Morning paddling in Obbola
I’m home in Obbola – 6:20 – it’s still quite dark.
The sky is clear – hardly any wind – frost at -4.5 °C. – my kayak lies at the shore.
A good opportunity to do some pre-work kayaking and watch the sunrise at sea.
Travelling from Tromsø to Obbola
Live from the journey …
Part 1 – written in Hotell Sørreisa.
Saturday 16 October at 12:17 my train to Umeå will depart. Not from Tromsø (no train station), but from Abisko Östra. From there the train to Umeå will take nine hours. Then it’s only twenty more kilometres to our home in Obbola.
From Tromsø to Abisko I’ve planned to take the car. And this was the forecast for the Swedish mountains four days ago:
Half a metre snow! Holy moly! Luckily you can rely on the fact, that these forecasts are unreliable. Now only some centimetres of snow are forecasted for tomorrow.
Wednesday
While some trees in town shed there coloured leaves the mountains are already clad in snow. The first photo is taken in the centre of Tromsø, the other one near where I live.
Thursday
I change to winter tyres, a must have for crossing the Norwegian/Swedish mountains. Due to unsure weather conditions I decide to start my car trip already on Friday and book a room with breakfast in Sørreisa.
Friday
Half past three I have packed my stuff (why is the large suitcase so heavy again?) and start my car trip Tromsø—Sørreisa—Abisko. The first fifteen minutes stop and go in town, then over the bridge and onto the E6 that I follow for round 130 km south. The temperature slowly drops from +3 °C to -2 °C and gradually snow is not something far on the mountain slopes but lies left and right from the road E6.
It starts getting dark quite early. Sun down here in is already at 17:20. Here, that is Sørreisa Hotell, where I’ll stay overnight. This hotel does not only provided affordable rooms but really good Thai food as well.
Part 2 – written in Kiruna, sitting in the train to Boden.
Saturday
The next morning my car windows were covered with frost and the temperatures were slightly sub-zero. I had enough time to avoid the main road and instead took road 84 that has both mountain and coastal stages. I can warmly recommend this detour.
The smaller lakes in the mountains were mostly frozen. To my surprise even parts of the fjord Sagfjorden near Sjøvegan were covered with thin ice. I thought it would take longer to make the saltwater freeze.
After I joined the main road E6 I left it again to follow the E10 to Sweden. There was some snow on the ground, but it wasn’t snowing.
45 minutes later I arrived in Abisko Östra. Here’s a cozy cabin, where I had stayed several times to explore Abisko. The owners generously allowed me to park my car here for free, while I am in Sweden. Thank you, Anneli and Thomas! It was nice meeting you again!
In Abisko it started snowing. I bought some lemonade and then waited for the train to come. It came in time. I got into the train. Now it’s only round nine hours to Umeå. With the car it is 700 km to Umeå so taking the train is not only more ecological and comfortable but also faster.
Part 3 – written in the train between Kiruna and Gällivare
When the train arrived in Kiruna it was winter. Everything was covered with snow, it was windy and constantly snowing. We had a stay of half an hour and I went out to take some photos. My anorak was warm enough, the summer barefoot shoes weren’t. No problem, since the train was overheated I quickly got warm again.
After we left Kiruna more and more snow sticked to the slightly warmer train windows until I could hardly see through the window anymore.
Part 4 – written in the connection train somewhere between Älvsbyn and Jörn.
In Gällivare and Nattavaara there was more snow, but then the train approached the coastal region where it uses to be slightly warmer. The ground was also snow covered but the snow looked wet and probably won’t last long.
Meanwhile it had started to get dark. We were late but the connection train in Boden was supposed to wait for us. And so it did.
In Älvsbyn I took the last out-of-the-train photo today. It was dark and mostly I took photos from my own reflections, not from the outside.
I’m glad when I can leave the train. First of all I’m tired and want to arrive home. Then the train compartment is strongly overheated, too. I’ve been in saunas colder than this!
Part 5 – written from home on Sunday.
There’s not much more to tell. Leaving the town Vindeln behind I could see less and less snow until soon no more snow covered the ground. At 21:09 the train arrived in Umeå where Annika already waited on the platform. Half an hour I finally was home.
Today, after a rich breakfast:
I’m so glad to be here. At more than two weeks I’ll spend home in Obbola until I’ll take the same way back to Tromsø in early November.
New friends Tromsø
This article is part of the series “2021-07: Back in Tromsø”.
New friends Tromsø is a Facebook group where people new to Tromsø meet. Some may be here only for couple of days while others may have moved here and look for tips and other people.
Finally I had time to join an event that one of the group members organised, a hike to Gutta på skauen in Tromsdalen. Since I didn’t know this place I’ll can add the hike to my project #onceaweek.
As the day before the weather was quite warm but cloudy and rainy. I just took some photos with my iPhone since the focus was on get to know other people not on taking pictures. As usual I was quite early at the meeting point in town and waited in the rain for other people to come.
Eight people we were in total – from five, six different countries. We went to Tromsøbrua and used this large bridge the cross the Tromsøysund strait and reach the mainland.
On the mainland we had four more km to hike – first through the urban neighbourhood Tromsdalen, then on smaller roads through the forestry valley of the same name. And then we reached Gutta på skauen which means “guys in the wood”. These guys – all older than me – provided coffee and cinnamon buns. You do not pay per coffee or bun but donate an amount of money that you consider suitable.
There we sat for an hour or such while rainfall outside increased. Then we hiked back another parallel path (the nicer way), crossed the bridge again, asked a bypassed to take a picture of us and then started to split up. After another stop in the café Koselig I walked home. There are not many busses on Sundays.
There were a lot of water puddles on my way back, some of them quite deep. The last photo however is not rainwater but the sea. When the tide is quite high it covers one of the footpaths on the seashore. I managed with rubber boots this time but it was close.
No, this tour was not demanding but anyhow it was 14–15 km in total. So – motion: check! Meeting nice people: check! Having a good day: check!
Thank you, E. for organising.
Low tide by the sea
Low water and rainy weather. Time for some black and white images by the coast, this time round the bays Hakøybotn, Sørbotn and Mammakjosen.
A short after work tour of the Sørtinden.
This article is part of the series “2021-07: Back in Tromsø”.
Here I stand on one of the tops of the Sørtinden, where I was ten days ago the first time. Today the view was much better but it was very windy.
Looks like a normal mountain tour round Tromsø like I’ve made the last weeks, doesn’t it?
But it wasn’t. This time I didn’t hike alone. It was the first post-covid tour organised by the Norwegian Polar Institute. It was seven people and two dogs joining the tour. After many months of home office I fully enjoyed doing something together with other people, most of whom I didn’t know. Yes, it’s possible again in Norway. What a relief!
After we had arrived at the top we took a longer rest. While we shared some goodies I learned a lot about prioritising when being on tour. While I use to take my camera equipment with me, others provide things like …
I just can say that warm fried cinnamon rolls are extremely tasty. Another day I learned something valuable.
Dear colleagues, takk for turen – thanks for the tour.
A hike round the peninsula Klubben
This article is part of the series “2021-07: Back in Tromsø”.
#onceaweek tour 5
Today I didn’t choose a mountain top but a small coastal promenade as my #onceaweek tour. I took the car to the village Lyfjorden on Kvaløxya and went round the peninsula Klubben. I love hiking up mountains to get the view but at the coast you get views for free ;-).
One of the things that still impresses me is how tiny some houses look standing in front of huuuge mountain faces that often look like vertical walls.
Klubben lies in the Kaldfjorden (the cold fjord). On the other side lies the mountain Store Blåmannen (1044 m) – always an imposing view.
The birches on Klubben had only some yellow leaves left. Since it was quite windy (15 m/s on the bridge to Kvaløya) they will be bare soon. Soon the autumnal colours will be history for this year.
Although this tour was marked as green (easy, for beginners) you still had to watch where to go. Sometimes the path was boggy but mostly stony and I had to watch my steps.
A quite loud noise, like someone inhaling loudly through the teeth interrupted me. I looked for the sound source and spotted a whale quite nearby. Although I had the camera with telephoto lens in my hands it took me a second before I managed to make a photo of the dorsal fin just before the small whale submerged again. I saw it two more times but in quite a distance. The photo is poor but the experience to spot a whale just by chance from your Sunday afternoon walk was extraordinary.
I continued my walk but now the path had vanished and the ground was only rocks. Did I miss the path? Possibly. I checked with the map app of Norgeskart and realised that the way was a bit higher up. I went and climbed up the steep slope but did not find any path. Higher and higher I ascended until it was clear that the map wasn’t as accurate as assumed. Probably the rocks were the path.
I didn’t want to descend that slope again and so continued to ascend it until I met a small gravel road that led to some houses – the first modern and cuboid, the second traditional with a grass roof.
Soon the area had become less steep and I could cut short to the coast again.
On the way back I took an extra stop in Finnes, Kvaløya . The small reindeer herd that I’ve seen there several times was still grazing. Probably they live there.
Today’s tour was only 4 km (elevation gain and loss round 250 m) but I cannot say that it was less fun or less exciting. I have however to admit that it was much less exhausting than the mountain tours. Training effect: ±0.
Aurora hunting – failing and cheating
It’s always the same: when you wake up in the night and see the polar lights illuminating the sky it doesn’t mean, that you can take good pictures of them. In the time you need to dress, take camera and tripod and walk outside to a nice place it’s likely that they disappear again. Polar lights are shy fellows.
Last night it was the same: I saw a nice aurora from my sleeping room. But when I arrived at the bay Telegrafbukta no distinct aurora was visible anymore.
Anyhow the sky looked a bit pale. Clouds or polar lights? Let’s take a handheld photo with a long exposure. Cl… …ick.
Yes. The sky is definitely green. I set up the tripod, configure the camera and wait.
…
Nothing happens.
So I start taking a long expose shot of the sea, the mountains and the lights of Kvaløysletta.
And you can see the polar lights, at least a bit. No surprise because I exposed the photo for 30 seconds with ISO 560 and an exposure of ƒ/3.2. That puts enough light onto the sensor to catch even faint polar lights that are hardly visible to the naked eye. So this is not really an aurora photo, it’s more cheating.
Before I went back to my bed I wanted to take at least one photo with some kind of a motive. It became a shed nearby, illuminated by the moon and again with a faint polar light in the background.
Today I have to go to bed early, I have to catch up on sleep.
An after-work tour onto the Rødtinden and Storbogtinden
This article is part of the series “2021-07: Back in Tromsø”.
Last week I worked a lot of extra hours. When I realised that the weather would be nice today I stopped working at 14:00, took the bus home and then my car to Kvaløya where I took an after-work tour, first on the Rødtinden (470 m) and then to the Storbogtinden (568 m).
I had my Nikon with me but I think these photos are boring and so I let the iPhone speak today:
I didn’t edit the image beside of cropping them to the ratio of 8:3 and editing contrast and sharpness a bit.
And the tour?
sunny, blue sky, round 15 °C ❦ t-shirt weather ❦ some really muddy parts ❦ first birches and mountain ashes with coloured leaves ❦ then bare trees ❦ above 350 metres no trees at all ❦ I’m alone on the mountain tops, sweating and panting ❦ 360 °C view on different mountain ranges, fjords, sounds and the open sea to the northwest ❦ not the most impressive look but beautiful anyhow
A short tour to Sørtinden
I have to admit that my motivation to go out was low this Saturday where it was grey weather with a slight drizzle that made everything damp. So this time I chose a shorter tour for my project #onceaweek.
And since the light was so dull that the autumnal colours looked pale and grey it was simple to choose a photo project: Only black and white and only rocks.
Telegrafbukta and the first autumn storm
This article is part of the series “2021-07: Back in Tromsø”.
The first autumn storm approached Tromsø. Nothing extreme but the tide and the waves were higher than usual.