Beneath an Arctic sun

 It is rounding up to be an amazing Trip with Jeff, not quite what we had originally planed though still awesome. Here is what Jeff has written so far on the trip as we head off. you can read more of his posts on our trip here I will try and write some myself if I can soon.

Jeff writes

 

" So we left from Someroya, the weather is perfect, in fact you would not believe we are well above the Arctic Circle, 069 degrees 27.98' N to be precise. We are wearing dry suits and boy are we regretting it, it has to be 18 degrees + and we are sweating buckets. The skies are clear, the seas are calm and at last we are making our way south towards Vesteralen and the Lofotens......

Paddling south towards the Lofotens, Jaime in his Trak

Our first nights camp is in a small hamlet, five or six cabins, dotted above a small beach, the map says Breidvika, but the houses don't seem to warrant a name, it must be the bay that is named, I wonder what it means. We pull our kayaks high above the tideline and set up camp - tent up, stove on, fire lit, on the way across the bay I managed to catch a couple of Sei, they will enter the pot tonight and supplement our Lofoten Fish soup and broccoli. We wander down the beach, Jaime has found the skull of an Orca, or that is what we believe it to be, the jaw has large recesses for the teeth, there are numerous vertebrae laying around and other cetacean body parts.

                                                                           Orca Skull

We retire about midnight and as soon as I'm horizontal I'm pushing out the 'Z'ds' it seems only minutes before I am hearing Jaime packing away his sleeping bag, morning already? did I really sleep?

We have a lazy start to the day, I spend an hour or so, meditating on the beach, feeling the wind on the back of my neck, serving to cool down the early effects of the sun.  Jaime is doing his yoga routine, I join him and stretch out myself a little on the patio of one of the cabins.

We set off, gentle paddling beneath a strong Arctic sun, we see a seal, a Porpoise and the Devils Mouth mountain ridge, just before we arrive in Bergsfjord, we are back at Krakesslot, this time arriving as we should, from the sea................"

                                                                    Sun protection essential

Posted 17th May 2013 by Expedition Paddler

Heading South from Tromso.

May 15^th Tromso Norway

 

It is 12am and it there is still light in the sky; sitting in the hold of a small live aboard boat, half asleep, I am writing this. Outside the water is glass calm yet the boat creeks gentle with the oceans pulse, small hills surround the area and framing the Fjords are covered in sugar white snow. While it looks like a winter scene every time i look outside the air is cool but not cold, the warmth of spring is upon the arctic Norwegian air.

I arrived here in Tromso Norway yesterday after a 24 hour travel day from Nanaimo BC Canada, collecting my array of bags, consisting of 2 large bags containing TRAK Kayak and expedition gear, 2 carry on pieces of a medium sized back pack and Kayak deck bag as a personal item, I walked out into the midnight un to find Jeff Allen waiting with a clean Shaven grin. I was a bit shocked as last time i had seen Jeff 6 months earlier he had a full beard “ I just shaved it off this morning actually” Jeff stated with a chuckle “I was sick of being thought of as 60 something”.

Loading into the outside car I was also shocked to find a RockPool Taran on the roof of the car, the Taran was a very fast high volume sea kayak, where as the TRAK was a low Volume 16 foot folding kayak, I had been expecting to be paddling along side Jeff in a SKUK Explorer... Alas this was not going to be the case. After some brief chit chat and a drive across the Islands that make up the area of Tromso, Jeff unloaded me outside a Marina and took me on board a boat owned by Bjorn ----- of www.bjornkajakks.no who was putting us up here for as long as we needed before setting of on our trip by Kayak along the coast. Bjorn had been supporting Jeff a lot over the last few years as he attempted to Circumnavigate the Scandinavian Peninsula. I was now joining Jeff to either head north paddle around Nordkapp to finish the coastline of Norway, or to head south and paddle out and along the Lofoten Island Chain, we had to decide which one in the next day.

After a eggs sandwich, a good night sleep and a hearty porridge breakfast, the next day found us driving about town, buying food, fishing lures and visiting Bjorn at his underground bunker Kayak shop. Bjorn had purchased and old military bunker from the government and set up his online Kayakshop storage here, and fondly called it “The Cave”. We then rolled back to the boat, made a great meal of Fish burgers and sat down with Bjorn and some maps, and decided we would head south to the Lofotens as the weather for the north did not look good for the next week or two and we did not want to get stuck in bad weather and not paddle. Thus our course is set, we pack and set off from SummerOya in the morning. I am excited and happy to go paddling, to camp out, to fish and to just take in Norway in a new way (it has been over 3 years after I last visited read about that first day here ) and to see Lofotens from the northern coast.

Any way my eyes are barely staying open I must sleep..... tomorrow we paddle.

 

World Wild Adventures Ltd is Born and the SKC Kayak Symposium

 

Here I am in the UK for Business; meeting with my Friend and new business partner Rhoda Mcgivern, to solidify the foundations of our new adventure travel company “World Wild Adventures”! Some of you may ask “New? ....But ‘World Wild Adventures’ is what you have always called your little project company!”

And in essence those people are right. My hobby concept business was Called World Wild Adventure and was started in my mind in 2006 and put into practice in 2008, though the official Birth of the full grown company (now known as World Wild Adventures Ltd or WWA) is a new birth of that business, as of this year. The funny thing is that Rhoda also had started a hobby business about the same time and called it “Worldwild-Adventures” and that is how we meet (I found Rhoda and her company while Google-ing what I thought was my Unique business name) and came to realise after talking for a while and meeting in the UK, we had a vision for the same business. Now here we are over two years later with a business loan and partnership, starting our UK based Company; one that will merge my passion for kayaking and water, with Rhoda’s passion for bush craft and tracking, with the want to help create and solidify sustainable cultural tourism with a reflective adventure educational twist.

Through “Discovery of Adventure” (challenging one’s self to risk in order to gain in-valuable unique experience and growth), “Clarity of Old Growth” (Exposure to old knowledge, Skills and cultural beliefs of ancient tribes), and “Freedom to Slow” (being able to be in the moment), we promise to give you Amazing trips that you will take your breath away. The world is full of amazing moments and Journeys and we wish to help facilitate those and share them with whoever wishes' to take the step onto a wild journey of discovery with us.

Rhoda and I took a step into a journey of discovery when setting up the business over the last couple of weeks, by taking the offer to work with a Shamanistic business mentor to help define and solidify the powerful intent and future for the company. “A bit Woo Woo!” you may say, and perhaps it is, though through this system we were encouraged to really be true to what we want to make the company and its potential, plus embracing the ancient cultural knowledge that we hope to discover with other cultures on our adventures. The process was very much structured like any business development plan would be, just with a more human touch and a fusion of ancient knowledge. This process also worked towards discovery our logo and colours, so stay tuned for more developments on that, but for now here are the significant Images that are playing into the formation of WWA Ltd.

In between weeks of working with Rhoda on the business nitty gritty (while she balanced being pregnant and having a great family to look after, and I slept on their fold out coach in the lounge), I found time to head to southern Cornwall to “The 6^th Sea Kayaking Cornwall Symposium 2012”. I had been here two years ago roughly when I had first meet with Rhoda, and now I was returning again, and again with the TRAK Folding Kayak. However this time round I had the whole week to do an Advanced training course and film some stuff with Jeff Allen and Simon Osborne for the TRAK Files series and another film project I am working on. Plus I even got integrated into the BCU system.

The week was good fun, catching up with old friends I meet last time I attended, meeting new ones, Learning loads, paddling some big water, Doing a talk about my New Zealand expedition of 2011 and the hard and amazing lessons that where learnt (www.kayakdownundernz.blogspot.com), and paddling for hours in the middle of the night practicing night emergency incidents and Navigation. One of the coolest things was pushing the TRAK Folding kayak to do the skill set required by BCU 5 star training, and it handling it.

We dragged the TRAK up rocks, did rough water rescues from it, and to it, Rolled it in surf and rock gardens, Rock hopped and Surfed, as well as towed people through surf and during the night with it. This boat is truly awesome and has very little down falls as a folding boat in comparison to the hard-shells. That being said as with any boat it is the paddlers comfort and skill that sets the stage for the boat to perform, but it is good to know she can take me where I want to go. That being said, I finally broke some things, during the surf sessions and rolling I cracked the seat a little (this didn’t affect me paddling on though it was a break), I loosened the modified thigh braces from all the prying against them (by tightening the screws the issue appears fixed) and the deck line pulled free form the deck mount during a hit from a wave while doing a tow rescue. The main thing with the deck line mount was my spare Northern Light Greenland Paddle was stored on the bow, and when the big wave hit (as I was trying to create counter pull against the surf for the boats being towed in), the force of the wave lifted the paddle so hard the deck line pulled free of it securing tab;“No biggie though” and it should be easily fixed.

 

The whole week was one of my funnies social paddling adventures I have ever had, and I can suggest to anyone who may be looking to learn advanced rough water paddling and incident management skills, that if you get a chance to train with Jeff Allen, do so, he is a huge resource of knowledge and ability.

Contact Jeff at Sea Kayaking Cornwall

And or look out for him at a Kayak Symposium somewhere in the world near you.

My time Sea kayaking ended with a blast, when we were pulled out of the surf by police with whistles in order for the Navy bomb squad to set off to old World War II air bombs, that where found in a near by Paddock. Quite interesting to watch and here the explosion.

 

 

 

Any way I have had 20 days here in the UK and It is time for me to head back to Canada, tonight I am on the Sleeper Train to London (very Luxurious really, and cheaper than a hotel, plus you get a bit of free food and hot drinks). I had to say good bye to Rhoda early and Rhoda’s dad dropped me at the Station, as Rhoda went into labour with her second child a couple of hours before I was due to leave, unfortunately I can’t stay to meet the newest member of the World Wild Adventure Team, though I am sure I will have much to do with him in the future. So as I leave Cornwall someone new arrives into this world of wonder and adventure, what a lucky boy he is!

J

Base Jumping in Norway With Thomas

Here is a fun Vid I put together about an adventure with my Base Jumping Co-worker and Friend, Thomas Berg Hestad, in Norway.

Leaving Norway

This is a bit of a leap from my last post, I have let my blog slip behind by about 3 months, and I feel I need to put up a time relative post. Don’t worry though I will continue to fill in the gaps for Norway and they will be seen chronologically, may make viewing a bit hard to find the new entry’s but we will see how we go.
Well it has been a great trip to Norway, a good mix of work, play, learning and knowing.

I am heading now to the UK, landing in Heathrow and heading to Bristol to catch up with an old friend Fiona and her Boyfriend Stu. From Bristol I plan to catch a plane to Split, Croatia, hopefully meet up with a friend Tania and her Boyfriend and go sailing for a day or two, I then plan to jump in my Trak and just Kayak out around the islands, explore, meet locals and see what can be found. I am in much need of my own space and a solo trip, so, though I sent out invites to join me, I was quite happy no one could take me up on it. Solo trips are a much needed journey and they tend not to happen enough! Split is in central Croatia and I hope to travel north wards to see some of the islands around Rab, then head south along the coast as far as I can get in my Trak, with hopes of making it to Dubrovnik ( a fair distance and maybe not possible, but thankfully there are always buses). It will be a nice contrast to the cold chilly waters of the North Atlantic and I look forward to being able to walk around in a pair of shorts and nothing else.
 
I will fly back from Dubrovnik Croatia to Heathrow again, from there, catch a bus to Cornwall where there is a sea kayak symposium happening, I hope to meet some new friends and learn some new open water skills with the English, before then heading back to Bristol via bus. I hope then to fly up to Scotland to meet up with some other old friends, and maybe kayak, though also maybe just enjoy a journey without lugging all my gear around. Traveling light is a wonderful experience; having lugged 60 kgs of gear around beforehand makes it even more so! Sea kayaking in Scotland looks amazing though and the storm paddling could be great in October, so we will see what shapes up!
Planning this next stint has been a bit of a fluster, as all my spare time over the last few months went into the Lofoten Trip I just got back from with my two great clients Lyn and Denise. I have spent a lot of time on the computer in the last 40 hours looking at what I want to do and trying to find the best schedule of flights, fairs, departure points, arrival points, bus times ,cost and time analysis of flights versus ground transport ,etc, though it seems to be all working out well. I find it a real novelty how flights in England can be far cheaper and of course quicker than taking a bus!

I had big plans for Europe (as some of you may remember), though time, money, personal life and the looming and exciting 4 month kayak trip along the east coast of New Zealand starting in December, have created a conservative view in my head now. I want to have quality experiences in Croatia and the UK, and not try and fit in Spain and Morocco and Greece and........ You can see where this is going. It is so easy to bite of more than you can chew and you never get the taste of what you are eating.


After Europe I will head back to British Columbia on the 19^th October and begin my training for my NZ Expedition which will be a very challenging 4 month trip along exposed surf battered coastline. The scale of the challenge is now hitting me and all I can now think about is preparing for it. BC in the fall and winter will provide a great training ground for me, with great surf beaches to train on, cold weather, storms, and expansive places to try out my gear and ideas on with loaded multi day trips. This environment should hopefully make the summer environment I will face in NZ quite enjoyable and have me prepared for the more challenging southern stretches on the NZ coast I will be hitting in the southern autumn.

The Site for the NZ expedition is up www.kayakdownundernz.blogspot.com, telling all the details so far of what the trip is planned to be, who could be involved. It will develop more as things come together so check it out regularly. I will also have updates posted to my “World Wild Adventure” blog and the “Yak’ About the World” Blog and my Face Book pages. Oh and if any of you would like to join me on the trip or part of it, let me know and we may be able to make it happen.
 
Keep dreaming, it’s what influences reality!
Jaime