paddling mission to Kvitsøy

more paddling!

heading home

walking again

out on the water

beautiful Stockholm

Hardangerfjord, from above Nordheimsund

holiday landscapes

from the top:
Hardangerjøklken from Finse 1222
towards Gjende (bessegen somewhere in the cloud)
on the spectacular Valdresflyet looking east just past Bygdin
from Juvasshytta looking east with Galdhøpiggen and the summer ski centre right and Glittertind left
looking towards Breheim and Jostendal in the back on the left
crossing Lustrafjorden (one of the many sognfjord arms) looking towards Urnes stave church
looking towards Storebjørn (in the mist) from Krossbu

good old Leirvassbu

Leirvassbu one of the best cabins anywhere, and certainly a very nice place to spend a few days even with a broken ankle - the views and potential for trips are stunning - top right photos actually show the route up storen and the turtagrø swiss chalet

spot the bit that shouldnt be there.....

an amazing rescue by the guys after quite a successful day on the hill trying to climb store skagastølstind in Hurrungane, Jotenheimen from Turtagrø (see previous entry) helicopter over the hills to Otta, taxi to Lillehammar, x-ray and CT scan, quick bit of plastering and back to Lom for a relaxing one

på storen

the jewel in the crown - a must - a stunner - one to dream of - so we started early - on the 1st top for 2nd breakfast and then climbing the 2nd & 3rd by 2nd lunch at which point the weather turned - not today - retreat - home, to be saved for another day....damn, thats broken, really quite sore - get me to the doc on time.....here comes the bird - but not before the boys lower me down extremely professionally, thats what all the training and practice is for...thank you

mountain paddling

up at 1000m above sea level - water was still pretty icey! but boy were the insects having fun - never thrown snowballs from a kajak before!!

Festival of Speed

a beautiful collection of wonderfully prepared cars assembled at the annual goodwood festival of speed!!! for the hill climb - what a fabulous day out - so much to see - you could spend days there - the red arrows even visited - lots of big engines purrrrring with passion, gleaming with pride, both classically old and the secretly very new

last one of the season

http://www.folgefonni-breforarlag.no/UK/start_uk.htm
http://www.folgefonn.no
http://www.folgefonn-gjestetun.no

From Bleriots to Dakotas, Hurricanes , Hercules & Wing walking

In celebration of the airports 70th Birthday the Sola airshow was blessed with perfect weather for some stunning flying, stunts and beautifully presented planes

up the arete

A rather nice peak just around the corner from Lysefjord in Viddalen, a warm up for more things to come during the summer?? a nice few pitches up the line in the middle - good lead!

Crossing Jostedalsbreen

Trying to load a google map of Mid Norway (Jostedalsbreen, just north of the Sognefjord)...wont work if just viewing the feed, pls see the blogger site

you can interact with the map - zoom in and pan, click on the pins, which show are campspots and the line shows the route taken (thats if I could figure how to make it work!!)

meeting the rest of the DnT group on friday night at by the bus stop in sogndal we jumped into a maxi taxi which took all 17 of us ot the start of our adventure - camping at the end of the road in Faberstølen, just beyond the Breheimsenter activities centre, on the northern edge of Jostedalsbreen (apparently mainland europes largest icesheet) - our mission - to traverse from north to south....70km later it was confirmed i had the wrong skis and far too much kit, now i really know why there are fjellski and randone skis!! but somehow i made it - with much help from cognac the siberian husky but not much from the weather, i did discover some fab trip food - no washing up!

Prekestolen

looking down on Pulpit rock and Lysefjord - some very tasty waffles, jam and cream as reward!

Gratulerer med dagen

National Day, parades, music, singing, suits and Bunads and this time stunning blue sky for champagne on the balcony

rocks galore

a few field days in berwick-upon-tweed looking at rocks, totally inspirational, reminds us why we do it, but why not more often....even managed to sqeeuze in my all time favourite beer - caledonian IPA
from top left clockwise - soils, coals, shales and limestones (parasequence top); tidal sands, muds and burrowing; zoophycus; faulting; bryozoa corals; marine shales, lower shoreface to incised valley (just think of the implications!); and very well preserved huge Carboniferous fossil tree

holy island

quite a season opener...

to start the season off with a quick 50km perhaps was a touch ambitious, but with good weather predicted off we set from Lundsvågen naturskole at 6pm – boats fully loaded (some more than others, i havent quite got the art of kajak packing sorted yet!) for a weekends paddling, 18k later and in need of dinner we pulled into a very suitable spot on the southern end of Fogn, cooked and went to bed!! The morning was bright and sunny and with the prospect of paddling half way round the islands of Ryfylke we breakfasted heartily on eggs and bacon and espresso from the tranja!!
saturdays morning paddling was great, quite still and flat with not so much wind, although paddling without the technology of wing paddles and carbonfibre boats as well as with enough food for a small family and technique like someone from the stone age going wasn’t quite in keeping with the “4paddle” rating the trip was given ;~) heading to the bridge at Ølesund (Randøy) we stopped for a nicely relaxed lunch – but the after lunch paddling was definitely “low 1 iron into the wind” stuff and certainly a lot more of an effort, after a much needed stop on the western end of Ombo we headed across to the Sjernarøyane which couldn’t have come sooner, although not the most inviting camping spot i’ve experienced – was still picking the ticks out 4 days later, last count was 11 – we watched the sun set with a cosy fire and our omni-present friend mr Mack!
sunday dawned as predicted with light rain but also with a wind that seriously challenged us, to the point where a “lift” was required – getting back on land in the face of large waves and a rocky coastline was rather exciting as was dashing the boats onto car ferry where they charged us for 2 cars!! So there’s still the return journey round the islands to do (although i’d didn’t realise that til after a long soak!!) – perhaps at a more leasurely pace…!

our friend Mack

the worlds most northerly brewery - Mack - and Tromsø's oldest pub apparently!! plenty of fabulous products, kept us warm and well fuelled on the easter escapade to the north, and this isnt all of them either...veldig smakful is all i can say!!

one for savouring!

21 years in the making and 7 years in the drinking (and it was a half bottle!) that was a very memorbable bottle of springbank, but all gone now - very enjoyable!! seriously recommend a browse in cadenheads for inspiration and stocking!

Quidi Vidi Brewing

All the way from Newfoundland - the "Icebergbeer"!

pushing it ;~)

more cross country skiing back in the old favourite from fidjeland - a classic bit of combat skiing - stricktly speaking rather off piste - but this time on foot, not skis ;~) - jump!!

Rombakstøtta

just around the corner from narvik we made out last official top tur of this easter trip up the rather stunning and noticable Rombakstøtta - a cosy lunch was had in the lee of a friendly rock while we kept an eye on the cloud coming and going, but the decision was made and we skied up to the col, took our skis off and walked up the final summit ridge - a very nice, if a little obscured, views even across into sweden - the nedkjøring was powderful and sweet

yummy easter eggs

marvelous Lyngen

thats the beach - those are our skis and there's even some blue sky - skiing from 0.3m above sea level...beautiful - our best weather on the whole trip - although it only lasted until 2pm by which time we were high on a glacier and unable to see anything - no summit that day as we slowly retraced our steps down Tafeltind....will just have to come back for a repeat of the valley of fear next year

the best nedkjøring ever - perhaps 1km continuous powder up to you armpits ;-) daltindan - although, as ever no views from the top but some quality combat sking through the forests at the end and a heart in mouth moment on return to the car as we found that muggins had left the lights on - luckily the hirecar didnt let us down - phew!!

52km of ski racing - under stunning blue skis

the waxing

the preparation

and finally they're off

a successful team at the end of the day - all with personal bests
Sesilsåmi results - compare it to last years experience!! and PS thanks to a rather splendid support team - stunning ;~)

its early this year

so warm, must be about a month earlier than last year - the buds all appearing and coming out already, the white coating is being shaken off

downhill at Voss

some rather nice downhill at the voss ski centre and accomodation at the historic hotel Fleischers but boy what an epic return - left at 16.30 home by 05.00!!! storms and ferries arent a good combination!

ICEHOTEL

we saw them ;~)

a 52 second exposure at 1000iso - 20mm lens



and a timelapse sequence with 3 minute interval between 30 second exposures at 400iso - 20mm lens

haukeliseter-kiteskiing-kurs

Stranddalen

a touch of local knowledge needed - a very much more up and down trail than the typical sirdal ones....and so much snow when there - the backdoor (the only entrance) was well below the snow level and had to be dug out aswell as the windows - but a pretty nice cabin inside!!

1 month to go

only 1 month - the count down is running and so is the training, rollerskiing and the odd half marathon+ today just to get in shape - all for the gruelling "big salami" more correctly the Sesilåmi - 25th March

A snowy day (and night!) in the life of Stavanger

Carnival - Arabian nights

pics to come

crisp, cold, long, but very rewarding

we knew wanted a cross country experience - we'd spent an hour and half the night ebfore preparing the skis on the new waxing profile - we also knew it was cold - about minus 19 overnight so one of chose the route to the Grautheller tourist cabin in the heart of the Sirdal fjells! it was a stunning pre lunch tour which left us wanting more - that was after having warmed the cabin up from a baltic minus 9 inside when we arrived to a pleasant minus 2, we had even relaxed with t and sarnies - mhhhh- so the debate focused on what to do next - more, more, more....maybe - well, perhaps, yea go on, why not, oh ok, yes....some 6 hours later and 38km under our belt having skied the last 2hours pretty much in the dusk and dark with only 2 head torches between us perhaps we had bitten off more than a large chunk - but the views were stunning the ski was so clear and the temperature was mighty mighty low - as Andy's poor hands are still testament to - so sorry about that!

Hemsedal epic - sesong er i full gang ;~)

when we eventually got there it was mega, but what an epic - left at 8am and missed the ferry by less than a knats whisker, no more free coffees at the shell filling stations we chose hydro instead! great progress all the way up onto the hardangervidda where we sat and played cards for 90mins waiting for our group of cars to be taken across the plateau only to be told they were closing the road for the day, something to do with a little drifting snow - i dont know - so we embarked on a detour, that took us half way across the country, eventually going through fargenes and pealing ourselves out of the car at 11pm - of course the shell filling station in hemsedal - we'd made it - only a 15hr drive, we were totally ready for skiing, but not until after a beer (we had been through the worlds longest tunnel at 26km - quite a highlight!)




the skiing was stunning and we just couldnt get enough and to finish things off skins we strapped on and we found a nice gullie to take us back to some after ski, two days solid skiing well worth the 1500km drive but i'm not sure of the kr 25k car repair bill that followed when we ground to a halt at 9pm still 4hrs from home - yea the low loader had to come and pick us up, we got a hire car and a pizza before crawling back home alot later than planned - i'd go back to hemsedal tomorrow tho

sauda on piste

some phat air, powdery landings, thigh burning piste weaving to get the season going - a beautiful cabin basically on piste with sauna and snow for bathing in after - lessons aren't much to write home about tho - winter tyres and a bit of sand perhaps, or just a good bit of speed!

A seasons opener to remember

Røldal, where better to start the season - with fresh winter tyres and lots of snow aswell our own personal telemark local ski guide we were in for a fabulous weekend - once the lifts opened - a bit of hiking on the saturday up the lift path just to get at least one run in and then the full powder experience on sunday - all over too short - but dearie me the legs need some work before Lyngen!! no photos unfortunately, but the gps was with so have a browse to the link above and open the "dashboard" and then the google earth link or select the yellow "player" button from the top right and watch us go up and down the hill!! - nice offpiste to the south at the end of the day - thank you!

Southern Africa Christmas Adventure

Trying to load a google map of the east of Southern Africa...wont work if just viewing the feed, pls see the blogger site

you can interact with the map - zoom in and pan, click on the pins (markers for places we stayed at) to get more info – links to google earth 3D views to follow….so in the mean time here are a few slideshows of the pics I took

Southern Africa flora....

Southern Africa fauna....

Southern Africa landscapes....

Advent Calendar....

every day til christmas a new picture is revealed....
but my holidays begin on the 16th - hence only 15 doors ;~)

1st - candles
2nd - oranges
3rd - chocolates
4th - glass star
5th - father christmas
6th - peperkake
7th - red concentric rings
8th - tinsle
9th - glass snowman
10th - friendly ghost
11th - angel
12th - yummie chocies and bikkies
13th - radiant red flower
14th - pair of candles
15th - white glass star

Ancient, Artistic & Culinary Rogaland

a fabulous weekend of food and site seeing began with a quick wonder round the city centre (still under considerable preparation for european city of culture 2008) while it was dry, before heading for dinner at craigs or craigs which set us up well for an early start saturday morning. The first stop was at the little known fluberget, a magnificent set of 170 figures carved and painted on the cliff on the edge of Harfrsfjord just outside the city centre - "found" in 1879 but dating from the bronze age it consists of a mixture impressions of boats and people and a pair of musical instruments were even found here - "lures", as it turns out theres heaps of these sites all over rogland, the best finds of which can be seen at the stavanger archeological museum including the lures and wonderfully discussed in the "from runes to rigs" book (ISBN: 8299365236). We quickly stopped off at the very tall 3 swords on the eastern edge of Hafrsfjord where norway was united from chiefdoms to a kingdom all those years ago...across to sandnes for coffee via the stavanger glass blowers where several snowmen were purchaised

although the weather was still rather wet in full gortex we worked up our apetite for afternoon lefse with a walk round njåskogen (a very good place for mushrooms apparently!) before heading down to Hå gamle prestegård - the old vicarige on the coast, some rather special ceramic exhibits with strong inspiration drawn from the old viking burial spots aswell photographic and painting exhibitions.

by this time it was definitely time for a snooze before a party dinner at bolgen and moi in the prestigeous oil museum, mosre stunning food as well as a very designer table layout!

sunday morning we jumped onto the ferry across to tau to påay a visit to the beautiful glass cellar where a few angels joined the car full on the way to solbakk - a further bronze age rock carving site, which also offers some good bird spotting opportunity - the ubiquitous coffee was had at the lysefjordsenter where unfortunately the exhibition is no longer open

quite a cultural and culinary experience dispite a jolly good helping of wet weather....here's a couple more links to whet the appetite for more
stavanger museums main page
the intriguing broken column of antony gormley with a comprehensive set of photos

salmon, hail, water and reball

reportedly one of the finest salmon fishing rivers around, but today we chose river paddling, in the hail and rain, on Bjerkreimselva, I spent most of the time upside down - it only being my 2nd time in a play boat, so was extremely glad to have a wet suit, hillarious, but relieved to dig into sarnies and T while a stray boat had to be recovered from further down stream, dragging a boat across a field is very much like pulking!! the day was topped off with some "reball", paintball without the exploding balls, so as you can imagine it was bruises all round!
and heres where you can find out how high the rivers are running with historical comparisons for "our" river also available

high waves

planned as a club day out the official trip was cancelled due to "uvær" or storm, for some reason we decided to carry on out - definitely the biggest waves I've paddled, had the boys concentrating hard for at times all you could see was the sky or the bottom of the next wave....and so only pics whilst it was relatively calm - slightly curtailed trip therefore but we managed round hundevåg from bjerksted & ut i naturen - Rune found us a great spot on langøy for lunch, a wooden teepee fully equiped with bbq kit, tables and benches