So I've told you about working and I've told you about the Ekstremsport Veko, but I did a lot of other cool activities besides those two things during my summer in Norway. I went kayaking, I went hiking, I ate cheese, I camped by rivers, I slept in a train station, ect. ect. It was great!
After the Veko/ when we weren't participating in festival activities, Kevin, David and I got out and explored the surrounding area. I wanted to show them some places we visited on my tours so we took a day trip to Flam and kayaked sections of river not included in the kayak race.
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| Kevin runs a rapid on Raundal River (I can't remember the section) |
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| David runs a rapid on the Raundal on a section I also can't remember! |
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| Driving down the steep Stalheim Road overlooking the Narrowfjord Valley |
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| David and Kevin getting the Fjord Safari experience in Flam |
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| So many goats! |
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A visit to Undredal
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| Kevin and David with Undredal's goat statue |
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| David requests we stop so he can take a cold dip |
A day or so after the festival ended, Kevin had to head home and so David and I moved North to explore some of the rivers in the Sjoa area. It was a great little road trip with some nice camping and good paddling! I apologize in advance for not remembering very many river names....
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| Our first night on the road trip to Sjoa |
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| David hikes into a river :) |
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| David runs a rapid on a river |
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| A Norwegian Rainbow on the drive |
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| David and Ben in the Amot Gorge on the Sjoa |
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| David styles a drop on a river |
After a great trip, it was time for David to head back to the states and I had to head back to work (for a week). After guiding another trip I jetted back to the Sjoa area so I could catch the Sjoa River festival. I got in town just in time to enter the boatercross race. The water was high and the eddy that you needed to catch to finish was difficult. I watched a bunch of very good men miss it and I told myself over and over again "go slow and just get the eddy," but you know how it is, you get in the race, there are other racers around you and you get excited, forget your strategy and just paddle hard. In this case, it lost me the race as I flew right past the finish line eddy. Oh well, it was super fun anyway!
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| The start of the race |
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| Boatercross racing through a big rapid! |
After the festival, I had a few days left in the area to enjoy the river before having to head back to Bergen to guide another trip. I got on a few more local runs and loved getting to paddle with some of the ladies in the area. I ended up linking up with a Brit names Graham who was also without a crew or a car and was always down for a Amot Gorge lap. Fortunately we were camped at the put in so it was easy to bust out a bunch of laps. So much fun!
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| A kayaker paddles a river in Norway. I was there too :) |
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| Paddling a section of the Sjoa river with an awesome group of local ladies! |
Due to the timing of the trains and my flight back to Bergen, I had to spent a night in the train station. Fortunately, Graham was on the same program so we dirt-bagged it together. It was actually turned into a super pleasant experience. The rooms were heated, there were electrical outlets and plenty of space to dry off our gear.
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| Graham snoozing the night away |
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| Drying out the gear |
After guiding yet another trip, I had yet another break! This time I stayed around Voss and caught up with a group of Brits I had met in Sjoa. They were nice enough to invite me on their program and I paddled a bunch of rivers in the Voss area with them.
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| My first taste of "Cottage Pie" |
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| The camp spot |
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| The van swim count. I eventually made it up there but thankfully there was a zero next to my name.... |
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| The brits! Great guys. |
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| A tranquil night by the lake |
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| Me coming through a rapid on the Raundal river |
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| Below one of the bigger rapids on the Raundal. I walked it twice before I ran it. |
After a few days of cruising around with the Brits, I headed to Flam to spend a couple days with Torgeir, one of my favorite co-guides ever. His parents have a beautiful house on the fjord and we enjoyed a couple days of hiking, eating cheese and drinking wine. It was spectacular.
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| Torgeir's House |
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| Crepes, jam and goat cheese. Hard to beat! |
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| #GoatSelfiesAreCoolToo |
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| Hiking back to Torgeir's from the goat farm |
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| #TorgeirSelfiesAreTheBestSelfies |
After a couple days relaxing in Flam, it was time to guide my very last trip in Norway and make my way back to the states. My summer in Norway is one that I will never forget. So many people helped make it happen and I can't name you all, but thank you! Until next time...
