Fall is coming to Haukeliseter

Today it has been raining elephants and zebras! But yesterday was a beautiful day with comfy temperatures and no wind. The mountain is starting to get it's fallsuit on, where the colours are going from summergreen to bright orange and yellow. I love this time of year!

I paddled out to a little island in front of Haukeliseter with some colleagues where we let the dogs run around freely for a long time. We were lazy in the sun and the fourlegged were having a blast.

Ally at Hardangervidda

Last week, the Beard and I had another mini trip with the Ally canoe in Ståvatn. We packed tent, some food and sleepingbag and paddled to an island west of Haukeliseter. The wind was from West on our way there, so I struggled a bit to make speed. The Ally canoe is very lightweight, and even with the tent and food, the Beard and other stuff in the front of the canoe, it is still difficult to paddle towards the wind, especially when I'm paddling alone. But we made it to our destination after a while.

I put the tent up in a little bay facing south towards Kvanndalen. This is away from the road passing Haukeliseter (E 134) and you cannot hear or see the cars from this side. Makes me feel like I'm faaaar away, but still we're close to home if something happens. Which was good the day after...

The view I woke up to the day after:

With no wind of waves, I took my time cooking breakfast and enjoying the peace and quiet. Unfortunately, I enjoyed myself a bit too long, and by the time I had packed all the gear and got the Beard and myself in the canoe, the wind had picked up quite a bit. And now it was coming from East, which was our direction back to Haukeliseter...

After I had struggled for quite some time without making any progress, I decided to paddle across the wind and waves and head to the mainland near the road North of me. Then I had to call a colleague to come and pick us up up in the car and take us back to Haukeliseter. I felt a bit stupid (especially with the canoe sticking out of the car), but if I had kept on paddling I guess I had spent all day trying to get back, which was not exactly good for work. Haha...

Canoooooing in Ståvatn by Haukeliseter

This morning, the Beard and I took a short paddle in Ståvatn before work. We, no I, paddled to the biggest island in the lake west of Haukeliseter, where we had a short stop before we returned to Haukeliseter and work. A really nice start to the day! :-)

When we got close to the island, the Beard was ready to get on land, and all of a sudden she jumped and swam the last part. I wasn't prepared and almost lost my camera overboard...

As usual, a little bath in shallow waters.

The Beard was not very interested in going back to the canoe and paddling home...

Ally

I got a new gadget, an Ally canoe from Bergans! It is foldable and easy to transport. Little did I know that it would take me forever to put it together! Hopefully it will take shorter time once I get the hang of it!

It is now easier to take the Beard paddling, as she doesn't fit in my kayak as well as the little sausage dog. I plan to use it on small lakes, and it has a carrier system that allowes you to put it on your back and carry it for some distance. So my head is now full of good plans on where to go once the ice is gone...

It easily fits two people and a dog and some luggage. This is one of the smallest versions of 15'.

Ok, I realise that there are no pictures showing the canoe in use... Hahaha... But I promise, we tested it on the Lutsi lake outside of Sandnes, we just didn't get any photos of it. And we didn't bother to dismantle it once we had used it, so we just put it on the roof of the car and drove home. Of course, we could not get it inside when it was in full size, so we had to take it all apart again anyway... Haha... But it takes shorter time to dismantle it than to build it!

I'm now trying to build the courage to put it back togheter next time I'm going to use it. Fingers crossed I don't take hours to do it!

High altitude paddling

Look at the view I woke up to this morning:

This is actually the view from my bedroom window - believe it or not!!

So the first thing I did was to take the camera and the dogs for a short walk. A great bonus was the comfy temperatures! I then had to drag myself to the office for a few hours, before I went out paddling.

By the time I got my kayak on to the lake, Ståvatn, it was a bit more windy and cloudy, but I had a great little paddle on the west side of the lake. I just got my kayak up here this week, so the dear yellow bananaboat had a perfect first-time of high altitude paddling at Hardangervidda. More days like this, please!

Afternoon paddling

A good friend helped me with some equipment a little while ago and I thought I would give him a bottle of wine as a thank-you for the help. His family's place is not far from my family's summer house. so I put the bottle in my kayak and went. Ok, I have to admit, it did not exactly start that smooth.... The first thing I did after getting the kayak in the water was to tip into the water myself while trying to get onboard the kayak. Water temperatures are NOT comfy yet, that's for sure!! So with a soaking wet shorts and blushing cheeks I was on my way!

Once I finally managed to get into the kayak, I had a nice paddle across the bay and got the bottle safely delivered. Luckily, the wind was with me on my way home, as I got a bit tired. Definately need to practise both entering the kayak and my paddling technique! :-)

Before I moved from London, I bought a set of wheels to my kayak. I've never actually used these before, so about time! And they're great! As my kayak is a decent sized sea kayak, it is fairly heavy for me to carry over some distance by myself (in addition to it being a bit long, so I bump it into everything!), so these wheels makes it a lot easier and more comfortable. I have also invested a small fortune in a new transportation system for the roof of my car, which lets me get the kayak on and off the roof of the car without too much trouble! Works great, but my credit card is still trying to recover...

Ekstremsportveko 2013

The last week of June, Ekstremsportveko is arranged at Voss. This is a festival for all adrenalin junkies and offers activities like river kayaking, basejump, climbing, paragliding etc. I got to visit the last couple of days of the festival. I've never attended it before, but will definately try to go next year! Great fun, crazy people!

One of the stunts we watched were two paragliders that connected in air and then rotated together downwards. Scary stuff! But as a good friend says; "paragliding is the closest humans get to fly like a bird!".

Saturday night we ended up on a party that lasted until too late (or early?!) Sunday morning. So my friend and I took our sleepingbags, mats and stuff and went to the beach to make pancakes for breakfast and get some highly needed sleep. It is soooo nice to sleep outside. Got a bit sunburned on my nose, but who cares... :-)

Busy day at work!

Today has been a busy day at work! I am hosting a Summer Camp for kids this week, and my plan is to take them hiking tomorrow and then sleep in a  lavvo, or outdoors if the weather is ok. But they are too young to carry all the equipment up to the camp, so I had to do that this morning. My backpack was so heavy I almost stumbled several times, and I took forever to get up the steep hill behind Haukeliseter. I must have looked like a complete idiot!! After two hours I was finally where I had planned to make the camp. So I put up my beloved tent and threw the lavvo and other stuff into it and then hiked back to Haukelister. Just in time to meet the first participants at the camp. And then I took them paddling at Ståvatn, the lake in front of Haukeliseter.

Looks like it will be some hectic, but fun days! And afterwards, a loooooong summer vacation is ready for me! Yeeeyyy!!!

I finally got around to take the first paddling trip of the season. I was sooo looking forward to g0 paddling between the ice flakes on the lake, but the ice is all gone now. Summer came too quickly for me!