Unfortunately already our last trip was coming: four days of sea kayaking from the 5th to the 8th of June. Our class was split in two again and the other group did sea kayaking already two weeks ago. The first two days we always started at 9:15 at the row club in Kristiansand on the Otra river by the new Lund bridge.
On our first day we got a small introduction to sea kayaking and the new equipment from Evan. Actually to all of us sea kayaking wasn’t completely new as we already did it on our last trip with the Norwegians at Randøya. After the introduction we went into the water with our sea kayaks. Firstly, we tried to improve our forward paddling. Forward paddling is the most important stroke to go to different places and it is usually described in three phases (Catch, Power, Exit and Recovery). Furthermore, we learned the stern rudder stroke (used for control surface rather than apply power), reverse paddling (for paddling backwards), sweep strokes (main strokes for turning the boat) and edging (helping to turn the boat more easily) while we were paddling down the river in the direction to Vennesla. In between we stopped for having lunch at a nice spot next to the river, so I ate some porridge, I prepared in the morning with oats, cinnamon, nuts, chia seeds and fruits. For me this is a good lunch which is filling and gives me new energy for the rest of the day. After lunch we headed back to the row club. In front of the row club we practiced capsizing and “wet exiting” as well as the T-rescue. Moreover I tried out the self rescue, where I flipped my boat after capsizing and climbed back into the seat without any help from others. Even that I did quite a bit of kayaking the week before this day was really educative for me and I had a lot of opportunities to work on my paddling techniques and the edging of the boat.
On Wednesday we met again at the row club for doing a day trip around Odderøya. Necessary equipment for a day trip is: water, snacks and lunch, sunscreen, sun glasses, spare clothes and first aid kit. In my time in Kristiansand I spent quite a bit spare time in Odderøya for climbing, fishing or swimming in the sea with the others from my class, so it was really interesting to see the island now from “the other side” as well as to paddle through the Fiskebrygga in the water and not just walk there on the streets. On our trip we stopped several times for working on our strokes and the edging again and when we came back to the row club I tried out the Eskimo Roll for the first time in my life. I first just tried the hip movement while holding on to another boat and then tried the whole Roll. In the end I still was not able to do the Roll, but it was a good starting point and with a little bit of more training I am sure I will be able to do it one day.
The next day we met at ten o’clock at the parking area on “Langenesveien” in the long thin bay west of Pradisebukta for our two day kayak expedition to the island Kapelløya in Ny Hellesund, which is south west of our starting point. For this trip I didn’t bring a lot of things only some spare clothes (long woollen pullover and long woollen trousers, down jacket and socks), a summer sleeping bag, a foam mat, sunscreen and sun glasses, insect spray against the mosquitos and food (porridge for lunch and millet with veggies for dinner; I already cooked all the food at home beforehand that I didn’t have to bring storm kitchen, etc). All in all my equipment was good chosen and I did not miss a thing. Before we started paddling each person got a map of the area and we had to make sure that our equipment was spread out in the boat balanced (not having all the heavy stuff on one side). While we were paddling to Kapelløya we passed several other islands like Skrapøya, Langøya, Herøya and Monsøya. We always got the task to lead the group to a leak in pairs. We did not do it alone because we were too many people (around six person would be good for one leader, but we were twelve). In the beginning it was really difficult for me to navigate in coastal environment as everything looked quite similar and there were not a lot of easy features you could use for orienteering. But I always navigated for myself even when I was not leading, so in the end of our trip I felt quite confident with leading in coastal environment. After we arrived at the island a little surprise was waiting for us. We found some cakes, wine and candles at the beach with a little note. At first, we were really confused what is going on now, but then we found Maike, Johanna, Jed and Sam (they were not in our group for that trip) hiding up the hill. It was an amazing surprise from them; they did because of Zoe’s and Laura’s birthday. Furthermore it was really nice that we could spend our final trip with even more people from our class. We spent the rest of the day with swimming, fishing and preparing food. For watching the sunset we went up a hill with the Ukulele and spent a lot of time up there to enjoy the beautiful sunset and listen to the music Sam played for us. We slept on a flat grass area close to the sea. In general the island was slightly different than the one we saw last week, for instance there were not a lot of trees more grass and flat area.
On the next morning I woke up with the sunrise at around three o’clock and then fell slept again until eight. After that it just got way too warm in the sun, therefore we decided to have a morning swim in the ocean. Then we got dry in the sun again while we had breakfast and packed our stuff together. Around ten o’clock we started to head back to Paradisebukta with navigating around some other island (for example Helgøya, Hellersøyane and Store). We arrived as planned back at the parking area around one o’clock.
It was a great last trip and definitely one of my favourite trips of the semester!