#sjoa

The Sjoa river, Norway

Sjoa Rafting, Norway                                                                           July 8, 2016

Norway Part 3 - Road Trip

Having left Voss after paddling the Raundal in the morning we decided to head north allowing levels to drop for Veko and our return. Our first stop was Sogndal, a fairly large (for Norway) town next to the largest fjord in Norway, to get there we had to drive for about 2 hours with a fairly efficient ferry in between. Our plan was to paddle the Upper Sogndal, which we knew would be on the higher side but had checked the gauges yesterday and it wasn't stupidly high. Sam and I got on and quickly found out it was higher than expected, which resulted in quite a few beatdowns for Sam and some scarily large river wide holes... But no one swam and we made it to the bottom with a lot of scouting and a sense of happy to be alive. We later found out it was on 22 cumecs which is above the warning level in the guidebook... nonetheless it all went. Hence we didn't check the Lower section and drove up to the Horndola valley a further 3 hours away and camped there.

After a somewhat cold night and Nat getting attacked by cows, we concluded that the Horndola sounded a bit rubbish and with psyche running low, had a quick scout of the Langdalselva which also looked too low. We drove to the Bygdelva Race course section which looked to be at a good level but no one was really that fussed about getting on as it didn't look that great really so instead we go the ferry to Valldal and went and paddled the Myklebustra or Mickey Mouse Section. This is a short, low volume run characterised by long slides, with a particular standout which we sent Nat down blind. It then started raining and we decided to round the day off by paddling the Middle Valldola, an easier section which was on the lower side of things. Sam was particularly keen on paddling this river as he had been searching for some grade 3/4 after his scary experiences the day before. Now it was all going very smooth with Sam proclaiming it as 'his favorite river in Norway' until about 500m from the end there was a harder rapid the guidebook had described. It was a fairy large walled in ledge drop, I ran it blind and gave a signal to the others to boof it, however, Sam was in play mode and tried to rock slide above it and landed in the hole and was quickly followed by Nat. What followed was some creekboat freestyle and after a fairly lengthy beatdown Sam got out (Nat got released fairly quickly). With it now raining in full swing, we camped in a fairly dubious place near the take out for the Upper Valldola.

The morning was very cold, which made getting on the river fairly hard work, however, Sam and I cracked on and blasted down the Upper Valldola, which is the most defined pool-drop river that I have come across with all the rapids around grade 4 but a few portages too. We then headed up the Troll Pass and took standard tourist photos at the head of the valley. We then cracked on towards the Rauma, only slowed by the never ending number of German death box motor homes. Thinking that the Rauma was fairly high, we didn't even look at the Lower section and went straight up and paddled the Upper section (turns out it was at a high but runnable level). Persuading Sam and Nat that the river was fine 'because Deb Pinniger takes children down it, so it must be good to go' we bashed down it. The section is, again, pool drop in nature with a few really clean boof ledges such as Mini Huka Falls. At the take out, some friendly Americans gave us some Anti-Gyro powder so we disinfected our boats and cracked on to Sjoa.

Having assured the others that the kayak camp was a thing of luxury, it didn't disappoint with an indoor area and wi-fi. We spent the next day cruising on the Sjoa from Asengjuvet through the playrun down through Amot in the evening. Having reunited with Kristoff the German, he swam on the last rapid. Enjoying the slightly more relaxing atmosphere in Sjoa, we headed up to the Ulla the next day with high expectations with all the hype around it. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the hype, with the slides and falls being super easy point and shoot rapids and the bits inbetween being so scrapy that I was worried for my boat. In the afternoon, we did more laps on Amot, with Kristoff swimming under the undercut and taking a nasty beating in some boils, but we rescued him and his boat, but his paddles were long gone (probably for the best...). For our final day in the Sjoa area we headed over to do the Finna gorge, a long section of continuous grade 4 through a pretty gorge, unfortunately, it also has one of the worst shuttles ever for biking at about 9km long and mostly up hill, not fun! In the evening, we went for an Amot lap and Simon of Gene17 fame joined us but boofed in my face (painful!).

Setting off the next morning (after fixing a flat tyre), we headed over to Lom and Sam and I paddled the Skjoli which was on the low side but a lot of fun. It is somewhat like the Gyr, if the Gyr was steeper, longer and harder. A bit like kayak pinball, hence it only took 40 mins to run... We then headed back to Sogndal, which was now a lot lower, and paddled the waterfalls on the Lower section. Nat learnt on the second waterfall that wearing a factory second helmet was probably not the best idea, after it got ripped off when going deep, luckily we managed to recover it and get it back on her before the third. I boofed the third a bit too hard and head butted my paddles, leaving me with a large lump in the middle of my head. It should also be noted that you should not park and huck the waterfalls by themselves as there is noway out after the third unless you like climbing slippery rocks, up to your eyes in stinging nettles with snakes lurking around and considerable rock fallage. At around 11pm we made it back to Voss, excited for Veko the next day!