Svalbard Trip 2017

I’ve just spent 2 fantastic weeks in Artic Svalbard. 8 days on ship M/S Freya with our guides from Artic Adventures. I can’t say enough good things about our guides Jens and Audun, expect that they are the best guides you can ask for. I also have to send a special thank you to the crew on M/S Freya who did an amazing job.

Our trip took us on a south bound direction from Longyearbyen towards Sørkapp, Edgeøya, Nordaustlandet, Sjuøyane and then back on the west side to Longyearbyen. Some of the highlight on the trip where polar bears, blue whale, walrus, artic fox and the fantastic landscape.

This is the complete art list from our trip between august 17-24

Black-legged kittiwake
Glaucous gull
Red-necked phalarope
Red-throated loon
Little auk
Procellariiformes
Snow bunting
Purple sandpiper
Common eider
Ivory gull
Black guillemot
Barnacle goose
Pink-footed goose
Arctic tern
Parasitic jaeger
Great skua
Common ringed plover
Brant
Atlantic puffin
Thick-billed murre
Long-tailed duck
Pomarine jaeger
Sabine's gull
Humpback whale
Bearded seal
Harbor seal
Blue whale
Minke whale
Fin whale
Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Walrus
Svalbard reindeer
Arctic fox (3 sigthings)
Polar bear (12 sigthings)

Polar Bear at Edgeøya

Blue Whales north of Sjuøyane

Halo appears from the bridge of M/S Freya

Sjuøyane

Zodiac tour on the artic ocean

Closeup on Walrus

Little auk

Birdlife at the Pond

Horned Grebe and Whooper Swan at a small pond in Småland, Sweden. Filmed with Nikon D500 and Nikkor 600mm in 4K.

Red-footed falcon

A not so common Red-footed Falcon visiting Småland, Sweden. Photographed and filmed with Nikon D500 and Nikkor 600mm.

Norway Photo Road Trip

There’s nothing that holds more appeal than the classic road trip. Norway has some of the most beautiful views a country can offer. In 2017, I drove across Østlandet, Vestlandet and  part of mid Norway. The journey started in mid May and lasted 2 weeks, in total I drove 460 km. I wanted to get to know as much as I could before leaving Sweden. There are plenty of sources I used and here are some, Google (Google map)
Norgekart (very detailed map of Norway)
Nasjonale Turistveger (Information about must see roads)
Vegvesen (Current information about the roads)
Visitnorway (Great source of information)

Further down you can find a map of my route.

Day 1. Tjurpannan is a Nature Reserve just north of the coast village Grebbestad. This is a beautiful coast where I would have loved to stay longer. It offers some great landscape photographs if the weather is more dramatic.

Day 2. I took the ferry from Strömstad to Sandefjord and arrived at the small village Røldal. The village lies at the north end of Røldalsvatnet and is surronded by snow covered mountins.

Day 3. The challenge when driving through Hardangervidda is that you want to stop everywhere, the scenary is just stunning. I drove from Røldal to Eidfjord and did a small detour to Sundal. This old house was taken when driving up to Vøringfossen

Day 4. I stayed in the Eidfjord area. The above image was taken at a waterfall called Skjervsfossen, GPS coordinate 60.58743, 6.63642. I also visited Ulvik and Vøringfossen Waterfall which have a total drop of 182 meters. You can access Vøringfossen from several different places. First, the most obvious is to go up to Fossli Hotel where they have platforms you can go out on. You can also get a nice view from the traffic stop at Vøringfoss Kafeteria & Souvenir. There are also one other option, which is to trekk down in the valley up to the waterfall.

Day 5. Next stop was Bergen. A very nice and pittoresk city.

Day 6-7. Photo from the trail leading up to the glacier at Briksdalen. This was one off my favorite places on the trip. There are several great photo locations around Lake Oldevatnet and Lake Lovatnet.

Day 8-9. I spend two days in the Geiranger area. One of the most popular tourist destinations in Norway. I stayed at Hotel Geiranger, Luckily I got a room with a perfect view on the fjord, and just sitting on the balcony was great. One of the best photo spots in Geiranger are located only a couple of kilometers up the serpentine road, called Ørnesvingen.

Day 10-11. Next stop on the tour was Ålesund. This photo was taken from the viewpoint called Aktsla. I also drove to the Island of Runde to photograph the bird life.

Runde description. There is a parking just before the camping. From there you walk up the mountain and head for a place called Lundeura, which is supposed to be one of the best places to photograph Atlantic Puffins, White-tailed Eagle, Great skua, Black-legged kittiwake, Common guillemot and more. The walk takes about 45min.

Day 12-14. I ended my Norway trip by driving from Ålesund to Trondheim and then back to Enafors, Sweden.

Ottenby in May

Ruff resting in the meadow at Ottenby, Sweden

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe mating dance in the early morning hours.