Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

In the past week, whales have been spotted everywhere along the coast near Tromsø. Some reports said there were hundreds of them! Of course, we had to check it out… so yesterday we took our inflatable boat to the beach at Grøtfjord and we went out in search of whales. We saw a flew splashes at the horizon, and because the sea was very calm (almost flat) we figured it might be whales – but it turned out to be waves crashing on a rock 😀

Then we saw a huge group of birds and decided to check it out. They were swarming over a school of herring that was surfacing, the sea was boiling with them! The birds flew up and circled around us – a spectacular sight!

We thought the whales would surely come to eat the herring, as this is the reason they are around now – but there were no whales to be seen. We entered a few fjords, looking for activity – but nothing. Instead we spotted a big jellyfish 😀 Luckily it was a very mild day and there was no wind – so we didn’t get cold sitting in the boat.

At some point it started to get dark and our patience ran out, so we returned to the beach, slightly disappointed. We had already gotten the boat out of the water and started taking it apart next to the car, when a group of people approached us to ask if we had seen the whales. They had also just come back from a boat trip, and had seen lots of whales, just around the corner! They strongly encouraged us to go back and check them out before it got completely dark. It didn’t take long to decide: we were going back 😀

And after being directed to the right place, it didn’t take long to find two humpback whales! We could see their spray from a long way away. It was so exciting to get close to them – at times only a couple of meters! At first I was a bit scared, as our boat is small and they are so BIG, but they move very graciously and I got the feeling they are quite aware of their surroundings.

We followed them for a while, as they surfaced and dove under again. Unfortunately it was quite dark by then, so the photos we got are quite grainy and not always very sharp. But the experience was unforgettable 🙂

The two of them… the town in the background is Tromvik (on the the left), and the island on the right is Vengsøya.

They were spraying and breathing out with funny noises. Apparently their breath smells really bad, but we didn’t get THAT close 😉

At some point they dove under, showing their classic tail (we didn’t get a photo unfortunately) – and I knew that meant they are diving deep and not coming up for a while. Indeed, they didn’t return and we also decided to go home before it got completely dark.

What a day! The online papers and other websites are full of stories of people’s encounters with whales, it’s been quite a magic weekend for many – even people without boats, as they appeared really close to the coast. Check out these photos from a family in kayaks, these amazing pictures from near Musvær, and a series of pictures taken from Sommarøy. And my favourite series of photos from Espen Bergersen where you can actually see the herring jumping around while the whales are eating – fantastic! He saw orca’s too – I’m jealous 🙂

Selvskryt is Norwegian for bragging, literally “self-praise”. Something I’d normally try to avoid, but today I’d like to show some things I’m really proud of 🙂

First all all: Turboka. An ambitious (voluntary!) project by Troms Turlag (the local leg of the Norwegian Trekking Association), Ti på Topp (which is run by Troms og Finnmark Bedriftsidrettskrets) and Tromsø Fotoklubb to write a hiking book for day trips around Tromsø. Everyone could send in pictures, and I sent LOTS. It helped that I’ve been very active this summer, climbing 17 out of the 20 Ti på Topp mountains for example. I also went to some places especially for the book, as the photo editor regularly sent me a list of places they needed more photos of. Fun! I almost always take a set of photos from the top of a mountain, to later stitch together as a panorama. These panoramas are now the opening photo (spread over 2 pages) for each chapter in the book! Here is one example…

<img class="aligncenter" src="http://images.hanneketravels.net/fastlandet.jpg"

And as if that wasn’t enough honour, they asked me if I could take the cover photo! Wow! This was less than a week before I was leaving to the States, so I kept my fingers crossed the weather would cooperate. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do everything on my own. Pål Jakobsen, the main editor, had arranged models and chosen a location. We woke up to fog on the morning of the shoot, but it disappeared by noon, as forecasted (phew 😉 ). We went up a VERY steep slope on the north side of Tromsdalen, I was so glad that we had a 6 year old with us to keep the pace down 😀 I was nervous, as I don’t normally work with models, and I was so scared to mess up this big assignment 😉 but I am proud to say I pulled it off, and this is the result (click for a larger version):

(the photo on the far left isn’t mine, and the photo editor (Jens Kristian Nilsen) did all the hard work stitching the panorama!)

The book is in the shops now, and it’s simply fantastic! More than 500 photos from lots of different photographers, and so many amazing trips… I am already makings lists for next summer 😛
Click here to preview several pages in the book.

But that wasn’t all… I also got one of my aurora pictures published in the European Meteorological Calendar for 2013. This calendar is published by the Deutsche Meteorologische Gesellshaft. It’s A3 sized – don’t think I’ve ever seen my photo printed so big! They picked my photo after it came 4th in the European Meteorological Society photo competition earlier this year. You can see more details and a short story about each months’s photo here.

And there is more… I also got 2 photos in the Tromsø calendar published by Tromsø Fotoklubb 🙂 One of Ian on his way to the toilet on our trip to Nonsbu in crazy weather (one of my most successful photos which won a few competitions, and it was taken with a compact camera through the window of the cabin :D) and a photo of Polaria (the museum in front of Paul’s institute) mirrored in a huge puddle of water.

GIVEAWAY!
I have 5 Tromsø calendars to give away as a thank you to all of you who read this bragging post all the way to the end 😛 Leave me a comment if you’re interested in a Tromsø calendar! If I get more than 5 comments, I’ll do a draw on Monday 12 November 🙂