats.
Once we had arrived at Troll Activ we go to go white water rafting and spent the night sleeping in Teepees.

Day Three

The day started with us cycling down to a climbing area to practice some rigging. The cycle ride was nice and easy and we even stopped for some cake and coffee along the way.
Rigging in the afternoon was really useful. We went over how to rig a top rope, how to rig an abseil, coaching a basic outdoor climbing session and also practiced several knots. Although this was information I generally knew there were still lots of useful bits to take from the session. For example I learnt a new knot called bunny ears which is used when you need to make two loops coming out of the rope. I also learnt how to set up an abseil rig for a group with a safety line. It was a very long day and we weren’t finished until around 8:00 at which point we made dinner, set up our hammocks and fell asleep.

Day Four

The only task of the day was to cycle home. We could set off whenever we wanted and could take as long as we wanted. We decided to start around 10 after a morning swim in the lake. We had been very fortunate with weather all week but we knew a storm was due to come in after lunchtime. The terrain was easy but we weren’t cycling particularly quickly. The thing about working in groups is you are only ever as quick as your slowest person and we had one girl at the back who was really struggling to keep up and really not enjoying herself. We didn’t mind waiting and were quite happy going along at a gentle pace but it was obvious she was not enjoying herself and getting more and more frustrated for slowing everyone down. In the end she decided to get the bus. It did mean we could push on faster but at the same time we would have liked her company. We stopped for lunch around an hour away from home and just as we were finishing up we felt the first of the rain come. The rain soon soon became torrential. After a very hot week constantly in the sun it was quite nice feeling the cooling raindrops and everyone continued cycling in good spirits. We couldn’t just go straight home though, we had to get lost a bit first. We ended up going up a massive hill and detouring for around two hours. It felt like a solid victory when we did eventually make it back to Kristiansand. What a fantastic week!!

What I learnt :

– The importance of sun cream. I managed to stay reasonably unburnt but several people looked very pink and painful. No one was expecting the sun to be that strong in Norway. It was a pleasant surprise but it was obvious it made people tired and dehydrated.

– Some more on group dynamics. When someone is struggling the team needs to sympathize and encourage them to keep going. This will lead to better group cohesion.

– When rigging always have at least one back up knot!