School Trips

AREA OF INTERACTION – ENVIRONMENT

 

Day Trip, Tuesday 14th May 2002

 

We set off on our trip to the Heather Heath Centre at Lygra with a group of 55 pupils and 5 teachers. The Centre is a visitors centre for cultural landscape on the European coast of the Atlantic. These types of landscapes are a 50000 years old heritage from the struggle by coastal people for their living. Today, the heathlands are about to disappear all over Europe.

As part of our Environmental Day trip, the pupils were going to experience authentical heathlands managed by traditional farming and mowing as well as grazing by the ancient breed of Norse sheep.

After about an hours drive with the buses, we arrived at the Centre and entered the cinema hall to watch a half-hour film showing the different activities. That the children were going to experience. The film told of an elderly couple (brother and sister) who farmed the heather, how this was carried out and how they utilised the heather. The film also gave an insight into how their daily lives were. When the film was over, the large group was split into smaller units, and given a timetable for the different activities to be carried out.

The group I was heading were to grill first. One of the older pupils organised this nicely, lighting the grill and cutting birch sticks for his group to grill their sausages on. Three of the group decided to take the plunge into the water, which was a brave decision as the water was, in my opinion, very cold. Icy cold in fact!!

While my group were grilling, the other group in the bay were gathering seaweed, and they had underwater binoculars with which they could observe plant and animal life under the surface.

After lunch, our group was taken on to the heather heath, where they were told about farming the heather. We walked in a group through the heath carrying tools and gathering baskets or kiper. The botanist who was in charge of our group told us about burning heather and why and how this is done.(It makes the earth more fertile.) The pupils seemed very engaged by what Kristine told us. and they asked very good questions. Kristine also told us about the wild, native sheep. They seemed to be keeping their distance, which is probably just as well because once the scythes started swinging, nothing was safe. The pupils were told to put their backbone into cutting the heather and they used lots of energy, cutting and raking. So much energy in fact, that one of the scythes actually broke in two parts! The basket was filled in the special way that was shown in the film. Once this was done, we made our way back to the farm, where the heather was fed into a manually operated machine which finely chopped the heather. This is used as feed for the animals on the farm. The horses were out grazing but we visited two little piglets.

The barn also had a mouser cat which was difficult to see in the murk of the barn because it was black and sitting on a pile of dark clothes.. Needless to say, it made a few of us jump when it started to move around.

At two o'clock, we all got together and boarded the buses to head back to the school after a busy and interesting day out.

 

FOOTNOTE:

The weather forecast for the day was not good. According to the forecast, it was going to rain, accompanied by strong winds. Although there was not much sun, it was pleasantly

warm. The rain started only when we were all safely inside the school building.

 

STUDENT COMMENTS ABOUT TRIP TO LANGEDRAG, 28th MAY TO 1st  JUNE, 2004

A LIFETIME OF FARMING IN A WEEK!

28th May - We had an early start to the day. We took the train from Bergen to Geilo. A bus then took us the rest of the way to Langedrag Naturpark. On arrival, the students were given maps of the area. They went to see their way around and look at the animals. The children were then divided into three groups, Fox, Lynx and wolf. Their duties for the stay were posted on the notice board. Finally, the rooms were ready and the students could settle in.

29th May - The girls were the recipients of a rude morning awakening. (By Mrs S - who is not the owner of the mildest voice!) After morning duties and breakfast, we all walked up to the seter with the goats and two Shetland ponies. Up there, we all collected thin branches and shaped them with knives. These were collected, put into a tin can and put into the bonfire. By the end of the stay, these were turned into charcoal. We also collected juniper berries and made tea with these mixed with honey. We got an explanation for how making cheese was discovered and we got to try some in addition to  goat's milk pancakes. It's fun to milk the goats when you are thirsty, but not everyone thought that warm milk tasted good! Talking of goats, we all spent a lot of time trying to keep them out of our back packs as they are experts at stealing food.

30th May - Morning duties and breakfast. The students were split into groups of four and we all went out on a riding tour. Some students were a little nervous about trying this out but all took their turn and appeared to enjoy themselves. Many of the girls were a little frustrated because they had to be led (safety regulations) even though they were experienced riders. Those who had duty in the byre had their hands full. The goats proved to be rather stubborn and moved around a lot. They also pooed into the milk! There are lots of rabbits at Langedrag and they are very timid but one or two of the students actually managed to clap them.

31st May - We were out all day. We took our packed lunch and spent the first part of the day paddling in canoes. Safety vest were picked up at the seter and all students that wanted to go out onto the water had to have a safety vest on which was just as well as one of the canoes with three boys in tipped over and all fell out. One of the boys swam to shore and the other two were picked up in another canoe and rowed to shore, so everyone was safe and no problems. he second part of the day saw us walking even further up the mountain to another lake  were quite a few including the two teachers went swimming. The water was icy cold and refreshing but it was not good to stay out too long. In the evening, the students put on a show. They had all been practicing for this and the result was extremely good. Pretty much everyone took part. At the end, all the students sang Happy Birthday to Rachel and Mr Chamberlain who had their birthdays on this day.

1st June - The day we went home. Before we did, the students got to go inside the pen and feed the polar foxes. It was then that Tuva discovered that a litter of puppies was bom and this was cause for great excitement. The students were extremely tired during the train trip and we learned that the train was delayed for 20 minutes due to a fire near the track at Hønefoss. The journey went without incident and we could return a group of tired but happy students who were all looking forward to being re-united with their families again. At Langedrag, we all ended up singing the Cubus song thanks to day long exposure from one of the students. He had started humming this and then everyone picked up on it. Also, the grade 6 girls made a song while at Langedrag. Both of these are now officially Langedrag songs. Comments heard at Langedrag: "Are there adders here?", "Komme så geita", "eew, poo!" and finally one which was repeated at various intervals during each day "Do we have to walk?"