Summer migration to Norway

Just over a week since we arrived back from Norway, I’m still in awe of the place and if it wasn’t for the fact that airlines don’t take bookings a year in advance I’d have my next ticket to Voss in the bag.

I love the Scottish highlands and having similar geographical characteristics (except on a generally larger scale) Voss and Sjoa felt very much like home turf… just with out the unpredictable river levels. The fjords, valleys, mountains and rivers give an amazing sense of freedom as you wild camp on your tour of the abundant white water. It was two weeks in heaven!

Our crew of 6 consisting of Bled Lloyd, Lyndsey Evans, Ant Ing, Pete Wood, Dave Martin and Myself hit a different river everyday bar one. We were lucky enough to have local knowledge from friend Sam Hughes on the incredible Finna Gorge which goes into my top 10 list of great places to be. Without someone who knows the way for the first run down we’d have spent hours scouting so thank you Sam!

On other rivers some knowledge from Bled, Lyndsey and Pete’s previous trips was useful, but with a good crew we managed to keep the faf factor under control… apart from the necessary Statoil coffee stops!

In the middle of the trip we found ourselves at the legendary Sjoa Fest and Sweet Rumble event on the Amot Gorge. It was a great opportunity to catch up with good friends from previous travels and also a great opportunity to go head to head with some of the local boys on proper boaterX turf. Time trials laid out the top 16 boaters and heats they would compete in the next day. A roll or even a moment of hesitation at this point meant an early departure, as was the case for a couple of previous winners. Despite a couple of unlucky waves breaking over me I made it through in 9^th which put me straight into a challenging heat the next afternoon. Being fast off the mark I busted myself through to the finals where some paddle scrapping off the start line meant the four of us were on top of one another into the first rapid which didn’t seem to have much effect on opening up the pack. The short stretch of calm between rapids saw us all aiming for our race lines and it was only at the last rapid where the race was won or lost. For me a tired boof punished me with a back loop and beat down on the eddy line meaning a respectable 4^th place. A great event finished as always with a great party.

For our crew it was back on the road, now heading south back towards the Bergen ferry but not before completing the upper section of the Sogndal where we had retreated the previous week due to quickly rising levels.                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ferry home gave chance to shower and recuperate in time for bingo and disco fever where Max and Luke from Leeds uni taught everyone a move or two. Unfortunately DFDS ferries are stopping their service from Newcastle to Bergen on the 1^st of September this year so we’ll have to find another way to migrate!

 

See you on the water

 

Ed

 

Thanks to Dave and Tao for the pics!