On wednesday afternoon we headed to Jegersberg for our first overnight trip in a tent. The trip took place at the big area in Jegersberg where the cross-country tracks start. It is a slightly hilly area with enough space for a lot of tents, placed near a lake to get some water for cooking. We arrived there at 2 pm and because of the bad weather forecast we started to build up our tents before it would start to rain heavily. Camping in Jegersberg is allowed for everyone – like everywhere else in norwegian nature. This right is stated in the „outdoor recreation act“, a law from 1957 that ensures the right of the public to acess the wilderness. The purpose of the act is „to protect the natural basis for outdoor recreation and to safeguard the public right of access to and passage through the countryside and the right to spend time there, etc, so that opportunities for outdoor recreation as a leisure activity that is healthy, environmentally sound and gives a sense of well-being are maintained and promoted“ (Falkanger, 2000). From 3 pm on, there was just rain for the rest of the day and also the night, what made it impossible for us to make a campfire. Thus, after the group dynamic games, in which every country had to present a typical domestic game, we started our cooking competition on the storm kitchens.

Martin, Jonas and I used Martin’s petrol cooker what made it way easier to boil the water for our couscous. The results were very interesting and gave me some hints/input about the possibilities you have when cooking on a storm kitchen. While tasting the meals of the other groups we talked about what is important when you prepare dinner at a longer outdoor trip. Most meals had good nutritions with enough carbohydrate, proteins, fat and even liquid inside to give you enough energy for the night. If you just have one single storm cooker per group, you have to plan carefully in what order you should cook the different ingredients, the starter and the dessert. We made it easy for us since we could cook our couscous with vergetables all together in one pot.

After my lunch, I went straight into the tent to warm up in my sleeping bag and I fell asleep at 8. It was pretty comfortable and warm, but got colder in the morning because the sleeping bag got wet from the condensation water in the tent. Next time I should care more about ventilation…All told, it was a good experience to see how camping works under such extreme conditions. And that even if it was very hard and wet to stay outside for the group dynamic games and the cooking competition, and to sleep in a tent that got pretty wet over the night. I have learned once more that waterproof equipment is a must have when you stay outdoors in such conditions for more than some hours and that I definitely have to impregnate my gore-tex hiking boots. In the morning, I recognized that it is also really important to open all vents and even the door of the inner tent to prevent condensation.

Despite the bad conditions and that everything was wet in the morning, I had so much fun and learned much about cooking meals on a storm kitchen. Furthermore now I know how to prevent my sleeping mat from getting wet from the ground by just putting a emergency blanket under it.

 

Falkanger, Thor (2000). Tingsrett (in Norwegian) (5 ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. p. 428.