On the road IV and V Feb 14 2020

Back to Sweden · Sneringsvika—Rötviken – 315 km

Have I told you, that the weather in Norway is constantly changing? So it was as well when I continued my road trip the day before yesterday.

It wasn’t cold, but most of the precitipation came as snow and even by the sea everything was white.

In Hofles I waited for the ferry to Lund which takes 25 minutes. I love standing onboard and watch the snow covered hills and mountains pass.

On the other side there was first less snow, …

… but as soon as the road climbed up a bit everything was white again. Here are two photos from a barbecue hut by the road 74 to Sweden. The first one from now, the other made in August 2016.

Parking place beside road 74 – Summer 2016

This time I have booked a cabin in advance. It is in Rötviken, 20 km behind the Norwegian-Swedish border. Although the campsite is by the road it is really quiet. Hardly any car uses this road.

I was tired from all the driving of the last days and fell fast asleep. The next day I would take it easy.

Arrival · Rötviken—Orrviken – 139 km

What a beautiful morning! The sun came out the first time since I left Solberget four days ago. Two dogs were barking. Did they bark at me? Now, it was the two moose that were about to cross the road but then turned too the the lake Hotagen.

This day I didn’t have to go far, just 140 km along broad roads through the Swedish forest. Easy to drive but a bit boring to look at.

I made a short stopover in Östersund, the largest town in the county Jämtland.

Then I continued to Orrviken.

Today I will spend my day here and repack my things for a ski tour that I will start with two friends tomorrow. Then I’ll be offline for about two weeks.

Vi hörs – see ya.

ICROSS Jan 30 2020

I walk along a forest path. The snow has become too deep for the car. In the right hand I carry a large waterproof bag, in the left hand my bright red neoprene drysuit. On the back I have an ICROSS.

Walking with an ICROSS (Photo: Hans Brettschneider)

A what?

Let’s quote the ICROSS website: What is ICROSS? – ICROSS® is a new type of watercraft. It resembles a float tube, but has many characteristics of a kayak.

My friend Hans Brettschneider bought two ICROSS for his camping ground In Bureå and invited my to test them today. We want to paddle over the Baltic Sea to the near island Björkön. According to Hans the Baltic Sea is still open.

When I arrive in Bureå Hans already had started inflating the ICROSS with a motor-driven air pump. We put the rafts into his car and drive to a place near the beach where we manually inflate them until they are filled to the brim.

Me inflating the ICROSS (Photo: Hans Brettschneider)

(You see the rectangular patch free of snow on the ICROSS? That’s where Hans’ iPad was before I took it away for the photo. Hans uses it as a camera and takes it into the snow, the hot sauna, just everywhere)

On the back of the ICROSS there are D-rings where you can attach belts to carry the ICROSS as a backpack. That’s what I do in the first photo. We start carrying the ICROSS until one of the plastic hooks of the belt breaks. We then realise that it is much easier to drag the raft behind like a sledge. It’s winter!

After 800 metres walk through the forest I arrive at the coast. I must laugh. The Baltic Sea is far beyond from being open. It is covered with ice and snow to the horizon! Is it just slush or solid ice? I put on my drysuit and life jacket and enter the sea ice. I splash through sludge but underneath there is ice thick enough to carry my weight.

Me testing the ice (Photo: Hans Brettschneider)

Time to change plans.

Instead of paddling (or walking) to Björkön we take fika here at the coast. There’s even a table with benches. Hans has coffee and sandwiches while I have tea and a pretzel. It snows.

Hans however has a plan B in mind. Right beside his fantastic camping ground, just behind the sauna there’s the river Bureälven. And this stream is still open. After fika we walk to the car and take it to his camping ground. There we trudge through the snow to the sauna by the river.

Hans trudging through the snow to his sauna

Again we put on waterproof clothes and put the ICROSSes into water. We have to rearrange the belts that hold the seat to improve the balance, then it’s fun to paddle to and fro. While my touring kayak is long and keeps direction, the ICROSS is easy to turn and very agile. Anyway I wouldn’t use it for longer paddle trips. Too exhausting.

Me paddling on the ICROSS II (Photo: Hans Brettschneider)

Me paddling on the ICROSS I (Photo: Hans Brettschneider)

As I said: Hans takes his iPad everywhere!

(Do you see what Hans has in his hands on the last photo? I told you that he takes his iPad everywhere.)

After a while of testing and taking pictures we go ashore. Did I mention the sauna? Hans had fired it before our winter paddling experiment. It is not hot, only 30 °C, but it’s nice to sit there and relax a bit. I go into the river again, this time for winter bathing. Then a bit of sauna again until we call it a day.

Taking a winter bath (Photo: Hans Brettschneider)

Tack for turen, Hans – thank you for the tour. And thanks for your photos, which I cropped and edited for this blog article.

Finally it’s snowing again Nov 28 2019

After two weeks with warmer temperatures, rain and a lot of fog it has become colder again and last night it started to snow. 15 cm fresh snow has already fallen.

Thursday, 16:55: -7.6 °C and it’s still snowing. Looks like I need gloves and a cap for jogging. And of course a headlamp, because sunset was already three hours ago.

Addendum

One hour later. 40 minutes of (slow) jogging through the wintry landscapein the dark. Exhausting, but beautiful!

My car tracks from this morning are mostly snowed over. The latest tracks are not from a car, but a snowmobile. Now I hope, that the great people of the Friluftsfrämjandet Skelleftehamn soon prepare the illuminated ski track. I’m longing for some afterwork cross-country skiing.

October snowfall in Umeå Oct 14 2019

The weekend two weeks ago it was fog, that made my morning promenade along the river Umeälven special. Yesterday it was snowfall. As you can see on the three photos, the snowfall weakened more and more and most of the snow thawed away during the day. But it was a another beautiful reminder for the next winter to come.

Four variations of autumn Oct 3 2019

The first autumn colours on Gåsören

21, 22 September – Annika and I are invited by Solveig and Tommy to their summer cottage on Gåsören. Tommy picks us up by boat and after a short cruise we arrive at the small harbour, where Solveig already waits for us.

We have a wonderful evening with delicious food (hand-picked porcini mushrooms!) and inspiring conversations. And the weather is just great – first a blue and sunny sky, then after sunset a starry night. After a short nightly walk to the lighthouse – built in 1912 and still active – we go to bed.

The next morning I wake up early and take photographs of the splashing waves at the eastern shore. It’s a bit windy and the temperatures are near freezing. A lot of trees still have green leaves but some of the birches and rowan trees have become colourful, especially when illuminated by the low morning sun.

After breakfast we take a stroll round the small island together before we get a lift back to the mainland. Tack så mycket, Solveig and Tommy. We are looking forward to meet again!

Fog by the river

28, 29 September – I’m with Annika in Umeå. On Saturday we make a trip to Strömbäck-Kont, one of our favourite locations by the sea. Again the weather is sunny but due to the frost of last week’s nights a lot of more trees show coloured leaves. Especially the bright yellow birch leaves look wonderful.

On Sunday I wake up early as usual and take a promenade along the Umeåälven, one of Northern Swedens largest rivers. The morning air is damp and chilly and the landscape is fog-shrouded. The fog muffles all sounds and noises and gives me the impression of being completely alone. Half an hour later the fog goes away and the magic is gone.

Nightly squalls

Yesterday, 2 October – at 3:00 I’m awakened by storm squalls shaking the house. I almost expect that my house is lifted up and lands on the Wicked Witch of the East. But the gale is no tornado and my house resists the squalls.

The weather doesn’t come completely unexpected, both wind and enormous amounts of rain have been forecasted. But as usual the forecast was – ahem – imaginative but at least the wind speeds are quite accurate.

Wind gusts measured on the island Gåsören

Forecast for Skelleftehamn, published 28 September by SMHI

Hail, sleet and snow

Today, 3 October – again I’m awakened at 3 o’clock, this time by a hail squall drumming on the window. It’s round 3 °C and even colder at 7 o’clock on my way to work. Between my home and the town another rain squall buckets down. It is mixed with wet snow. Beside the road I can see white patches. Is it snow or last night’s hail? When I arrived at the office at Solbacken outside of the town of Skellefteå I see, that it’s snow grains – tiny frozen white balls.

At 8:33 I look through the window of my current office room and it’s snowing. The first snow on 3 October – exactly the same date as last year. Now I’m longing for winter even more ❄︎ !

Winterly Tromsø in May May 5 2019

I’m sitting in the bus somewhere in Northern Finland. We just passed the sign “Tornio 410 km”. Are we there, it’s only some more minutes to Haparanda from where a car ride of another 270 km awaits us. Then I’m home.

Home from the incredible interesting and inspiring but also exhausting Barents Press International Media Conference that took place in Tromsø for two days. Great speakers, great talks! Here are some of the topics:

EU and the struggle against fake news
How to make your climate change story into a click-blockbuster
#Barents #Beingyounghere: Official book release
Norwegian spy scandal in Russia: A close friend’s story

At the same time winter had come back to Northern Scandinavia and so to Tromsø. I used the mornings and evenings to walk round or just visit the roof terrace of our hotel to make some pictures of Tromsø.

Thursday 2 May – the weather is quite nice. I’m glad to walk around after the long bus trip there.

The breakwater Sørsjeteen with the art from Chris Reddy

Friday 3 May – the morning is windy. First it’s dry but then snow showers rack over Tromsø for the rest of the day. Some of them are quite intense.

A bunch of bright red buoys on a fishing vessel

Saturday 4 May – Tromsø is covered with fresh snow. The air is cold but the ground is warm and so the snow is partly melting again. In the evening some very intense snow showers cover Tromsø with more snow.

Clarion Hotel The Edge, my accommodation in Tromsø

Sunday 5 May – partly cloudy, partly blue sky that reflects in the sea water. And so do the ships.

Although I enjoyed the conference it was a bit of a pity that I didn’t have more time to take pictures and explore the city. On the other side I’ve been in Tromsø several time and probably will be there again.

I would love to work there for some months but the tax rules of the non-EU-member Norway would make that quite complicated because then I had to declare taxes both in Sweden and in Norway.

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March snow at the coast Mar 19 2019

Today I finally had to work with my it job again.

But before that I just had to take my camera and drive to different places by the sea. I was curious how it would look like after the snowfalls of the last days. This morning between 75 cm and 80 cm of snow in my backyard and we are talking about the average, not the snow drifts.

1. Peninsula Näsgrundet

Normally the coastal line is quite visible here. Either you see stones sticking out of the rocky coast or you can spot the raised ice edge. Today you mainly saw a white plain. Only some of the largest rock and some brown tufts of grass were sticking out of the snow. I really had to look for motives to avoid images with a plain-white bottom half.

I would not dare to enter the ice because you cannot see its thickness. Probably there are weak spots that wouldn’t bear my weight.

2. Boat harbour Kurjoviken

On the roofs protecting the two wooden boats there was hardly any snow. Probably it had been too windy. Parts of the outside furniture of the restaurant Sjökrog were buried deepely in the snow. There was also a completely buried table, but that would have given a very boring photo.

3. Nameless boat bridge, Rönnskär

The boat bridge normally shows nice contrasts between the wooden construction and the water, whether covered with ice or not. Even here the snow made it all the same today: snow everywhere reduced the contrasts radically.

Now I was satisfied enough to start working, but first I had to shovel snow. I had already cleared the garage driveway last Sunday, not I had to dig a bay into the snow so that the postman could approach the mailbox by car. Phew, that was work, round about 1.5 m³ of frozen snow had to be moved and thrown in my front yard.

Snow makes everything beautiful, it’s only a matter of the amount.

March snow in Skelleftehamn Mar 18 2019

For yesterday, the day we drove back from Murmansk, the weather service issued a snow warning. I had parked my car in Bjässviken at the house of B., another participant and it was covered with 10-15 cm of snow. B. fetched a broom helped me to free my car.

When I came home, even the minor streets had been cleared of snow. On the one hand this is great for driving, on the other hand it meant I couldn’t park my car on my property. I first had to remove the plogkanten, the wall of snow that the snow plough had pushed aside in front of all the garage driveways. I was tired after almost 15 hours of travelling, but clearing the plogkanten didn’t take much time and after that I could park my car beside the house.

When I woke up, it had stopped snowing, but another 10 cm of snow had fallen over night. Again the street had been cleared already. So another plogkanten blocked the way for the car. With temperatures slightly above zero this snow was wet and heavy and it was much more exhausting to move away this snow, especially because my “private snow dump” in my front yard is getting larger and larger.

Taking a break I stomped through the deep wet snow taking some pictures. I measured 77 cm of snow in my backyard – that’s something for the midst of March.

The fence behind the backyard still sticks out a bit

The fence beside the driveway is mostly snowed in

Snow has started slipping from the garage roof

Perhaps I should buy a new car. Yesterday I saw a nice one at the petrol station in Алакуртти/Alakurtti. The advantage: I probably never have to clear snow again. The disadvantage: beside of being slow the topic of petrol consumption should be avoided …

By the way: While I wrote this article it had started snowing again.

Midsummer on Saltkråkan Mar 11 2019

Vi kan spela fio-lio-lio-lej
vi kan spela basfiol och flöjt.
Och vi kan dansa andra hållet, andra hållet, andra hållet,
och vi kan dansa andra hållet, andra hållet med!

It’s midsummer. Midsummer on the island Saltkråkan. People are singing and dancing round the midsummer pole accompanied by an accordion.

When I look outside of my window the new snow has started to bury the fence to my neighbours and it’s still snowing. That’s because midsummer on Saltkråkan is a scene in an old TV series that Annika and I looked yesterday. The snow is reality.

While Annika and I travelled back from Mo I Rana three days ago it snowed 20–25 cm home in Skelleftehamn. It also snowed the whole weekend, probably another 20–25 cm. What a relief for a winter fan like me after the rainy warm period in February.

In my backyard lie two layers of snow. An old, crusted layer of 35–40 cm that is so hard that I broke the wooden folding ruler while measuring. On top there’s a layer of fresh, fluffy snow 30–35 cm from the last days.

The Baltic Sea is covered with ice and snow and looks wintry again. I wouldn’t dare to enter the ice because you cannot distinguish between old thick and new thin ice because of the snow. It may take weeks until it’s safe again and maybe it won’t happen anymore this winter.

I’m curious if more snow will come. While the weather forecasts are quite ok when it comes to temperatures they are completely useless when it comes to the amount of snow.

Back home Mar 8 2019

This article is part of the series “2019-03: Ski tour Vindelfjällen”.

Back home from Mo i Rana. I drove the first half from Mo i Rana to Storuman, Annika the second half to Skelleftehamn including the power-parking into 20-25 cm deep fresh snow that had fallen since last night.

Travelling with the Kleines Gelbes Monster

First we will buy some food for tomorrow’s breakfast, then it’s pizza time!

More about the ski tour in the Vindelfjäll will come. Stay tuned …

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