Coastal Field Trip Southern Norway 22.05. – 24.05.

For our last self organised trip Bowen, Emma, Simon and me wanted to do something close to Kristiansand. We decided to go for climbing, fishing and hiking, one activity each day.

Therefore we went climbing at Sødal on Monday. The rock was still partly wet from the rain couple of days before, so we weren’t able to climb the whole crag. We chose to climb several routes, some according to our abilities very difficult ones where it could get frustrating while others were easy and didn’t mean that much of a challenge. I lead climbed the first time outdoors and it was a pleasant experience. It is sort of different to top roping and you definitely have to concentrate more and can’t rely on letting yourself hang in the rope, since sometimes you are just clipped on a carabiner below you and there’s a risk of falling. However, it was a lot of fun and we had some really nice weather. Everybody was enjoying and our social just as our task cohesion was high.

On the next day we drove to Mandal to fish. It’s a famous spot for fishing since the Mandal river is packed with lots of fishes like cods, mackerels or even salmons for example. And it was very successful, well sort of. We caught six fishes, five of them caught by Simon. Even on his first attempt he immediately caught a mackerel. We obviously became very happy and enthusiastic, but Bowen and me ended up catching not a single fish. Anyhow, we had some nice dinner thanks to Simon and anyway it was a lot of fun. For the night we tented in a local park and although it was raining while we were cooking we all were still in a good mood.

On Wednesday we decided to hike to Brufjell caves close to Flekkefjord. We invited some other friends from Erasmus which we met at the local parking lot. As they were not as experienced as us we were looking out for them during the hike. But they managed it quite well, since the hike was not too long but partly difficult. We again had nice weather and we were in no rush which made the hike really pleasant. Because it was the first time we took “foreigners” on a trip we were chatting and fooling around during the whole tour. In the evening we went to the beaches close to Frasund to have some dinner there. The place reminded me of my home a lot. It looked very similar even though it was at the other side of the North Sea.

We went home at the same night and just Emma stayed there since she wanted to spend another night out camping.