Jostedal, Voss & Sjoa

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!

Ekstremsportveko 2013 - BEST OF from Ekstremsportveko on Vimeo.

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.

A Slightly Different Summer to Previous ones in Norway

Finally I’ve made it back to Norway again. In my typical style I leave plans to the last minute. I was meant to be working as a photographer like previous years but after some really difficult decision making I decided to just come out to Scandinavia for a holiday without working for a shorter period of time so I can see more of the country I have never had a chance to see.

After working in the UK for 6 months I bought myself a car – a nice VW Golf Estate and took the ferry from the UK across to France and set off alone up to Norway….. the long way around through Sweden up to Norway without getting additional ferries to shorten the driving time.

The driving wasn’t so bad as soon as you get through Sweden it starts becoming light most of the day making it easy to drive through the night. I must say I’ve never had to wear sunglasses at 4am!

I made it to Sjoa around 8.30am expecting to get some sleep for at least half of the day but ended up kayaking down the Sjoa and going to an ‘asado’ with 2 roast lambs for dinner.

The following day was the beginning of a road trip with my friend Becky that I hadn’t planned on taking starting with kayaking down the Lower Bovra and driving towards Jostedalen. After driving for some time after leaving Lom and the Lower Bovera we came across a cross country track with plenty of snow but also plenty of elite athletes training, such as the Austrian team.

I’ve never cross country skied before and was told by Becky I would probably fall over a lot and I laughed thinking if I can ski this will be super easy. I’ve always thought of cross country sking as being a bit of a wimpy sport but after realising it was a lot harder than learning to downhill ski I quickly changed my mind! Not having the sole of your boot attached to the ski and having very narrow skis on your feet make it difficult to balance. Add in the technique on gliding forwards with coordinating the arm movement and things get even tricker. I slowly got the hang of liding my skis forwards rather than ‘walking’ but when it came to downhill then the multiple stacks started.

Becky and I would of looked like the odd pair out on the track with Becky using her dog Ramp to ski around and constantly shouting stop or wait in Norwegian, and myself in track pants (soaked through on the bum) with a pretty brightly coloured hoody with my dreads piled on top of my head with pink tips. We certainly got some funny smiles from the Austrians who were training hard.

After our one lap we kept driving searching for a picturesque camping spot for the night. We came to the Fjord in Luster and decided to camp by the fjord because it was complete with a volley ball net, jetty, some strange red scupture and a picnic table. We didn’t see any signs saying we weren’t allowed to camp there but were concerned we might get told off. Since it was so amazing we took the risk. We did have a police car pull over but they had just stopped while on their mobile phone and left us in peace with our ‘gourmet dinner’ and what we called luxury camping set up for the night.

The following day was my 31^st Birthday. 31 came around pretty fast and I almost forgot it was my Birthday at all. We packed up and drove towards Jostedal stopping at a ncie balery on the way and in Gappun for a look around as it was described as a tourist stop but there was nothing to be too excited about there.

Another big day was install once we got to Jostedalen with a hike up to one of the glaciers with our friend Colin followed by a random ‘party’ in the guide house that evening.

Last time I visited Jostedal my friend took me out on the biggest part on the glacier which required us to ride a motor boat out across the lake to the glacier. This time the glacier was a lot closer to town and we had to hike a little bit to get there before kitting up with a harness and crampons. I was a little unsure and intimidated by the glacier this time. My crampons felt as though they were slipping off  my shoes (sneakers are not the best idea for any sort of hiking) so it was hard for me to climb or walk downhill combined with my fear of heights. I also have a huge respect for the glaciers and it also feels like there is an unknown world under all of that ice in the holes and crevasses.

Everyone was a bit tired the following day after staying up late the night before. Having a more relaxed day allowed me to visit the waterfall where a friend dislocated both their shoulders a few years ago and have a look at the new visitors centre which is now open but still in construction after burning down a couple of years ago. The structure of the building is meant to resemble a glacier but some might interpret the design as a turtle, armadillo, space ship etc.

I still need to head out on the river so there will be more photos and stories to come.

3 Day Ganga Expedition

Over the weekend Bjorn and I joined on a 3 day/2night rafting trip with our kayaks on the Ganga River with Red Chilli Adventure. We started the trip in Devprayag and finished in Ramjhola. The first day of the trip we waited for over 3 hours in the scorching sun for the clients to arrive (they were delayed as they had been on a 3 day trek prior to the rafting trip). This didn't matter though as we only had about a 40min paddle down relatively calm water to our first camping spot for the night.

Bjorn and Rob at the Deprayag put-in Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Waiting for the clients to arrive Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

You can see the white wooden stakes in the background. These are measuring sticks for the river level. This year during the monsoon the river came above where I am sitting on the log (over 23m!!!).

So much rubbish has accumulated along the banks of the river from the monsoon. It is pretty normal to see plastic bags and other rubbish up in trees along the river Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our first night we helped the clients settle in and Harinder our cook made us a feast of tomato soup with croutons, vegetable momos, and even tomato, mushroom and cheese pizza! All of this was cooked with only a gas stove. Rob, Bjorn, Kumar and I all slept under the stars using the raft as shelter while the other guides slept in the kitchen tent while the clients had their own personal tents.

Day 2 we again woke up to hot chai and another feast made by Harinder consisting of omelette, toast and chips. After packing down camp we had a pretty easy day on the river. We only had to kayak about 20km in pretty flat water with some sizable boils and whirlpools to keep our interest. Along the way we were able to buy 2 fish from the local fisherman and Harish our safety kayaker stopped in one of the villages to buy some more food for the evening. After a couple of hours we reached our beach campsite for the second night.

Kumar rowing all of our gear down the Ganga Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bjorn helping unload all the gear from the cataraft Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bjorn and Rob searching for frogs in the ''swimming pools'' on our beach camp Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We had a pretty relaxing afternoon at the camp so Rob, Bjorn and I rowed the cataraft over to the opposite side of the river in search for a waterfall which Arvind had told us about. After heading back to camp we helped prepare the evening meal which again was another amazing feast this time comprising of Indian food - dhal, fish curry, aloo ghobi, chapati, rice and rice pudding for desert.

A donkey on it's way on the opposite side of the river we found whilst searching for green chillies, ginger and a waterfall Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of our campsite for the second night of the expedition Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Preparing the vegetables for dinner

Arvind about to demonstrate to the clients how to make dhal Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Day 3 was all the action. We kayaked down from camp about 3km and met up with Anvesh, Flo, and Gapoo (also kayaking) and another client who was joining on with the trip. The first rapid 'The Wall' is well-known for a huge hole on the left which will 95% of the time flip a raft. As we moved further downstream we went through rapids such as 'Three Blind Mice', 'Return to Sender', 'Rollercoaster', 'Golf Course' and 'Hilton'. The Ganga is a pretty friendly big volume river, with huge wave trains and pool-drop rapids. It is the river which I learnt to kayak on and even though it's my third time back to Rishikesh I never get sick of it.

Golf Course rapid on the Ganga River

Now we are hoping to make it onto the Sarayu and Kali River Expedition which is leaving in a couple of days time, before heading into Nepal.