NDG 2013
Norwegian Dragonkin Gathering 2013 was the first professionally planned dragonkin gathering I held and my practise run on running such an event as this. This time I announced the event for a wider audience, setting up a program, and planned the economy of the event to test my ability to estimate the costs. All in all, I think the work I had put in planning this event in advance was the key to its success. The most difficult part of the event, though, was that people arrived in such a wide time space, making it a bit difficult to give the participants a bed while we waited for the last few to arrive. I will attempt to perfect this part for the next event.
We were originally meant to be 13 participants, but as 2 had called off, we ended up being 10 dragons and 1 human (11 participants, that is). Most people arrived the day before event started, which was fine, because it gave us time to settle down before heading off to the medieval fair, which was set as the official start of NDG2013. We spent a good 5 or so hours at the medieval fair, enjoying the market place, the events taking place there, and the entertainment. The atmosphere of the medieval fair also relaxed the tension of meeting each others in real life and made for a great start of the event.
The second day was mostly spent packing and then travelling off to the cabin that had been rented, up on Golsfjellet. It is a wonderful area, not far from the family cabin we once had, so I knew the area fairly well and knew what we could find there. The following day was mostly just spent to settle in at the cabin and get to know each others better. We also explored the surroundings of the cabin and found a nice small lake with a row boat and a canoe, and a cute little spot on the other side of the lake with a picnic table.
Day four we went to visit the bear park in Flå, where we got to meet the bears, moose, reindeers, goats, and lynx. Though, the whole park was not open due to that it was out of season, so we found it a bit dull (or at least I did). Though, I knew that the visit to Langedrag one of the following days would be more impressive.
The next day was a relaxing day again, and we decided to row out to the picnic table across the lake to barbeque. It was really great, or at least I thought so. I seemed to be the only one who did not mind the few drops that came raining down. All in all, though, I think the others enjoyed it too, even though they seemed a bit less comfortable with the raining.
Originally we were meant to go on a trip to Lærdal on the sixth day, but due to predicted bad weather the coming few days, we found it best to visit Langedrag wild life park this day instead. Their usual schedule for feeding the animals had been changed that day, though, due to a bus of retired people demanding the park to adapt to their schedule, but it did not matter; we got to see the animals still! The moose feeding was the only event to take place while we was there, and we got to personally feed them with vegetables and then pet their big snouts. Then I also got arranged a special event for us that was originally not planned that day; visiting the wolves and the lynx, inside their own cages! These were wild, non-socialized animals and I think this left a lasting impression on the other dragons. Unfortunately they did not get to see the socialized wolves interact with their human pack-leader this year, it is so powerful and so impressive to watch a human communicate so well with wolves, and interact with the wolf-pack like one of them, and their leader no less.
The trip to Lærdal was moved to the seventh day, and was meant to be a cultural trip. However, it did not start out as planned, as the road I intended to take was closed due to a road collapse, caused by flooding. Thus we had to drive through Valdres, which is a beautiful valley, but also a long detour. On the way to Lærdal we got to visit 3 stave churches (wooden churches buildt by our ancestors, the vikings), and a rune-stone. The grandest of these stave churches, Borgund Stavkirke, is open for visitors and I had aquired us a personal guide to bring us through it. Afterwards we went to a drive along a fjord, and we spotted some un-identified sea-mammals, which I assume were bottlenose dolphins. First we thought it was orcas, but their hunting pattern diverted from that of orcas. After all the excitement of watching bubbles out in the fjord from the sea-mammals, we drove through the world's longest road tunnel, Lærdalstunnelen, a 25 km long tunnel with some interesting lighting along the way. Then the day drew to an end while we drove over Hallingskarvet national park, a highland plateu that had mostly sheep and snow and really twisty roads and funky tunnels.
The eight day was used for relaxing and enjoying our time together, then it was only to travel home and take our farewells. It was, as always, difficult to see our friends go, but we had a really amazing time that will be long remembered, and there is much to look forward to for next year's dragonkin gathering!
