15.2.16

Lessons of the day

There actually is good weather in Norway. This is the group cohesion everybody speaks of. That’s no lesson, but I always write three sentences in this part.

Main part

After the Norwegian Friluftsliv students organized the first three daytrips it was finally our time to return the favour. It was team Kongsgard’s turn to start with the fun action supported by the best weather so far. Arriving at the usual area at Jegersberg, the whole group was split up into two equal teams that had to compete against each other in several activities located all over the 4km cross-country lap.

While at the first challenge (a variation of the British wood log throwing) we directly competed against our opponents, all the other tasks were played against the time and later on compared to the other group. We immediately started with a loss at the wood log challenge to give our enemies a head start and make the competition more dramatic. The two groups separated and headed into opposite directions. Michael and Saedis were waiting for us at the first challenge against the time. I don’t know how but somehow these guys managed it to interrupt the pathway with a big river which contained some dangerous crocodiles. I didn’t expect to see crocodiles up here, but hey, you never know what’s going to happen in Norway. Luckily we got some wood logs which helped us to get across the river safely and in a pretty good time thanks to our amazing teamwork. Although we didn’t really know half of our group, the task cohesion was tangible as we had to rely on each other to not lose a leg or two to the crocodiles. Happy about our success we continued our way, unfortunately one of the Norwegian girls had pain in her left foot (I assume that a crocodile nibbled on two or three of her toes) so we had to carry her.

Thanks to our gained experience at the overnight trip we also finished the second task (turning a tarp upside down while staying on it) pretty fast. Lines’ biting performance may looked kind of disturbing but was really effective as she turned almost half the tarp using her teeth. Only three more challenges were left, which again showed me how great our teamwork was on this day. A 4m high rock was climbed in seconds, because everyone helped the others to get up fast and safe. No teamwork but some motivation was needed for the next task, which was to cross a 3D spider net installed by Chris. Being to hectic, we had a few difficulties at the start. Notice: being fast may be good, but staying focused is the more important skill. We arrived back at the start were we had to carry one person around the 400m lap with all 12 group members participating. As we already had carried our injured team member for the last part of the way we just continued doing so.

In the end, a fire was started and we had lunch while enjoying the sun. Chapeau team Kongsgard, you did a great job!