–          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.