Assignment 8 Mountain to Fjord trip

During this trip there were multiple elements to learn we learned bit of canoeing, rope work or climbing set up and cycling. This trip was mainly having a experience with all these elements. The plan was to go from …. Back to Kristiansand in 4 days. Within these days we canoe and cycle to all sleeping locations.

Day 1

We arrived at ….. in the morning by bus. The canoes were waiting there for us together with our instructor for the week named Evan. We sorted our kit out and we got a first talk about the canoes. How to sit in a canoe and how to hold a paddle. Once we did this we went on the water and practiced turning and paddling in general. After that we had a short break and Evan continued explaining about canoe rescue. He showed us how to get a canoe back on track again by lifting it over his canoe. This way the vacuum went away and it was possible to get it on the right canoe and flip it back. When he was done explaining our journey started towards the island. It would be a 4 hour canoe trip that day. We all got turns navigating a bit towards the island. Important things we had to check were: not getting to close to the center because if there are calamities we can be to far of shore. Pick a side were the wind is less dominant in its presence. At about 4 pm. We arrived at the island. We set up camp. I slept with Tom, Brad and Jed underneath a tarp. Sadly the whole afternoon and evening it was raining. So we could do a lot. We just waited until we could go to bed.

Day 2

The next day it was dry in the morning so we could easily pack our stuff. We were supposed to leave at 10:30 of the island but it was 11 until we left due bad communication of our leader and within the group. I didn’t turned out to be a big problem because we were quick enough canoeing. The goal was to canoe to the dam and then get a short lift to Trollaktiv in Evje were we would spend the night. We arrived at 2 pm. This day we got again turns in navigating. The navigating was really easy along the whole trip. Same as the canoeing in general. It was not hard to do. Once we arrived we got a small cabin where we could dry our equipment and rest for the next day. A couple of the group went rafting but I didn’t join since I don’t really like it.

Day 3

This morning I picked up my bike at 9 am. As soon as everyone sorted there stuff out we had to cycle towards the crack we would use for the rest of the day to do some climbing and rope techniques. The place was near ….. the way to the crack went without any problems with navigating or equipment. When we arrived we got 40 minutes to eat lunch and set up our beds. Tom brad and I putted a tarp up alongside the cliff so we would have a nice view when we would wake up. Once everyone was ready Evan and Tim explained us how to set up a low rope climbing situation. This was something I already knew so I didn’t have any problems remembering this. The main goal of this situation is to get a climbing set up where the participants belay from the bottom of the crack. This way you can help your participants with belaying and you can see the climbers all the time. Tim and Evan also showed multiple ways to lower someone down or how to belay someone from the top of the crack. This was also something I already knew. They made an abseil for participants and showed how to lower and belay someone with a Grigri 2 and an Italian hitch. After this got explained we climbed a bit and tried to set up the ropes etc. When we were done with the activities Tim and Evan left and we stayed the night.

Day 4

This day we packed early in the morning because Len would pick our rucksacks at 9 am. So we prepared out day packs and dropped our big rucksacks. After that we continued our journey after halve an hour we notices that Zsofi her bike was not working that well so we had to a bit slower. That was not a big problem for the group since everyone was relaxed and was not in a hurry. We had no problems navigating the whole way back. This was mainly because we had a lot of competent navigators in our group. The route itself was also easy, but I also noticed that I’m not in the best cycling shape. This I noticed at the end. We had a short stop at a waterfall to fill up our water bottles and grab a quick bite. We continued our journey and 20 km before Kristiansand zsofi’s tire popped. She sadly had to go with the bus home. When that happened the rest of the journey was chilled but I got pretty tired at the end but that didn’t cause delay for the group. At about 3 pm we arrived at Roligheden and waited for len to drop our kit of and retrieve the hired bikes.

During this trip I didn’t learn a lot about the climbing bit. I did learn some about canoeing since I had less experience in that. After al I had an amazing time with my classmates and enjoyed the concept of going from canoeing to cycling home.