Upper Valldola

After the Sjoa Festival Benji was supposed to be heading down to Southern Norway but luckily his car had to go to the mechanics therefore grounding him in Sjoa for an extra three days. Jakub happened to have 3 days off work so the three of us went on a mini mission to paddle around Valldal and catch up with some of Jakub's Czech and Slovak friends.

The view from our breakfast spot

After camping at a beautiful spot near the Rauma we headed up the Trollstigen road and despite no cellphone reception we managed to arrive at the Valldola put in at the same time as team Honza. As not all of them were paddling they sussed our shuttle for us and for once we put on dry gear while the sun beamed down, happy days.

Honza on one of the slides

Jakub stoked to be off work

Benji on yet another cool rapid

Going for the wave wheel...?

Take#2 he styles it

The Upper Valldola is a sweet pool drop style run with lots of cool slides, nice boofs, and a very interesting gorge in the middle. We had a nice mellow run down the section and even did some laps on a beautiful boof drop with the boys making some entertaining attempts at wave wheels.

Benji giving the wave wheel a go

Tight mini canyon

Honza styling the boof into a tight gorge

Jakub on another tight boof

Grass roof house!

Gyrodactylus salaris - a bit of a problem in Norway

After a very enjoyable trip down the Valldola we had a delicious lunch by the fjord, travelling with Benji is great, he is constantly creating tasty meals and is never without a handy supply of sjokolade. We then decided to head up to the Myklebust run. 

Some funky architecture

Crazy gorge in between upper and middle Valldola

After some confusion regarding the put in to the Myklebust we put on a bit above the race section and found some tight steep boulder gardens before the river enters into an awesome mini gorge. At the end of the mini gorge we found the normal put in to the Myklebust race section and it was awesome! Nice boofs and amazing slides, this run will not fail to put a smile on any kayaker's face. Unfortunately slides don't always go down that well with already welded boats but nothing a big roll of duct tape couldn't temporarily fix. Luckily we caught up with Jakub's Slovak friends who happened to have a small welding torch so my boat was watertight again in no time.

The put in to the Myklebust section

Boof!

Jakub being a poser

Friendly sheep checking out our gear.