When camp songs come in handy...

After our excursion on the fjord boat on our first day and then our day-long hike the next, DIS had a different way for us to experience the fjords planned for Friday: a kayaking adventure! At noon we met at a tiny boat house a short walk away from our hostel. The sun was shining and the water seemed relatively calm. I was excited! It had been a lonnnng time since I'd been kayaking.

When we got into the boat house, we were told to drop our bags and pick up a wetsuit! That's right... wetsuits! Given that the water is absolutely freezing cold, the company equipped us with wetsuits, splash-skirts (which I will explain shortly), and even these special waterproof pullover jackets with sleeves that make it [almost] impossible for water to leak in. I could tell right away that this was going to be the most intense kayaking experience I'd ever had. I was right.

Companions looking around the inside of the boathouse to find wetsuits...

...and attempting to put them on

Once we were all suited up, we met our guides. There was a young woman who was Norwegian and had a very Norwegian name (which I can't remember), an older man named Roger who was also Norwegian (and to whom one of my classmates asked, "Are you a troll?" to which another classmate urgently whispered, "You can't ask that!") and an American named Montana (though he was from Wisconsin... hmmmm). We introduced ourselves by sharing our names, where we are from, whether we had "paddling experience" and favorite ice cream flavors (mine is pistachio).

Introductions 

We then moved into our main preparations! We paired up in groups of two because all of the kayaks were tandem (for two people). We also learned that they had rudders, which the person in the back of the kayak was responsible for using to steer. My partner told me she had never been in a kayak before, so I offered to take the back seat. When we were getting the instructions for how to step into our splash skirts was when I started to get overwhelmed: a tandem kayak with a rudder that I need to steer in a boat with someone who has never been in a kayak before in a giant group on waters that were suddenly looking rather turbulent... I was not yet panicked, but was getting a tad bit anxious.

Roger (the troll?) helped some of us to get into our kayaks. The woman in the full-on yellow body suit on the right is not in fact a fire fighter/emergency rescuer, but is our other instructor. Talk about intense!

Here are some people wearing their splash skirts, which you put on like a skirt (though it looks incredibly weird)  and then attach to the area all around your seat to make a tent around your waist. This is supposed to prevent water from splashing in when you paddle. It worked reasonably well.

Faith, Mad, and I are ready for adventures!

After emergency exit drills, we carried our boats down to the waters' edge, hopped in, and were pushed off! I have no photos of the next 30 minutes because I was far too busy trying to prevent us from A) getting blown into the shore, B) getting completely left behind, and/or C) perishing at sea from exhaustion/frustration.

The one photo that I managed to take during our paddle out

The difficulties that we encountered were the result of two main problems:

1. The wind: We were heading directly into the wind so there was not even a moment of relief from paddling. We were being blown into the shore and backwards the entire time we headed out. 

2. Inexperience: I had never been in a boat with a rudder before (so my steering was a bit unsteady) and my partner had never been in a kayak or canoe and was therefore (totally understandably/justifiably) unable to figure out how to paddle. At first there was a lot of dipping of the paddle into the water on either side with little to no actual pushing/pulling happening. Through gritted teeth and between deep breaths I said things like, "Are you getting much resistance when you pull?" Eventually though, she did figure it out (probably more quickly than I would have). 

In addition to getting free makeovers from campers (that's
me in the middle), being a counselor gave me a
repertoire of camp songs for any occasion!

We fell further and further behind the rest of the group and eventually were left with only Faith and Mad (who were in the another kayak taking its time). I felt myself growing increasingly frustrated and distraught, and wondered whether we were ever going to actually make it to the shore up ahead. This was when my history of being a camp counselor came in handy! If there's one thing I've learned from years of working at summer camps it's that if ever you need to make it through a physically demanding and/or frustrating activity and are lacking motivation, there is always a camp song to help you! I led the four of us in some of my all time favorite camp song classics: the Princess Pat, Baby Shark, and Mad even led one from her days of camp. With the help of good old fashioned distraction, we safely made it to shore!

The view as we climbed from our kayaks up the mountain

My partner and I hopped out of our kayak, and grabbed our packs from the drybags we'd used to keep them safe. It was then time to hike up a rather steep mountain for lunch and a view of a waterfall. I was so relieved to be back on land that I suddenly had had a surge of energy I led the group up the mountain with the guide!

Up and up we go

We made it to a beautiful cliff and then divided ourselves into two groups: the first began lunch right away and the second (which I was in) headed a bit farther up to the side of a giant waterfall.

SO spectacular  

The cool thing about this waterfall was that we were standing next to it rather than at the base of it (as we usually have). The guide told us that had we come 2 weeks earlier, there would not have been a waterfall at all because it was made entirely of snowmelt. Had we come a few weeks later it would have been all dried up. We felt the mist on our faces and stopped to take in the scene (and a few pictures).

Wetsuit down around my waist, many layers, and big smile

 We then traded places and devoured our lunches!

Back down we go

 ...And we returned to the water. The paddle back was infinitely more enjoyable because not only were we reenergized from lunch, but we also had the wind at our backs.

We decided to see if we could float back to the boat house in a giant mass of kayaks

Check out the surroundings 

I commented that we probably looked like an oversized floating banana if viewed from above

 Eventually though, we decided to paddle. Both my partner and I had made huge leaps in our mastery of essential kayaking skills, though I will admit that going with the wind certainly helped too! ;-)

We pulled over by some rocks to listen to a troll story from Montana (note: the story was not about Roger)

We made it safely to shore, stepped out of our spray skirts, washed down our kayaks, and headed back to the hostel area for dinner. I was tired, happy, and proud of my strength and spirit! :-)