Monday

Today we started the trip at 1000, driving from Kristiansand to Kongshavn and taking a small motor boat to the island Østre Randøya. On the boat we had a little history lesson regarding the houses and buildings through the small channel, Skippergada until we landed on Østre Randøya where we unpacked and made our way to our respective cabins.

Our activities didn’t start till 1400, where we kayaked first, our group consisted of five Norwegians – Sondre, Anders, Hege, Karoline and Gøran and five internationals, Saedis, Paige, Mike, Max and myself, it was nice to have a trip with the Norwegian class as we hadn’t had a chance to see them since the Monday classes back in January/February. Kayaking went smoothly with no capsizes or navigation errors, but as this was a small trip, it was unlikely the above would happen.

On the night time we played card games until the island tour at 1900 where we had a tour explaining most of the WW2 and Cold War relics placed around the island, including the bunker that was the in the island itself!

Tuesday

The day started a 0930 with more kayaking, but with a focus on longer tours and navigation. We went to the lighthouse Grønningen, just over 3km away from our cabins, where we had an early lunch and luckily had a look through the lighthouse, which now was a rentable hotel with a party area, I could see why it would be so popular in the summer season.

The waters there and back from Grønningen were quite rough, but it gave us a sense of achievement each time we hit a small bay to look back and see how far we had come. Over all the kayak experience was exciting but also repetitive, as we had only just completed previous kayak sessions.

After lunch we had shallow water biology where we went to the other side of the island and either waded or walked in the shallow waters, collecting anything living we could see, from starfish to different types of algae. This was very exciting as I hadn’t done anything like this since primary school and learning about life cycles. We learned about the different sea algae, their characteristics, where they originated from or if they were edible or not.

As this was the first time we had anything with Norwegian students since February, we were still getting to know each other, making it seem like was the beginning of the semester all over again, but we could see by the second day that efforts were being made by both classes, and that it was east to get along with them.

Wednesday

Today was our turn on the island, surviving with nothing but a day sack worth of equipment. Before this we had to complete our morning activity, which was deep water biology, this included wearing multiple wet suits and accessories, and snorkelling in deep water searching for bigger sea creatures to look at. I wasn’t comfortable with this activity as I had never snorkelled before, and couldn’t work how to swim with flippers, but nevertheless I had a go.

After lunch we had to practice some rowing techniques as this is how we would get to the island for the night time, rowing is hard, and after learning the hard way with only have three in a boat, rather than four, me Sondre and Gøran were lacking in the speed department.

We set off to the island late afternoon, with our day sack and other equipment, and were happy with the wonderful weather to which we could relax with. Before setting foot on the island we set out fishing nets for the next day, this was difficult as the wind was heading off shore, and thus blowing us out towards Denmark. When we got to island, we could see how much vegetation there was, meaning both good and bad outcomes. After deciding on somewhere to stay and eat, we settled down to a relaxing evening with fishing, food preparation, sleeping and sunbathing. Our moral was high because we had the basic needs taken care of, warmth, shelter and food.

After catching my first fish, we decided to start the evening food meals and roasted all nine fishes in the fire with onions, potato and carrots. The food was absolutely superb and we all ate plenty that evening, with plenty to spare.

On the down side though, the night time became bitterly cold due to the clear night, after six layers on I was still cold after leaving the fire area, naturally. Thankfully it did not rain, so we had the luxury of dry weather, but as there was plenty of vegetation, I was bitten several times from mosquitoes, oddly with one of my lip. This annoyed me as I knew the bites would take weeks to heal completely. In total I must have gained three hours sleep overall, much to my annoyance, and I could tell it would be a long day.

Thursday

Coming home from the island, everyone was awake at 0600 because of the amazing sun rise, and we were back in our cabins by 0730. The survival night to conclude was a success, with everyone back safely and with no aliments, I enjoyed it immensely, and would say it was a huge highlight of the week, alas, the other groups would disagree, as they had rain and bad weather.

Like the other mornings we had an activity, this was more relaxed than previous days, and all we had to do was prepare the fish we had caught in the nets we brought back from the island.

We had a good haul, after much persuasion I gutted my first fish- a plaice. It was an experience to say the least, but most satisfying, the second half of the morning activity was creating a meal with the fish and ingredients we had been given, we went for some sort of Norwegian vs. British concoction of fish soup and fish and ships, it certainly brought back fond memories of seaside fish and chips.

After lunch we had our motor boats session, where we had a go at navigating and using a sea map to go round the local islands and steer the boat. It was something I had never done before so enjoyed it immensely, especially practicing knots for the exam the following week, but as we were all tired from the night before, the lull from the boat rocked us mostly us to nap for a few minutes.

Friday

Today, sadly, was the last day and the we only had one activity in the morning, in our case, more rowing. We weren’t exactly excited about more rowing, but nevertheless we continued and completed the session without a hiccup. The afternoon consisted of cleaning and packing up our equipment for the boat ride home.

Overall the whole week was a successful end to the semester, a trip I would never forget.