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!