Self organised trip 3/6/15 – 6/6/15

This week was our final self organised trip, my plan was to hike up to Trolltunga but due to the weather conditions up there it was impossible. Others who went earlier this week told us there was 2 metres of snow and a white-out one day, for us it didn’t seem safe to do.

We changed our plan to a few days camping in Banaheia and then we would go to Flekkeroya the island. In the group was me, and 2 others who are not from the Outdoor Education programme, Nadine and Janina.

Day 1:

We arrived in Banaheia mid afternoon and the weather was really good. We planned to camp by the lake Stampe, approximatetley 4-5km. Once we arrived at the lake there were a lot of footpaths around so we took a bit of time to find somewhere further in the forrest where there weren’t so many footpaths around. We eventually found a good flat area in-between a lot of trees. This was a really good place as there was a lot of wind tonight so we would be a bit sheltered. Once we had set up the tent we started to collect fire wood and some stones so that we could have a small fire while we had dinner. Once we got around to having dinner we didn’t feel so cold, we lit the fire for a really short amount of time then decided we didn’t need to bother. After dinner we played some cards and went to bed. Tonight i slept really well, we didn’t have to wear so much on this night because it wasn’t cold at all.

Day 2:

The next morning we woke quite early because the sun was up early, we had breakfast but we did’t bother cooking anything hot to eat. We decided we should leave the tent in the same area as it was such a good wind sheltered place. Today we did some hiking around Banaheia, and spent a lot of time around the lake Banetjonn as the weather was so beautiful today. Here we had lunch and took another steady walk around the area..we found a park too.. In the evening we cooked dinner and the weather was still nice so we were able to sit outside talking until in was late. Once it finally started to get dark we header to the tent and went to sleep. In the night there was quite a bad storm, luckily we had put the tent up well so we avoided getting wet or being in the wind too much but we didn’t get much sleep as it was so loud.

Day 3:

This morning we packed up the tent and went back home for a few hours to have lunch and drop off some things ready for this evening. Late this afternoon we took the bus to Flekkeroya, this took around 50 minutes as it goes quite a long way around to get there. When we arrived we were in the city. We walked a few kilometres to Steinviga at the coast, here we found a nice place to set up camp. It was quite windy on this night but again it wasn’t cold so we had a really nice night. We had a bbq in the evening where we made sausages and stick bread, it was a great way to spend our last evening camping!

In the morning we slept quite a while, once we got up and packed it was around 12pm. We headed back to Nadine’s place which is also on the Island where we spent the rest of the day and night together before heading back home tomorrow.

Learning Outcomes: This has been such a nice way to spend my last self-organsied trip, although we did and moved around a lot it was quite relaxed and we had no rush to be anywhere in at a certain time. I enjoyed being with the two of these people as they are very similar to me and quite laid back so we had a great time together. The weather has been perfect this weekend and where it was cold in the nights we were prepared as to have a good nights sleep. This semester i have learnt so much about overnighting, packing and planning for these trips. Before i came to Norway i had never slept outside and i can now look at my final trip and see how much i have changed and learnt in this 5 months. I am now prepared for anything and really enjoy seeing and being in the nature with just basic things and the company of others.