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Published: March 2nd 2020
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Last night we sailed to Kristiansund and were in port from 10.30pm-1.30am, but no one disembarked (assume most passengers were fast asleep). Today was Trav's birthday and I'd booked an excursion - kayaking on the River Nidelva (known as River Nid), and we were both super excited. After another huge breakfast, we layered up in preparation for the -1 degrees we'd been advised to expect at Trondheim.
Disembarking the ship, it was snowing quite heavily and there were various excursions on offer and people were being directed to buses or taxi's. There was only 5 of us doing the kayaking and after a mix up with the taxi, it eventually arrived and off we went. Along with Trav and I, there was a guy called Lars from Germany and a father and daughter, Kevin and Vanessa from Auckland, New Zealand.
The taxi drove for a good 15minutes and then we arrived at a marina which was deserted. The driver rung someone and found out we were at the wrong place, so off we went again, driving for another 15minutes or so. All the while, we wondered if this driver had any idea where we were meant to be going,
and would we still get to do the kayaking (considering we'd already lost 30minutes).
Suddenly, the taxi stops in the middle of nowhere and announces we were here, but we had to walk down a hill because he couldn't drive down there due to the snow. Out we all get and head down the hill, arriving at the bottom and there's no signs, no one waiting for us. What the hell is going on??? Trav and Lars head off in one direction, and Vanessa, Kevin and I in another direction. Suddenly, we come across a guy near a small shed and he tells us he's been waiting for us for the past 45minutes!!! We tell him about the taxi driver and he's not happy, they'd already changed taxi companies due to their incompetence and now this one has made us late too.
Rush, rush, rush now - quickly get into the dry suits, put our gear in drypacks, grab a bottle of water and a chocolate bar and out we go. Our instructor Filip asks us to choose a kayak (double one for the pairs and a single one for Lars) and drag it down to the riverbank.
Next, we get instructions on how to get into the kayak safely - Trav sits at the back and is the motor and I'm at the front and called the navigator. Filip then pushs us into the water, and we practice using the oars and try to synchronise our paddling.
It's hard to describe just how peaceful and quiet it is - there's just the six of us (including Filip) on the water, and it's still snowing and the scenery is breathtaking. It's a struggle trying to paddle when all I want to do is take photo's to try to capture moment. The constant removal of my gloves doesn't help my frozen fingers, and I trying to keep my camera and mobile phone dry too.
We paddle under a couple of bridges and next thing you know we're surrounded by the many historical and colourful wooden houses located along the River Nidelv. Filip gets us to stop so he can takes photo's of us individually and as a group (do you know how hard it is to turn the kayaks around and all line up together?). We even had a few people wave and take our photo's from
the bridge as we paddled along, made us feel slightly famous. We later find out the lady on the bridge is Filip's colleague and she's actually been taking photo's and video of us too.
Before we knew it, Filip told us we were at the end of the tour and instructed us to paddle towards at small wooden jetty where we had to roll out of the kayak onto a floating pontoon (not the most graceful exit). Dragging our kayaks out of the water, we peeled off our drysuits and quickly exchanged email addresses for the swapping of photo's and video before hopping into the taxi that was waiting to take us back to ship. Made it, just, with a few minutes to spare.
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