Welcome to Norway.
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| view from my house |
I’m sitting in my room in the Heidal Rafting guide house,
when I look out my window I see hills woven into each other, thousands of
evergreen trees covering these hills and above it all there’s a snow capped
peak that I’ll be watching melting into the river just below. It wasn’t a long
journey like most of my other journeys, but it was rewarding to come all this
way and have these amazing views at my door.
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| first drop on Amot Run |
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| Amot run |
The train from Oslo to Otta was very much similar to that of
my view in my room. The journey was around 3 hours; it was convenient for me
that the train station was in the airport so lugging a 40kg kayak around the
place was a “pain in the ass” but not as bad as I thought. And a 40kg kayak
that only cost me €15 for the flight.
From the moment the train left the station, it took an
amazing route that the train passed through valleys with placid lakes and
intertwined mountains. Every side burn/creek had flowing water in it that made
me wonder, what the summer had in store for me?!?!? I was picked up by “Tor” the owner/jefe of
Heidal Rafting, my new boss. He showed me the guide house and I had a good pick
of any room I wanted, which was a first for me as usually I arrive late in a
season and get slim pickings.
On the first Saturday after I arrived, the guides got
invited to breakfast by “Tor” before the trip that morning. It was a
traditional Norwegian breakfast with the usual cereals, bread and tea’s and
coffee’s. But very much unusual for me in the morning cheeses, hams and
salami’s along with spreads. There was a brown type of cheese that I heard of
before I came here. It was quite good with a jam on the bread.
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| going deep. |
Over the last week or so, we’ve been training on the river
and on land. We’ve been spending a day on most all the activities covering what
needs to be known. The Company sells not just rafting and canyoning but also
bridge-swinging, climbing, rappelling and a good BBQ feast in the evening for
any clients willing to fork out more kroners (NK). Besides training, we’ve also
been working around the base and doing odd jobs here and there.
The Amot run, this is the new homerun this summer. The put
in is a 30 mins walk from the base and a 5min drive. It is a nice gorge that is
sporty run that keeps you happy but also on your toes in some parts, it’s only
a 20-30 minute spin depending if you take your time or not. At low water levels we raft the gorge.
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| boof over pour over |
Yesterday, I went kayaking on the Upper Rauma with guys from
my company and other guys from the other companies. It was the first time we
were paddling together on a sporty enough roadside run. It was interested to
see how we reacted as a group and who was keen to fire stuff up. I think
everybody was cautious of this and nobody wanted to put other people in danger
this early in the season. So people
portaged whatever they weren’t fired up to run, which is good to know.
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| On the road to the Upper Rauma |
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| Last drop on the Upper Rauma |
I was nervous getting onto the river, even though we scouted
everything. It was the first “bearly” (what the guys from NZ called a difficult
or sporty rapid) run of the season. But once I got in my boat and fired up the
first drop, I felt pretty good and settled. The Upper Rauma is a nice pool drop
run, Easy to scout everything and also to portage (walk around a rapid). After the run, we drove down to the famous
Lower Rauma. It is an end of season run, which consists of a lot of must make
lines that are technical and incredibly steep. Full of drops and at the end
Flemmings drop (20 meters). And yesterday I saw this run with tons of water
going down it. It will be fun to run that in August.
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| Ready to go off the ledge on the last drop |
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| Little Huka Falls. Upper Rauma |
Good things to known about Norway. Yes it is crazy
expensive. The language is kinda funny sounding but I’ll give it a go. Well so
far that isn’t great to know.
Because drink is the juice that we all crave but hurts our
pockets too much when we drink too much of, we have already begun brewing our
beer. The first batch is maturing in its bottle and two other batches are close
to being bottled soon enough.
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| Slide on the last drop |
Well that’s all I’ve got to Report for now.
Next time I should have lots of rivers to report on.
All photos were shot with my GoPro HD.
Live Unbound folks.
Pura Vida
1Adventure Life
