This took place between the 27.09 to the 02.10 and before writing anything further I will re-quote Aldous Huxley - “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries,” which here again is very true.
Fantastic people, wonderful country which no doubt has it's own faults, bandits and whatever, same as everywhere else.
We were in Sibiu and Brasov mainly with rides out into the mountains.
Thanks go out to the organisers who did a wonderful job of it. Also to the 1x'ers who as on my only other get together with them are great folk with a penchant for mega amounts of laughter. Thanks my sides are still sore.
Next Autumn is already planned for a major trip back down there.

Last minute packing of the van still to go and then ready for the off. Plan on leaving Düsseldorf at about 02:00 on the morning of the 02.09 and hope we don't get into trouble with long waits for the ferry in Dunkirk. First couple of days in Folkestone before heading across to Cardiff. This will be followed by the "Bestest" near Stamford. Then through the Peaks, Pie Town and on to Skye and the Highlands. After that all open.

Well after the Dordrecht meet with 1x members on the 30th April and 1st May, which despite my earlier scepticism, turned out to be a wonderful week end full of great folks, I started catching up on image processing etc. Even posted a few, which were bounced, and this puts ones ego back into perspective as there really are an awful lot of good photographers out there.

Anyway was moving ahead and getting ready to meet up with No.1 son with his lovely lady in Bavaria close to Passau for some prime time together. Unfortunately Murphy was lurking and what could go wrong did so with a vengeance.
Early hours of the morning of 10th June found me in an Ambulance with all the bells and whistles on turbo getting a free ride to the University Hospital in Düsseldorf with a ruptured appendix and me feeling a wee bit sorry for myself. This also managed to cause a hernia.🤕

Anyway on the 24th June I was back home all patched up with two nice new scars for the collection and generally a bit chaste and sore. All's well though and time and perseverance will fix all and onward we go. Especially having had such a forceful demonstration that time can be very short and immortal we most certainly are not.

Only good thing about it was I had the biggest (legal) high of my life because before I went into the first emergency op they dosed me up with three bombs of Morphine. They had to strap me down to keep me getting stuck to the ceiling. They more or less kept me in the land of Morpheus for three days with a couple of small doses afterwards. Brutal they are after three days its cold turkey and no whining helps. Bang straight back into the real world.😡

Lucky again and its good to be around. Had to cancel the meet in Passau though for obvious reasons, just as well really, had a message from No.1 yesterday from Cardiff Airport. It seems an un-named member of their party had forgotten to check if their Passport was valid!😜 No further comment.

So revised plans for the year are simply to get as fit as possible for the trip across to Britain on 2nd August. Will drive down to Cardiff to see No.1 and Co. Then Stamford to say hello to the Very Besets in the World for a kiss and a cuddle. From there a ride through the Peaks to Cumbria and on to the Highlands.

Want to be back by 20th September in time for the Photokina in Köln. After that short local trips in the T5 and Caddy to get myself and all top fit again. Big plans for 2017 but I'm holding off on making any firm plans until sure that am up to it.

One good thing about it all is I won't be having another problem with my "friend" the appendix again, nasty little bastard he wus.

Well I've been home since the evening of the 4th April having left the Lofoten a day earlier as I mentioned in the last post and I'm glad I did. I learned later that the forecast gale did present itself and apparently a Russian ship got into difficulties and need rescuing by the Lifeguard.

Camped in Fauske to meet up next morning with someone I had been exchanging mail with, great lady who has some wonderful images of her homeland. Check it out if you are interested, just type http://mette.1x.com/gallery in your browser. Some real Aurora images there not the pale ones that I managed to get to see and capture.

Had a coffee and chinwag together and I was off on the road again by 11:00 and called it a day in Mosjøen after an uneventful run. Bright and sunny coming back over the arctic circle with hardly anything on the road at all.

From there down to Stadsbygd which is a small place on the northern side of the Trondheimsfjord to visit some friends. Camped in the usual place, a Marina right down on the fjord. Crossed over to the south side after visiting and slept in the Statoil car park in a place called Klett. Cost me all of NOK 50. Its right on the E6 so a good springboard for the long run home (tacho said 2007 km parked up in front of our garage).

On the road by 6:00 and down to the intersection with the E3 which kept me off the Dovrefjell, which can be a bit dodgy still early April. First couple of hours as far as Tynset were foggy and very icy, but we have our spikes do we not? Plan was to bash down to just before Halden and camp up for the night. My second "out of the bedroom window" pic on the way up. When I got there it was not quite midday so I pushed on, didn't see much point in parking up and losing half a day. perhaps it was because it was a Sunday, but the roads were very empty. Anyway I found myself camped at the first "out of the bedroom window" site at the bridge in Denmark. Long run, and had to take a long walk to get some circulation back into my bum and boy did I sleep well.

Got the ferry to Puttgarden at 06:15 and was with Campmobil in Lezeen for running repairs, replacements, for plastic bits my usual clumsiness had found it necessary to break, by 09:00 and back in Düsseldorf by 17:15. Again with a numb bum, and all without getting nobbled with my spikes.

So that was the end of the trip, spikes came down first thing the following Monday 11.04 and today, 15.04 get the gas MOT inspection done and I'm all legal and ready to rock again.

​Another change of travel plans for this year having found out that a) Photokina is on again in September this year and not next as I thought and, b) an inspection of the spiked tires after this trip shows they are good for at least one more. 😀 Revisions to be seen under Travel Plans tag, where else?

All that is left now to complete the trip is to re-visit my images, make my final selects and enjoy the exercise of processing properly and hopefully making them into the images I visualised when taking them. "Snapping" them as my two favourite critics refer to my efforts. Love you guys!

Take care all you other good folks out there as well as my "critics".

Real bad night had to park up close to building to get out of the main force of the Gale. Wow, don't have to do that too often.

Nothing new today, spent tidying up, stowing gear that I won't be needing on the way back down south and generally getting ready to go.

Will get the ferry an evening earlier as on my planned departure date another Gale is forecast and I don't want to get stuck because the ferry is canceled. Could drive out but that means driving north and then turning east into Narvik before turning south again. Two extra days driving I can do without.

Unless something of note happens tomorrow this will be my last but one post from this trip. Round it off when I'm back in Düsseldorf.

Oh I see a couple of comments below without an e-Mail address/s. That's okay by me but if you don't include an address I can't respond. If of course you wanted one. Your address is not revealed to anyone by the way, inclusion of it in a comment merely opens up a "Reply" button for me. Just for info.

Very high winds and torrential rain. Thats about all that will be reported today. I'm sulking in the van and hoping the Rugby will kick off soon.

​Sorry no earth shattering images or lesser. 

Beautiful crisp, clear blue day which made it a wee bit tame photography wise. So I concentrated a bit on the sea and until recently some of its inhabitants.

When you see all these racks of fish all over the islands one really wonders were they all come from. Or more to the point, how many are left?

All I have to offer today, sorry.

I did have a crack at the Aurora tonight because the sky looked so like the day, and all forecasts were positive. Trekked out to the the secret place, got set up wrapped up the gear to keep it as warm as possible until the lights appeared. I then, already well wrapped up, cowered down in the comparative protection of a monster boulder but to no avail. Lights didn't appear and despite my protected position I froze again.

Below selfies of a fearless Aurora Hunter, his surrounds and his gear, which I fear was warmer than its owner. (Click on 'em)

Catch up day been lousy all day so far so caught up with my pre-processing.

There have been quite a few images posted to both the colour and B&W sections, as always mostly comparison versions of the same images. Must admit though this time there were a couple that did not lend themselves to a conversion.

My latest playground is the beach 150 meters in front of my van. Mostly abstract but they fascinate me. Check the last seventeen images in both tabs black and colour.

More later we have very high tides today and it has just started to recede, so off to my playground. Snows let up and no folks around to leave great hoof marks in the sand.

Only picked up three more images in the playground today, tide was high but the sea is relatively quiet so not too much activity in the sand as the sea goes back out.

Tomorrow.

Well I have been slacking as far as the Blog is concerned, but not otherwise. Not true got some catching up to do with image pre-processing. So because of that only two new ones to be found, Todays Offering which is repeated with another as a filler under the B&W Norway ones.

Last two days have been incredibly still and clear. Which after all the weather thats been flying around here leaves one feeling threatened. Lull before the storm touch.

Last night was really clear and the moon is almost full, so its almost like daylight, as is this evening. Yesterday I was off into the bush to make magnificent Aurora images and of course they didn't appear They'd been forecast as strength 3. The only thing that was exciting and fun was a winter Hare all white and almost invisible who wandered up partaking of his supper and parked himself within couple of meters of where I was standing. I guess I was invisible to him, my clothing was all pretty dark and I was standing against a fence line on the edge of a cemetery. Probably would not have seen him either as I was staring up at the sky full of hope optimist that I am, and just caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. It being a cemetery and all I turned my head very slowly case the ghost's were about and there he were. Made me a happy bunny anyway. Him not so when I finally moved, he shat himself, leapt straight up in the air and took off at a rate of knots. All in one it is to be understood.

I stayed around for two and a half hours but no lights just me shaking, clappering and freezing my nuts off. Just before getting my head down at midnight I had a quick butchers outside of the van. If you really know what you are looking for you could just see these whips grey clouds. They are the lights but to the human eye barely discernible. Camera sensors pick up a light green hue, but not worth the effort.

They are forecast at 3 again tonight, but I'm going to stay in the van and keep an eye out and my nuts warm. There is another place to set up that I have found a wee bit closer so if it looks worth the effort I can shoot off. Otherwise I'm staying home.

First day of Spring yesterday I believe, It was a cracking day, sunshine almost all of it, and with apologise to our Arabian friend, magnificently cloudy, great big thumping ones. I'll post some images of it tomorrow, (I mean later on) after a kipp.

Not going to go on a lot, which I'm sure will delight you all. Almost two in the morning and I've chucked the images from earlier on in the usual place for the colour images, and I mean chucked quite literally. They have come straight out of the light box and onto the site. Dun nuttin to'em. No apologise.

​I'm still thawing out so best place for me is my pit.