On Monday May 7, 2018 half of the outdoor education class was to go on a kayaking, climbing and cycling trip. We were all happy to leave that morning for our trip because of how good the weather forecast was for the week. Every day the temperature was almost twenty degrees Celsius, or over.

On the first day we traveled to Bygland to learn some basic canoeing skills. We had two instructors, but the people in our group who had past canoeing experience oversaw teaching us the skills we needed. The instructors were only with us to make sure no one did something silly that could cause an injury and too make sure we found our way navigating the water. After learning how to go in a straight line, turn left and right, and go backwards, the instructors gave us a demonstration on how to rescue a canoe if it were to flip over. We then had a quick lunch, packed the bags into the canoes and paddled our way toward the island we would be sleeping on that night. Taking turns on which canoe would lead the group, we made it to the island of Storoyi. Once we landed everyone got out of their canoes and searched for a nice spot to set up camp. Some people just slept next to the fire in their sleeping bags, and others set up hammocks around the area. A few people jumped into the cold ocean water, we ate dinner, played a couple games around the campfire, then went off to bed.

The sun during this time in Norway stays up late and gets up early, making it hard to sleep while in the outdoors. We all rose around eight in the morning for breakfast, then took off down the river in our canoes. We stopped for lunch on a beach near a home, they had a friendly dog that loved us for our food. Setting off back on the water, we learned a way to paddle while tied to other canoes, this technique is used in case of emergency. There was not an emergency but for fun two canoes tied to mine and we paddled majority of the way together. When we realized we were just holding the others up by being slow, we untied and cruised to the end destination of our paddling.

That night we stayed at an outdoor facility called Troll active, they gave us the option to go white water rafting with some of their guides. Of course, as an adrenaline junkie I couldn’t say no. To prepare ourselves for the cold Norwegian waters we suited up in wet suits. After going down the river twice, near the end we did some surfing in the rafts. This was my favorite part because it was impossible not to get wet, and you thought at any moment you could be dragged in by the waves. We parked the raft at a near by rock, one by one we all jumped into the river for fun. Then after making it back to the facility we all were starving and beat from the long day. We made potato soup and then went off into a deep slumber.

The next morning was about cycling. We cycled about ten kilometers before stopping at a coffee and pastry shop in the city of Evjes. We drank our coffee, ate our pastries, and set off on another ten-kilometer cycle. At the end of the cycle we meet with the instructors from canoeing, but this time they were teaching us about climbing. Keeping ourselves in the scenario of us being the leaders working with inexperienced climbers, we gave instructions on what to do and what not to do while climbing. We also learned how to set up and how to work with a top belay, and absail. After our lessons we set up camp at the top of the climbing area, we ate dinner and went into our hammocks for the night.

The next day we knew it was going to be a long one. Our instructor, Len, met us with the van around nine a.m. to take all our equipment. Then we got on our bikes to finish off the final part of our journey, forty-six kilometers. It was a very slow morning, we had to stop to get over trees that had fallen in the road. There was also one person who was not a fan of cycling, ever couple kilometers we stopped to wait up for her because no man is left behind. After about twenty kilometers we made it to a town called Vennesla. We were eating our lunch and relaxing until we look across the sky to see a dark eerie storm cloud heading in our direction. We knew it was supposed to rain that day, but we thought it was for sure going to come later after we had made it home, but this was not the case. We hopped on our cycles and headed toward Kristiansand as fast as we could. A few of us had to stop to put on our rain covers and jackets but there was not much stopping after that. Although it was a little cold it was also fun, until we missed a turn. Instead of going right onto bike trail number three that we had been following the past two day we went straight up a super steep hill. We made it about three quarters of the way up the hill until two of the group members had broken their chains. They had to turn around to be picked up by Len. Knowing at this point that we had gone the wrong way we had to decide on whether we should keep going or turn back. After talking to a local man who was also biking the trail, we decided to keep going. In the end we made it to Kristiansand a little wet and about twenty more kilometers under our belt than we were supposed to.

If I were to do a trip like this again I would bring different clothing. While playing games on the island the first night I got my pants stuck on a tree branch and ripped them open, instead of these leggings I would bring a thicker more resistant pair. I would also bring a tank top, the weather was so warm, even in a tee-shirt. I could have been cooler with a lighter top on and I also wouldn’t have the tan lines of a construction worker. I learned a lot about how to control a canoe, I also learned a lot of new techniques with climbing. I’m glad we had this trip when we did because the weather was amazing for us to try new activities.