Voss,  its a place in Norway, home of sheeps head dinners, bland food and extreme sports. Every year thousands of extreme people travel up or down to Voss for the world famous extreme sports week.   You don't have to be extreme to attend,  and lets face it, most of the people rocking out the hoodies just pretend to be extreme.  You can spot them a mile off,  milling around drinking beer and talking shit.  Almost identical to extreme sports people infact,  its all about the shoes!! 

 So, Voss.  If you are feeling extreme, head to Voss, well head to Norway first,  then to Voss.  It is situated a few hours drive East of Bergan,  the rainy city. So head to Bergan,  but you can get to Voss from any other part of Norway,  they do have roads and trains, despite pushing on being a 3rd world country.  3/4 of the population own a tractor,  the other 1/4 own the oil!!  I digress!

Following swiftly on from my last post.  We rocked up at a ski resort called Folkenfonna,  a glacier only open in the summer.  It sits not far from Voss, 2 hours drive ish,  and 3 hours north of a small town called Odda. Its small and plays host to hoards of slalom skiiers rocking out the 80s lycra look!  It also attracts the cool kids.  So feeling somewhat out of place in the flip flops and tevas, we approach the slopes with caution!  Despite 3 seasons as a ski guide in the Alps, I still felt out of place, maybe it was the fact my clothing was practical, and not loosely fitted and hanging below my arse cheeks.

For the sum of 350 Nok, roughtly £30 we got a day pass.  Sounds cheap,  but you get 1 drag lift, ques and not the best skiing in your life.  Good enough though.  So after a few daring runs down the blues,  we crack out our secret weapon,  the small kayak we know as the 'stunt boat'.  A short lift ride later, we start cruising!  Piste patroll stopped us,  but were more intrigued that angry,  the photo shoot story seemed to work well. 

 Finding the right spot for some stunt boating was easy,  a short off piste trip to a wide bowl shaped gulley, overlooked by the cafe!  As Becky was setting up for the slide, the nerves kicked it,  and the Hysteria came back.  Was Joe's boat still safe on my car?  Why were we even taking it up with us to Voss?  Who was Joe? 

Leaving Becky to get ready, I head down to a good camera spot, just passed the naked man in the tree and Natelys whore.  The countdown starts,  soon from just over the brow of the slope appears a curley haired English woman in a yellow kayak going at some speed,  going airborn she decides her last words should be 'I'm going fast',  with a few extra expletives added for good measure.  A short flip later and a great impression of a rag doll, she comes to a stop.  Very much like Joes kayak on my roof,  it rocked around for a few short heart stopping moments and came to a rest not far from my windscreen. 

A few cases of whiplash later,  we trotted along to the cars and made like a donkeys man hood and hit the road.  Arriving in Voss we scouted the camp site.  After 3 years staying at the camp site, I am of the the view,  shared by many others, that Extreme Sports Week let themselves down by supplying poor camping.  An old air strip with limited soil and at the cost of 300nok per person,  it becomes overcrowded and poorly managed.  The toilets remained in good working order,  but woman have to put up with 1 toilet and 1 shower for the whole camp.  Although they did declare the mens woman only for 1 hour per day.

 A short drive into town we hit the tent hard,  it was a small cheap tent, luckly none was inside.  We made our way to the ticket booth where a fine selection of media passes awaited.  If you can't get hold of media passes, it will cost roughly 900nok to 1500nok depending on what you want to attend, and if you are competing in any events.  For a 1 week festival, the price is good and the music line up is extremely good.  Morcheeba and the Wailers but to name 2. 

Beer is reasonable for Norway,  65 Nok for 0.5l is not bad,  and its cold and refreshing.  Food is pricey but always worth a dabble on a long night! Don't let the prices put you off however, be sensible and shop at the supermarket beforehand. We took along Tony H the funnel and each night entered a whole world of fun. 

I'll stop jabbing on now and let you get on with your day,  thanks for reading and Ill continue in a few days or so.  Times are busy in Norway this week,  mass truck loads of Germans arriving each hour for rafting and kayaking and the best of all, Beaver and Elk safaris.  So i must go and study about the big wet rat they call a beaver!