Leaving Norway

This is a bit of a leap from my last post, I have let my blog slip behind by about 3 months, and I feel I need to put up a time relative post. Don’t worry though I will continue to fill in the gaps for Norway and they will be seen chronologically, may make viewing a bit hard to find the new entry’s but we will see how we go.
Well it has been a great trip to Norway, a good mix of work, play, learning and knowing. I am heading now to the UK, landing in Heathrow and heading to Bristol to catch up with an old friend Fiona and her Boyfriend Stu. From Bristol I plan to catch a plane to Split, Croatia, hopefully meet up with a friend Tania and her Boyfriend and go sailing for a day or two, I then plan to jump in my Trak and just Kayak out around the islands, explore, meet locals and see what can be found. I am in much need of my own space and a solo trip, so, though I sent out invites to join me, I was quite happy no one could take me up on it. Solo trips are a much needed journey and they tend not to happen enough! Split is in central Croatia and I hope to travel north wards to see some of the islands around Rab, then head south along the coast as far as I can get in my Trak, with hopes of making it to Dubrovnik ( a fair distance and maybe not possible, but thankfully there are always buses). It will be a nice contrast to the cold chilly waters of the North Atlantic and I look forward to being able to walk around in a pair of shorts and nothing else.
 
I will fly back from Dubrovnik Croatia to Heathrow again, from there, catch a bus to Cornwall where there is a sea kayak symposium happening, I hope to meet some new friends and learn some new open water skills with the English, before then heading back to Bristol via bus. I hope then to fly up to Scotland to meet up with some other old friends, and maybe kayak, though also maybe just enjoy a journey without lugging all my gear around. Traveling light is a wonderful experience; having lugged 60 kgs of gear around beforehand makes it even more so! Sea kayaking in Scotland looks amazing though and the storm paddling could be great in October, so we will see what shapes up!
Planning this next stint has been a bit of a fluster, as all my spare time over the last few months went into the Lofoten Trip I just got back from with my two great clients Lyn and Denise. I have spent a lot of time on the computer in the last 40 hours looking at what I want to do and trying to find the best schedule of flights, fairs, departure points, arrival points, bus times ,cost and time analysis of flights versus ground transport ,etc, though it seems to be all working out well. I find it a real novelty how flights in England can be far cheaper and of course quicker than taking a bus!
I had big plans for Europe (as some of you may remember), though time, money, personal life and the looming and exciting 4 month kayak trip along the east coast of New Zealand starting in December, have created a conservative view in my head now. I want to have quality experiences in Croatia and the UK, and not try and fit in Spain and Morocco and Greece and........ You can see where this is going. It is so easy to bite of more than you can chew and you never get the taste of what you are eating.
After Europe I will head back to British Columbia on the 19^th October and begin my training for my NZ Expedition which will be a very challenging 4 month trip along exposed surf battered coastline. The scale of the challenge is now hitting me and all I can now think about is preparing for it. BC in the fall and winter will provide a great training ground for me, with great surf beaches to train on, cold weather, storms, and expansive places to try out my gear and ideas on with loaded multi day trips. This environment should hopefully make the summer environment I will face in NZ quite enjoyable and have me prepared for the more challenging southern stretches on the NZ coast I will be hitting in the southern autumn.

The Site for the NZ expedition is up www.kayakdownundernz.blogspot.com, telling all the details so far of what the trip is planned to be, who could be involved. It will develop more as things come together so check it out regularly. I will also have updates posted to my “World Wild Adventure” blog and the “Yak’ About the World” Blog and my Face Book pages. Oh and if any of you would like to join me on the trip or part of it, let me know and we may be able to make it happen.
 
Keep dreaming, it’s what influences reality!
Jaime

Second Corporate Group

Our Camp at Remen

We had another corporate group trip to run the next weekend after the last; this one was for a local oil rig engineering company called Axess. It would be a family trip for their employees. They are quite a cool company, everyone who works for them are hard core into outdoor sports, primarily climbing, they work on testing standards of rigs and doing maintenance and repairs, via industrial abseiling. Most of them are engineers. The company gives the employees many corporate events with DID adventure every year and the employees are also free to take of as much time as they like to pursue outdoor adventures and expeditions. For this trip we were heading to Remen Valley; or Raumsdalen.
This valley is stunning, it is carved deep into the mountains by the Glaciers of ice ages gone, and the vertical rocks faces and peaks loom up on either side. On the way to our camp site for the weekend we passed under the Troll Veggen or Troll Wall, the highest vertical cliff in Northern Europe. It is a Mecca for Base jumping, though also the only illegal natural feature to Jump in Norway! Some have climbed the wall, but to stand directly below it is to be in awe!

The Troll Wall

The weekend was fun, we (DID Instructors) were mostly camp wardens, setting up the site, organising food and drinks, and then cleaning up at the end, while the group went out hiking with out- sourced guides into the mountains. I however got to take a small group on the last day kayaking down the slow lower part of the Rauma River to Åndalsnes. It was nice to paddle the Trak Kayak on some fresh water, though there weren’t the rapids I would like to one day try it on.

Trak on the Rauma River

This trip overall was another fun one, but my culture shock really hit me on this outing with every one speaking lots of Norwegian and I hardly being involved. I felt alone and awkward and instead of trying to be more social my mind wanted to hide and hear logical words coming from people’s mouths that wasn’t just sounding like, iafdhaofiaika i aifaifjapj iafaij fpaj fpeojr!
Also all the waste and lack of recycling practices really affected me and I had a discussion with Didrick and the other guides, which lead to a slightly heated argument, that had to be finished later in the week. It Appears Norway with its new Found wealth in oil is also taking on the ignorant idea of convenience in its consumption, paper plates, plastic glasses, all used and tossed in with every other piece of garbage and then tossed into a land fill.  hmmm I thought it would be greener here, i guess we have things to learn all over the world.

The Kids in the Space Station

World Wild Adventure in Norway episode 2 Haholmen

Excuse the funny face, here is my next video installment for the first week in norway!

World Wild Adventure in Norway episode 2 from Wandering Wolf Productions on Vimeo.

First Week In Norway (part 2)

CORPORATES
   

On the Docks with my Trak!

 The The first big task that my new job called me to do, was to be involved in facilitating a Corporate adventure weekend!
The millionaire Club of car salesmen and woman for Audi, Volvo and Skoda where coming to celebrate their annual sales. we where to provide a weekend of coastal fun staying on the wonderful island of Håholmen. Kayaking, Motorised RIB tours, Caving and hiking in the coastal mountains, and off course great food and drink!

Lise, Robert, Pauli, Mari, Didrick, Me

the Atlantic Coastal Road

 

The work is very different than I am used to very simple and un-strenuous activities filled with great sights and food. Fun times though a touch boring for my mind, however very interesting business lessons and ideas are learnt. the first day help manage a group of 28 kayakers paddle 2 hours along the stunning Hustadvika coastline, then switch with 26 more and paddle another 2 hours to the Island of Håholmen. That night we ate and awesome BBQ meal and Drank like merry fishes till the early morn! crazy these people love to drink and drink hard, this was also a golden opportunity for me to drink a lot for free and save on the hefty Norwegian prices ($10US for a beer at a bar!). we where mostly all in bed by 3am, except for a hardy few salesmen who didn't got to sleep and where still drinking when we awoke!

Lise

Lunch time

Second day Lise and I took three individuals out sea kayaking for the afternoon, amongst the great little islands in the area. after a quick lunch only one wanted to continue on with me to the open coast and complete a little circumnavigation and then back to the lodge. the other two went back with Lise to the lodge early to recover from there hangover. The rest of the group had headed up into he mountains for caving and a solid ridge line hike!
   

Håholmen
Håholmen, a fishing community worthy of presevation in the Hustadvika bay, has served as a meeting place, harbour, home and workplace for fishermen, sailors, shopkeepers and travellers for hundreds of years, though stopped in the 1960’s. Since 1989, Kari and Ragnar Thorseth have brought new life to the 300-year-old fishing village, Håholmen, and this beautiful, weather-beaten island has once again become an attractive meeting place for people.  The island has an unusually beautiful, natural harbour, well protected from all types of weather.  Around 30 buildings - several of then dating back to the 1700 and 1800s scatter the island and take you back in time!
Ragnar Thorseth, the creator of the wonderfull lodge we stayed at was born in 1948 , he is an adventurer and writer .
Ragnar Thorseth became known as the adventurer for more adventurous trips in small boats. In 1969 he rowed the first man alone from Norway ( Måløy ) to Lerwick on Shetland. In the next decade he traveled including the Arctic Ocean around over the Atlantic and through the Northwest Passage .In 1982 he was part of a snøscoter expedition across the ice to the North Pole was reached 29 april . In the period April 1984 - 1986 Thorseth sailed around the world with "Saga Siglar" . At the end of the 1980s, he and his family spent a winter in the icy wilderness of Kongsfjorden on Svalbard .
In August 2000 he was involved in a serious horseback riding accident.

Prow of a viking ship

  

IS THAT WHALE??

Ragnars Ship in Sydney

looking back at the lodge

The last night was a very formal business dinner and the guides (the dirty hoods we are), had to eat to ourselves up stairs, though we got served an amazing 5 course meal. after the main dish i was so impressed by the  raw Tuna dish we where served that i asked out how they did it. I shouldn't have asked as i was to find out it was WHALE!!! Argh all my Greeny friends please forgive me!!
more drinking that night and the next day was pack up and ship out!

The transport boat

The Crew, Me , Mari, Lise, Trond

Towing the boats home

What a first week in Norway, more adventures to come!

World Wild Adventure in Norway episode 1 Kayak Video

Been working late nights to produce a couple of short videos of Adventures in Norway, here is the first Episode!
I hope you enjoy
J

A World Wild Adventure In Norway: Episode 1 Hustadvika from Wandering Wolf Productions on Vimeo.