Tuesday 5 July 2016

Summer in Tromsø - Sollidalsaksla and Nonsbu

After a sunny and warm week it is now full on summer in Tromsø. The snow on the mountains is melting fast and there are lots of flowers everywhere. Good timing for fieldwork, although the 2 days that I was out in the field last week it was rather hot. Last Friday we went on a beautiful late night walk through Sollidalen to Sollidalsaksla, starting in the southern suburbs of Tromsø. We have often been up in these mountains, but we had never gone up through this valley. I am glad we have now discovered this route: a very good track through nice forest and a beautiful and quiet valley. Much nicer than going up through busy Tromsdalen or via Fjellheisen, so I am sure we will come back here.


Sollidalen

Looking towards Hamperokken


Looking west to Straumsfjorden

Remains of an old road going to the Djupdalen mines, where they tried to mine iron ore in the early 20th century.


Walking down in the beautiful soft light of the midnight sun


After spending most of Saturday painting the house, we made another evening walk on Sunday. This time a round trip via Nonsbu, Blåkollkøia and Tønsvikdalen. The original plan was to continue up to Nonstinden from Nonsbu, but the weather wasn't as good as we hoped, so we will have to come back another time.



Looking back to Nonsbu, with Nonstinden to the right.

Brief taste of summer in May

We had a beautiful warm sunny weekend at the end of May, but after that it got cold again in the first couple of weeks in June. We spent the warm weekend relaxing in Dividalen: we found a nice camp spot a couple of kilometres from the end of the road and spent half the day reading books and listening to the birds and the nearby river. Lazy, but very nice!




Below a few photos from a short trip up Skorelvfjellet, not far from Tromsø, in the middle of June. It was nice when we started, but once we got up to the ridge it felt more like winter. A fair bit of snow around and the lake was still half frozen. Still, there were quite a few alpine flowers even high up on the ridge.