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

Usken runde

a quick padle round the island Usken, fabulous autumn colours, but much need for gortex although the water was really quite warm and flat - luckily there was a superb refuge spot for taking lunch - the "water bus stop", much tea and sandwiches and pastries before setting off once more seeing seals and plenty eider ducks and cormorants, around kalvøy, hellesøy and lindøy too (where it is rumoured they leave you if you've misbehaved), perhaps about 20k today

paddling round the monastry

turned out to be another most incredible tour with the local kajak club round Mosterøy, past the Fjøløy Fyr (Lighthouse) (although you'll get a much better resolution from "norge i bilder" - water was so unbelievably flat, the eider pairs were back in the area with their young, aswell as many skarv/cormorants, rather an extended lunch break including a snooze in the sun and some extremely well planned "packed" lunches - the things you can pack into a sea kajak!! we saw a flock of 15 hegrer/herons fishing around the monastry, utstein kloster where we pulled in for afternoon tea, here's what the monastry may have looked like in its hay day during the time of the augustine monks around 12-1300ad, a bit more paddling and base camp was set up - a couple of 100m high local tops taken in just to top off the full body training and to watch the sun melt into the sea - a very warming bonefire was constructed from drift wood and more cooking before we caught a glimse of several shooting stars in the crystal clear sky and would you believe it the northern lights aswell - a fleeting dark distant shimmering to the north over the sea but unmistakable before colapsing into the tent - the following morning dawned equally calm and flat, quite unbelievable so an easy drift home via the memorable "oystercliff formation" and the harbour porpoise that played between the boats for a few minutes before continuing down the fjord - all that within 1/2hr of the flat and for a 300kr annual membership - bargin

yet more nordland

a chance to have another outdoor session so late in the season - had to be a slightly early dash out the office but a few routes in the fading light was a thoroughly rewarding evening - topped by a warm glow from the sunset, amazing the warmth of the rock

lysefjord paddling

Packing a kayak with all those luxuries that you just don’t take when hill walking, now there’s a fun challenge, where to put the espresso machine and the pancake mix, the wine and the essential “winter warmer” – that’s where we found ourselves just before 6pm Friday night 1st September on the shores of the sheltered bay at Lauvik all rather excited about the prospect of paddling the length of one of the most spectacular fjords in southern Norway – Lysefjord.
Eventually pushing off after much faff we drifted under the bridge and out into the choppy fjord where Trude gave us clear instructions how to avoid the ferries, a few breakers over the front of the boats we settled into each of our paddling strides but soon realized some of the boats were “mis-behaving” a little requiring a toe and some adjustment of the rudder lines. We sat for a moment or two to watch the ferry dock, load and set off again with a full compliment and sprinted across behind it experiencing its full wave! By this time a break was certainly in order for a leg stretch and at least a munch bar at 7pm while the necessary adjustments were made. As dusk approached we experienced the mouth of the fjord at a most beautiful time, paddling under the bridge to Farsand from Oanes the sky went pink and the water was like glass – this is why we are here – past a few islands, lots of pleasant conversation along the way, spotting some wildlife and generally being in awe of the surroundings, knowing it could only get steeper and even more breath taking – we were going to be in for a treat.
We only became aware of where we had pitched camp with the dawning of saturday morning, with the rain having set in as we pulled up on friday night; a fabulous secluded grassy camp spot amongst the trees, and with fresh water, picnic tables and a real loo – bonus. So, of course, burners fired up porridge and coffee was order of the day (along with miggie swatting as there was no wind atall, great for paddling and mountainous reflections tho!) A relatively leisurely start, having to remember how to get all the kit back into the boats, we were paddling towards the great Prekestolen overhang, not before pulling in at a rather spectacular gorge on the northern side of the fjord and some picture posing of course! It was just then that the rain started, and spectacular it became – lashing down in stair rods would be a good way of describing it – even the goats were sheltering under the rocks (as we were educated why they cant swim!!) Taking their lead we also resorted to hugging the rocks to get some respite from the onslaught. Although only being able to get a fleeting glimpse of Prekestolen the atmospheric setting looking down the fjord was quite breath taking and yet more pictures were captured as some of us became even more delayed!
A period of more concentrated paddling saw us to lunch on the dry rocks mid way down the fjord, a very suitable spot for surveying the mornings progress and also taking in the way ahead, and what a view that was – the fjord narrowing and disappearing down towards Kjerag and Lysebotn, time though to try and make a dent in the enormous food bag that was my excuse for lagging behind, nevermind the avid photo taking! At this point I have to mention the array of stoves and burners that were brought along and the quality of the food just miraculously prepared on the shores of a 40km seawater fjord, from WWI looking equipment to ultra modern, fresh pancakes and marinated sweet peppers to go nuts and chocolate bars not to mention more espresso, rocket fuel for havpadling!
A beautiful afternoon tour in quite waters, waterfalls thundering down either side, berry laiden trees giving red colour to the dense green and to top it all off there were even a couple of seals popping their heads up above the surface every now and then, an excellent round off to about 20km of paddling as we drifted into a grassy bay with an abandoned house, a throw back to past farming days when small holdings were a little more profitable and sustainable way of life, a sweet spot for spending the night all the same – and even a rocky promontory for a fire place and tucking into a few “glasses” of fine red. The tents spread about the patch and suitably satisfied after a range of delightful tastes, we settled into much conversation and discussion about the relative merits of the latest paddling technology, advantages of so much luggage space whilst paddling compared to walking adventures, but perhaps more importantly whether the impending storm that appeared to be brewing at the mouth of the fjord would migrate all the way to our humble spot. Luckily the thunder and lightning were just a floor show and slowly migrated north leaving us in peace to enjoy the final embers of the fire before turning in with a warm glow and to varying degrees weary arms!
The relative scarcity of pull in spots was emphasized on Sunday, paddling underneath Kjerag, 1000m straight up, some base jump but no such entertainment for us today, keen eyes just being able to pick out the bolt. The water a little more choppy than Saturday kept us to pottering down towards the hydropower station and tunnels at Lysebotn, only a short paddle before lunch, although we had to ensure we were there before the ferry which was to be our ride back up the fjord – less than 2 hours at full speed for something that had taken us 2 days, but what a way to get to know the fjord – having paddled the length of the fjord we deserved (another) big lunch whilst dreaming where the next tour would take us!
Friday - 11km; Saturday - 24km; Sunday - 8km

Stakken

stakken turistforeningen hytte with a little 25yr old Highland Park single malt

Flåm - Gudvangen paddling

Undredal stave church
Nærøyfjord world heritage site

quite an approach route

Dansen - mygies (knot) - 2 ropes on this tinny little crag

Hardangerjøkulen

The view from the tent first thing in the morning, camping under the Hardangerjøkule just beyond the wonderful and very historic Finse 1222 "hotel"

Rallarvegen

Ustaoset - Haugastøl - Finse - Myrdal - Flåm - Myrdal - Uppsete - Voss
link to a description of the route itself and handy map showing route and to top it off check out whats is actually like just now with this
webcam here's somewhere you can rent bikes from /stay if you're not camping finse 1222. These are the folk who make the wonderfully helpful guides to cycling in norway - bike-norway

klatring med sauer

tinkling sheep whilst we managed a few evening routes on Nordland

right from my window

DALSNUTEN

HOLD

Gladmat - happy food!

so much beautiful food in such fabulous weather - gladmat really was a celebration of happy food - a full menu to follow shortly

Lysefjord

a trip well worth taking from Lysebotn back to Stavanger - or perhaps even better do it in the other direction, we took the M/S Fjordlys Hurtigbåt which took a stunning 1.30mins and only 6 cars but during the summer months you can also take the larger and more relaxed Lysefjord sightseeing boat that takes about 4hours and 100cars, you see cherry trees in Lysebotn along with the energy station, hydro-wheel sculpture and workers commemoration statue, Kjerag and the Prekestolen from below and many more mouth watering views

Kjerag

the world famous bolt stuck between 2 cliff sides - very "airy" stance!! a very enjoyable 4-6 hour walk overlooking the dramatic Lysefjord - all marked by the very handy red "T" system

a miniture world

in the mossy bogs above the sirdal ski resort of fidjeland sundews have been spotted - much excitment and macro photography followed!!

jernaldergarden

jernaldergarden - a glimse of life some 1500 years ago at this beautifully preserved iron age farm right in the middle of stavanger - stunning history and fabulous views over the rest of Jæren lets the mind dream about what it must have been like all that time ago, just can't believe it took such a long time for me to get round to visit!!

blue dusk

stavanger by night - such warm summer evenings - sitting on the balcony admiring the views watching the sun go down - twilight at this time lasts such a long time and the little lights twinkle in the blue dusk as the occassional car zips by on the road below

Månafossen

liquid gold

A beautiful evenings paddling, with dinner on store marøy, before paddling round the nature reserve on lite marøy (herrons and seals and oyster catchers everywhere!!) and the most wonderful sunset whilst returning from the pebbly beach at Uskjo, like liquid gold on the lapping water, quite something, the new kystatlas proved its worth, finding us a couple of nice docking spots

Lysefjord runde

the stunning summer weather continues, a fabulous mountain hike from prestolen to bratteli on lysefjord over high rugged mountain, through the smell of hot pine forests, past babbling streams and warm lakes, finished off by a brisk cruise along the lysefjord under pulpit rock - looks very precarious from underneath...!

Hafrsfjord wind surfing

a stunning saturday spent with the sola windsurf club heading up and down and round a couple of island on hafrsfjord, plus a little too much sun bathing after in the brilliant heat, but strawberries and moreller were well worth it, topped off by a BBQ with a rather spectacular view