Welcome to Norway

Welcome to Norway.

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.

first drop on Amot Run

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.

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.

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. 

On the road to the Upper Rauma

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.

Ready to go off the ledge on the last drop

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.

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