Crossing Østmarka in Packraft

We meet outside Oslo S (the taxi stand by the flight train) at 08.30 in the morning. From here we are transported to Losby Besøksgård where we are given equipment - packraft, oar, paddling vest, communal equipment, food - and a fantastic Amok hammock! When the equipment is distributed and the bags are on the back, the journey starts on foot on a hiking trail, before after a couple of kilometers we arrive at Mønevann where we inflate the packrafts and paddle on, from water to water. After a good lunch, we paddle into Østmatrka Nature Reserve, an area that has been protected since 1990. Like the rest of Østmarka, this area has a rich flora and fauna, and even wolves roam here! Østmarka is also home to the beaver, and along the way we see clear traces of its ravages. About halfway we find a suitable place where we camp for the evening. We cook dinner together, and if it rains we hang up tarps so we can stay dry in true Lars Monsen style.

After breakfast, we paddle on, stopping along the way for a well-deserved lunch break. If we're lucky with the weather, we might even get a cooling bath! Midway we meet at the wildest part, and especially here we can observe how nature behaves when it is given free rein. Here the path is sometimes indistinct, and no one has cleared the trees that have fallen over it because of old age, or because the beaver has felled them. We must slowly but surely work our way through this area, which contains both paddling and the trip's most demanding walking stages. It will be wild, wet and challenging! With just over two kilometers left of today's distance, we take our last paddle roofs for this time, let the air out of the rafts, and follow the dirt road out of the field and into the settlement. Here we are picked up in the late afternoon and driven back to Oslo S.