25-04—-28-04 – 2016

Self organized trip around Brufjell (Flekkefjord) and Lindesness (Mandall)

This trip was last self organized trip. At first we were in the group 4 people who were planning to go on this trip, but latter there left only Me and Dominic.

So as usually before self organized trips we organized, prepared the plan and send it to ur professor Len to approve it. Our plan was for 3 days: first day visit Flekkefjord, hike around Brufjell and sleep somewhere there, second day visit Lindesness, hike around it and sleep there, third get to Spangereid and make little hike there until our buss to Kristiansand arrives. Also our plan was in every day at least done 10-15 km. with big backpacks.

My food supplies were pretty the same like always. Meat balls for first day breakfast, lunch, dinner- because I had to eat them in one day of warm weather. Second and third day breakfasts, lunch and dinner- tuna and tortilla, canned food (turkey). They aren’t  the most “luxurious” and very taste food ( that’s a big minus, because you not enjoying with it so much, and it don’t motivate you to prepare), but you can prepare it fast, it still has carbs, protein, fats and it’s cheap ( especially it is good when you running out of by Advertise” href=”#55217466″> money in Norway ).

Clothing for this trip: I picked just water and wind proof trousers, jacket, some underwear and woolen socks, thermo clothing and my sleeve in case for cold nights. Also, talking about equipment I brought with me knife, storm kitchen, compass, map, sleeping mat and bag, tarp and rope, lighter and torch.

On Monday Me and Dom took 2 busses to get to Flekkefjord. This city seemed really nice, and the view was beautiful, fjord and a lot’s of wooden houses down near the water. Later we took one more buss to get to the Brufjell. First thing what we done there, we checked the map where we can find streams or little rivers for drinking water and cooking food at night, because we came here with last buss that day ( it was strange because time was around (13.00-14.00), and there was no other way to get to the Flekkefjord buss station. When we find one later we were checking for the good spot for shelter. It was quite hard because sleep on the hills of fjord would be really far away from the point where buss comes in early morning, and there was almost no space near the road- lots of private yards and fields, steep hills, so we by Advertise” href=”#57473571″> find the place behind Ana Sira school, flat ground and enough space for 2 people. The view near the water from down was really nice, fjords-hills around, sea in front, wooden houses near the water, calm and cozy area.

 

 

 

 

Later Me and Dom start to hike on top of that fjord. While we were hiking on top it was strange and nice to see a lot of goats which were grazing all around that area. The view from top of the fjord was beautiful too, also the area around on top- lots of rocky hills, bushes, green stuff made awesome view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some hike on the top, we decided to check caves at this area, which formed because of ice age. Later, when the sun started to go down, we decided to get back at our campsite, build a shelter and eat some dinner. We made our shelter with one entrance and 3 walls around us, because we find out where wind going to blow at night and we blocked that way. We tie up ropes around the fences and put tarps on it. After that and some dinner we just went sleep because, sun was already gone and we had to wake up early in the morning to catch first buss. To sum up this day, it wasn’t hard and it was full of nice views while we were hiking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next morning we just collected all our stuff and without any breakfasts we caught the buss and get to the Flekkejford buss station, where we ate our morning food. Than we took 4 more busses to get to the Lindesness- the most southernmost part of Norway where our goal was hike around this area. When we arrived to Lindesness first thing what we did was, we hiked and checked the area near the lighthouse. The area was really nice, sea, nicely shaped forms of rocks, some wild flowers, grass, rocky hills made perfect “painting of nature”. After short hike we also checked the lighthouse and get inside of it. Later we just decided to follow one of the roads marked on the map. It wasn’t so hard to orientate in this area, because roads were marked with blue, yellow, green dots and marks. Later we just started to hike where we want- off-piste (top of the hills, lower down). The view of sea, rocky hills and finally after winter, green trees and plants was just nice.

 

 

 

 

After some time, when the Sun was on its way down, we noticed perfect spot for sleeping overnight, because at first it was hard to find- no flat area, most of the ground covered with hard bushes, or clumsy wet ground. We set up our shelter there, tie up rope around 2 trees, put my huge tarp on it. The shelter were with one entrance, stretched from the ground about 45 degrees, strengthened with some branches, and just folded sides.

Later we took our storm kitchens with us and hiked on bigger hill to set the fire and watch sunset. We both find some dry branches or dead bushes ( because there wasn’t a lot of big dry logs), and made a little campfire. Then I just lay down on soft bushes and started to enjoy with the calmness and piece of nature, in front with beautiful view of sea and sunset. After it was almost dark we get back to our shelter and went sleep.

Third morning, after rainy night (we were safe in our shelter and dry), Me and Dom got some breakfasts and we followed the route. On the road not so far away we noticed some reindeers. At first we thought it’s just deer’s, but it seemed bigger, and later we noticed excrement definitely bigger than normal deer’s, so we decided it was reindeers. Also for more fun we hiked trough some small woods, where we could just choose follow the route. After some time we just hiked all the way to Spangereid, from where we get to the Mandal. In Mandal we changed our plans a little bit, Dominic is interested and doing some geocatching (searching hidden things in the boxes with gps around the world), so he suggested to stay one more overnight and to do this activity. So in the end Dom and Me together found three boxes. Later in the evening we built our shelter at Kronheia, again with tarp and ropes, and after dinner we went to sleep. Next morning we just collected our things, had some breakfast and took our buss back home.

On this self organized trip I didn’t noticed any signs of social loafing, but that was because we were 2 people and we had to do and share with the work’s if we wanted to reach our goals (like a rule- in bigger groups of people, individual’s contribution to the group decreases). Also I really enjoyed with this trip, because I definitely improved my shelter building skills and also the hikes were all the time with beautiful views and environment, experienced real feeling of friluftsilv.