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

Early spring

Spring has started early this year, we have already had several days with temperatures up to 8-9 degrees C, which is rare in March. We have also had a fair bit of rain and storms. But in between we get the occasional beautiful sunny day and with flexible work hours it is fortunately possible to take a day off when the weather is so nice in the middle of the week, and work longer when it is raining. The next 4 photos are from one of those beautiful days, a ski trip up Nordtinden with a friend from Austria and our dog friend Joy. Joy is a labrador-border collie cross from Iceland who stays with us every now and again when his boss is travelling and I think he enjoyed the trip as much as we did.

That's me

Elisabeth and Joy near the top

View from the top towards Grøttfjorden and Tromvik

Last Sunday was another sunny day and we went snowshoeing up to Breidtinden on Ringvassøya. What is difficult to see in the photos below is how windy it was. We turned back a bit before the top and descended into the valley to get out of the wind. But the views were nice from the ridge and would have been even better from the top, if it hadn't been so windy, so we need to get back some day.

Damvatnet

Tromsdalstinden in the background

Hiding from the wind