…canoe surfing
Here we go, our first spring trip in the middle of April from 18th to 21st. We were divided into two groups again, so we were ten people including Len. We were supposed to do a canoeing, climbing and cycling in four days. First two days canoeing with overnighting at the island then half day cycling, half day climbing and finally full day bike trip in the end. I was looking forward to this trip very much.
Monday
I was working all weekend and Klatreskogen in Evje and the starting point of our trip was in Bygland which is nearby. So I took a bus from Syrtveit to Bygland carrying my canoeing stuff for two days (30l dry-bag and plastic bag with food). The weather forecast for Monday wasn’t good and it was unfortunately right. I entered the bus and found out that there are just guys from our group in there. When we got to the Bygland we unloaded boats from trailer, carried them on the lake and loaded them with our stuff. I was in charge of teaching some canoeing basics. The weather was terrible for learning because of strong wind. That means only practice I’ve done with other guys was some exercises on the shore and very basics of movement on the canoes on the water (turning, keeping direction). Considering it was very first experience with canoes for most of the guys, we were doing quite well. We were keeping speed average of 3 km per hour even though there was strong south wind (that means against us). It was all day partly sunny, partly heavy rain. We made it to the island where we slept at half past four. The forecast was rain for the night so everybody immediately started building shelters. I had a bivouac sac with me and I really wanted to try to sleep in it while raining so I was just helping building shelters of other guys. The night in the bivouac sac in rainy weather was much better than I expected and the only moisture inside was from condensation.
Tuesday
I woke up at 8. Our plan was to leave island at 9.30. I’ve cooked the breakfast, went into the lake (10 seconds in 8 °C water) and packed my stuff. After we had loaded our canoes and went on board we did some steering practice again. The wind that day was from north-west so our speed average was more than 5 km per hour. We were paddling quite constantly till the lunch break when the wind started to be very strong (approx. 15 m/s) and the waves became bigger. After judging the situation, considering pros and cons we ended our canoe touring approx. 4 km sooner. The van with trailer took us with boats to the TrollAktiv where we spend a night in nice cabins. We came there at 2pm and we had a lot of free time then. There is a new climbing tower in TrollAktiv so we were climbing there for about 2 hours, it was very nice. In the evening I had an idea to go to Evje and buy some stuff for having a barbecue. Because I had a car there which I left there at the weekend it was easy to do it. We had really nice time around the grill.
Wednesday
We packed our stuff for climbing and left it for the guys from TrollAktiv to carry it to the climbing crag we were supposed to go. We had just lunch and some extra clothes in day packs with us. We left campsite with bikes around 9.30 and went to Evje where we had a break at bakery. It was Martynas birthday so Len bought him an apple pie and Martynas was that kind and gave one piece to everybody. After this short brake we had continued to the climbing area. When we got there we had 25 km behind. We were practicing some top rope climbing at short walls than one top rope climbing belayed from the top on almost 40 metres high wall and finally one top rope climbing on 6+ walls where I struggled a lot but made it. Because of beautiful weather we slept again without the shelter. I and Max picked a spot which seemed perfect. It was flat rock like a double bad. It seemed perfect, in the morning I found out that I punctured my air mat what made me really sad. Fortunately there is life time warranty for Thermarest mats J.
Thursday
The plan was to cycle back to Kristiansand. It was approximately 60 km so we started quite early at half past eight. We left our climbing stuff in the forest covered by the tarp. The cycling path was following former railway what was really beautiful. Nature in southern Norway is surprisingly nice. We had some problems with rental bikes on the way and I had to repair strings at one bike several times using just multi-tool. That mean Michael had to leave us at Vennesla and get a bus to Kristiansand from there. Nevertheless we made it back quite fast. After we the return I went with Len back to Evje to transport back rental bikes and collect the climbing stuff. My prize was Café Latté from Len which was delicious. Thank you!