Updated is the following:
Home page. Comments and images.
Travel-Added the tentative 2014 ideas.
Galleries. Added some images to the B&W section.
Thats it.
Have finally managed a mini update.
Updated is the following: Home page. Comments and images. Travel-Added the tentative 2014 ideas. Galleries. Added some images to the B&W section. Thats it. If you have taken a peek at the "Planned for 2013" tab you should have an idea of what the little old fella on the left is trying to tell you. Plans for this years travel have suddenly crystallised themselves into a very much smaller scale operation. The trip up north was shortened because of some body problems, mine to be precise. After a ten day rest up tried again in the UK at the beginning of June to fulfil some obligations and have a semi family meeting. This too was broken off earlier than planned. Again due to body problems which far from being a sciatica attack as initially diagnosed, turned out to being the result of a sneaky advance in age. Turned out I had a spinal stenosis. I'll make it a short story of it, three weeks after this diagnosis it had been operated on, I'm now out and about, sort of. Have to wait out six weeks to see if I will regain full motor control and can start physiotherapy. Limping around like a bloke with one leg shorter than the other at present. All I can say I'm glad that this did not hit me earlier in life. Know someone it did. Respect to you sir, love you! Anyway not much I can do to change anything so have been amusing myself with making some images around the central area of Düsseldorf. I shall post these before the end of the week My favourite will be on the Home tab and the rest are to be found in the Galleries in colour and B&W versions under the Buildings and B&W tabs. 13.02.13
Last night in Sortland, practice stowing of the four German winter tyres went quite well and does not hinder my sleeping arrangements. Sat in the dark and watched the "Lights" again. Went on sporadically for a good couple of hours. Nothing especially spectacular and strangely enough were almost completely white which I haven't seen before. Either way not worth getting all the paraphernalia out and freezing the proverbial off. 14.02.13 The run down from Sortland to Moskenes was a completely new experience being winter. The last time was in the other direction and three months later than now. Went that way on the first Norway trip in 2008. Must say with all the snow it was almost like a fairy tale. That's if you forget the road conditions and to get stuck would be, well, not desperate but extremely unfortunate. The activities of the cod fisheries are picking up and the racks are starting to fill up. Also if you get parked next to a big transporter on a ferry it's fairly rank experience. The ride was enhanced by the fact that the cloud cover was minimal and exiting the ferry at Fiskebøl the sun was just rising. This illuminated the mountains almost all the way down to Moskenes in a glorious bright, but at the same time gentle light. If that makes sense? As I had left Sortland before seven in the morning I was in Moskenes just before midday which left me with a longish wait as the ferry to Bodø did not leave until 20:30. The crossing was uneventful and disembarked just on midnight. Fauske is only a sixty kilometer drive inland from Bodø and a good jumping off point for the trip over the arctic circle tomorrow. Obviously no one on the camp site when I arrived so I helped myself to electricity. Knee deep in snow on the site. 15.02.13 06:30 Start from Fauske. This note is continued in the Marina near Rob & Ingrid about 18:45 or so.N18º23’12” E9º59’5” Caught the sunrise 07:52, (almost exactly) on arctic circle at 66º33’12”N 15º19’14”E, only -11.5 C, took time out for a couple of images then onward, one of which is posted at the end of this entry. Boy had the weather been doing things since I drove up. Ice roads almost without pause pause all the way to and most of the time it snowed all the way to Steinkjer. From there run to Trondheim almost civilised. 16.02.13 Slept thru from 20:00 to 07:30 this morning. Quite nippy in the van this morning. Thought for a minute Ali had packed my sleeping bag for me. Spending the day with the Klein's and this turned out to be a one. They fed me like there was no tomorrow and I probably rabbited on far too much. Slept over at the Marina again and warmer than last night as Robert showed we were I could plug into the Mains. 17.02 .13 Early start getting the 07:00 ferry. Let's see what the day brings, have planned to camp just south of Oslo. At 22:30 found myself at the petrol station opposite the one camped at on way up 88 km from Rødby in Denmark. This is exactly 1208 km camp site Rørvik near Trondheim since this morning. Bit groggy but really quite fine. Try early start tomorrow and hope the Campmobil boys are at work. Reason for drastic change was heard my bro was in the horsespiddle so tried to gee everything up a bit. Heard about an hour ago that he is back home. 18.02.13 Checked that the Campmobil boys were at work and managed the 08:15 ferry to Puttgarden. I had judged it so that I would come off the ferry with just enough reserve fuel to get me the ten kilometers to the first petrol station on German soil. At about the fifth of these Murphy came out of his box again for his last fling of the trip and the clutch went to meet its maker. Ah well the ADAC came up trumps and rescued me. I was home in the evening in Düsseldorf with a rental car that the ADAC organised. Van will come down to Düsseldorf within the next five to seven working days a part of a collecting transport service and get fixed! That's it, first trip of the year, plenty went on and all in all I enjoyed every bit of it. Oh well all good things come to an end.
Start on my way back south tomorrow first thing. Reasons: a) Van is starting to give some problems and it's too expensive up here if it goes really wrong. b) Weather forecast, long term is cloudy all the time for the next ten days or so, the moon is becoming full and starting Saturday major snow is on its way. Soo, as I had planned for the start of the return trip next week Wednesday I have decided to cut my losses and trundle off. Do not want to get snowed in, which is a strong possibility. Will probably be with a German couple we first met up near Evenes two years ago on our travels. They are close to Trondheim and I shall spend about two days with them. After that it is a days run through to Oslo where I hope to be able to sell the tyres I had to buy here. More at a later date, probably close out this blog once back in Duesseldorf. 10.02.13
The only thing today that was anticlockwise was the weather. Opposite of yesterday so I stayed at “home” and worked on my project. Exhausted I am to be true. Very, very faint Aurora way up high and only as a band. If you do not know what to expect it looks more like a band of cloud curving across the sky. Be shorter than usual today as it's my big day today. BATH NIGHT! Ah got caught out on the way to my ablutions. As I got out of the van lo and behold, Hallelujah and all the rest of it, the high flying band of Aurora had decided to give off a middling display. Which is something after three weeks of skiving off. It was not worth setting all the camera gear up for but as a spectacle for the eye not to be missed. Freezing cold though. 11.02.13 Woke to another cloudless sunny day and took the chance and did the anticlockwise bit. Picked up a few images and some that I think can be made into something special back home. Posted some of them too, even though they are all straight landscape views. It is now 18:33 and still cloudless. I have the tripod outside waiting for some action and all the rest of the gear is in the starting blocks. A bit like the Lottery I guess. Watch this space. Well it was worth the wait, although the images do not do the display justice. Two reasons, the photographer and it is difficult to find a place that is not influenced by artificial light. At least folks might believe that I’m seeing them. Not sure how they will come up on your monitors and browsers. Pays yer money and takes yer choice. 08.02.12
From getting up the weather changed its mind so many times during my having breakfast and going through the morning ablutions. (Cleaning teeth and thinking maybe I’ll have a wash tomorrow!), that I decided sod it and spent the day in the van working on images for a book project I have in mind. Forecast up to and including the 13.02 for both the weather and possibility of Aurora appearances are at about zero. Nary to worry, other things to do. Think I’ll treat myself to bacon sandwiches tonight as a constellation prize. 04.02.13 Started out fine so set off across the island to the Norwegian Sea coast, interesting drive, bit hairy in places because of icy conditions and it did not look as though anyone had cleaned up in a while. Once I got across it was all very sleepy and wild. On the way back the weather turned again and had a blizzard to drive back through, so not too many images. 05.02.13 Pretty fair all day so did some more explorative drives but nothing too exciting. 06.02.13 Best day so far and did a fair bit of hiking up in the hills and was getting plenty images, hope can make something out of them. After that took a drive out to check the Orca. Not there! Hmm!! So cut my losses and drove back some of Mondays drive in the hope of capturing some of the image opportunities that I thought I saw. They were there but finding them really hard to capture well. Practice, practice. Faint trace of the Aurora in the evening, just as a band sweeping across and going north up over Andøya. Very high up and not really the fiery turbulent sort Terry and I saw a few years ago. It was a start at least and the weather is hopefully going to stay fine for a few days, so fingers ‘xed. 07.02.13
‘xed for ‘nowt. Cloudy and/or overcast all day and now as it gets dark,15:45, it has started to lightly snow and is fairly cloudy, which of course means no hay Aurora tonight. Took a drive around up beyond Myre, on the way to which last time I parked in the ditch. Very interesting first stop was at an old Church in a place called Langenes which is just before Stø. The Church is right up on the most northerly tip of the Vesterålen and the village dates back to the Middle Ages! From in front of the Church there is this tremendous view all the way down the Westerly coastline of Andøya as far down to Bleik Island. Which as we all know is a major nesting area for the Puffins, don’t we? From there carried on round the corner onto the NNW tip and one arrives in Stø. Very busy there at the moment, it is a fishing village, what else could it be up here, and the Cod have reached this part of their trip down the Gulf Stream from Greenland on there way to spawn. Wherever, haven't found that out yet. They must be doing fairly well as the stock-fish frames are quite full and the stench needs to be experienced. I’m surprised it doesn’t draw every cat from a radius of hundreds of miles. On the way back to Myre I took a branch off to check out Nyksund. This also on the west coast immediately south of Stø but there is no connection by road between them. The guy that winched me out of the ditch mentioned it to me, also mentioned that it would not be accessible on my good old German winter tyres. He was right! Very much a do not drive with Terry route. It was in earlier days a very remote fishing village and I guess they got pissed off being out there all by themselves and they all upped and left. Been abandoned for years but folks have become interested and are slowly moving back in and renovating the really interesting old time buildings. Looks real cool, need a great deal of the ready though I should think. Just downloaded the few images of the Church and Nyksund. Very blue expletives and things. For the bin, it was so cold thought I’d be quick and clever and do without the tripod. Good leveller that one. 01.02.13 Na, as was to be expected, friend Orca was not there yesterday. Oh well it really is only a round trip of 25 k’s so I’ll keep an eye out. Woke up to a tremendous racket and found that a snowplough was doing its thing on the site. When I opened up the van the snow was right up to the bottom of the door. Must have been coming down all night. Got out of his way toot-sweet and finished up with a nicely graded and clean pitch. Kept me busy until darkness was creeping up on me but it did not stop Murphy pouncing again. Zipped into the gas station as fuel was at a low, filled up and then found out that there system was down and they could accept neither bank nor credit cards. Guess who had no cash. Survived that one as well. 02.02.13 Was snowing when I got up and as I get ready to settle down for the night guess what? Didn't even bother to try to use the van and the level of snow is rapidly approaching yesterdays high snow mark. Did put myself out and walked the 150 metres to the reception area to sit in the warm and do mail and stuff. Checked the weather forecast for the next week and it is due to carry on snowing until Monday. Thanks to me better half who mailed me a link to an Aurora Forecast site it looks as though the first possible chance is around 07.02. So I’ll keep hoping on that one. The owner had been backing fish cakes in his kitchen when I got to reception and it had me salivating the entire time I was there. When they were finished they gave me a plate full on brown bread. Haddock straight out of the sea mixed up with goodness knows what but delicious. Nothing like what I imagined when he told me what he was up to. I’d sort of had images of the ready made hamburgers and fish cakes we get back home. My mistake. Hung around for ages in the hope of a second helping. No luck. Do not however have much hope of being able to do anything very exciting tomorrow. Just out back of the campsite a Langlauf ski rout goes by and it has been very well frequented by the locals so far. Today no one bothered so I guess that must say something about their weather. 03.02.13 Was not as badly snowed in as yesterday and it turned out to be a very pleasant day and I went driveabouts again. Managed to get a few images so I’ve posted some below. The Black and White images are included for the family B&W expert and critic. The next two pics are for Terry who asked how did the van get back on the road. The gent in the sexy overall is waving around with his winch remote control. Just before tat back wheel, in the next pic came over the rim the van started rocking like mad. Had my eyes closed briefly, I thought this time it is going to roll down. Didn't
29.01.13-I HOPE NONE OF YOU FOLKS MENTION THIS NEXT ENTRY TO MY MUMMY!!!
Went into town and had studded tyres fitted for two reasons. The first, despite what the tyre specialist in Düsseldorf advised me, the ones I have, supposedly the best for our conditions and according to them fine up here, are useless. Brand new when I left. They are the standard M&S tyres and there is no mud here and plenty snow the roads are quite simply one solid sheet of ice. Enough said and when I’m back in Düsseldorf I shall pay the specialist and give him some first hand knowledge. One really should desist from giving advice when one does not have a sodding clue oneself! At least that way when he gets the next Burke coming in asking for the best they have for Nordic conditions he might do better. The first image below is the second reason and probably explains why I came to the obvious conclusion that I had perhaps better tyre up correctly. Since talking to the locals they all say that this is not a too infrequent occurrence. What happened was that I had moved to the right to give the oncoming road clearing tractor some room and I felt a small jolt at the passenger side rear and the van slipped slightly away. What happened then was dream like. The ground at the top edge of the berms the roads are built on are apparently notorious for giving way (local knowledge seems you do not want to be letting the tourists in on this), anyway, not quickly it continued to slide slowly away and steering correction did not make the slightest of difference and in these conditions braking is not the best idea. Nett result is that the backend steadily dragged the van off the road and once it reached the bottom it just laid down on its side. Which is where amidst tons of button holes I found myself dangling in the seat belt. By the time I had extricated myself the tractor driver opened my door grinned in and simply said hello. It is also a good thing that I drive pretty slowly here because of the conditions, was slowing even more as I was approaching a corner when the tractor came into sight, which slowed me down even more. Rest was easy, sort of, breakdown came and I was back on the road within an hour and a half. Drove to the breakdown guys offices, checked the van for mechanicals, paid the bill and drove very slowly back to camp as mentioned in the post for the 26.01.13. I was unscratched and the van’s only damage is that the sliding door panel is now concave instead of convex form and I can get this “popped” back out when I am home. Driving on studs is a totally different feeling and I feel a lot more relaxed and confident. So do not start giving me reams of comments about not being here. After the tyres were fitted I to a drive about of about 100 k’s just too get the feel, and as I just wrote it is a good one. During this drive I snapped these the last two pics below and the landscape makes up for some of the other downside items. 30.01.13 Fine day and I took advantage of this to drive some more and build on my confidence factor with the studs and went up to, and across onto the south end of Andøya. The scenery looks totally different, obviously, in these conditions. Magnificent, magnificent. Or we all know what our friends the Yanks say at times like this. 31.01.13 Snowed in again overnight. One of the locals has told me that for the past two weeks a whale has been cruising in a Fjord about 30 k’s over the bridge going back south. Can only assume it is an Orca as he says it is the masses of herring about that has brought it in. Maybe I get lucky today and Murphy keeps out of my way. Have been getting the impression that he might be stalking me. Mind you talking images I think that apart from landscapes I shall return home poor on that side and an awful lot richer on the experience side of tings. These following are the notes I made on my way up and a bit since arriving. I will not post everyday as I really do not think there will be a lot happening, but at least once a week. 19.01.13 8:30 start & after 64 km realised forgotten passport so had to return to pick it up. Left home again at 10:00. Even so got the15:15 ferry from Puttgarden & reached the usual stop in Denmark at 19:00 (for my future reference the coordinates are N55 09'58" E11 57'31"). The roads were surprisingly clear both of traffic & snow. Denmark was worse. Drifting snow. 20.01.13 Restless night 0.1 deg in van when woke. Up at 04:15 on the road at 05:15. Fairly long drive to a camp site just 30 km south of Lillehammer. Near a place named Brumunddal. 21.01.13 Good sleep but had to turn the electric heater on at about 03:00 was bitterly cold. Minimum was minus 18 deg C. The water in the pipes from the canisters to tap were frozen so no water. Fortunately had enough in my drinking bottle which I defrosted in front of the heater. Turned out that it was only the pipes the canisters were okay thanks to their fleece jackets. On start up to leave had a great deal of flashing warning lights from the suspension. Seems that the sensors also froze in the levelled position. The rubber sleeve had also frozen to the suspension column. Spoke to them & decided to continue. Couple more frights on the way but everything settled down. Headed for Steinkjer to a Camp that we have used quite frequently Turned out to be closed for repairs so had to go on for a bit. The other one was also closed but parked up and fortunately found an outdoor socket from which I am half inching and happily gobbling up the clandestine power. In Oppdal stopped at a plumbers and got some pipe insulation and fitted it up this evening. Hope it works. Coming up over the Dovrefjell the temp went down to minus 30. Slippery as well. Can drive along at between 80-90 km/hr no problem in some places, but a lot of the time I was doing not much over 60-65. No real problem with stopping either as long as one has time, fair amount, and is driving in a straight line. If you have to be quick the ABS does its dancing the Light Fandango thing. The Dovreflell is a National Park area and there is a herd of Musk Ox that roam about there all year around. Have seen a documentary of them. Obviously did not get to see them. The highest point is at 2286 meters but the road only goes through at between 16 to 1800 I guess. It is fairly flat up top between two mountain ranges with a permanent wind blowing across it. Which explains the temperature I guess. That's another day grub and sleep. Hope I don't freeze!! 22.01.13 Seems my insulation work was successful. On the road by 08:30 and arrived in Fauske 17:45. Quite a stressful day. The roads were reasonably clear but for some reason they do not clear down to asphalt so one is permanently driving on ice. As long as one keeps the to a reasonable speed At one point in a gentle curve doing about 30 the van went independent and the back went out with a wheel over the drop but managed to get it back where upon it decided to attack the crash barrier but gave it up just before it actually crashed. Lot of button holes on the floor. Another big problems are the large transport vehicles hurtling around. They frighten the life out of you under normal circumstances, ask Terry, but in these conditions it can be a major hazard. A fair number of the drivers respect on coming traffic and slow a bit, but not all. Then its is truly dodgy as their vacuum raises an enormous cloud of snow behind them and it is impossible to see through it. More button holes. No problem going over the Saltfjellet, which is where one crosses 66 degrees North. Again high, so cold and windy which caused a lot of drifting snow and poor visibility. Coming down off the Fjell on the run up to Fauske, about 90 km it started to snow and did not stop. As it was dark by then the visibility is again almost down to about 30-40 meters. So it takes forever crawling along. 23.01.13 Last leg up to Sortland today. Left Fauske at 07:45 & reached Bosgnes for the Lødingen ferry at 11:00. Next one was at 11:45 so not a long wait. Just time for a brew. The road was a nightmare without any exaggeration it was one continuous sheet of ice. Lost it twice and I was going so slow the few Norwegians coming up behind me were getting frustrated. To hell with them. On the way out of Fauske an ambulance and police blue lights went rushing by. About 20 km further found out why. Had to wait for the first time in all of the trips up here, at a red light flashing on a tunnel entrance. Once got the green at the other end was stopped again. Blue light was there. It was at the the end of one tunnel and the entry of the next. About 150 m apart. Some nut had lost it coming the other way and bent him/herself quite spectacularly. So I carried on at my pace. Only about 60 km once I get off the ferry. Made it at 13:50 road in one hell of a state. All in all 2525 km door to door. Only 224 today which gives an average of 575 km for the first four days which is not unacceptable! Hey, almost forgot, just after the ambulance I mentioned went past me I spotted an Elk, you know, one of those fictitious animals they put on hundreds of "beware" signs alongside the roads to get tourists excited. This one was just off the side of the road & despite the snow quite hard to see with the odd shrubs and trees around. It was still dark at the time. Did a deal with the guy that runs the site and the six weeks I am here will only cost me €375 and that includes all the usual facilities and electrical power. Chuffed about that! 24.01.13 Oh! Just got up & looked out of my front (side door). Think I'll have to change my plans for today. Snowed in & until they come & clear away out on the site I'm stuck. Even with 4x4 but its not so bad that I cannot walk out. Going to be fun here this time I guess! Ah we'll breakfast first. Only have about four hours of daylight at the moment, so in a brake in the snow I managed to dig myself out and started out to have a look in town. It was so slippery I chickened out and scurried back to my camp with my ears down and tail between my legs. Even the locals were rolling along at about 20 km/hr. They are tyre’d up differently,both with a special tread and studs. When I left DUS it was with a complete set of brand new winter tyres. Safe enough but not quite enough for these conditions. One things for sure I’m damned glad we bought the van with four wheel drive. 25.01.13 Same conditions, more or less as yesterday so I shall go walkabout. Looks as though it may clear so I can get out and explore a bit with the van. One thing is for sure patience is going to be in demand here. These are just some snaps I made along the way. First two thru' the windscreen just before getting to Sortland. These three are for Terry. Remember the great image you made on the way back to the Airport mate? The one you have framed.This is what it looked like a couple of days ago. Last two are the view out of my living room window.
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Hawkeye the AgeingJust an enthusiastic amateur photographer.
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