Norway - Stories from the Land of Trolls

Surfing Faukstad on the Sjoa Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

It's been a while since I last posted so it's time to give some news about my summer in Norway. I made a pretty random, last minute decision a couple weeks after returning from South America that I would try and get a rafting job for the summer. I was pretty lucky to be offered a job with a small company called GoRafting as I've been told that around a hundred applicants email the rafting companies each year and usually all of the hiring is done by the end of autumn (not in April like my case).

Road trip from Sjoa to Voss with Will and Oli

On the way to Voss, this tunnel went on for ~30km. We found the flouro lighting pretty entertaining.

I found out pretty quickly that Norway is very expensive. I'm not just talking about pricey beer but paying like $5 for a 500ml bottle of water or $20 for a small piece of steak! This meant that most of us had to stay in the region around Sjoa most of the summer and not much time was spent road tripping around Norway due to the expensive price of petrol. I did however manage to go to Voss with Will and Oli for 4 days and do some paddling there which resulted in 2 swims, 2 lost booties/river shoes, and the boys wishing they could stay in Voss due to the high number of good-looking women (which is not the case in Sjoa). We were also lucky to meet up with my friend Jacob who I met in Chile this year and also met a couple of British guys (Ted and Dan) who took us out kayaking on our last day in Voss. I really loved Dan's attitude that we would chose a river which suited all of our abilities and having the boys getting me over my fear and down my first (fairly small however) waterfall.

Will trying to fix his dry-pants with some duct tape Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Running my first waterfall in Voss

Will and Oli scouting Money Drop in Voss Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

The rest of summer was spent in Sjoa working on the Sjoa River doing rafting, safety kayaking, riverboarding and also canyoning in Tessa Canyon. The Sjoa River is a pretty friendly class 3 river where a lot of time can be spent surfing the raft in various playspots such as Microsurf, Bye Bye Baby and Faukstad wave. A lot of surfing usually means a lot of action such as swimmers and flips. As the river got lower towards the end of the season a lot of these surfing spots washed out but it meant that the river was low enough to run a big rapid downstream called Washing Machine (the first rapid of Amot section on the Sjoa River).

Diony and I wearing the same shoes, same wetsuit and same drytop! Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Running safety on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Myself surfing in Faukstad Wave on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Getting a big hit down the first hole of Washing Machine Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Myself in front with Will following down Washing Machine on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

I was able to meet up with Erika, Barbora and Nini who I kayaked with in Uganda, and regularly paddled on the Sjoa with Barbora practicing our 'boofing', and was lucky to check out the Bovra River with Erika (followed by a visit to the famous Lom bakery!). If you live in the Sjoa Valley life is usually pretty quiet and you need to be able to entertain yourselves (which is easily accomplished by kayaking!) but a few other activities I did were berry picking, brewing beer (way cheaper than buying it in Norway!), a few small hikes around the area and a lot of the guides met up weekly for a BBQ or a visit to the local pub Pensj.

Mike kayaking down the rapid S-Bend on Amot Section of the Sjoa River Photo Jacqui Whitehead

Picking wild strawberries along by the Sjoa River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Jonny and Bjorn content after a day on the river and taking photos while some of the boys kayaked down Amot

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Jonas getting over his fear of heights while doing the Bridge Swing Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Some of the highlights for the rafting season in Norway were our roadtrip to Voss, the Sjoa River Festival which included the infamous Pimp & Ho party, eating Chitra's fantastic flip dinners (whenever a guide flips their raft they usually pay a fine of beer but in Chitra's case he cooks dinners comprising of dhal bhat, rice and a curry), and our end of season bowling party in Vågå.

Some lessons I learnt in Norway were:

1) Alcohol is VERY expensive. Either get your friends visiting to bring lots of duty free alcohol, brew beer yourself or do a trip to Sweden as the Swedish Kroner is not as strong as the Norwegian as well as everything being a lot cheaper there.

2) Paying 2000NK a month rent for a grass hut with no bathroom and an outside kitchen is expensive. It helps to have friends in Norway who can help search for a good value room. 1000NK is a normal price to pay for a room with electricity, internet, kitchen and hot water.

3) In the Sjoa Valley you are pretty stuck without a car. A bike can help but it will still take about an hour to ride to the nearest supermarket.

4) Summer is like the Australian winter in Norway

5) Bring lots of food if you are driving from neighbouring countries....like alcohol food is cheaper in Sweden, also better and there is more variety. I found the fact that plastic wrapped vegetables in Norway lasting about 2 weeks is kinda scary (also the fact that fruit and veg is wrapped in plastic or canned, it's never really fresh)

6) Yes fish like Salmon is ''affordable'' in Norway. But it is frozen and vaccum packed.....

Myself kayaking down Golfstream on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar