A day cruise to Finland
A day cruise from Sweden to Finland and back.
Holmsund—Vaasa: 11:15–16:00. Vaasa—Holmsund: 16:30—19:00. The ferry is not faster on the way back but the Finnish time is one hour ahead.
Just some photos:
What a wonderful vårvinter kayak tour!
Yesterday the weather was calm and sunny. A perfect day for kayaking! Perhaps to Vitskärsudden, our favourite beach?
Chapter one – Bredskär
Kayaking needs a bit of preparation, especially in winter. After we have fixed a problem with Annika’s rudder, dressed ourself and went over the ice to the northern tip of the islet Lillskär we are ready to start our tour.
Annika goes first, I follow. We turn left and paddle along the edge of the ice.
Sometimes we cross fields with crushed ice. Many of the ice slices are thin and in the waves they sound like tuned bells.
We paddle along the island Bredskär. The waves are shallow and there is hardly and wind. I have to make a short stop to take a picture of the “ice monster”, then I follow Annika to the sandy bay in the northeast of the island.
We continue following the coastal line until we come to Bredskärssund, the sound between Bredskär and Obbola. As expected the sound is covered with ice and we have to return.
Time for …
Chapter two – Vitskärsudden
Slowly we paddle back enjoying the exceptionally beautiful weather and the ease of movement. Leaving Bredskär behind we cross the water heading for the rock that marks the entry to Vitskärsudden.
Arriving there more ice fields wait for us. Here are many layers of thin ice and it is not easy to find gaps to put the paddle in. Often it just glides and slides away.
It is not possible to paddle into the bay. It is covered with ice floes, many of them thick and large. But we do not want return home – too beautiful the day – and decide to paddle to the islands Obbolstenarna where we shortly have been two days ago.
Chapter three – Obbolstenarna
The way there is easy. No mentionable wind, just open water. In front of the islands there is another ice field, but it is small and easy to cross.
The next ice field is thicker. We try to break through but decide to go round. We just follow the coastal line.
In the south we go round an ice cap. According to the nautical map there is no island, just a shallow with some rocks.
Again I take a small detour to take a photo. This time to a large ice block.
Then we paddle north. First along the islands …
… then …
Chapter four – Home
we are leaving Obbolstenarna behind and head home. We enjoy the effortlessness of our today’s kayaking but we got a bit hungry. 10–15 minutes later we stand on the ice near our house.
We take a tour selfie then we drag our kayaks back home. First over the ice, then through the snow.
Thanks for the fabulously beautiful tour, Annika!
Annika tracked the tour with her smart watch. Here’s a small map. I added some names.
Back in Obbola – 20 hours
Sunday 10:30
After a breakfast in the sun heated winter garden Annika and I dress for a kayak tour. Special challenge today is not the frozen bay but the deep snow in our garden. I plunge through the snow, Annika is taking snowshoes while dragging the kayak behind. We are walking over the ice to the small skerry island Lillskär and then turn left until we approach open water. There we start the tour. I give Annika a push, then be both are sitting in our kayaks hopping forward until we reach open water.
We paddle to the islands Obbolstenarna. The way there is fast, a clear sign that we have tailwind. And true, the way back takes much longer. Yes, we are cold, but the winter garden is very warm and soon are we.
Sunday 17:00
A friend from Stockholm is visiting us today. Time to dig out our barbecue place. The two benches are covered with 20-30 of snow and it takes a bit of digging, until they are usable again. On the photo you still can see last day’s ski track crossing the bench.
Sunday 19:00
It gets cold and we have moved to the winter garden again. Blue sky, blue sea, blue snow, blue hour.
Sunday 20:23
A bright greenish light crosses the night, much faster than a plane. What was that? Many other sightings in Sweden confirm my thoughts: it was a bolide, an extremely bright meteor. I never saw anything like this. Since it was a matter of seconds, I couldn’t even think of taking a photo.
Monday 5:45
I wake up. Unnecessarily early for having vacation. Anyhow I peek out of the window. A beautiful morning, and with -13 °C a cold one for beginning of April. I pull ski pants and a down jacket over my pyjamas, slip into my boots and go out to take photos and wait for the sun. The icy edge at the horizon is already sunlit and I can see a weak light pillar above the island Bredskär. Fifteen minutes later the sun rises over the forestal island and I enjoy the sun for a short while.
Monday 6:30
When I’m back in the house it is still early. Time to take off the warm overclothes and continue sleeping …
12 more photos of Longyearbyen
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
3 March
It is the first evening of Annika’s and my stay in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard. We already strolled through the settlement after arrival. Now it is dark but the full moon illuminates the end of the road of Nybyen, one of Longyearbyen’s districts. What a special feeling to be in one of the world northernmost settlements on Earth. And a slightly tense one. It’s the edge of town, are there any polar bears around?
8 March
When you are in Svalbard you have to keep distance to animals to protect them. The animals do not follow this rule. This is a Svalbard reindeer, an own species of reindeer living here. It is looking for food in the middle of the city.
9 March
I didn’t expect to see ptarmigans on Svalbard but on our guided minibus tour we get to see a whole flock, again in Longyearbyen. Magnus is so kind to stop so that I could take a photo from the road.
10 March
This day is quite warm for Longyearbyen: Only -8 °C. When I took this photo however it was windy. Average wind wind 16 m/s, gusts 21 m/s and snow is blowing in the streets.
12 March
Annika is on her way home, I’ll stay for another week and today I enjoy the beautiful weather by the coast. The mountains on the other side of the fjord Isfjorden look quite near today – especially through the big telephoto lens.
15 March
I take an after work stroll along the coast and through town. It is cold and even with the modest wind of 6 m/s windchill is below -30 °C. It looks arctic, it smells arctic (the nose hairs freeze together immediately) and it feels arctic. No wonder – I am in the Arctic. Even the petrol prices show, that you are not in mainland Norway any longer. Petrol is cheap because Svalbard has reduced taxes.
18 March
Another walk in town. Up the hill to Taubanesentrale (the central of coal mining cableway), down to the center and up again to the elevated way in the east, part of the avalanche protection.
19 March
Sunday. Tomorrow I’ll fly back to Tromsø, today I’m quite lazy but finally I walk to the coast again because of the wonderful weather. Even with my hood on I can hear something above me. I look up and see the first two seagulls since I have arrived here. It is two glaucous gulls that draw large circles above the coastal line.
I try even to take pictures of the incredibly coloured mountains on the other side of the Isfjorden but the turbulences in the air make clear pictures impossible. I’ll keep it in my memory as I’ll do with my whole stay in Longyearbyen.
Farewell, Longyearbyen
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
I am sitting in the waiting hall of Longyear Airport, waiting for my plane to Tromsø.
More than two weeks I’ve been here, first on vacation with Annika, then working for the Norwegian Polar Institute at UNIS, the University Centre in Svalbard.
I worked with Luke, data manager for the Nansen Legacy and had a guest office on the other side of his office in the biology section.
While my office may look totally normal, the view definitely wasn’t.
Some days at 9 o’clock I went to other side of the building to the Longyearbyen section of the Norwegian Polar Institute to have coffee break with my colleagues there.
In Longyearbyen you put out your outdoor shoes before you enter a building (with some exceptions as the local COOP grocery shop). And so it is at UNIS. You can clearly see by the shelfs whether people are at home or at UNIS.
Soon I will travel back to Tromsø and I’m looking forward being back. It was a fantastic experience to spend much time in Longyearbyen. Anyhow as a visitor you also realise the limitations as for example not being able to leave the town without valid rifle permit because of the polar bears.
Continental Europe – here I come.
Colder days in Longyearbyen
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
Two days ago on 14 March 2023 it started getting colder in Longyearbyen. Yesterday temperatures were around -19 °C, today around -21 °C.
Yesterday I took a walk after work and took some photos with my tiny Sony camera that worked surprisingly good in the cold when being kept warm.
While light was beautiful yesterday, today it was magic. After work I went to my apartment. Round about 15 minutes later I left it with all my camera gear and went to the shore. Due to the interface between the open water and the cold air ice fog covered large parts of the Adventfjorden. While I looked for good places to take photos the setting sun and the altering fog changed the mood every minute. Extraordinary beautiful!
Like the days before the sunset colours on the snow covered mountains became warmer and warmer until they reached a delicate but intense purple shade while the sunlit parts rose higher and higher until only the tops stayed in the sun.
Remember, these photos were not taken in the wilderness, I’m in the settlement Longyearbyen and my apartment lies just 500 metre from the nearest photo spot.
As already mentioned today’s temperatures were round -21 °C. With a moderate breeze of 6 m/s that felt like -32 °C. Pretty cold and the ice fog didn’t make it warmer.
Sol, sol, kom igjen, sola er min beste venn!
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
It is 8 March 2023, a special day in Longyearbyen. While polar night ended already three weeks ago today is the first opportunity to see the sun in Longyearbyen above the mountains in the south. A special day after the sun disappeared in October last year. And as you can see it is a big celebration!
After some singing the moment has come. All people are shouting: “Sol, sol, kom igjen, sola er min beste venn!” – Sun, sun, come back, the sun is my best friend!
But the chanting was in vain: the sun didn’t appear. Some children are in doubt – was it the clouds or didn’t they shout loud enough.
But now it’s only a matter of waiting. Already in six weeks the time of polar day and midnight sun will begin.
Kudos for the musicians. Must be hard to play guitar or piano when windchill is round -23 °C. Brrr!
Two-day dogsledding tour in Svalbard – day 2
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
Last night I dreamt that a heavy polar bear was lying on top of me. It had sneaked into our sleeping room. In reality a polar bear could never have approached the cabin unnoticed. We have seventeen polar bear guards outside: the sled dogs.
It is half past seven. I just started a fire because the inside temperature of the cabin in Tverrdalen has dropped to 5.7 °C, while it is -20 °C outside. It is the second day of Annika’s and my dogsledding tour in Svalbard and despite some stormy gusts of wind the weather looks quite promising.
Snow is blown around the dog sleds. Most dogs are still sleeping, some of them half snowed in. Snow will keep them warm, it is a good isolator. Not all dogs have slept outside, some have slept in wooden boxes to be protected against the wind.
I hurry to go in again, the glove livers were much too cold in the cold wind and my fingertips hurt. The next hours we are busy with taking breakfast, packing things, tidying the cabin, putting our clothes on and taking care of the dogs. While we are outside the wind is calming down and the sun shines on the snowy mountains round Tverrdalen.
We say goodbye to this wonderful place and start our journey back to the dog kennel in wonderful winter weather. Annika and I have put the bulky isolated anoraks into the sledge, they were too warm the day before and use our own windproof jackets. The fur-rimmed hoods are a good protection against wind and coldness.
We take a lunch break at the Scott Turner glacier, but before that we visit an impressive ice cave. I’ll write an own blog article about that later.
After a warm lunch break – Real Turmat outdoor food only needs hot water – we walk the dogs to the sledge and start our last stage of our dogsledding adventure.
It is not only the great weather, the beauty of the valley Bolterdalen and the mountains around, it’s the dogsledding itself that is great fun. After only a day Annika and I know how to work together, help the dogs, shift weight, brake and release the brakes again. Now we hardly have to help the dogs by pedalling or pushing the sledge. It goes downhills and the dogs know that they are on their way home where they will be rewarded with treats. So we glide effortlessly through the snowy landscape enjoying this extraordinary experience. And then we are back at the dog yard, were our sled dogs are eager to get loose and run around a bit, greet friends and wait for their goodies.
Annika and I get to know Foxi as well, the famous dog that led Tommy’s sledge on the Iditarod race and has also been at the North Pole. While Tommy and Adelheid are taking care of both dogs and other tourists Annika and I are sitting in the living room of the dog yard’s cabin and are chilling. Adelheid’s jeep needs a jump start – it does not like the cold – then she brings us back to town.
@ my colleague Y.: Thanks for the tip. Great tour. We enjoyed every minute!
@ Janne and Tommy: Thanks for the organisation of this extra tour!
@ Adelheid: Thanks for the guiding and cooking! It was a pleasure meeting you!
@ the dogs: Thanks for your hard work and your relaxed attitude 🐾!
Two-day dogsledding tour in Svalbard – day 1
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
Annika and I are sitting in a car. The sky is mostly blue at temperatures round -20 °C. The side windows are freezing. Longyearbyen lies behind us.
The story has begun in the end of January. I have just learned, that I will work in Longyearbyen / Spitsbergen / Svalbard for a week in March. Annika and I decide to be on vacation there for another week. I ask my colleague Y., who has lived and guided there for several years for tipps what to do. He almost commands us to make a dog sledding tour with Arctic Husky Travellers with an overnight stay at the cabin in the valley Tverrdalen. Oh! It is fantastic! It is soo beautiful there! You have to do it! Soon we booked the tour.
Now Adelheid, our tour guide for the next two days drives us to the dog yard. When we arrive there we go into the house and get an introduction. Adelheid will take one sledge, Annika and I the other. We will both stand on the sledge and work together – steering, braking and helping the dogs when we drive uphill.
Tommy, one of the owners arrives and we get properly dressed. We get huge insulated bibs and enormous anoraks, that Tommy imported from the US. You cannot buy this type of dogsledding equipment in Europe. Then we get a hat, working gloves and mittens that do not look especially warm, but they definitely are. We slip into the warm Kamik boots and then everything goes quite fast.
I have never seen so relaxed dogs like those on Tommy’s dog yard. It is incredible. They are calm, they run around by themselves and then come back. It’s we humans that are busy to prepare everything. No time for photos. We get a last instruction: Take the first descend standing on the left runner and brake with the right foot. That’s important. Now in the final minutes the dogs start howling and off we go!
I do not have time to be nervous or frightened. Annika and I manage the first obstacle, Tommy accompanies us by snowmobile for a short while. We make some stops to check if everything is ok – thumbs up – and get another dog from Adelheids team. Tommy returns and we others continue alone. 17 dogs, two sledges, 3 humans.
Annika and I soon get into the flow and I cannot find words to describe the feeling of sliding through the snow covered valley Bolterdalen with exceptional views on the sunlit Arctic mountains. Annika is standing in front of me, I’m standing in the back. On a straight passage I dare to make some snapshots with my smartphone.
We both have brakes to slow down the dogs when we go downhills. But now we go uphills. We are too heavy for the dogs so I have to push. As soon as I do that the sledge becomes lighter and the dogs faster and I have to run while pushing. Although the snow is not deep I’m really out of breath and have to take short breaks to catch breath again. Fortunately it is only some shorter passages that are steep.
I don’t have a feeling for how long our trip was. Time doesn’t seem to matter while sliding through Svalbard’s Arctic landscape. We arrive at two a clock. While Annika and Adelheid are giving the dogs a snack and put them on the stake out lines I finally have the opportunity to take some photos. From the cabin, the polar bear safe food storage, the dogs and the hazy mountains around. Beautiful and extraordinary.
Being in the Scandinavian mountains in wintertime is nothing new to me, but this is like being in another world. I am standing there, just gazing until I finally do my job: helping the others with the dogs. But finally the dogs are all taken care of and most of them have been fallen asleep with the nose under the tail, because the wind gusts from the mountains are bitter cold.
Now it’s time for us to go inside, take a snack and relax a bit. We still sit there with woollen cap and jacket. It will take hours until the wood fired oven and the gas oven warm up the spacious but cosy living room up to round 15 °C.
Outdoors the full moon has risen above the eastern mountains and illuminates the scenery: A snowy place, 17 dogs and a warm and cosy cabin.
Annika and I go in “tourist mode”. While Adelheid is moving some dogs to protect them from the cold wind and starts preparing dinner we fire the sauna. First we have our bulky jackets on, but the sauna oven is strong and soon the sauna is hot. Then dinner time at 19:00. Adelheid cooked reindeer stew with rice – delicious. And – believe it or not – we even get a glass of white wine.
Now the dogs have rested enough to get their well-deserved dinner. There are not enough bowls for them all, but that does not matter. Sled dogs can be fast eaters and while we portion the food the first ones already have finished their meal.
The dogs are dozing and we are chilling in the cabin. I am reading “Foxi – sledehunden ingen ville ha”, a book about one of Tommi’s dogs. First unwanted it became an outstanding lead dog in a Iditarod race and was at the North Pole, too.
Then it’s bedtime for us as well. It does not take long until I fell aslee…
z-z-z…
Adventdalen by snowmobile
This article is part of the series “2023-03: Svalbard”.
Yesterday it looked like sunny weather today so Annika and I looked for an activity today. We found and booked a three-hour tour with snowmobiles organised by Hurtigruten Svalbard. At 10:30 we were fetched by our tour guide by minibus that picks up tourists as us at their accommodations.
At the Hurtigruten Svalbard Expedition centre our group of nine got an introduction about how to drive a snowmobile. While others did it before it was Annika’s and my very first time to drive by ourselves. After that: dressing time!
When it’s -20 °C and you want to drive snowmobile you need to be properly dressed. What we needed by ourselves is woollen underwear, socks, a sweater and thin gloves. What we got from tour operator was bulky winter boots from Kamik, an insulated overall, thick mittens, a woollen balaclava and of course a helmet.
As soon as we were properly clad we fled the building because being dressed for a windchill of -30 °C is not very comfortable inside. TOO WARM! With the helmet and raised visor I look quite silly but safety first!
Then we went to the parked snowmobiles. These were quite special: they are electric. The range is quite limited but they do not produce as much noise as their more common fuel-powered cousins and more important: no stinking exhaust gases at all!
And then off we went into the large valley Adventdalen.
First impression: the snowmobile seems to follow the track. Steering hardly necessary. If it leaves the track then steering needs a bit of power. Second impression: the visor of the helmet is frosted within seconds and it is quite hard to see.
After ten minutes we took a first break. The guide asked us if everything was ok and then loaded her rifle. We were out of town and we could meet a polar bear. You may not shoot a polar bear, you have either to retreat or use a flare gun to shoo it away, but you need a rifle as a last resort.
We continued our tour through Adventdalen. We even saw the sun although it was much cloudier than forecasted. It will take three other days until it is visible again in town after more than four months of absence.
We took another stop. The guide spotted some reindeer. The Svalbard reindeer is an own subspecies that looks more compact than the reindeer on Scandinavias mainland. The photo is a cropped image, because we were quite far away to not to disturb the wildlife animals.
Next stop: coffee break. We decided to take the coffee and cake outside because the weather was cold but calm.
After the break we took the short way to the cabin anyhow to have a brief look. Here you can seek shelter if the elements are not as friendly as today. The cabin is private because tour operators are not allowed to use public ones. Understandable since there are a lot of tourist on Svalbard and this year a new peak is expected.
After that visit we headed back to Longyearbyen. This time Annika sat behind me to give another tourist the opportunity to drive alone. I cannot say that I felt completely confident on the snowmobile but at least I was more relaxed than in the beginning.
A nice beginner tour and a good opportunity to drive snowmobile and leave town. What I really liked was that the snowmobiles were electric. Great for shorter tours!