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.

09.02.13

As is usual with weather forecasts, ignore them. Today has been a beautiful sunny, almost cloudless day and I took another drive out. Went south and then turned west to follow the road around the east side of the Eidfjord. Breathtaking! I’ve attached some images it is beyond me to capture the scale and magnificence but I hope it gives an approximation. Should the day tomorrow turn out to be similar I shall do the route again in the opposite (anticlockwise) direction. Always see different views and perspectives.

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