This was the final trip of the semester, and I was very excited to spend it kayaking. I had no hiking plans, and so I decided to join this weeks paddle group for the final tour. We met up the day before we left and discussed where we would like to go, and developed a solid plan for the next 2 and a half days, including an emergency plan B route if the conditions were anything like they were the week prior. We decided to stay more west rather than east such as the trip before, and to continue west the whole trip. We checked the wind and weather and found that the first day would be a small 3 m/s breeze and that we would be able to really go wherever we pleased without any issues, and then the second day we would have 7 m/s tailwind which would help us cruise through the island stretch on the second day, and on the third day we would have a 9 m/s tailwind which would help propel us into the channel into Selskjær to P6 where Len would pick us up on the third day.

We packed and loaded the kayaks at Paradisbukta again, as it is a nice bay to start at and is protected all around from the wind. From here we grouped up similar to the week before in pairs of two or three, with people who had maps paired with those who didn’t. From here on we took turns in pairs leading the group to each destination along the way. Bec and Charlotte started us out heading south-west of the bay towards Hellersøyane. It was a rather easy paddle in the open sea compared to the last time I had been in the waters here, and I could see Tjamsøya to my left along the way. Once we reached the two islands, we went through the channel and into a small bay in the southern part of Indre Hellersøya, and had a small snack and rest break here. There we jelly fish all throughout the bay and ocean, and we talked a bit about how the colorful ones can sting you and that it’ll feel like a burn, but the colorless ones without tentacles are harmless. After everyone had their fill of snacks and chatter, we regrouped and Sean and I led the next leg into the channel south of Store Kattholmen and north of Helgøya. We went north through the gap and west to Ny-Hellesund, and paddled south of Urholmen and North of Netholmen and followed the western coast of Ny-Hellesund south trying to find a nice shore to have lunch on, but to no avail as there were many cabins and no nice beaches to dock up on, so we decided to head straight south through the narrow channel between Ny-Hellsund and Renneholmen and took the channel of Olavsund into the bay and beached up on Kapelløya to make for camp. We paddled past the engravings of the kings on the north-western cliffs of Helgøya, which I was really excited to finally see after hearing Len talk about them two weeks prior and my last group not being able to make it to these islands due to the weather conditions.

We all got our kayaks up and unpacked lunch and relaxed on Kapelløya for awhile, and picked out the best spots for our tents. After deciding upon where we would set camp we gathered the tent components and got the teepee up and secured, and took turns getting our things together. We had set the tent up first without the tarp on the ground, and we learned after this to always place the tarp first and then secure the teepee pole on the middle, as it proved to be a difficult time trying to lift the center piece after already securing all pegs of the tent, and sliding the tarp inch by inch to be centered nicely. Once the tent was constructed and all of our sleeping equipment was set, some of the group went out to kayak more and the rest of us hiked around the island and gathered some fire wood as we had planned to do fishing later and wanted to use the grill conveniently placed on the island to cook our fish on. Jonas, Michael, Caro and I had gathered a nice supply of firewood and prepared them nicely to get a good fire going, and then Jonas and Caro went out into the kayaks to fish with the harps and Michael and I headed for a small hike to find the best place to cast off of the island. We made our way to the eastern side and could see Jonas and Caro outside of the channel, and found that the current was flowing right at us still so we continued west along the southern coast until we could see the current was moving primarily west so that we could cast into it and try and catch the stream of fish along it. We found a nice point that was straight out from the western current and began to fish here. It was rather shallow but it didn’t prove to be too shallow as we had no problem casting and reeling. Caro and Jonas had noticed us and began to paddle our way a bit to try and fish south of us where the water was deeper. Immediately Caro had caught a nice mackerel, and brought it to shore for Michael and I to take care of. Moments later Schmidti caught a pollock and then another, and Jonas had brought over another nice mackerel. We continued to fish for quite some time and on my last cast before leaving the little point, I pulled into the craziest fish I have ever seen. Schmidti and I thought it was a baby Swordfish or something, but later we learned from Thomas that it was a gar and apparently a rather nice sized one, but we released it as we thought it was merely a baby of a monster fish. One happy fish got away that day and snaked his way back into the weed. Thomas had said that it was not too common that somebody catches a gar, and even less common that they are caught on a rod as apparently they are usually netted when fishing for flounder because they are bottom feeders. The moment was pretty spectacular though and I’ll never forget the golden beam of the sun and the sensations around me that led up to the moment of the gar jumping on, as I was the only one up to that point who had caught no fish. I was very happy to say the least. Caro and Jonas made for shore and Michael and I tried for awhile longer on the western point next to the small island we were fishing on, and I managed to catch a smaller pollock, but still big enough to eat. We eventually called it a day and gathered our fish and began our walk back to the camp. The walk was much shorter on the way back as we were straight south of the camp and didn’t have to take another hike with our hands full, however we managed to find ourselves rather high up on some cliff sides and Caro had been walking over at the perfect time to help us get down without having many issues.

We got the fire rolling on the grill and let it go for quite some time to get the embers burning hot on the bottom and to give us room to drop the grill, and Michael and I went around the island to gather some herbs as we wanted to try and prepare at least one fish with herbs and some crushed almonds. Schmidti knew some knowledge of herbs and we took what we could find and thought would be good, and once the fire was rolling we placed all but the pollock I had caught onto the grill. We stuffed him full of herbs and crushed almonds and shut his belly back together with some sharpened wood needles, and placed him gently onto the grill as well. We shut the grill and smoked the fish for a bit, before finally calling it good and digging in. I had wanted to stick a fish on a stick and roast it over a fire as I had always heard of it but had never tried, but I think this proved to be much simpler and practically the same thing so I was very happy with how they all turned out. It was awesome being able to smoke them as well with the grill cover, the taste was phenomenal. We all finished the other fish before trying the prepared guy with herbs and almonds, and it was quite a nice touch having everything added to the fish and now in the future i’ll be sure to prepare all of the fish like this before throwing them on the grill. The little things can make all of the difference. After we had our fill and invited everyone else to try our fish, but only Sean did so, we cleaned off the grill as best we could and fed the leftover fish to the seagulls. Caro, Schmidti and I then went up and began to prepare our lentil curry dinner which was delightful, but I had began to start feeling more ill. I had a headache come down while fishing and a slight stomach ache along the way. I thought the food might help but it proved to be of no comfort, but I didn’t let it ruin my evening of the beautiful day.

I went on with Schmidti for a walk about after dinner and did some bouldering along the island, and started off with quite a high up climb that was at a questionable height, but Schmidti had done it earlier and he let me go first to spot me on my way up. The climb was very nice, but I had wished that I had my climbing shoes with me as my Adidas running shoes didn’t do very good on the way up and don’t have much traction, but I managed my way up. Once I reached the top there were very little hand holds available, and I think I sat at the top for merely two minutes searching for where to go from there and almost reached a panic before I had decided to go all for it and managed to grip what I could to get myself up a little further, and then found a very nice handhold to continue to pull myself up a bit to step up and finish the climb. It was nice having a difficult stretch at the end but also quite terrifying as I was a good twenty feet up (sorry mom.) Schmidti made his way up after me, and once he reached the top he had faced the same difficulties that I had, and was up there for about two minutes as well trying to find where to place his hands and where his feet would end up. I was thankfully there to offer him support if he needed it to be pulled up, and he offered it to me to run up the backside and pull me up but I had managed on my own and so did he after discovering a good grip after awhile as well. Once at the top, we found a bag of nut mix that had been destroyed and on the ground next to it was a firefighter and some dryer lent, which turned out to be Schmidti’s firelighting kit that had been taken by a seagull that apparently saw the nut-mix on the bag and thought it was food, only to discover it was nothing but a fire starting kit. Pretty wild. We continued our way west across the island and upwards where we saw the others go, as we all wanted to get up and see the sun start to set. We reached the others after doing some more bouldering along the way, and the sun was still no where near setting but the view was incredible from where we were. We looked to our west and saw an even higher point, and figured why not go there so we made our way over. We attempted to boulder a wall leading to the incline towards the peak, but it proved to be rather wet and lacked hardly any holds at all and called it quits and just walked around. We made our way to the top and sat there for a good fifteen minutes enjoying the view and watching the sun slowly set, and then Caro made her way to us and joined. We all had a couple chocolate Bixits and enjoyed the view together, and once we all started to get a little chilly we made our way back down and back to the other viewpoint. Schmidti had noticed a nice climbing wall along the way and we checked it out, but unfortunately had no climbing equipment to give it a go but it looked very nice to climb. We continued on and he tried to boulder a wall he had also noticed right before the viewpoint, but it proved to be no good and we trekked up to the viewpoint and chilled on the bench for a bit, and watched the sun slowly set. It was a beautiful end to the day and I was at complete peace aside from starting to feel a bit ill.

After the sun was down we made our way back to camp and got ready for bed, and I had the most miserable nights rest of my life. It was storming and I came down with a fever as soon as I got into my sleeping bag, which may have proved to be beneficial as everyone else was overheating and sweating, but I was still freezing no matter how warm my sleeping bag felt. I think I got maybe two-three hours of sleep this night and woke up in a major daze. I slowly packed my things and Caro and Schmidti prepared porridge, and we used the salvaged bananas that I had brought but had been slightly crushed and exploded a little on the journey to the island. We packed up the camp and loaded the boats and began on our way to Riveneset. We left out of the northern channel that we came in on south of Ny-Hellesund, and paddled our way across the open bay north of Skarpøya and Sådoya, south of Risøya, and north of Okse before making a southern loop down to Riveneset. The paddle proved to be very simple as we had a 7 m/s tailwind the whole way across, and we were able to test out the skeggs some more and see how big of a difference they make and drastically help keep the boat straight and in the right direction. We paddled all around Riveneset trying to find the best spot to beach up, and made it to a small beach but it was far from the camping area, and so we got into our boats again and paddled back to the camp grounds and came ashore along some rocks and pulled all of the boats up and out of the water. We sat down and had some lunch, I was feeling a bit better but had a headache all day and only ate one piece of polarbrød for lunch. After lunch we all scouted out some areas to place the tents, but we were very limited to one space and we managed to be able to fit both big tents and Rauridh and Thomas had set their tents up off to the side, but arguably in the best locations for the bigger tents. None the less we managed just fine and Thomas had helped us figure out the best spot to set up the teepee, and we made sure to put the tarp down first and centered before preparing the center pole and securing the surrounding of the teepee. Everyone unpacked, and afterwards I took a nice two hour nap while Sean, Bec, Charlotte, Scott, Rauridh, and Thomas went for a paddle about, and then Schmidti and Jonas tested their luck fishing and Caro also took a nap. I woke up and Caro had gone for a walk about, and I joined Rauridh and Thomas for awhile who were sitting under Rauridh’s tarp. We talked until Schmidti and Jonas came back, but unfortunately were empty handed. Sean was taking a nap on the rocks, and I think some others took a short nap in their tent as well. Almost everyone was back and those of us who had our beanies that Rauridh’s mom made went for a small hike up for a scenic photo of us all, and met an older Norwegian fellow who was rowing on by the bay in his 1967 rowboat that was his fathers. He had said that he was planning to row to Mandal in a few days and was warming up for the journey. We made our way back down to the camp after a short conversation with him and Caro came back after awhile, and we had decided to start making dinner after watching everyone else start to eat. My appetite came back thankfully and we prepared what was undoubtedly the best meal that I had had in the field all semester, and the others said the same. We boiled some water and mixed in tomato soup mix, added in the pasta and prepared the noodles, and then set those aside and stir friend some onions and garlic, and then mixed the two together and added in the baby tomatoes I brought, and also some red pesto and chili powder. It was the best tomato soup and noodles I have ever had, and was certainly in the best setting to have been enjoyed at and with highly enjoyable company. After dinner we all sat around and talked a bit, a lot about military but also politics which for some reason many conversations always found their way to which I’m not fond of, nor nearly educated enough to have a meaningful conversation about, but I sat that and tuned in for a bit learning about some foreign situations. After a bit though I decided to get up and brush my teeth and went for a small walk about all the while and made my way to the southern point of the small central area we were staying on, and enjoyed the nice view and peaceful waves before heading back and getting into my sleeping bag and having a nice long sleep. Everyone else went to bed at this time as well, as we knew we would face a storm in the morning and Thomas had said there was a tornado warning for the area for the first time in twenty years.

We woke up around nine and began to pack our things and got the final batch of porridge going, and could see the clouds above start to darken as they came flying by. Some small rain came and there was some lightening, but thankfully we were heavily wind protected at our camp and there were many trees all around us. We broke down the camp and loaded up the kayaks and made our way into the bay to wait for everyone to gather.  I had wished I was more active on this trip and felt better as I really enjoyed everyone who I had been with, but there was definitely a mix of emotions between two groups. Half of the lot wanted to paddle a lot more than the other half of us, and it was kind of a strange unneeded tension in the air that could simply be avoided by others doing what they want and not trying to force the group into doing what not everyone wants. Thankfully the day proved to be better than expected, and we did go for a longer paddle about than we had planned for. We went straight into the wind and crashing waves for a good half an hour, almost facing the same conditions that I had dealt with the week prior, but we did it to make the other group happy with a longer paddle rather than coasting our way into the channel and to shore. It turned out to be not too bad, but I know there were some who were not loving it and it was kind of unfair to make everyone go through the paddle for the enjoyment of few, but I was thankfully feeling a little better that morning and still made the most of the journey to my enjoyment. We paddled around the Island of Okse and gathered on the southern side to discuss the final leg into the channel towards the car park, and it was a very easy paddle as we could put the skeggs down and practically get drifted the whole way across, which was nice to have after the hard paddle straight into the eastern breeze on the northern end of the island. It was a calm end to the trip and sunny, and we made our way slowly to the parking lot where we saw Len. We pulled up and unloaded the kayaks, and strapped them up while Caro and Schmidti were shuttled by Len to go get their cars. We had all of the kayaks strapped and loaded and equipment ready by the time they all got back, and we were able to load up and hit the road home very quickly. We made our way back to the garage and everybody was expecting us to have to clean all of the kayaks, as my group last week had fixed all of the skeggs and Len had mentioned we’d have to do cleaning, but instead he gave us the rest of the week off and wished us all well. Despite being sick, I had a wonderful last go with everybody and the sea kayaks, and i’ll dearly miss the adventures that I’ve been fortunate enough to be apart of through this semester. It has been a hell of journey though, and i’ve made memories and friendships that will never fade out.