Nookie Blog: NORGE v.2.013

After a wanky start of my season with several attempts to get to Switzerland (1st a broken car, 2nd fucked up back) I prepared myself with some physiotherapy and a surfing trip to Portugal for better days to come. For better days? For N.O.R.G.E! You love big water, huge slides and waterfalls? You have never been there? You should be ashamed! Do it! You will find gold out there!

Norway – the Beauty!

But let me begin back in Germany. At nearly every time I can’t deny you my strange way to travel. So if your vacation is always starting uncomplicated – just travel with me. I love the airlines and the airlines love me! The plan was to drop off our bags and boats at the night before the flight. So far, so good. But at the airport we got informed that our flight was canceled for the next morning! At this point I knew that’s gonna be the next mission. Rebooked the next morning we flew from Düsseldorf to Berlin to get our origin connecting flight from Berlin to Oslo. Fault – delay on the first one. Result – stuck in Berlin. So we got rebooked again. Now from Berlin via Munich (We created a new brand: “Layover-Beer”) to Oslo. Arrived in Oslo - that was absolutely clear - missing bags and boats. So we had to spend another night and day near the Airport to get our complete gear.

Odyssey: You can reach the North even through the South.

After our setup was completed we worked the way west to Voss where we destroyed ourselves the first time. Thilo was pinned into the rocks and looked like some kind of waterspout fountain with the result of bruised rips. I ended up with strained muscles after some slides on the Myrgdalselvi and not to forget a swim in a bigger hole. We were forced to rest for some days before we head to Sognedal.

After a warm up on the upper section we tackled the waterfall section. One of my favorite’s combos I’ve ever paddled. This triple combo, which is more or less a must-run, will conjure you a big smile in your face. Even after the combo there is no time to rest. Continuous Class V till the end, which was too heavy for me. The river reminded me that my muscles weren’t usable to 100%. I had to quit earlier after another swim. Haha. So I was forced to rest again. And of course I was forced to drink my bootys…

Paul lines it up!

Between the times on the rivers we used the bright nights for some competitions of Frisbee-Golf in absolutely amazing scenery of a high plateau. Playing this game at 1am accompanied by daylight is one of the wackiness you can get in Norway. Unique!

1am – The right time for a Frisbee game outside.

We decided to interrupt our roadtrip and head to Benji’s apartment, our basecamp in Voss, ready for the traditional barn party. Norway / Party / Beer… Beer?! Home brew... I still try to forget the taste combined with the price we’ve paid. It’s a sin to pay the fivefold for one beer. But as we’re Germans we‘re (nearly) always well organized: Duty Free Vodka! Mission past! Haha. After two more days in Voss at Marian’s and Ron’s house we were ready for our next roadtrip to Valldal.

Celebrate!

Norway is spacious but at the same time it is small. In the middle of nowhere we met some German friends for running the upper Valldolla for an awesome drop ’n pool play.

Yellow!

Still a little bit restrained we got our crime novel on the Stordalselvi finally. Huge Slides and nice drops in a steep gorge took us hours for scouting, safety and bombing. One horizon line after the other. After a great run with some portages we nodded at each other – back in combat mode. With that feeling we were ready for the last days and some more action on the Raundalselvi. Together with an ambitious group we checked the Tunneldrop, Kittelbreaker and the Nosebreaker accompanied by a beautiful sunny day. Bam, bam, bam!

Tunneldrop

Kittelbreaker

Nosebreaker

Do you know the Marine Section? Must have! I would advise you to run it with the locals. Less scouting, more just following = more winning! My point of the list before heading home was to run the Money Drop which I left aside the years before. Two laps of falling rounded out my trip.