Norway Part 4 - Veko Week
Getting into Voss late on Sunday night, we had a relaxed start to the day and after checking gauges and looking for other boaters cars (to no avail) we decided to go have a look at the Nosebreaker waterfall high up on the Raundalselvi. Nosebreaker is a high volume 10m fall with a lead in where you have to ride up onto a diagonal pillow and then either go deep or boof. We all aimed to plug it and go deep. However, when it came to Sam's go, he didn't ride up onto the curler and so panicked and charged so hard at it that he accidentally did a huge boof landing over flat, but it looked really cool so a win for him!
After meeting some Aussies at the car park we joined up with them and went to look at the Tunnel Drop on the Rjuande tributary of the Raundal, an 80m long slide through a giant tunnel ending in a big pool, fairly straight forward if you don't flip. Only one of them was keen, so the four of us cracked on and bashed down it. It was a fun rapid with a lot speed and brief white out in the middle due to spray before getting shot across the pool. With Nat and Sam now tired, I joined the Australians for a trip down the Upper Raundal or Mjofell section, in the late afternoon. This section is 11km long with mostly grade 2-3 interspersed with 6-7 big grade 4-5 rapids including a really clean 4m boof ledge and ending at Nosebreaker. The section was alright but not something I would rush back to do again. We ended the day chilling in the Veko tent for film night.
The next morning Sam and I linked up with Lee, Rory and Beth Hume and headed in to the Marinejuvet or Marine Canyon section of the Raundalselvi which got it's name when a platoon of marines died trying to raft it. This section is amazing with a clean 6-7m fall kicking it off and then continuous class 4-4+ rapids in a beautiful gorge. Unfortunately a rather nasty walled in hole caught Beth and sent her back looping which resulted in a swim, but all kit was got and she was flushed swiftly. This section is probably my favorite of all the runs we did in Norway and seems to get little publicity, definitely a must do!
The next day we decided to head over to the Myrkdal valley, on the way we stopped off at the infamous Money Drop on the Stranda. This drop looks pretty manky on first glances, being walled in on both sides, however we had been assured that it was really easy and so all got on with it and can verify that as far as drops go it is definitely super easy. As long as you line up right at the top (to avoid two rocks) you just curl up and plug or attempt to boof, then roll up at the bottom. We then got to the get-in to the Lower Myrkdal and after much persuasion I got Sam to join me (on the basis that we would 'go really slow and inspect everything', Sam's motto for paddling) as it happens we also found a keen German called Phillipe who was happy to show us the lines. The Lower Myrkdal is probably one of the hardest runs we did in Norway with lots of big slides, a couple of portages and a lot of big towbacks. I got a bit of a working on this river when I decided to run the Karma Cow slide combo (it was on the higher side of runnable) and after clipping a rock on the top of the third slide ended up running it backwards and trying to back boof the large hole at the bottom. Funnily enough, this didn't work and I ended up sideways in the hole. Luckily a quick line from Sam, who was on safety, got me out. I was pretty grateful for this as we thought it could probably hold a swimmer. More carnage occurred later on too, as on the rapid called Dirtbag Diver, Sam flipped on the entry slide and ended up getting caught in a walled in hole, I then boofed on him. After taking a considerable beating, Sam swam but we got his kit and him back to the side swiftly. Despite this, I would love to run this river again as we didn't manage to get another chance and it was pretty amazing, with a lot of good rapids. That night, after getting kicked out of the festival tent, we moved camp to the more communal kayaker camp on the other side of the lake at the back of a farmers field, here we linked up with the North Wales Mega Train.
The next morning, Sam and I joined the nine strong Mega Train and cracked on down a rather high level Trainstation section of the Raundalselvi, a quite tricky section with some must-run rapids and a couple of huge holes and portages. Despite such a large group, there was little beatering with only one swim. We then carried on through the Rafting section, running Timber Hole, which was great fun at the lower levels and getting out after the Parmafossen fall. In the afternoon, we joined Nat again and we ran Money Drop into the Lower Stranda which was very cruisy at the lower levels! Unfortunately, our escapades on Money Drop seemed to have inspired many others who had been watching to have a go and after running the shuttle, the ensuing carnage provided some good viewing.
For our final day, I rejoined the Mega Train for a trip down a high water Marine Canyon (Locals had said not to paddle it as it was too high, but Jamie seemed to think otherwise), as it turned out higher water provided an amazing water level with little change to the overall run (just a slightly stickier walled in hole) and no carnage. In the afternoon, I joined up with Sam and Nat who had been enjoying morning cafe time for a quick blast down the Upper Myrkdal, this was a lot cruisier than before, but unfortunately Nat flipped above the big slide and ran most of it on her head, injuring her thumb, but still managed to carry on to the takeout. A good end to a low level week in Voss.
Beginning the long journey home, we broke down the day by stopping at Dagali for a quick blast down the Zambezi section of the Numedalslagen, a big volume, 10km long section similar in nature to the Otra river that I worked on last year. It turned out to be fairly straight forward but good fun. We ended the day camping in a patch of grass in the ferry port car park in Larvik with the continued fear of getting told off.
After a further day of travelling it was all over and we were back in the UK, ending an amazing four weeks of boating. A big thanks to all those we paddled with, in particularly Jamie, Dan, Sam and the rest of the Mega Train for letting us join you on the river as well as Sam and Nat for coming with me and putting up with getting dragged on rivers when scared. This will probably be the last post for a while, due to the unfortunate nature of working in the UK for summer, but I aiming to head to Nepal for a couple of months over winter, so more updates then!
