Assignment 6

Assignment 6: Randoya Island Trip

The Randoya Island Trip is and was the last big, organized trip of our semester of Outdoor Education. The trip lasted for 2 ½ days instead of the originally planned whole week. Due to the corona situation the trip had to be cut short to ensure that both classes, the international and Norwegian one, could spend their time on the island. Nonetheless it was an amazing coastal experience with lots of different experiences and activities.

The whole group got separated into 4 smaller groups in which the planned activities would be carried out. In my case it was a very mixed group with people I have not been in a group with that often. Therefore, it was a lot of fun to share some more activities with them and exciting to see how the dynamics would turn out. Over the course of the days the group work was good. We worked mostly together and enjoyed our time. There was little room and time to assert any kind of leadership. Only while kayaking there were small portions of leading the group towards a set destination, which was not nay new tactics or knowledge on general. Overall, the trip was mostly about having a good time and a good practical learning outcome of the activities. Those were, learning how to operate a motorboat, a rowing lesson combined with fishing, a biology lesson of the local marine life and finally a kayak session in the local bay area.

On day one we met up one last time at the university to greet our ever-faithful bus driver to bring us to our last destination of Kongshavn, not far from Kristiansand. The mood was great, and we divided into groups so one could paddle the kayaks over to the island and the other group would take the motorboat with all the equipment. Teamwork was great and very relaxed. After settling in a bit and discovering the islands we met up for our first lecture, how to drive a motorboat and rules of the sea. It was very exciting as I have never driven a motorboat by myself and we were allowed to use them on our own, without a “professional” in the boat. After the session we all gathered and got an interesting tour around the island, discovering old World war and Cold war bunkers, getting to know stories, facts and enjoying our time on the island together.

The next day, everybody gathered in the outside eating area, enjoying breakfast together and already reminiscing of the past months of the course. My next activities were the biology and lesson, as well as the rowing session in the afternoon. The biology lesson was extremely interesting and fun, as the lecturer made it very interactive and fun. Rowing was very relaxing and a nice experiencing, not so much of a learning outcome in that lecture as rowing was known. Fishing on the other hand, that we did while rowing out in the bay was new. Even though I did not catch a fish, the experience was very worthwhile. In between the sessions, the weather turned great, and everybody joined together to some degree and went on to “play”. The comfortable atmosphere was thanks to months of prior group building work.

The last day consisted of getting up earlier, cleaning out everything we used so the coming Norwegian outdoor education students could have a pristine experience as well. After getting all done, we headed off to our kayak session which was limited to the close bay area due to strong winds. Everybody had a great deal of fun and enjoyed the last day of the trip. Once done, we took a local ferry back to the mainland and got onto the bus for the very last time.