Unfortunately, this trip had to be cut short from an overnight trip to a day trip due to a clash of dates with exams. I was part of the first group and we met at 9:30 a.m. near Dovenvann where we had been the previous week. We unloaded the kayaks off the trailer and after a short talk about what was needed on a kayak day trip and where approximately we would be going, we put our spray decks on and got into the water. As it was only my second time in a kayak in Norway, I did not feel completely comfortable at first, however I soon got into the rhythm of things and my confidence quickly grew. At first the water seemed very calm with next to no wind at all. However as we kayaked for 5 minutes and got out of the bay, the water changed from still and calm to a few waves, this meant that it was important for me to remember to keep my feet on the pedals and have my legs on the sides of the kayak to help keep my balance. We took turns leading legs which were kept relatively short in distances in case someone went too far off track. As we travelled down the route on which we had agreed, we were given tips like, don’t go side along to the waves if it’s possible as this increases the chances of a capsize occurring. For the first half of the trip we were going against the wind so it made it a little harder, however the wind was not too strong, maybe 4 to 5 meters per second, so it wasn’t too bad. As we travelled along the coast, we were shown points that were selected on the map to help us get a visual representative of what corresponded on the map so we had more chance of remembering. There was a small beach on the south west of the map that we stopped at for a 40 minute lunch break. During which we decided to go explore the island after we had eaten which involved doing some bouldering, although due to the fact I had hiking boots on and they were very big, meant I ended up falling a couple of times.

After lunch we got back in the kayaks, the time taken to head back to the start point where the cars were seemed considerably less as we fortunately had the wind behind us so this meant that we could enjoy the kayaking more as it involved slightly less work and energy. Around 400 meters from the coastline, Len joked that we would all now begin practising saving someone who had capsized, however I was up for the challenge, so I volunteering myself to capsize so the others could practise saving. After a pep talk, I began paddling back to the shore, then around 200 meters out I did it. The water was not as cold as I was expecting as I went under I quickly tapped the bottom of the kayak to signal to the others that I had capsized so they could save me, although I remembered to grab my paddle I forgot to get to the end of my kayak which is something that I will not forget in future instances if it ever happens. After being saved twice we paddled back to the start point and called it a day and got dry and headed home!