Glacier walking – Folgefonna

300820091606It was time for a trip with the sports school again, 31 kids and 8 adults. Before walking the glacier we spent the night near Jondal, the kids loved camping as usual and had a great Saturday evening. No TV, just play and having fun – and some Saturday-candy ofcourse which we allowed them to bring with them. Most of the kids used lots of their dry clothes which were meant for the glacier walk but we had access to a dryroom so we didn’t panic. We heard it was raining cats and dogs up there plus windy and only 5 degrees celcius so if any of the kids didn’t have proper clothing they couldn’t tag along.

300820091605Everything went fine, the kids got a crash course in glacier walking and were equipped with helmet, climbing harness, ice axe and crampons (spikes). Keeping them warm while equipping 31 kids were not any problem, the kids jumped around and hacked anywhere with their ice axe. :)

It was a great experience, but the weather was insane, after the walk the guides said that the kids were extremely though, there were lots of adults who turned around earlier that day when they saw the weather. While having fun the kids learned a lot on how important it is to work in groups while walking on glaciers, holding a tight rope between them didn’t mean much at first but when a friend stumbled and fell downwards they learned quickly how to work together.

300820091610I think all the adults enjoyed themselves too despite the weather, a new experience richer. I’ve taken dosens of photos of the glacier from above when I’ve been flying and I’ve always wanted to be down there walking on it – a dream came through. :) Folgefonna is a collective term for three glaciers, northern which covers 26 km², central – 9 km² and southern which covers 168 km². Its the third largest mainland glacier in Norway. The ice is up to 500 meter thick and the highest point is at about 1600 meters above the ocean. While walking we were about 1300 meter, it was too windy up there for us. This glacier isn’t from the ice age, it was formed about 5000 years ago during a period of temperature drop and lots of snow. Still it is very exciting to walk on that old ice, especially to look down the deep cracks and ponder how many years we can see back in time down there.

300820091607I hope to return some day, hopefully when the weather is a bit better, its a great resource for skiing and walking during the summer – skateboard enthusiasts loves it. Maybe without kids next time, not to be selvfish but… :) If you’re in Norway visiting the western parts of Norway I recommend checking up on Folgefonna and visit it, the staff up there is awesome and can adapt or create a fitting walk for you. They are great with kids as well, they proved that yesterday – equipping 31 kids in a flash was impressive, and talking to them and explaining while doing it kept the kids curiousity awake. Kudos to them.

110 km/h in Oslo

A party in Norway want to increase our speed limits to 110 km/h on certain roads. These roads are in the area of Oslo ofcourse, the unfortunate cities around Norway don’t have the same standard as Oslo. Oh well, I’m not sure if I would dare driving on roads with 110, observing drivers to and from work in 80 km/h is bad enough.

Will it polute more? I think my car would. :)

Who doesn’t want our kids to get grades

After Norway got rid of grades for our little kids in school I feel that we lost a good system. Grades were nice to have for inspiration and for parents it was a tool for following a kid’s development. Now Frp, the mosted hated party in Norway wants to reinsert grades in school (from 5th and up) but they meet a lot of resistance.

I wonder who these people are, are they parents who doesn’t care about them? Are they people who scream because this opinion comes from Frp? Would it help if some other party said it?

I think too many parents rely on school to raise their kids up, many doesn’t care and I wonder if they say no to grades to hide their kid’s lack of development.

Squirrelizer

The curious squirrel has spread to each corner of the world, now you can make your own.

operaekorn

Click here to go to the site where you can enter a url to a photo and create one youself.

Heres the guy who accidently appeared on the shot.

ekorn

What is it with women and murderers?

A man charged for triple murder in Norway this year sent in personal contact ad with the title “Charged killer in Trondheim seeks”. How many replies do you think he got? In my head I would say 0, who would be interested in such guy?

But I was wrong, 84 women replied! 16 of them were married and 30 of them attached their nude photo.

I’ve noticed some groups of women who is attracted by violent men and get beaten up, leaves them and later gets together again, or they find another violent guy. What is with these women? Is it a mother instinct?

In an interview the guy says that he looks forward meeting some of them, but when he soon get released he will leave the country. While in prison he studies languages and teology.

Not her fault

Theres an ongoing media coverage of politicians in Norway who skip rules, I guess we’re not different than the rest of the world. This time a woman gets the media’s red eye towards her since she skipped following some rules converting a cottage to a house etc. I heard an interview on the radio today where a guy meant that she didn’t have time for such tasks, it must have been her husban’s fault. I kind of agree, shes a very busy woman. But media doesn’t mention this, I think she is taking the hit for her husband. :)

Someone must have heard me

Earlier this summer I wrote a post on how agressive drivers of heavy transport has become and I wanted to separate heavy transports and smaller vehicles. Here is the post. There are too many accidents where these types of vehicles are involved.

I received a lot of hate-comments from professional drivers who claimed that they are much better drivers than ordinary drivers, they classified my opinion as stupid, to put it mildly.

But today one of our political parties (SV) propose exactly what I once wished for, I am very curious how drivers react on this. My bet is that as long as its not a blogger who propose something like this then it is ok. Some people hate bloggers who express their opions. :)

Visiting Oslo

180820091584Once in a while I travel to Oslo to work at customers or our office there, most of the time I don’t have any chance to socialize or act like a tourist but this time I did. Business travels gets a whole new meaning when there is time for going out or just walk around observing. I suddenly remembered that an old school-mate told me once that they meet every Monday for a cup of coffee so I called him and met up. More and more came to the cafe, known and unknown faces – I had a great day. The rain were pouring down so it fitted me well to sit under a large umberella and chat. A perfect day come to think of it.

170820091583I love animation movies and in the evening when I zapped around the channels I found an open animation channel or something. My favourite hotel has some great appartments where you can turn the TV around and lay in bed while watching. That evening I watched Wall-E – my favourite one, Bolt and Ratatouille. I hadn’t seen Bolt and Ratatouille before so I had a great evening with 3 awesome films. Ratatouille ended about midnight, a bit late but I was fit for fight the next morning, I sleep like a stone in these beds.

On my way home I grabbed my cellphone and took some photos as usual, I hoped to get a shot of my “Dream Road”, which I’ve posted before, from above but we flew a few kilometers too far south. Heres some of the ones I took :

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A is my Dream Road and I guess you recognize the lake here (Google Maps) :

dreamroad
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