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Author: Hanneke

I started my first blog when I left the Netherlands (my home country) for an internship in Alaska in 2004, to keep my friends and family updated on my adventures over there. Little did I know it would be more than 13 years before I'd move back to the Netherlands! I spent a year in Toulouse (France) before starting a PhD in meteorology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK) in 2005. That's when I started this current blog, first in Dutch but I soon switched to English. I really enjoyed life in the UK, and was actually planning to stay there after my PhD, but "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" and I ended up moving to Tromsø in Northern Norway in 2009. Tromsø is a photographer's dream, surrounded by spectacular mountains, with the light ever changing from the midnight sun in summer to the dark days compensated by aurora-filled nights in winter. I learnt Norwegian and got a job as a weather forecaster - I got thrown in at the deep end, doing radio interviews and speaking with fishermen with way-too-strong dialects straight from the beginning, before I was anywhere near fluent in Norwegian :D I survived though, and slowly started to do some research on the side. I got more and more involved in research projects and in August 2015 I moved 2000 km south, to Oslo where I started working 100% as a researcher. A year after moving to Oslo, I met Michiel at a music festival in Brussels :) and we started to travel very frequently between Oslo and Rotterdam, where he lives. You can't do that forever though, and I soon realized I found the perfect "excuse" to finally move back home, something I had been considering many times before. So since July 2017, I'm living in Rotterdam! I'm actually taking some time off before finding a new job, and I'm looking forward to lots of adventures in the near future - so stay tuned!
Bønntuva

Bønntuva

Last Saturday I was invited along on a hike to Bønntuva by my colleague Misha. We left Tromsdalen early on a beautiful clear day. Just above the Red Cross cabin we found the sun – beautiful!

Always welcome: the sun! Icy patches and some softer snow that has been blown around - but snowshoes or ski's weren't needed

It was cold and windy though, so we didn’t linger on the top for very long – but nice views! We also realised we should have gone to Kjølen for maximum sun exposure… we kept seeing the top of Kjølen bathing in the sun 😉

View towards Tromsø and Kvaløya

We had a quick lunch break sheltered from the wind, but it was too cold to stop for very long.

Empty landscapes Beautiful sculpted snow, with Tromsdalstinden in the background

We started making our way back to Tromsdalen, hoping for a shortcut, but quickly realising we had to go almost all the way back to the end of the valley. And hurray, we managed to find a stretch of deep powder snow – very nice, except when you don’t have ski’s or snowshoes on your feet! Misha was hoping to be back with his kids around lunch time, but our short hike turned into a 6 hour (exhausting!) 16 km trip – oops 😀 Luckily we agreed that it had been worth it 🙂

Sørtinden & Reindeer

Sørtinden & Reindeer

We had beautiful clear and calm weather all week, but it was going to change during the weekend. Luckily, it took a while for the clouds to roll in, and I managed to make the most of a beautiful Saturday morning 🙂 I went up Sørtinden on foot, there was very little snow and it was hard and icy so you didn’t need ski’s or snowshoes. Easy!

Beautiful pink sky over Kvaløya on my way to Sørtinden Hello Sun!

It was very windy at times, and on the top I had to shelter behind the cairn to avoid freezing within seconds!

It was very windy at times! Beautiful views from the very windy top

The colour of the sky towards the north was amazing though…

Panorama from the top, with the island Vengsøya on the left

I couldn’t stop taking photos of the sky, and the sunlight on the peaks of Lyngen 🙂

I sheltered behind the cairn and couldn't stop taking photos of the amazing sky Sunlight on the peaks of Lyngen

I took a different route down, and I met two reindeer who I followed for a while…

Hey, two reindeer I followed them around for a while

Until they were joined by the rest of the herd! They were so busy eating they didn’t seem too bothered by my presence.

And there is the rest of the herd! The reindeer were too busy eating to be bother by me

It was beautiful to spend time with them, and the fantastic colours in the sky provided a nice backdrop 🙂

The colour of the sky was so pretty! Bye bye reindeer!

What a nice trip, glad I made the most of a clear morning 🙂

Welcome back, sunshine!

Welcome back, sunshine!

One thing I love about Tromsø is how living here makes you appreciate lots of things you take for granted elsewhere. Like sunshine! When the sun comes back at the end of January it has been absent for two months. Those first rays of sunlight are pure magic, it feels so good to finally see the sun and I imagine I can already feel its warmth (SUMMER! Hmm not for a while, but we’re going in the right direction 😉 ).

Today is the official “soldagen” in Tromsø, the day where the sun reaches the steps to the cathedral in town (or something like that). My work is on top of the island, so we got to see the sun 2 days earlier 😉 but today Signe and I went for a walk to Prestvannet today to soak up all the sunshine we could find 😀

Pink sunlight on the peaks of Kvaløya Tromsdaltinden, Prestvannet, and the sun - this is about as high as the sun got today

The sun seemed huge today! It still doesn’t reach very high, so it “rises” and “sets” several times behind the mountain peaks in the distance.

Signe and the sun Oh we are so glad to see you!

Signe and me and the SUN!

I also wanted to share this photo. The airport in Tromsø bought one of my pictures to decorate a wall in the airport, and it’s HUGE – about 9 meters wide and 3 m high. Last Friday I was invited for lunch at the airport, so I could see my photo – I was so impressed 😀

My photo at the airport :)