Day 13 - Friday - Raundelsaelva

We decided to do the section of the Raundelsaelva from Skiple to Urdland.

It started out as the ideal mixed-ability river trip. Something for everyone. Grade 3 to 4. Turned out to be 3 to 4 rolls for Baldrick, grade 3 to 4 swims for Lisa F, and 3 to 4 sections of grade 5 for the few left on the river. Don't ask Lisa G and Gwen about portages! Nice thing was, no-one was hurt, the road wasn't too far away to escape to (apparently on some of the portages).

There is an access point by a church for a lower grade paddle before you reach the grade 5 fall. (Ed - actually that only gives you about half a mile's trip). At the fall, Richard G broke his paddles and had to swim. At the time it was marked by a naked man; he might not be there next time. (Ed - something's getting a bit surreal here).

The  main features start with a Kiwi raft guide sandbagging like he was born to it. The first rapid is actually a grade 4 chute and stopper - this was done with incidents, all on video.

There's a chicken run on the next rapid with 3 stoppers, or 1 stopper on the main run. (?) The rest is grade 4 or 5 features, with easy bits between them. Some of the biggest stoppers I've seen, and a stonking chute: 100m long, 30 cumecs, 2m wide, 2 full-width stoppers. Clean your pants then what a rush - biggest, fastest, hardest water we've done. Dunno what happens if it goes wrong though.

The section ended at a 6m fall. The 'sick' line was far right, to miss the stopper, to far right is the kiwi line. Rich broke his paddle on this and had a 'sweet' rescue by Tony.

It was a fantastic river - maybe not for all. After 2 weeks paddling in Norway we were stoked, so we played on the lake by the hut, and hung our kit out to dry.

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Day 14 - Saturday - Headed home

Lazy day in Bergen, onto the Ferry, and the wonderful prospect of the fantastic 'pop group' again...

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