Hello,

there are not a lot of trip left but one for sure. This one was amazing: Best weather, cycling, paddling and climbing was on the program. Well, honestly I was not looking forward too much for the last. But even climbing emphasized as fun and new experience in the end. But let me begin with the first day!

Canoeing

On Monday morning we started our trip on bus in direction Evje next to the Byglandsfjord and left it again after some stops behind Evje. There our lecturer has already waited for us with the canoes. After we offloaded our gear and carried the canoes to the water we learned some basic paddling methods to be able to navigate in different ways on the water. In groups of two we paddled down the Fjord in direction Evje afterwards and the group was led by one canoe until a intermediate point on the map was reached. The leader had to keep in mind not to stay away from the coast further than about 50 meters and maybe use the blowing wind intellegently in order to save energy. We also made regular breaks wherefore we paddled back to the near coast. On the map on the following picture you can see our starting point and on the second part of the map on the right side the island we slept on as well as about 10 km southern the finishing point of our canoe trip. All points are marked red on the picture.

Canoeing map - Start, overnight, finish

This time we slept only under our tarps and build therefore a shelter. Before our lecturer told us different ways to do that by using the canoe or just the environment around.

Building shelter

In addition we got some free time for fishing or paddling around the island. We finished the day together by sitting and eating at the campfire. The following day we started in the morning to paddle down the second half until we reached our finishing line the dam. The last kilometers when the fjord turned over to a river with stream in the water learned how to break into and out of “Eddys” in order not to capsize. Unfortunately one team capsized though. Luckily nothing happend and it was interesting how the group cohesion worked immediatly. Everybody tried to help as soon and as best as possible.

Cycling and climbing

The following night we slept at TrollAktiv and borrowed mountainbikes which we used to cycle down about 20 km to local climbing crag.

There we learned how to connect several top ropes and how to belay for abseiling.

Abseiling

Climbing

Afterwards we were free and so two others students and me decided to cycle back to Evje and again back to the crag. We made about 60 km this day and even saw elks on our way back. The next day we cycled back to Kristiansand which was about 60 km and enjoyed a really nice biking trip. The following pictures are showing the gps tracking of the cycling trips.

Cycling I

Cycling II

Personal:

For me the best of this trip was canoeing the first time and cycling which I really love. In addition I could do the climbing part and felt almost comfortable. The weather was on our side and made the trip perfect!

Bikes