–          26-04-2015

“The sun is calling please come out and play

The sun is calling please come roll with me”

On a sunny day Miriam and me decided to make a trip on our longboard to the beach we can see from the bus to the airport of Kristiansand. The bike road looks nice from the car road and we are going to try it and see if we can reach the beach rolling on the longboards. Miriam looked up the road we have to take and the place where the beach is, is called Hamresanden. Most of the road is downhill and its around 12km. We start from my house and have a lot of fun rolling down the road. We have a beautiful view from the big bridge Varoddbrua over the Topdalsfjorden. We make it to the beach and the roads were nice and smooth for rolling. It’s a bit windy on the beach but the sun is still shining. We walk over the beach to the end and walk back again. We take the bus back to Kristiansand city. It’s sad that it’s raining a lot in Kristiansand because we had a lot of fun with our trip and I would like to do more longboard tours.

–          20-04-15/22-04-15

I go on a hike together with Kirby and two of her friends. We had the plan to walk to a certain point but we had to change plans because of constructions in the middle of Jegers. We walked around the area we were not allowed to go. We took a break at the lake and dropped our feet in the water. The weather was beautiful and some people were swimming in the lake. We continued our hike and searched for a nice place for our camp. Kirby and her friend put up a tent and I’m going to sleep in my hammock. I don’t put the tarp over it because it’s warm and it will stay good weather. I make a small fire to cook and the other are going out for an evening walk. We go to bed round eleven. I watch the stars and fall asleep.

We wake up round 9 in the morning and the sun is shining bright. We pack our gear and Kirby and her friend go home. I stay and take my time for a nice breakfast. I’m going to try walking around the area that  we are not allowed to go to and walk first to lake lomtjønn. I take a break and I see a beaver house. From this lake I walk to Kyrtjønn lake. I take a bath and dry up in the sun. I continue walking and try to reach the path up to den Omventebåt. It’s really nice to walk alone, I can take my own pace and can take a break whenever I want. I put my hammock up in the sun next to the small stream to den Omventebåt. I make a small fire and cook my dinner on it. I go to bed when it’s dark and have a good night under the stars.

I wake up very early and consider to walk to the top of the Omventebåt to see the sunrise, but I’m too warm and comfortable in the hammock and fall asleep again. I wake up from the sun and take my time for a good breakfast and packing my gear. I continue my walk and now I have to find a road that’s not on the map to go around the shut off area. I make it to the little lake but from here all the roads are closed. I see a runner coming through the woods and he comes from the direction I want to go to. I take his road through the bushes to walk around the closed area and after 20m I’m on the road again with the dangerous signs behind me. So I’m out of the danger zone and continue walking. I end up on the tracks I know and walk back home.

–   16-04-15

wood sorrel

We are doing a birdwatch with an overnight today. We drive all together with cars to the place where we are going to watch a special bird called black grouse. We park the cars and walk to the habitat of the bird. During the walk to the place Svein the teacher/guide shows us some plants we can eat like wood sorrel and something we called marzipan tree.

The other group befor us made a nice shelter so we only have to prepare our beds. We go out for an evening walk and Svein teaches us more about eating from the nature. Some try to eat ants and we learn that it’s better not to look for mushroom there is a big chance to confuse the good ones with the bad ones. Svein is a bird expert and can make a lot of bird sounds.

We have a beautiful day and the sky is so bright that we see a lot of stars. Some take out there mobile phones with an app that shows all the names of the stars and planets.

black grouse

We wake up early in the morning. I woke up of the sound of the bird, It makes a lot of noise. We try to see the bird but it’s still too dark to see it. And we sleep a bit more. We wake up round 5 in the morning but there is no bird anymore. We packed our bags and went back to the uni for our next lecture.

–          01-04-15 / 03-04-15

I go hitchhiking with Misha to Preikestolen. We looked at the weather forecast and decided to go when the weather looked nice.

Wednesday

We take the bus at 9:30 to Flakkefjord and will start lifting from there to Stavanger. It turned out the bus didn’t drive to Flakkefjord and that the bus driver transmitted  it but it was said in Norwegian  and we didn’t understood. The bus stopped and the bus driver walked to us he tells this is the last stop. The bus driver is very kind and want to bring us to Flakkefjord but he has to leave. The man speaks a little Dutch and we have a simple conversation. We have to wait one hour for the next bus and we can drop our backpacks in the information building at the bus station. We decide to go to the supermarket to buy a fresh lunch and ask for a cardboard to hitchhike. We walk back to the bus station and the bus has arrived. This time I ask the bus driver if he drives to Flakkefjord and het tells me we have to change after 15 min. We have a beautiful view over the fjord through the windows of the bus. We arrive in Flakkefjord and prepare for hitchhiking.

This is the first time for me to go hitchhiking and I have no idea what to do and what works the best. Misha has some experience and tells me that no one knows, just do what you think will work. We walk from the bus station to the road in front of a gas station and I stand next to the road with the cardboard and smile to the people in the cars. After 10minutes a car stops behind us and a man and women can bring us to Moi. The man doesn’t speak English but the women does. We have some conversations about where we go and where we are from. They drop us at the gas station in Moi and wish us good luck. We walk to the access of the station and before we are ready to continuea car behind us hoots. It’s a family, a man, woman and a child. The parents are driving to pick up their daughter and had space left in the car for us.  I think about my own childhood and I don’t think my parents would drive that far so I could play with a friend. The parent speak English and are very interested in what we are doing and where we go. The girl next to me is singing songs and there is a nice atmosphere. They drop us off at a gas station in Helleland. and we search for a good spot. After 15 minutes a car at the other side of the road stops and a man waves at us. We walk to him and he can bring us to Stavanger. The man is a truck driver and has some impressive stories. I think this is the most interesting person we’ve met today. He’s telling about his live and where he’s going. He drops us off at the harbour of Stavanger and continue his trip.

We search for information about the ferries and in 30minutes a ferry leaves to Jorpeland, what’s on the island where Preikestolen is. The ferry leaves at 16:10 and we sail to the island. We arrive at the island and have no idea where we exactly are. We only have a big map for car roads so that’s a bit useless. We know we have to go to the right so we start walking. The weather is really nice and we can walk in t- shirts. We cross a camping place and see a sign on the road that camping in the wild is not allowed after the sign. So we walk into the forest and search for a nice spot to set up our camp. It’s not perfect but we found a place. We put up the tarp and make a lean to. During the process it starts to hail and we decide to make it a tent shape. We gather some wood and Misha light the fire. We make our food in a canteen cup on the fire. We have potatoes with onions and garlic and it taste delicious. We drink a hot chocolate after dinner and go to bed.

Thursday

It’s still cold but we slept well. We  take our time to wake up and Misha starts with making a fire. We start walking to Preikestolen at midday. We continue walking over the road. The road is boring to walk on and its quite steep. We’re talking about taking a lift up to the start of the Preikestolen track. A car in front of us stops and the people ask if we want a lift to the pulpit rock. We jump in and are very surprised about this offer without us doing anything for a lift. The man and women who are driving to their cabin in this area drop us off at the track and wish us good luck. They gave us the advice to look back sometimes to enjoy the view over the lake.

The track is covered with snow and icy because of all the people that walked over it. The weather is still pretty and we enjoy our hike up to Preikestolen. We see a lot of people who are not well prepared to walk here. Some are wearing casual shoes and slip over the track. Some clouds arrive in the sky, we hope they pass by. Someone made a snowman next to the track even with a carrot as a nose.

We arrive at the pulpit rock and enjoy the view. We take a break there to eat something and we make some pictures. We stay there for a while and walk back again. The weather is still good.

We arrive at the DNT cabin and take a break before we try to get a lift back. We sit in the lounge room upstairs and have a nice view over the lake. It’s dinner time but we are not hungry yet. We ask for a piece of cardboard and try to get a lift back to Kristiansand from here.

We go to the parking place and hope for some people who leave from the track or the DNT hut. The first car that’s leaving the parking place can take us to Stavanger. In the car are two guys, one from Poland and the other from Norway. They also visited preikestolen today. The Guy from Poland tells us about food from his country. We take the ferry back and have to wait for it to arrive. I think It was 20:00 when we left the island. After driving in circles for the right direction they drop us off at a gas station. A man stops and tells us that he can pick us up after a few minutes if we are still there. Someone walks towards us and starts talking to us he’s interested and think we are hippies. Well maybe we are, I don’t know. When are you a hippie? The man who we met earlier picks us up and can take us to the next big gas station. He’s a truck driver or something similar and can get free hotdogs and he gives one to us. There is also a woman in the car but she doesn’t talk to us. I think she doesn’t speak English. We buy some food in the next gas station and ask for a bigger cardboard. The people who work there are from our age and we have a little chat with them. It’s late somewhere around midnight and there are only a few cars on the road.  A man stops at the gas station and he’s driving to Kristiansand. He Brings us to my house and we thank the man. We’re back round 2:00 in the night.

I had a lot of fun and a very good experience with hitchhiking.