The journey home, after a week of no sleep it was time to head back south toward the ferry. But hey this is Norway, and no trip to Norway would be complete with out dropping into Voss, the extreme sports capital of Europe.
The Jori was at primo levels as we were driving past and it would have been rude not to have a sunset [at last 24 hour sun had driven us all mad!] blast down this class IV gem.
The pure amount of hours spent in the car and the flurry of rivers in the past couple of days meant we were all exhausted. With varrying excuses we had all opted to take a day out and rest up at Skjak - I think mainly the excuse to have a 'proper' bed, a shower and toilets ;o)
Skjak Wave - I think kayakers have been here before?
Soul surfing
An afternoon of surfing, sun bathing and beer managed to revive the group so we pushed onward
The brilliant Blue skies, caved in under thick black clouds, offering stunning landscapes as we crossed the Fjords
Then it broke, the storm set in and the only place we could find to sleep was unshelterred & above the snow line. As if a cold wet and windy night wasnt bad enough, we grew increasingly concerned as the lightening bounced off the mountain sides around us!
Dropping down into Voss the next day we were met with grey skies and high water levels, so getting some advice from Allan Ellard & the guys at Voss Rafting we headed to the 'play run' which was described as 'going off'. If you've been to the Play Run, you know, its about as far from a play run as you could possibly get! We arrived at the get in to find a nice high level with crystal teal water. Sods law, as soon as we start untieing the boats from the roof the mother of all thunder storms roll's in! Jumping in our boats the river quickly turns from teal to brown and thick with mud, slightly concerning when you see what happened here last year. Unfortunately we ended up walking most of the big rapids as they turned from pushy to leathal. But still, a good pushy big volume day, on river 20 cummecs above the max level in the guide book!
With a day and a half left we headed out to get another 2 rivers under our belts.
John Running the 2nd drop on the Myrk. Unfortunately Andy who was up next, missed the kicker and ended up in the big recirculating hole in the right of this picture. Lucky guy, lets just say it ended our day's paddling as we had to get him to the local quacks to get him checked over...
With 1/2 a day left before heading home we wanted one last river. With the help of Andy Phillips, what a day! The Stranda and Money drop...
Myself and Tres running the entry rapid above the bridge
Check out the colour of the water!
Inspecting Money Drop, not perfect levels meant getting the line spot on to miss a rock jutting out of the cliff face and a rock sticking out of the main fall, both of which impossible to see from the top! So a quick game of Paper, Sissors, Stone meant I was up first
Nailing the Line...
Or the full Veiw...
Andy boofing the sweet, sweet, drop below Money drop - so sweet we ran it twice!
Ah well, that's it the end of another trip.
Now back enjoying another British summer, dreaming of my next Norway trip...
Ben