08-01-2016

It was my first week and the first Friday in Norway after I came her in Kristiansand (county capital of Vest-Agder county in Southern Norway) from my home country Lithuania. I was excited about upcoming our Outdoor Education course groups first trip to Jegersberg- a wonderful walking, hiking and skiing area with several possible routes and innumerable number of options for both residents and tourists ( like me) in Kristiansand, where ordinary Norwegian  families often applies traveling on weekends and uses probably 3-4 hours and more for the entire trip.

When I wake up early in the morning I prepared my rucksack with needed equipment for that trip like knife, fire starter, compass, first aid kit, rope, prepared food- sandwiches, warm tea and properly clothing. Food like sandwiches is not the best option for the trips, because it is not so nutritious, warm or spicy, but for the 4-5 hour trip I thought  it will be  enough. Than after my breakfast I left my dorm and at 9.15 I met with others at Spicheren where our trip started.

For the first trip to Jegersberg was leading our Outdoor Education group professor Leonard Henry Atkinson. He is very experienced in outdoor activities, many years of practice like hiking, climbing, skiing in the mountains, rafting, canoeing and many more… Len even in the past served in the British army, so I think we can learn from Him a lot of practical things and other real life “stuf”.

That day -on Friday we (our group) was lucky, because it was not rainy. Our destination was to cross/ hike Len’s prepared route in Jegersberg. We left our meeting point at 9.15 with rucksacks on our backs and walked towards Jegersberg. All members who were participating in the trip got from Len A4 paper format maps with illustrated little part of Kristiansand city and Jegersberg. The maps was marked with red circles and numbers, which meant that we got task to keep eye on the map and time to time say at which point, circle we are. So in this way we were learning to use compass and read map, notice all given/ illustrated in it features like roads, lakes, rivers, pounds, power lines, hills and etc…

The first hike in Jegersberg was really nice and I enjoyed it, because I never had done something similar. Our trip lasted about 4-5hours, almost  all the time we were hiking in the deep snow, which made our trip harder, but that’s why I liked it even more. Around me always was trees, frozen lakes, small rivers, springs, hills, massive rocks and caves with huge icicles, which together create wonderful image of nature. After half of the way we decided to do lunch break. Our Professor show us some techniques how to set a fire with knife and light starter by rubbing it. Also, he taught us that which materials/ fuel is the best for it, for example dry birch is perfect material to start a fire and Len told us too, that if we want a bigger and better fire we need to do some air holes facing blowing wind direction in fireplace. Later, after lunch break, we decided to hike on the top of one hill. On the way to the top Len noticed footsteps of fox and taught us how to recognize it. When we reached top of the hill we were able to see from above Kristiansand city, and it was really beautiful sight of buildings, houses and sea. After stop at the top of the hill we were comeback on the route track and kept going further trough the snow. Len also on the way to the end of the trip showed us how we can make a shelter near few pines or firs covered with branches, or just try to find some cracks in the rocks and top of crack cover with some branches too if we someday will decide to sleep outside. At the very end of the first trip to Jegersberg Len wanted to make shortcut and offered us to try to end the route by ourselves. I was in with some more “guys” of my group, because I wanted to finish the primary way, and of course try to use, read the map totally on my own. So without any doubt together we successfully finish the route and get back home .

I’m really very happy about this first trip to Jegersberg. I got some new practical experience how to act/ deal in the wild nature, I got more experience in using compass and reading maps. Also, I spent great time in the nature, saw really beautiful views. More than this I got opportunity to test my clothing if it’s good and proper for other trips, and of course after this we ( members of our group) know each other better.