Crabs: Norway - Part 1 of 3

The kids and I were lucky enough to visit Norway again this year.  My parents keep talking about selling their property, but have yet to do so.  It is definitely a beautiful place, so it would be hard to give up.  My brother Thomas was also visiting the whole time we were in Norway.

One of our repeat highlights in Norway this summer was searching for crabs.  There is a small beach about a 10 minute walk down the hill from their house.  The first time we walked there, we were looking for any type of ocean creature.  The kids searched in puddles and found a few small fish. 

A group of kids (around age 5??) from a nearby childcare center were at the beach too.  They were dressed for the weather with waterproof pants, jackets, and boots.  We wore sandals that were good for walking in water, and the temperature was fine enough.  I just think it is funny that Norwegian children at school always have all-weather gear ready for any occasion.  Anyway, the other kids were finding tons of crabs!  They were flipping over rocks and someone seemed to find one every second.  Then they put the crabs into buckets and collected them.  They did release the crabs at the end. Lydia and Derek were thrilled; and maybe Karina was entertained for a short while too.  They soon learned all the techniques to find crabs.  And thus began our 2 weeks of crab obsession.

After our initial day at the beach down a short walk from my parents' house, Derek in particular wanted to go there every single day to search for more crabs.  All of our future trips were more strategic.  Lydia and Derek brought buckets to make crab homes.  They filled the buckets with sand and seaweed so the crabs would have somewhere to hide.  We timed out low tide, so we would find the most crabs.  They could easily catch 20+ crabs within a short while.

Setting off from home, ready to walk down to the beach and find crabs:

Looking for crabs became a daily occurrence.  Sometimes we would see more groups of school children there too.  Lydia and Derek became proficient at shouting "krabbe" in Norwegian to announce they had found a crab.  We also learned that most of the crabs we found are 'common beach crabs.'  Once they even found a small eel.  

Karina was often more interested in just reading a book.  

There were of course a smattering of other activities and hikes too.  We decided to try out a new hike as well.  We drove to Ausvika and walked along the coast from beach to beach.  After walking through around 5 beaches there, we decided Ausvika had the prettiest beach inlet, and the views were incredible.  Lydia and Derek were prepared with buckets in case they found crabs, and they were not only not disappointed, but they got the welcome surprise of even more crabs than at our house in Hopen.  The water was clear and pristine and each rock seemed to have multiple crabs hidden.  Within a few minutes their buckets were full.  

We liked both the beach at Ausvika and the coastal hikes there so much, that we drove there many days.  

Below, the kids are walking in circles in one of the few forested sections of the coastal hike, waiting for people to catch up. 

Some of the views:

Karina and Thomas liked to walk ahead of everyone.  They also found a nice reading bench nook.  Karina would read at the rocks in the above photos too. 

Lydia and Derek were the beach/crab experts.  

Lydia and Derek liked making videos of them releasing the crabs:

Overall, it was a very warm summer with above-average temperatures.  Lots of shorts days.

At the Ausvika beach and viewpoints, there was another trail up the hill that we decided to follow one day.  We found out later the hill is called Geitnakken (the goat neck).  The trail was steep in sections, but the view towards the island of Landegode was rewarding.

We'll definitely be back in Ausvika next summer.