Another warm weekend on Divielva

Five beginners gathered for a weekend of river paddling on Divielva. It turned out to be one of the warmest weekends this summer, with 29 degrees C on Saturday and 24 C on Sunday. 

weather forecast!

We were of course all dressed up in drysuits, which were way too warm, so every now and again we just had to go swimming to cool down and combined this with some rope and rescue practise. We tried both the river kayaks borrowed from the club and our packrafts. A very relaxed and fun weekend.

our campsite

swimming and rope throwing

Tony having fun in his packraft

going down some small rapids one by one

Grønnlibruna by bike

In Norway there are a number of incentives to help encourage people to be more active and get outside. In Tromsø we have the cycle to work, ti-på-topp (ten mountain tops), ti-på-skjæret (ten islands, for those that prefer seakayaking), orienteering and probably several other incentives. I guess these are the Norwegian variations of the 'wandelvierdaagse' (4 days walking), 'fietsvierdaagse' (4 days cycling), 'zwemvierdaagse' (4 days swimming) that are popular in The Netherlands. A couple of weeks ago we stumbled on a ti-på-topp box on top of Nordtinden and, as we stay in Tromsø this summer, we decided to buy the pack with maps and descriptions and see how far we get this year. There are actually 15 tops, 5 easy walks, 5 medium and 5 proper mountains. Saturday we decided to try to cycle one of the easy ti-på-topp walks, Grønnlibruna, to make it a nice roundtrip. We first cycled to Straumsbukta, found some good tracks to cycle up Grønnlibruna (with some pushing on the steeper parts for me), down to Håkøybotn and back home. First mountain bike trip here, we should do this more often.

Tisnes

Halfway, nice track for cycling

Top of Grønnlibruna

River kayaking and packrafting

We have been paddling on rivers for 2 weekends in the last 2 weeks: first a river kayaking course, the same we took last year but now on local rivers. We didn't do any river kayaking after the course last year so wanted to refresh our technique and get some confidence back. We paddled on the rivers Målselva and Divielva. The second weekend was a river paddling gathering, a gathering to try to get local river enthusiasts together; a very good way for us beginners to get more experience. Unfortunately I don't have a waterproof camera (yet), so I don't have any photos from the paddling itself, but only from the (lunch) breaks and evenings. But a good account of the river kayaking course, in Norwegian, but with some action photos, can be found on the blog of one of the other participants at http://oddsvend.blogspot.com/2011/06/urs-i-elvekajakk-pa-malselva-og.html.

River kayaking theory lesson in camp

Theory lesson

At camp after the first course day

Tipped kayaker helped ashore

Last weekend there was a 'padlesamling', a river paddling gathering, in Målselv. Eighteen people turned up, while another 8 were doing a river kayaking course and joined us the second day on Divielva. There was a good mixture with 5-6 canoes, 5-6 river kayaks, 3 Alpacka packrafts and 1 swimmer with a riverboard. The first day we paddled a relatively quiet stretch of the upper Divielva and stopped for lunch and rescue training at a gravel bar. The second day we did a shorter section on the lower Divielva, but with some more interesting and challenging white water for us beginners. Great to try out our packrafts on these rivers and nice to know that there is at least one other packrafter in Troms! A very pleasant and instructive weekend in beautiful summer weather. One of the participants made a great movie summary of the weekend for the local newspaper the Nordlys: http://www.nordlys.no/web-tv/article5646476.ece

A colourful collection of canoes, river kayaks and packrafts

lunch

rescue training

playing with rapids

lunch on the second day

Nordtinden on Kvaløya in midnight sun

We have had beautiful summer weather for the last 2 weeks. One evening last week we decided to go for an evening walk and have a late night dinner on the top of Nordtinden, on northwestern Kvaløya. A few other hikers came down when we were heading up, but we had the top for ourselves, with beautiful views and midnight sun.

View from the top of Nordtinden

Late night (ca 22:30) dinner on the top

On our way down just before midnight

Last kilometer back to the car in the early morning (ca 01:00)

Partial midnight sun eclipse

On June 1st a partial midnight sun eclipse was visible in northern Norway. The initial weather forecast wasn't very promising, rain and overcast, but about an hour before the start of the eclipse it started to clear up and it stayed clear the whole period. The eclipse lasted from 22:43 h to 00:24 h, and at the maximum of the eclipse, at 23:33 h, about 58% of the sun was covered. 

Start of the eclipse projected on our kitchen wall

We could probably have watched much of the eclipse from our house, but we decided to drive up to the pass in Finnvikdalen to get a nicer view with the sun over the outer islands. The parking lot at the pass was full, quite a few people had decided that this was a good spot to watch the eclipse. 

Second half of the eclipse (click on photo to enlarge)

Other eclipse watchers basking in midnight sun light

Projection of the eclipse maximum

Looking back towards Tromsø, still a lot of snow around

Midnight paragliders that had watched the eclipse from a nearby top

Bergen #3 - Løvstakken, Blåmanen, Rundemanen

Photos from 2 more walks around Bergen. The first walk was to Løvstakken on a warm but cloudy evening, the last of the warm days for a little while. Lots of people enjoying the mountain and the nice warm weather. The second walk was a couple of days later, up Fløyfjellet, Blåmanen and Rundemanen and down the steep steps of Stoltzekleiven. It was considerably colder that day - I even wished I had my woolen hat with me - and there were therefore very few people around once I got up on the mountain ridge; I did see a ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus, beflijster) which I haven't seen for years. I was just a bit too slow to get back and got surprised by a thunderstorm and heavy rain in the last half hour through town. Nice to see and hear lightning and thunder though, we hardly ever get any in Tromsø. 

Routes to Løvstakken (south of Bergen) and to Blåmanen and Rundemanen (northeast of Bergen)

Top of Løvstakken

Track down from Løvstakken

View from Blåmanen

Looking from Blåmanen towards Ulriken

Rundemanen

Ankerhytte

Bergen #2 - Nordnes

Short evening walk around Nordnes, the older part of town with some very pretty streets. It was a warm evening and lots of people were out BBQ-ing in the park. A very summery atmosphere, but unfortunately also stacks and stacks of discarded engangsgriller (throw-away BBQ) next to overflowing rubbish bins.