Haukland !

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A Day at the Beach !

There are some certainties about being on Lofoten in winter - the manufacturers of orange snow poles will never go broke, you don't have to worrry about driving faster than 60kms an hour as it's suicidal, expect your photos to be spectacularly devoid of any colour other than white,   notice that the go ahead occupation is driving F1 trucks with snow channeling funnels and expect to be gobsmacked by outstanding scenery every time you go around a corner ! 

We'd woken to a house finally with "hot water" after our boilers fuse had been replaced. While Monika was ecstatic i was a little disappointed having taken the shortiest showers ever recorded utilizing the time saved for more productive tasks like flying my drone ! While we were in "fix it" mode we'd also arranged to have our car towed out of our partly self dug ditch from the previous night. Kristain our friendly down the road "Towie" not only scrounged around on the icy ground to fix a tow rope to our cars wheel but also  at the suggested that i line the driveway with sticks which i agreed was a far better solution than having to rely on Monika's frantic yelling to indicate when I was heading into trouble !

With our car back in action, our driveway lined with sticks and the weather only mildly freezing we headed off for a day at the beach a series of not too far away spectacularly located beaches that are prominent not for their ice like qualities but for their settings as backdrops to the northern lights.

A series of winding narrow roads took us to our first beach at Eggum, that is if you could call an ocean filled landscape of snow covered rocky boulders a beach. Thus beautiful location in a well frequented national park has the ruins of a former German radar post as ir's centrepiece. I think it's windswept location in winter might have had it's occupants wishing they were instead on the Russian Front !

We walked as best we could on a hidden snowed in path to take in some of the fabulous views having just enough exposed appendages to take a photo or 3 hundred !

Venturing further inland along icy roads we made our way to the magical setting of Haukland beach with its towering hills and amazing off white colour sand and what looked like turquoise coloured waters through gaps in between snow flurries.  Walking along the sandy beach was a weird feeling as the top layer of sand rested on recent layers of snow feeling completely out of whack!

If snow on a beach surrounded by snow wasn't novel enough then a "snow" beach complete with a volleyball net and a Norwegian parent walking with a small child in tow complete with bucket and spade was almost surreal !

Exiting our beach location we drove back home via Leknes stocking up on supplies from the only shop open (apparently Easter Thursday is a holiday) arriving back in time to take our positions for the afternoon watching the rapidly changing weather patterns moving past Mt Hoven (opposite us) heading inland.

While the night failed to produce the Northern Lights once again (too cloudy !)  we did at least shoot soom pretty cool shots of our moon lit location.

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Henningsvear !

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Happy Days in Henningsvear !

I'd only just fallen into a coma like sleep when Monika started bouncing around our small 2nd storey room yelling "they're out, they're out " ! With 1 or two brain cells free, luckily still on standyby mode, i gathered that Monika was talking about the Northeren Lights and not about the Australian Cricket debacle, so grabbing my clothes I started dressing on the run while trying to remember where the hell I'd put all my camera gear  !

I needn't have worried about feeling tired beccause as soon as we ran out the front door on to our snowed covered path in the below zero temperatures i was instantly awake 

Disappointingly the low intensity lights had started to fade leaving us with barely a glimpse. Thinking we could drive out along the coastline to check for possible further displays we piled the camera gear into the car and reversed down our snow covered driveway only to feel the driver side tyres fall into deep snow while hearing that dreaded wheel spinning sound that said " you're definitely not going anywhere tonight " !!!

Our day had started well enough when we took advantage of the suns appearnace to launch my drone on its maiden Norwegian flight ! Despite a few anxious moments when the prop pitch sound suddenly faltered (a probable sign of the battery charge struggling in the cold conditions) i was able to get either a) brilliant footage of the mountainous surrounds or b) some great footage of a white nothing  - later editing will reveal the answer !

With the sun appearing to settle in we jumped into our VW hire care and made our way towards Henningsvear some 30 kms distant. Henningsvear is one of those "living" fishing villages that Lofoten is famed for with the coast off Lofoten having some of the richest fishing areas in Norway. The journey there was absolutely stunning. The mountainous snow covered landscape had seemingly come alive in the powerful sun as we twisted along a spectacular coastline eventually making our way across a series of bridges to Henningsvear effectively a collective of small rocky islands.

Exiting our car we were momentarily stunned to see a couple in a nearby campervan sunbaking in the radiating sun ! Surely they couldn't have been that depraved of Vitamin C to sit on lounge chairs in 1c temperatures and pretend that they were in the Bahamas !

Walking through the snow lined streets proved Henningsvear to be a quaint working fishing village with traditional Rorbu (fishing huts) and dried Herring racks as well as a touch of tourism judging by the number of gift shops and restaurants. 

Heading back after overdosing on the magical scenery we experienced adverse driving conditions. While driving on ice and snow is scary enough the fear factor goes up another level when the snow starts to melt and the road turns into a giant "slurpee" - wet, icy and lethal !!

Taking it slowly we made it back safely to our accommodation after a few more photo stops, settling in for an afternoon of weather watching - snow, hail, clear, more snow, clear again etc etc !

We just made it past dinner with self taking a few night time shots to keep awake  ! Finally hitting the sack Monika took first watch for the Nortern Lights ..... I think.you know the rest of the story !!!!

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Lofotr !

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Vikings Rule !

I awoke less than refreshed after dreaming during the night that i'd been driving on a slippery road that led to oblivion ... hang on for a sec that wasn't a dream that actually happened, no wonder I was covered in sweat formed icicles ! 

The consolation prize I guess was having woken we could both now see the incredible landscape that surrounded us .... as well of course as the big snow hole that i'd driven into the night before !

180 degree views of beautiful craggy snow capped hils (mini mountains) appearing to rise straight out of the water ! Their tops and sides covered in the fresh snow that had followed us all the way from Moskenes !

Reassured by the Formula1 snow plough that was clearing our road we tunneled our way into our snow buried car (maybe a slight exaggeration) and set about driving around our beautiful penijsular now bathed in sun, passing small villages and rocky beach outcrops bordering the artic ocean. This part of Lofoten saw the first settlers arrive ! Descendants of Vikings, they were sea faring folk who ekked out a living in the harsh conditions !

We took advantage of the marked pullover points to take photos of the fabulous landscape constantly on the lookout for a white snow covered bottomless snow pit !

We made our way to the nearby Lofotr Viking museum for a short history of Viking clans, their lifestyle and why a few decided that Iceland was the place to go !.While possibly not worth the entrance fee the reconstructed Viking long house though was interesting - almost the equivalent of a wooden medieval palace in tge shape of a ships hull ! 

It was starting to get pretty cold by the time we left. The weather here makes Melbourne's look stable with change seemingly occurring every 10 minutes, clear, snow, icy hail  clear again, more snow but today only a modicum of sun !

Back safely at our house after a great first day on Lofoten it was time to settle in and check out the Nortern Lights weather report, have a cuppa and take in a much needed snooze ! 

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Lofoten

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All Roads to Lofoten !

Thank god for the months of intense artic driver training...sure it might have been in the icy wilds of Finland instead of Norway..and maybe it was rally racing instead of normal driving ..and quite possibly it was on an xbox controller rather than in a real car but hey who was I to complain as we negotiated the dark Lofoten landscape along a series of oversized ice rinks, througn variable snow blizzards while driving on a succession of narow roads where the snowed in landscape made it pretty difficult to work out where the bloody road actually was !

The day had started less stressfully as we left our fish smelling accommodation and picked up our hire car back at Bodo airport. With winter tyres provided and a few choruses of "good luck" from the rental agent, we drove back warily through Bodo on iced up roads to sit patiently in the queue for our Lofoten ferry.

Finally on board after a late departure we settled back for a smooth 3 and half hour crossing to Moskenes. The crossing was punctuated by an occassional sun clear moment where we raced outside in the freezing conditions to snap shots journey of the rocky island landscapes.

Finally arriving at 8.30p.m. to an amazing night mountain filled backdrop we took on our most serious challenge to date driving in the snow /ice conditions of Lofoten to our accommodation near Bostad over 80kms away. For the unititiated (me) driving on icy arrow roads in snowing conditions was a little more stressful than "traumatic" ! We were fortunate though to be in convoy and following a car driver two cars ahead who appeared marginally more traumatised than me keeping to 40kms/hr and annoyingly almost braking the entire way !

Fighting our way through  localised snow blizzards while at the same time seeing clear skies across the way the traffic soon started dropping off as they turned off to their respective destinations. Now by ourselves and with limited visual aids we were soon on to the phone to our friendly accommodation owner who eventually guided us to our beautifully located and very isolated 3 bedroom house set against a magical mountain filled landscape. It was not without though a final drama or two as i bogged the car in deep snow just outside the property finally getting it out and then having to send Monika out to walk the properties supposed driveway suggesting to her that if I could see most of her body above the snow line then I knew the driveway was safe to travel on - if not then I'd have to go and dig her out !

We gladly unloaded to our beautifully warm house and settled back with a much needed cuppa. I even braved the clearing conditions to stand out in the middle of the road later on to take some night landscape shots ... and guess what, while barely noticeable the beautiful Northern Lights were there !

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Downtown Bodo !

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On the Way to Norway !

Everything had been going so well since we'd left Henny's 80th party in Honiton ! We'd negotiated the worrying high speed night time motorway traffic to make Gatwick, dropped off our rental car, found our nearby hotel, set our alarm to take into account the clocks going forward for British Summer time and even managed a few hours sleep before our insistent and annoying alarm clock woke us. Our problem though was that we couldn't work out if our alarm device had automatically reset itself during the night or was still an hour behind ! By the time we'd checked our other devices and rung reception we'd realised the device had in fact reset thus effectively wasting one of our 4 precious hours of sleep !

In our respective semi zombie states we took off late from Gatwick on a seams bursting Norwegian air flight to Oslo - the views of snow clad hills amidst a forested landscape on a  clear morning were quite beautiful as we approached Oslo. The modern airport provided plenty of space as we sought out a quiet corner to reset our own body clocks !

3 hours on and we'd connected with our internal flight to Boda a short 1 hour flight that provided some amazing views of the snow bound Norwegian hinterland that only opens to traffic for a few months of the year. It was a balmy arrival at Boda with a -1 temperature and ice covered streets evidence of even colder overnight temperatures.

We ventured out for some early exploring which was akin to walking around an ice rink on runners without tread, before returning to our 13th floor hotel room taking in the lovely city views with a pervading smell of something like rotting fish sneaking out of our bathroom slightly spoiling the moment . 

Our challenge tomorrow is making it to our accommodation on Lofoten and with more snow forecast and a night time drive required after disembarking our ferry  it could be just a trifle exciting !

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As Good as it Gets !

Well it certainly wasn't intended but our short UK stopover for Monika's mums upcoming 80th has proved to be a full on dress rehersal for the soon to be icy wilderness of Norway and Iceland !

Our arrival into Heathrow started off calmly enough with conditions a balmy -2c and the surrounding landscape lightly layered with snow but by the time we'd reached Honiton 4 hours later we were smack bang in the middle of a snow blizzard and in very real danger of not making our destination! I quickly found out how dodgy conditions were when entering Honiton I tried to stop at a barely visible give way line only to find myself skidding through and competing for space with the cars and the respective drivers that I was supposed to have given way to ! 

We finally safely made sancturay kissing the gritted snow covered ground in appreciation spending the next 24 hours wandering around town amazed at the spectacle of snowed up roads and icy footpaths something we'd not seen in this part of the UK for over 40 years !

With Norway and Iceland just a few days off the expedition "prep" has been about as good as it could get !

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Itinerary - 2018

April 3 - Arrive Keflavik & Drive Grundafjordur on the Snaefellsnes Peninsular 

April 4 - Grundafjordur - Hosfos

April 5 - Hosfos - Grenivik

April 6 - Grenivik - Vallanes

April 7 - Vallanes - Nypugardar

April 8 - Nypugardar - Bru

April 9 - Bru - Keflavik

April 10 - Depart Keflavik

Lofoten awaits !

Iceland 2017 !

Mikes' Word !

After spending a few days expedition "prepping" (read negotiating UK's snow & floods) and celebrating Mon's Mum's 80th in Honiton UK (read downing a few Real Ales !) we fly out to Bodo Norway from London before ferrying across the Vestfjorden to the spectacular mountain peaked Loften archipelago right smack in the Artic Circle.

Our itinerary and timeline aims to give ourselves as best chance as possible to capture the spell binding Northern Lights against a series of spectacular landscapes ... anything that includes opening a door meets that description in Lofoten !

After spending a week digging our car out of the Lofoten snow (hopefully not) we head off to Iceland meeting up with our number 2 daughter Tegan and her husband Billy who are both snow bound "newbies" but well equipped with enough passion and enthusiasm to ensure that we keep going 24 hours a day (.. in Billy's case maybe 12) !

Our Iceland expedition will take us on a full circle (our 3rd visit) Island tour with overnights at locations that with or without the Northern Lights provide for potentially stunning photo opportunities - all we need between now and then is to find someone well enough skilled to take
them !

Set up with 2 Go Pro's, 1 Aerial Drone, 2 DSLR's, 1 Video Camera, 1 x 360 Camera as well as the obligatory tablets and I Phones there's a fair chance that the trip's post editing experience might extend a good year or two !

Regardless it is still one of those "top shelf" life adventures that even if it doesn't bring home that classic Northern Lights shot will still capture one hell of a picture framed memory.

Mike - March 2018