Winter has arrived

Winter arrived late this year, with the first decent snowfall only a few days before the start of the polar night last week. As usual here, the snow was soon followed by rain and the streets and tracks changed to ice, but at least the rest is still mostly white. Snow makes a lot of difference during the polar night and we hope we will get more soon. Last Sunday, we snowshoed up one of our local mountains to get a glimpse of the last sunshine of the year and were rewarded with some fantastic pink skies in the north. The beautiful pink, red and blue colours are one of the treats we have here this time of the year, which is why some people call the polar night (mørketid (dark time) in Norwegian) colour time (fargetid).

Winter begon dit jaar laat en de eerste sneeuw kwam pas een paar dagen voor het begin van de poolnacht afgelopen week. Helaas werd de sneeuw gevolgd door regen en zijn de wegen en voetpaden nu met ijs bedekt, maar het is in ieder geval nog grotendeels wit. Het scheelt veel als erg sneeuw ligt, dan lijkt het niet so donker tijdens de poolnacht, dus hopelijk valt er snel meer.  Afgelopen zondag zijn we met de sneeuwschoenen een eind omhoog gelopen op een van onze lokale bergen om de laatste zon te zien. Bovenop werden we ook beloont met prachtig uitzicht en een schitterende gekleurde, roze, hemel in het noorden. Roze, rood en blauw zijn typische winterkleuren hier. Sommige mensen noemen de poolnacht (in het Noors mørketid: donkere tijd) dan ook de kleurentijd (fargetid).

Clearing the driveway

Fresh snow!

Last glimpse of the sun

Last sun on the top of Kjølen

Winter colours

We have had some spectacular northern lights shows in October. The sun is a bit quieter right now, but hopefully we will get some more good shows the next couple of months. Here some photos of the lights over our suburb Hamna.

In oktober hebben we verschillende prachtige noorderlichtshows gehad. De zon is nu wat rustiger, maar hopelijk krijgen we er nog meer de komende maanden. Hier 2 fotos van noorderlicht over onze wijk Hamna.

Australia #1: Adelaide

It has been a busy summer, with fieldwork, application deadlines, painting the house and enjoying the nice weather in the mountains, but here is finally the first blog about our holiday in Australia. The first week of our 4 week trip to Australia was spent in Adelaide, visiting Tony's family. As everyone lives quite far apart, most of the time was of course spent catching up, playing table tennis and card games, and eating together, but we also found some time for walks along the beach and in nearby national parks. Winter temperatures in Adelaide were quite similar to early summer temperatures in Tromsø, and due to the winter rains it was very green with quite a few wild flowers. The kangaroos loved it, they were everywhere.

Kangaroos in the Aldinga scrubland.

Pelicans

Superb blue wren

Walking with the family in Onkaparinga national park.

Looking down at Old Noarlunga and the Onkaparinga river.

Wattle tree

Cormorant

Some images from a walk in the beautiful Deep Creek conservation park south of Adelaide, with a rough rocky coastline.

Brother and sister

Blackboys, Xanthorrhoea

Echidna

More blackboys

Galahs

And the beach at Aldinga Beach

Late spring

It has been a while since I wrote the last blog post. We are now back in Tromsø after a beautiful trip to Australia; it is full on summer here with lots of flowers around, even though there is still a fair bit of snow in the mountains. I am still sorting the photos from our Australia trip, so here first a couple of old photos from spring, May/June, in Tromsø, when we were looking after a dog who loves snow and water. 

Gråtinden, Ringvassøya

Skulsfjorden, Kvaløya

Snow is fun

Nordtinden, Kvaløya

Water is even more fun than snow

Iceland

A quick trip to Iceland for a project meeting, plus a few extra days to visit Helga and Siggi in Stafafell. One of my colleagues and I arrived early the day before the meeting and had time for some sightseeing around Reykjavik. We visited the historically and geologically interesting Thingvellir and went for a walk in the mountains to look for the hot steaming river at Reykjadalur. It was quite cold so it was very nice to lie in the hot river and enjoy the scenery. We spent quite a while up there.

Fantastic weather during the flight to Reykjavik. Here looking at Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon.

Thingvellir

Boiling mud pool, Reykjadalur.

Steaming hot river, Reykjadalur.

After the meeting I collected my rental car (a Suzuki Jimmy; the first and last time I rent one of those) and headed east along the ring road towards Höfn and Stafafell. It is a long drive, but there are lots of interesting sites along the way, such as beautiful waterfalls, remote landscapes, a naturally heated swimming pool in the mountains, impressive glaciers and lagoons full of icebergs, to stop, go for a walk and break the journey. I think I managed to choose quite a nice selection of sights and short walks during the drive to Stafafell and back to the airport in Keflavik.

Seljalandsfoss

Frozen spray from Seljalandsfoss.

Moss covered lava landscape, Skaftafell in the distance.

Church at Hof

Kvíamyrarkambur glacier

Fjallsárlón glacier lagoon

Icebergs stranded on the beach at Jökulsárlón

Icebergs floating from Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon out to sea

A few of Siggi's sheep at Stafafell

Horn, near Höfn

 

Landscape near Höfn

Svartifoss in Skaftafell national park

Ruins of a farm at Hjörleifshöfdi

Hjörleifshöfdi

A relaxing swim in Seljavallalaug thermal swimming pool

Boiling mud pools at Seltún geothermal area