Competition time, first Monday trip organized by international students from Konsgard Allé.

Activities:

To start off we played viking games as introduced by Sædis at the overnight stay at Jegersberg. They are a great way to warm up and a lot of fun to play with friends. To check the different variations, check my blog entry on the overnight stay in Jegersberg.

When everybody was wide awake and the sun began to peek through between the treetops, the group was split in two teams and got involved in a wood throwing battle. The goal was to throw a piece of wood as far as possible into the opponents’ side of the field. The other team hadThe idea of having an easy game to begin with seemed good. Nevertheless, as only one person of the whole group was active at a time, this was quite counterproductive to the previous warm up efforts and after a few rounds everybody was cold again.

Luckily the next challenge solved that problem in no time. While the other team started heading into the forest on the prepared circuit around the picturesque Stitjonn lake, we raced the short loop by the camping area. The game is called fragile parcel delivery and the way it works is that one member of the team is declared to be a fragile parcel and must not touch the floor at any time. Everybody has to help carry the person exactly once. After the 700 m circuit our time was taken and we chased after the other group.

Next up was a spider net challenge, put up by Chris. After we had agreed uoon a strategy, all members of the team had to get to the other side of the spider net without touching it. Unfortunately the spider net was very close-meshed therefore everybody had to crouch underneath the net which was probably not the idea behing of the game. Apart from that it was beautifully prepared and was a lot of fun to complete and cheer the other team members on.

Martin was in charge of the next challenge in which we had to boulder up a small rock wall. Helping each other on the way was allowed but the area to go up in was restricted. More experienced climbers went up first and helped to pull up the other team members to speed up the process and get a fast time.

After a beautiful walk through the forest and alongside the half-frozen lake we spottet Jill next to the path who explained the next challenge to us. “Flip the tarp you’re standing on without using your hands or stepping off” We completed the task in a reasonable time using teeth and a strategy that we had developed the time we attempted this challenge as Paige and Adrian’s game for the overnight stay at Jegersberg.

When we encountered Sædis and Micha on our way back, they gave us our last challenge for the day. We had to cross a crocodile river on pieces of wood without stepping into the water. The crocodiles could also take away unattended pieces of wood from us. Unfortunately at this point the predominant goal was to get back to the campfire and lunch. As a result our attempts failed terribly and team cohesion was exceptionally low. Nobody really focussed on the task at hand we didn’t stick to the strategy. In the end the challenge was more or less cancelled as individuals gave up.

We finished the day with a nice lunch back at the cleared area in the sun. The winning team received a bar of chocolate for their efforts.

Testing of equipment:

My shoes for outdoor sports of five years are still holding up quite well, yet the sole is coming off and holes have evolved all around. If I really cared I might think about buying a new pair. For now glue and duct tape treatment should suffice.

Lessons:

–

Group Dynamics:

Motivation was low in the beginning and very high levels of motivation were reached after the first challenge. The motivation was moderate at the last challenge after the long, so close to the picnic area. After a first failed attempt, the motivation had reached rock bottom. All of which goes very well with the general theory of a motivation curve over time.