Etter å ha hatt youtube-nostalgi i noen dager må jeg endelig innse det: padlesesongen er gone and away. Til helgen drar jeg opp på fjellet for å lese til eksamen, og tar med meg skiene. Takk for en flott vår, sommer og høst til alle gode padlevenner. Heldigvis kan jeg allerede se frem til Korsika i påsken også neste år.

Jonny stuper ned fra "The Rocket" i Fium Orbo i Korsika påsken 09. Ved siden av: gale franskmenn.

Mitt dypeste støttetak i løpet av sesongen. Også i Jordalselva

Ula, or Stor-Ula, starts at the heart of Rondane, Norway oldest national park. The 500 metres you have to carry your your boat towards the put in is nothing but excitement for the scenic view of Rondeslottet and Rondetinden you towards. The first section is an easy but pleasant ride. After the portage at Brudesløret, the fun starts with some technicl boulder gardens, followed by the Ula-slides. Straight after the slides, there is a technical drop of 3 metres, which you do not want to hit left on the rocks.

Lars is walking to the put-in.

Following that there is some smaller drops and setions unti you get to the Ula-falls: three successive waterfalls. The first one is exceptionally airy, but the last one is probably higher. They are all exceptionnally beautiful waterfalls, just make sure not to continue down the fourth.

The landscape around the Rizzanese was gorgeous. However, it is being dammed, so it will not be around for so long. Thats a shame.

The first big drop of Rizzanese

Water level:    100cm at bridge by Zoza
Grade:        First section 7km: IV-IV+ (V) and second section 7km: II – III
Time:        7h
Put in:        At bridge by zoza
Take out:    The next road bridge, after
Possible take out after first section: by walk-bridge at right (?)

A fun jumping site.

A very nice river, with an intense drop & pool section in first section. It has some interesting drops, including a 10m fall. It then flattens out at second section, a perfect place to chat about drops in first section.

First starts pretty easy with rapids and some small drops, it then steadily gets tougher with a 6m drop, until a 2m drop introduces the 10m. Possible portage on left. Don’t trust the ropes blindly; one of them was broken when we were there (5th April, 09).

You do want to keep your shoulder alright during this run, one member had to carry his kayak 300m up out of the gorge.

After this there was easy rapids, but two very sticky stoppers at end of drops. The first one is doable if you bouffe it right. The second one was after a long, III rapid. It had a 6m tow back, which made one of our kayaks to be stuck for 20 min; kayaker got luckily out after 3min; padding is still surfing. You recognize this drop as it has a bridge just after it. This is also the possible take-out.

If you continue there is coming more water in, nothing interesting compared to what you have just paddled, including some dead water sections.

Another picture of the jumping site.

We started in Sandefjord, wet snow was melting on all the equipment, the roads were not perfect for the new summer tires Jonny had bought for the trip through Europe, and we were in short of time for the ferry to Denmark. What a splendid start of the Easter holiday. But it soon got better.

The view over the valley Porto on the Western Coast

After driving south for 20 hrs, we finally made it to Marseille, and took the night-ferry to Corsica. A gorgeous landscape awaited us, and one could tell it was good for paddling. Driving straight up to Golo, this became our first river in Corsica.

Simen in a drop of Middle Golo

During the next weeks I will present each of the rivers we paddled. The first one is middle Golo, a nice river not too tough for being the first river of the season.I just need to find my river notes, and Ill get going on the task!

Torkel on a seal launch after lunch.

Realizing that my blogging has a way to low-volume, I will keep myself to one blog. However, the wordpress-guys have been smart, and it is possible to subscribe either to my kayaking-activities and/or my comments on society. I will try to keep the the two well seperated by different categories from now on.