Testing out my survival skills

After my last great outdoor experience I felt so inspired that I decided to spend more time in the nature.  I therefore decided to buy a tent as well as some new hiking equipment. I have not slept in a tent for many years. And I have never owned my own tent until now. But where should I test it out?

– You should go to Mjelle, my hairdresser suggested.

– But it is always so windy there, I complained, fearing that my tent would be carried away by the wind and end up in the ocean.

– What about Ausvika? It is just a short walk there from the carpark, my hairdresser said.

I decided to go for Ausvika.

 

On Saturday night, my backpack with my tent and all my gear was packed, and I was ready to go.

My backpack was pretty heavy, so I was glad that I had not chosen to go for a really long walk. It was also 11 pm.

I did not have any room left for my camera, so all the pictures here are taken by phone. For the video I used a GoPro.

 

I originally planned on putting my tent up by the beach, but when I got there, I could hear some loud party music, and there were lots of other people and tents just about 50 meters from the beach. Some drunk teenagers where walking unsteady while shouting.  What I really was after was a quiet place where nobody would see me struggling with putting up my tent.

And there it was. The perfect spot for my tent. On top of the hill. From here I could actually see parts of the famous travel destination Lofoten.

So, this is how it went when I put up my tent for the first time.

Right now, it is not too long until the Midnight Sun is on its way to Bodø. So, luckily it did not get dark before I finished. However, the sun was on its way up again when my tent was finally standing there. I think I used about an hour.

In spite of wearing thermal underwear, I woke up at about 2.40am because I was freezing like a camel in a snowstorm. I decided to go outside for a walk to “defrost”. And I did not regret that. Just look at this view:

 

The walk made me feel warm again, and it did not take long before I was sleeping like a baby inside my tent.

When I woke up, the sun had heated up my tent. My camping place did not look bad in the morning either:

I enjoyed eating my breakfast while looking at this view.  I am not eating tomato sauce, by the way. It is actually a type of jam that tastes like smoothie.

I discovered that there were a lot of people that were walking on top of the closest hill, which I later found out is called Geitnakken (which is directly translated into “The Goat’s neck“). I therefore decided to go for a short walk. This is the view that met me at the top of the hill:

I felt like doing some more exploring, as I always do. I had read that there was supposed to be some remains that stemmed from World War II in the vicinity of Ausvika. That turned out to be right, as I found this bunker, which I later found out was a bunker for the crew of a search light position.

Some more great view awaited me.

As I was only supposed to go for a short walk, I had only brought water. As I had started my walk at about lunch time, I started to feel a bit hungry after having walked for one and a half our. So, I decided to go back to my camp. When I found another path, I thought that it might be a shortcut.

 

At least that was what my starving tummy told me.

The path became narrower the further I walked. Until it was no longer a path.

In the end I was climbing more than walking down this wild forrest

I thought that there might be another path by the sea, but it turned out to be a dead end.

 

 

 

My water bottle was getting emptier, and I was surrounded by saltwater. When I saw the bones from a fish that most likely stemmed from a happy seagull meal, I got the alone-in-the-desert kind of feeling. I was a pretty hot day, and I was starting to get a bit sunburnt.

There was only one thing to do. Climb up the hill and try to find retrace my steps. How did I end up here? Then I discovered this moose poop.

The “path” I had been following was most likely created by the moose instead of a human being. Maybe I had been exposed to a moose trap?

In the end, I found my way back to my tent, and my tummy got fed and ended up being very happy.

After lunch went down to the beach to cool me down. The water was so cold that it felt like a bottle of champagne inside an ice bucket.  So, it I ended up being the quickest bath ever. It is usually like that here in the Arctic.

I am not sure if I am ready to survive out in the wild just yet. Or what do you think?