–          18-05-15 / 22-05-15

Monday

Wake up early for a shower and wait for the Norwegian students to pick me up with a car. We drive to Spicheren to drop some of the bags in another car and drive with three cars to Kongshavn. We wait there for the boat to pick us up. It’s a small boat and it has to go to times to bring everyone to the island. The boys and girls are split up and have their own houses. We sleep in the old barracks of the war. Len informed the man of the sailing boats too late and now they are not ready for use so we will not sail this week but go sea kayaking instead. We are divided in mixed groups with the Norwegian student and I’m in the group with Jørgen, John aslak, Mats, Nicolay, Stian, Adele, Kirby, Sven and Osvaldas. The weather is very nice today, the sun is shining and there is almost no wind. We put our stuff in the rooms and have lunch. One of the Norwegian girls brought a slackline and we play with it for a while. We gather all together at the big kitchen with kantine and get introduced to the teachers Kjetil, Ketil, Svein and Len. We start with Ketil and he teaches us about using fishing nets and overnight on an island. Jørgen has to give us a short lesson and Kjetil explains the rest. We take the nets in the rowing boats and drop the nets in the water. During the rowing I’m fishing and catch 6 fish in a row. We row to the island where we stay tonight. We attach the boats to the rocks and explore the island for a nice place to stay tonight. We split up the tasks and I go prepare the fish we caught.  It starts raining and it will rain for the whole night. We light a fire and prepare some food. We go to bed very early. We sleep on the lifejackets and branches from the pine tree. We lay very close to each other to stay warm.

Tuesday

I wake up from the others who are already awake and are walking around.  I slept pretty good. We pack our stuff, clean the place we slept and go back to the boats. The water level raised and the waves are bigger. It’s a challenge to get away without smashing into the rocks. We have to pick up the fishing nets. Our net is stuck behind something and I can’t get it up. We go back to Randøya and will pick the net up later. We arrive at 7 in the morning and everyone is still sleeping. I make myself some hot chocolate and a good breakfast. We gather at 9:30 to clean the nets and learn how to make fillet from the fish. Two of our group start with preparing a lunch from the fish we caught, two go with Ketil in the boat to get the last net and all the others clean the nets. There is a lot of sticky seaweed in the nets and it’s a boring job to get it out.  We stop at 12:00 and have lunch. They made a really nice fish soup. We have a little nap after the lunch and gather for the next activity at 14:00. We go on the motorboat and learn to read sea maps.  We’re back at 16:30 and make evening dinner. We have an evening walk with one of the teachers and he tells about the history of this island. We go in the bunker, were they still have some radio equipment from the war.

Wednesday

We start our day with rowboats. Johnaslak teach us how to row and we do a little game to get into the rowing. I’m in the boat with Mads, Nicolay and Stian. I don’t get the rowing at all in the beginning and we’re going to every direction except the right one. It’s really hard and the boys give me instructions how to do it right. I get the hang of it after the game and we have a lot of fun. The weather is really good and we sit in t-shirts on the boat. We change positions after a while and we make a trip in the area. We are back at 12 and make lunch. Our next activity is sea kayaking with Len.  Sven gives us a short introduction on how to use the peddle and how to go forward\backwards. We practice some techniques and do a game where we have to make a raft and jump over it to switch places. We do a race who’s fastest and once we have to stand up in two rafts. We have a lot of fun and the weather is still very nice.  We’re back at four and I go with some people to the other side of the island for fishing.  We have dinner together with our class and florin is cooking for us.

Thursday

We start with sea kayaking and do a big trip around the islands. After we have swallow water biology. Mads prepared a lecture for us about all the sea creatures in swallow water. We put on a fisherman’s suit (don’t know the name) and we walk in the water looking for some animals and plants we have to find. We can use nets and a kind of binocular to look under water and we collect some creatures we see. At the end we check what we‘ve collected and try to find the names for every item. It’s hard to find the right names for every plant because they look similar above the water. Svein cooked some of the sea snails and we try to eat them. And to be honest they look disquieting but taste oke. We go back have dinner and play some games in the cantina in the evening.

Friday

Our last activity is deep water biology and we go snorkeling. Nicolay is giving us some information about the equipment and divides us in groups to look for certain animals and plants. I’m together with Johnaslak and it’s really relaxing to hang in the water and look at the sea bottom. We notice that its warmer at one side of the area and we stay here longer than at the other side. We collect sea stars, snails, jellyfish, and seaweeds. It’s cold and we go back after one hour. We take a look at all the things everyone collected, and try to find the names. We go back to the barracks, pack our stuff and clean.

–          05-05-15/08-05-15

We stay at Helleviga for a week to teach some outdoor skills to the last years students of a school. We made a program for them what covers an evening and morning of outdoor activities with one overnight in gapehuts.  The students are coming in three groups and every day a group leaves at 12 and a group arrives at 6 in the evening. We’re also staying in gapehuts 30min walking  away from the school camp. The activities included: abseiling, canoeing, orienteering, fire, stretchers, management games and shelters.

We started with heavy rain, but as soon as the firs group arrived the weather got better. The groups were very cooperating and everyone was involved. It were really nice groups to work with.

We had three birthday’s this week and we celebrated them  at the campfire in the evening. Florin played a birthday song on the harmonica and we were all singing. One of the school groups showed us the traditional Norwegian way of singing the birthday song  with a dance.

The camp was a great success, the students were happy, the teachers were happy and we were happy. They decided to do a camp like this next year.

–          27-04-15/30-04-145

Monday

We travel by bus to the Byglandsfjord. On our way we see some ice floating on the fjord. Len is already at the location with the canoes and lifejackets. Sven and Luke give us a quick basic lessen about the canoes. We have a lunch break after and enjoy the last sunshine of today. The weather forecast predicted a lot of rain for this week. We drop all our gear in the canoes and peddle to the first island we cross. We go from island to island and take a short break to stretch our legs on every island.  After a few ours the weather gets worse and the wind and rain is blowing through the fjord. It makes paddling hard and some are really struggling to cross the water. It even starts snowing and it makes my hands very cold. We decide not to go to the island were we are supposed to camp but on the shore of the fjord on a sheltered beach. It’s still snowing so everyone starts with preparing their sleeping place and create a dry spot. Some are sleeping on the beach and some are sleeping in the woods. I sleep in the woods nice and comfortable in my hammock. The weather gets better and we have sunshine in the evening. We cook and explorer the place. The people who sleep on the beach create a house of the trash and make a campfire.

Tuesday

It starts as a beautiful day, there is no wind and the sun shows up behind the mountains. We continue our trip through the fjord . After a few ours the river got a more rough stream and Len wants to practice going in and out of the eddy’s. I did this with small river kayaks, but I don’t like doing this with the big boorish canoe. I’m glad that I’m in the canoe with Luke, he has control over the canoe and teach me what to do. I don’t get any of the instructions of Len, he’s only shouting that we do everything wrong and that’s not really working for me. After the practise we arrive at the big dam near Troll active and we go on shore. Troll active provides a rafting lesson, but I choose not to do it. We stay in two little cabins and cook in a big common kitchen in a tent. There’s not much to do and we go to bed after dinner.

Wednesday

We start cycling today. Troll active rents bikes to those who didn’t bring their own bike. Half of us brought their own and so did I. The rent for the bike is more than I paid for my own bike. We cycle to the climbing crag near the road. We drive through Evje and take a break at the bakery. They sell their bread of yesterday for 20kr and almost all internationals buy one of these. I bought a really nice bread with almond and vanilla cream inside. We continue our tour after one hour. We are almost at the climbing spot and it starts to rain. That’s sad, now the rocks are wet. We arrive at the place and start with preparing our sleeping places.  The rain stops and Len is showing us around in the area and tells something about taking groups to a climbing spot. He shows us how to hang out ropes and we start climbing. We do some abseiling and after it starts raining again and we stop climbing. We make our dinner and go to bed. It’s a rainy and windy night but we all stayed dry.

Thursday

We break up our camp and drop the gear near the road, and our teacher will pick it up later and bring it back to Kristiansand. We cycle back to Kristiansand and it will be around 60 Km. We take some breaks on our way and it’s raining sometimes. We take a break at a café in the last village we cross before we’re back in Kristiansand.