I ended up staying for some extra time in Jostedal
after my Birthday and got to go kayaking twice of the Jostedal River (the
second time in high water which made me feel as though I was on the Trisuli in
Nepal) and went to a Mid Sommer party at the ‘Red House’.
It was definitely one of the most entertaining small
town parties I have been to and was pretty impressed with the Swede Adam’s
effort of making a mid summer pole and getting up in front of everyone and
teaching us all a Swedish song so we could all sing it together before taking a
shot of snaps.
I needed to collect my car before heading to Voss from
Extreme Spots Veko so headed back to Sjoa for one night and caught up with my
Norwegian friend Erika. We got a bit side tracked trying to create the perfect
BBQ and did yoga so we didn’t get time to
kayak on the Sjoa River.
The following day I headed to Voss for Ekstremsportveko. I made it to Voss just in time to see the finals of the head to head rafting races. Following all the days activities everyone headed to the festival tent for the Bula Beanie Boogie Party. Really it’s just another night in the tent. I had wanted to wear my cat Kigurami (onesie) and the less adventurous had convinced me out of it. I was pretty excited when I met this Norwegian guy called Kenneth who also had a gorilla onesie so we wore them together. Surprise surprise many other kayakers also had monkey or some other form of animal onesie also.
The Thursday at Veko was the Brandseth Downhill kayaking competition. I’m not game enough to run the Brandseth let alone race it so I spent the day taking photos and trying to get an image I could enter for the Veko daily photo competition. For me kayaking is a lot harder to capture than rafting as the kayaks move so much faster and are smaller to focus on. It was difficult but I managed to get 2 images I liked.
Again Thursday was another big night in the festival tent, hardly anyone was in the tent compared to the other nights on Friday so it must have been a good night!
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 2 years trying to gain more confidence in my own ability on white water and trusting my skill but this winter I barely kayaked and have had a few swims recently. I really wished I could participate in something at Veko and my friend Nicole convinced me to participate in the Head to Head kayak race on the Saturday – she was right, I did enjoy it and had a great time. It also was a good confidence booster because even though I missed the slalom gate I stayed upright and in my boat!
Saturday was the last night of Ekstremsportveko. The next day I drove back to Sjoa to spend a few days with my best friend Erika. We had some fun on the Sjoa River (it was so nice to see it at a descent water level compared to last season), a mini road trip in the mountains (it’s our favourite place in the valley) and just relaxed.
