Booked a kayaking tour through a cruise line. Nordic Ventures picked us up from the port in Flam in…read morea bus and took us to Gudvangen. We were given life jackets, spray skirts, and water shoes. They had cubbies to place your items in, but between our group and others that had already left, there were more people than boxes, so most of our bags were left on the floor. Once outside, we met up with our tour guides, who described what we were doing, and they asked if anyone had food allergies. I raised my hand and told them I could not eat peppers, they replied that would not be a problem. It took a while for everyone to get set up in kayaks due to some of the adjustments for the rudder pedals not working. The information provided by the cruise line included a weight limit for the tour, one couple was obviously well over the limit and was still allowed to participate, even after they took a significant amount of time getting into a kayak, as they kept tipping it over on the beach.
Once underway, we enjoyed a nice paddle along the fjord. Several times, we were instructed to quickly paddle from one side or the other to stay away from other kayaking groups and ferries. We also had to stop and wait several times for 'that one couple' as the wife refused to paddle. The guides took those opportunities to tell us about the small villages that had very few residents we were passing. The views of the mountains and waterfalls were awesome. The clouds were so low you could not see the tops of the surrounding mountains.
We paddled just over 3 miles to a picnic area along a hiking trail. After pulling all the boats ashore, the tour guides went around to all the kayaks collecting the supplies that had been stored in them for lunch. The picnic area did have a small bathroom, there was also a group of sheep hanging out in the shade with us. After I walked around a while, I returned to the area where the guides were making food and saw they had sprinkled some sort of reddish colored powder on all of the pork chops on the grill. I asked one of them what was in the seasoning and he handed it to me to read. The listed ingredients had 3 different types of pepper in it. The look on their faces indicated they may have thought I was kidding when I told them I could not have pepper. They offered to rinse one of the pork chops, but I was not willing to risk being stuck in a kayak if I had a reaction to it. I was left with just pasta and cookies for lunch.
After lunch had been packed up, we got back in the kayaks to paddle back. The larger lady tipped her kayak and fell into the water as she got in. The paddle back was also nice, several times going back and forth across the Fjord, as well as waiting for the couple that was only half paddling. When our group returned to the beach where we started, they told us we had about 15 minutes to change clothes before the bus would be leaving to take us back to the port. The lady who fell in the water was still wet, but again, she had not read the information provided, so she had not brought a towel or change of clothes. I opted to change as the inside of my kayak was a little wet when I got in it.
One of the employees came out with the keys to the bus and asked if everyone was there, we were all accounted for. But then he decided we were not going back on the bus, another guy who has a transportation service was going to come pick us up. I have a feeling they did not want the wet lady on the cloth bus seats. At this point, it was 3:15, our scheduled return time to the port was 3:45, and it was a 20-minute drive away. The all aboard time for the ship was 4:30. They came out and told us 5 more minutes, 10 more minutes etc., multiple times, and instructed us to wait by the same picnic tables and not go anywhere.
The guy with the van showed up at 4:10, and we did not get back to the port in Flam till 4:35. We were the last people back on the ship. We also had no time to shop in Flam as the Excursion had left as soon as we arrived in port. If we had gotten back on time, this would be 4 stars.
