Kayaking in April

[arendjr]

Hi all!

At the end of April I want to go kayaking for 3 or 4 days in Norway with a group of friends. I realize it will still be very cold then, so afterwards we want to rent a luxury house or a rorbu (preferably with a jacuzzi!) for a few days more We want to go to some places with a lot of nature and few people around, and sleep somewhere in the wild.

Some helpful folks at a Dutch forum already gave me some nice tips. Apparently the fjords are already very beautiful at this time of year (though I was warned for heavy winds) and somebody suggested a trip from Gudvangen to Fjaerlandsfjord where he kayaked before in July. Also the south coast was suggested.

What kind of advice or tips do you guys have? Are the fjords a good option during this time of year? Maybe you know some other nice places to go? Do you know maybe whether it's possible to rent kayaks in Gudvangen (for example) and return them in some other place so that we don't have to travel back?

Thanks in advance!

Arend.

[peik]

http://www.njord.as/en/?p=guida_turer

April is probably a good time for a kayak expedition. The water will be ice cold, but that will the situation in July as well because of lots of rivers with melting water from glaciers. In April there is usually not very much leaves on the trees yet. May and June are more beutiful. You should bring a good kayaking jacket and long underwear made from wool. The temperatures will be beetween 5-15 degrees celsius in the air. The fjords are quite wide and you can experience some waves du to wind. My opinion is that it is more interesting to paddle between all the small islands near Kristiansand or Hvaler outside Fredrikstad.

[Lars]

I live in the southern part of Norway - in Kristiansand. The weather can be very nice here in april, but the water is still cold. The last three years I have written guidebooks (www.padleguiden.no) for paddlers along the southern coast. They´re in norwegian, but I thing you can understand the maps/pictures and waypoints. You can look at some example-pages here:

http://www.padleguiden.no/exva.html

http://www.padleguiden.no/exaa.html

http://www.padleguiden.no/extel.html

Happy planning!

Regards

-lars

[peik]

Hi there, what about making an English version of all the south coast of Norway? I think foreign tourists feel less confident about the Norwegian nature and are more dependent on guide books than native paddlers...

By the way, lots of great pictures in those books.

[Lars]

Thx for feedback Peik!

I am planning an english version one time in the future, but nothing is timed yet.

The books are made in such a way that you are not dependent upon the norwegian language to find the nice spots!

[jhs]

Hei Arend.

I just want to recomend the northern parth of Norway for kayakk trips.

I live in Tromsø where we have a lot of nice areas for padeling, very close the town. In April you can do padeling one day and a ski trip up to over 1000 meters the next day

I have a good colection of pictures from north of Norway here:

(text is in Norwegian, but you will understand maps and pictures)

http://www.ryggsekk.net/turer/kajakkturer.htm (kayakk)

http://www.ryggsekk.net/turer/fjellturer.htm (walks, skiing)

Usefull information about Tromsø, Lyngen (English), se here:

http://www.destinasjontromso.no/

Merry Christmas and NewYear!

jan hugo s / www.ryggsekk.net