Sunday, August 22, 2010

First week in Norway (part 1)

pano(c)JSharp2010-8668
Veiw from atop the mountain above Molde
 
MOLDE
A small town located on the west coast of Norway! Molde is a city and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Romsdal region. Molde is the administrative center of Møre og Romsdal county, the commercial hub of Romsdal, and the host of the bishop of Møre. It started as an old settlement emerging as a trading post in the late Middle Ages. The city continued to grow throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, becoming a center for Norwegian textile and garment industry, as well as the administrative center for the region, and a major tourist destination. After World War II, a lot of the city was rebuilt after major bombing damage.
The city is named after the original settlement on the farmstead of Molde (Old Norse: Moldar). The name is either the plural form of mold which means "fertile soil" or moldr which means "skull" or "mold" (thus in reference to the rounded peaks in Moldemarka). Pronunciation varies between the standard Molde and the rural Molle. A person from Molde will refer to him/herself as a Moldenser

Vis større kart

(c)JSharp2010-8688
the View from my Kayak Shed!

                                                                    
Norway(c)JSharp2010-8780
  My fleet of Kayaks!!

                                                                                              
I have an amazing area to work in and a big fleet of  12 double kayaks and 3 singles, we will look at what more gear DID needs to get to run Multi day trips and provide top notch trips for the sea kayak connoisseur!

DIDRICK AND KIN
Norway(c)JSharp2010-2
Didrick Ose
 
Didrick is a big man full of laughs and energy, his boys Bendict and Jesper Helped me clean down there old sail boat so I can make repairs on it and hopefully get it out sailing this summer! we will see.
Norway(c)JSharp2010-8659
Jesper og Bendict scrapping the Keel
Norway(c)JSharp2010-8658
the little Laling sailboat

ADVENTURES
From the moment I landed it was straight to work, talking, walking, driving and seeing all the cool sights DID Adventure uses for trips. My jet lag did catch me out a bit and Didrick found me falling asleep on him as we drove around over the first 4 days as he explained his corporate trips and how he wants to expand into the commercial sea kayak guiding business.

Norway2010-8702
work truck ready for adventure
Norway2010-8711
coastal boat houses (Naust)
Norway2010-8718
Old painting in Yelling Hill

Norway2010-8720 YELLING HILL
This is  an amazing place that DID uses. it is an old stone mansion built into the hill along the coast of Hustadvika. very un assuming from the out side, it is full of awesome old paintings and furniture, it is literally like stepping into Frodo Baggins Hobbit house with tunnels and hidden rooms everywhere. very cool
DID uses it for corporate dinners and conferences, and we may use it for multi day lodge based kayak trips!

Norway(c)JSharp2010-8706
one of the buildings at Yelling Hill

Norway(c)JSharp2010-8713
Kitchen.
Norway2010-8771 Thomas Berg Hestad is my colleague for the season is an avid base jumper and now wants to get into guiding. He is full of energy and a real Doer!
We where sent out to scout some sea kayaking trips for the coming corporate Millionaires club trip. Thomas had spent little time in a kayak so he was very uncertain about the swells and his back gave him trouble! but he enjoyed it! It was also the first time a got to get the Trak Kayak out on Norwegian waters. The water was cold at this time of year and i really was thankful for the cozy sea sock I got for the Trak.
Sea kayaking here is very awesome, it is not so much about the wildlife as it is about the wild civilisation, there are houses and little fishing villages in some of the most remote and exposed coastal areas out here, and some of the buildings are over 200 years old. The Coast line, though exposed to the Atlantic Ocean and beaten to a pulp in winter, is very mild in the summer season, with an average swell of what appears to be about half a meter. very nice for coastal sea kayak trips. There is also a lot of amazing and unique places to use as accommodation for lodge based trips along the coast, we should be able to make a great trip here for sure!

Haholmen2010-0332
Thomas and I
Norway2010-8765
My Trak on the road during Portage
Norway2010-8755
Coastal Drizzel!




Stayed tuned for Week 1 part 2

No comments: