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Category: Norway

Tverrfjellet on a Rainy Day

Tverrfjellet on a Rainy Day

This weekend it rained, and rained, and rained… Luckily not as much as it did in the border region (further inland), where they got more rain in one day than they normally get in all of July – 60 mm! Lots of rivers flooded, you can see a photo series here. In Tromsø we “only” got 23 mm, but that was more than enough 😉 On Sunday we were really fed up of the bad weather, and when it looked SLIGHTLY better, we decided to go hiking.

Of course the rain started halfway through our drive to the start place, and it was very windy too. It took some courage to finally leave the warm car 😉 but we managed to drag ourselves into the rain and wind and up the mountain. The first part was tough because of the weather and the steep terrain, but once we reached the first top (Tverrfjellet has two), it finally stopped raining. Even the wind calmed down a bit, which made the rest of the trip a lot more pleasant 🙂

Paul on top of Tverrfjellet The cairn and impressive clouds View towards Sessøya

Paul tried to fly his kite, but there was either no wind at all, or it was too turbulent Tverrfjellvatnet, still partly frozen

Quite a different view from my two previous trips to Tverrfjellet – once on a nice summer day and once on a clear (but dark) winter day, but it was still beautiful! I’m a bit of a good-weather-hiker but in Tromsø the summer has very variable weather and you can’t always have it all 🙂

Northern Norway at its Best

Northern Norway at its Best

Last night we drove to Sommarøy where we climbed Ørnfløya, a ti-på-topp peak which is only 160 m high but possibly has the best view of them all 🙂 It was our third visit to Ørnfløya, but this view never gets boring!

The small lake near the top of Ørnfløya Panorama looking at Sommarøy (far right) and Brensholem (on the left)

Panorama of Brensholmen, the ferry just departed towards Senja (the island in the background)

Afterwards we decided to have a cup of tea on the beach that we spotted in the panorama above. A really nice place, and it was sheltered from the wind too.

Old cabin near the beach Lovely beach at Brensholmen

Unfortunately the mosquitos are quite active lately, so after a while we got fed up of getting bitten and we decided to drive home. We didn’t get very far though, as the views were just TOO beautiful and we stopped for another break in the scenic little village of Bogen.

A jetty at Bogen, taken at about 23:00 This is truly Northern Norway at its very best... (almost) midnight sun, the fjord like a mirror and the only sound are seagulls and the splashes of jumping fish

It was such a beautiful evening that you just don’t want to go home – I really wished we had a tent with us, but unfortunately we both had to work the next morning 😉

Paul on on the jetty View from the jetty... I just couldn't stop taking photos!

A panorama image of Bogen…

Panorama of Bogen

We came home at half past midnight, but evenings like this are worth a lack of sleep 🙂

Madseng

Madseng

On a sunny evening last week, we decided to go for a walk. Ti-på-topp, Troms Turlag and Tromsø photo club are working together on a book of summer hikes/trips around Tromsø, and as a member of all three I have trying to contribute as much as I can. I had been sent a list of trips that they needed more photos of, which I thought was quite a fun list – this must be walks that are worth including in the book yet receive few visits 🙂 We peered over the list, excited about all the mountains and places we’d never even heard of, and finally decided to visit one of them: Madseng. It’s a beach that can be reached by climbing up to a pass between two mountains, close to Tromvik on the outer coast – which I think is one of the prettiest areas around here. The walk looks easy, about 3 km one way and the highest point is at 300 m. Piece of cake we thought 😉

Our destination: Madseng At the highest point

As you can probably guess, it wasn’t such a piece of cake after all. We had to cross a large bog, so bad that I once sunk in until my knees – with both legs! (hurray for gaiters 😉 ). On the way back we found there was an easier way to cross, so I guess we were just unlucky here. Climbing up through the forest we thankfully found a path which made it a lot easier, but later on we kept losing the path and it’s surprisingly difficult to walk through a forest without a path. Anyway, it was all worth it, it was so pretty there!!

After walking in the shade it was nice to finally see the sun! Nice view :)

There was cottongrass everywhere – so pretty! And in the forest there were a few little streams winding their way with little waterfalls – like in a fairytale 🙂

Entering the forest A pretty little stream winded its way through the forest

Crossing another field…

Cottongrass Fields of cottongrass and flowers

We had planned to go down to the beach, but the last bit is very steep and goes through thick overgrown forest. The path seemed to stop and we struggled to find a save way down. In the end we gave up, and just found a rock with a good view for a tea break 🙂

We enjoyed a nice break on top of this rock, with a great view! The view seen from Paul's perspective :)

The light was beautiful and there were flowers everywhere.

Pretty flowers - I should really buy myself a book so I can identify more of the flowers around here Horsetail

On the way back we stopped in one of the fields full of cottongrass for some more photos… at midnight!

A field full of cottongrass Cottongrass Me in a field of cottongrass, on our way back

Paul had brought the fisheye lens and got some amazing pictures!

Paul taking photos of the cottongrass with a fisheye lens Seen from the fisheye perspective :)

Walking back went a lot faster since we made sure not to lose the path and managed to avoid the worst part of the bog. The light was beautiful in the middle of the night, we made it back to the car at 1:30 in the morning 😀

Chasing the sun, here we've come to the highest point again on our way back Climbing down through a forest full of flowers

It was a great trip, I’m really looking forward to the book coming out which will feature more than 100 hikes (and mountains) like this!